Captain Mike's

Happy Customers

2006-10-27T17:01:00.000-04:00

We love it when we hear from our guests! Here is an email and some photos from Kim & Ricky Smith from the UK, who have been Whale & Dolphin Watching with us twice. Here is what they have to say:

Hi to all the crew!,

Just to say thank you for another fabulous day out whale and dolphin watching with Captain Mike's.

We saw pilot whales in October 2005, which was so exciting, but unfortunately, no dolphins.

This year, we returned to celebrate
our 26th wedding anniversary, and on that day (11th October) we went
out again with your company, being very well looked after by the crew,
especially Jesse (we remembered him from 2005).

Within 20 mins of leaving the marina,
we made contact with a large pod of dolphins! This not only made our
anniversary that bit more special, but it has been my dream to see
dolphins in the wild all my life and to say it was the highlight of our
trip to St. Lucia is an understatement.

We came to St. Lucia with Virgin, and
have highly recommended you trip to other holidaymakers. Even if you
don't see any wildlife, the crew would still have given us a fantastic
morning out on the boat seeing the beautiful coastline of St. Lucia.

We look forward to seeing you all
again in 2007, when Jesse said he will try and find us whales and
dolphins on the same trip!!!!

Thanks again.

With kind regards,

Kim & Ricky Smith

P.S. Jesse may remember us, I was the
mad English woman who gave him a big hug and cried when I saw the
dolphins! (the Pitons lager was great to celebrate with!)

Thanks Kim & Ricky, hope to see you again soon!

Whopper Marlin

2006-09-23T10:33:00.000-04:00

Well the International Billfish Tournament is nearly here and we are gearing up for an exciting week. The prospects are looking good... last week we had a whopper of a Blue Marlin... 547lbs!
It was caught on Scorpion, our newest addition to the fleet, another 31' Bertram, which Andrew has decided to rename 'Sa Sa Ye'.
The fish put up a good fight, four hours in total, but the crew finally landed the monster... here are some photos to tell the tail!

Back On Track

2006-09-06T20:04:00.000-04:00

Well I seem to have got a little lost at sea over the last couple of months, and abandoned my posting, but I am back on course now, with a fair wind behind me, so look forward to regular posting from now on.

I was out on a whale watching trip today, the sea was just beautiful! Flat calm and the deepest blue, wonderful. We saw a whole host of pilot whales , just sunbathing, relaxing on the the surface, and just below, alternating between the two with a flick of the tail. Some of them were so close they looked like stepping stones!

Also Bruce was fishing on Hack Attack today, the flat calm seas are not ideal for fishing, the surface of the water tends to get too hot and the fish go deeper, but he managed to hook up with this nice Wahoo. Bumpers also released a big sailfish, and Bounty Hunter had a strike from a nice big Blue, but it spat the hook early on in the fight.

Free Willy & Bumpers

2006-06-14T12:06:00.000-04:00

Just found a couple of decent pictures of a couple of the boats on the old office computer, so I thought I would put them up here

ACCESS CARIBBEAN GO FISHING WITH CAPTAIN MIKE'S

2006-06-12T17:09:00.000-04:00

Hats off to Esther and the gang who managed to drag themselves out of bed at the crack of dawn to go fishing on Saturday morning.
You can watch the show on channel39 on Tuesday 13th June at 9pm and again on Sunday 18th at 6pm.

ACCESS CARIBBEAN: Captain Mike's Sport Fishing

Kids aboard

2006-06-11T08:18:00.000-04:00

Last weekend the girls and boys of the Dame Pearlette Louisy School Grade 5 got the chance to travel the ocean waves in search of whales and dolphins aboard 'Free Willy'.

For many of the kids it was their first adventure on a boat, and they were all full of questions, and bursting with excitement and wonder. My hat goes off the the teachers at the Dame Pearlette Louisy school, and especially their Grade 5 teacher, Miss St. Aimee, because the children were all extremely well behaved, and full of relevant and intelligent questions.

Lets hope we now have a new generation of St. Lucians who will care for and protect our wonderful marine mammals.

It's not the size that counts...

2006-06-06T16:03:00.000-04:00

These pictures go to show it's not the size of the fish that matters...or the size of the angler for that matter! Young Dylan English tried his hand at fishing on a trip with his Dad and his little brother this weekend and came up trumps with his 12lb barracuda...well done Dylan, here's to
many more big fish!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!

2006-04-06T15:20:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to Bruce and Andrew who have reached the ripe old age of 38 together today...no doubt there will be beers at Paul's Gas Station today (that's if Rocco makes it back from Miami in time.)

Another Happy Customer

2006-03-27T17:03:00.000-04:00

Neil Caraway from New Jersey sent me these photos from his fishing trip with us aboard Hack Attack last week. This was Neil's first Sailfish and it was a good sized one too! This one was released, and the boat also caught two 'Dolfin' and lost a BLue Marlin that day.

Thanks for the photos Neil, hope to see you back soon!

Tag andrelease action

2006-03-08T09:29:00.000-04:00

A little recent tag and release action aboard 'Bounty Hunter', our 35' Bertram!

Swordfish?.....Wahoo!!!

2006-03-04T07:30:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a busy week at Captain Mike's... with a few surprises!
First off: a SWORDFISH! It's the first time anyone in St. Lucia can remember catching a swordfish in the middle of the day, normally they are only seen at night but on Tuesday 'Bumpers', one of our 31'Bertrams hooked up on a small swordfish....it must have been hungry! Of course the fish was released, but at lease we can say we have another first at Captain Mike's, a daytime swordfish.

As for the rest of the week, the weather has been simply gorgeous, no rain, and the same lovely stiff breeze that made last week's Independence Day yacht race a success. The water has been on the choppy side, which has made it a little tricky for Captain Lio of 'Free Willy' and his crew Jessie and Matthew to spot the whales and dolphins from a distance but they have done a fantastic job and come up the with goods all week.
I decided to hop on board yesterday afternoon to see if I could get any good pictures, unfortunately my camera decided to play up just as a lovely pair of sperm whales showed up, but I did manage to get this shot ( above) before it packed up completely.
It was a pair of young adult sperm whales, a male and a female, both around 30' long, who showed up about three miles offshore, just chilling on the surface. They were a little shy at first, slipping down under the surface every time we got a little closer, but eventually curiosity got the better of them and they popped up to take a good look at us. They hung around for about half an hour, pretty close to the boat, then all of a sudden their tails came up and they went below on a deep dive.
That was it for the whales, but we carried on heading south and just before we had to turn back met up with a large pod of spotted dolphins, close to a hundred I reckon. They gave us a great show, bow-racing, surfing in the wake of the boat and jumping high to get a good look at us, before we had to head into port.

Well enough of the whale watching... what about the fishing? I have to say it has been a little on the quiet side this week. We have had a fair number of marlin strikes but not as many as some weeks. The Wahoo have been biting well though and on Monday we had a nice sized yellowfin tuna, over 100lbs. Below are a couple of photos of our happy customers with their Wahoo catches this week. Happy hunting, and remember, keep it reel!

2006-03-02T08:32:00.000-04:00

This is a pic of 'Hack Attack' our 38' Bertram, heading out for an early bimini start... the water is always so beautiful early in the morning.

Welcome to Captain Mikes!

2006-02-28T09:34:00.000-04:00

Welcome one and all to the new blog for Captain Mikes Sport Fishing, Whale & Dolphin Watching and Pleasure Cruises. This site will keep you posted on all the latest news, big catches and fun and games going on here at Captain Mikes, and on the St. Lucian fishing scene in general, so sit back, relax, and remember to 'keep it reel'.

For those of you who have never heard of Captain Mikes.... a brief overview:
We are a family run business located in St. Lucia, and one of the longest running charter boat companies in the Caribbean. We have four Bertram sportfishing boats and a custom 60 ft whale & dolphin watching boat running charters and scheduled trips out of Castries. The business is run by twin brothers, Andrew and Bruce Hackshaw who between them know their boats and their fishing like no-one else. Andrew's wife, Penny, runs the office and keeps our spending in line (or at least tries to), and Bruce and Andrew's Mum, Pat, keeps a watchful eye on us all. I am the latest addition to the family business, my name is Kim, and Bruce and I were married last year. Between us we try to keep eveything around here ship-shape, keep the lines tight, have have some fun while we are doing it.

There's plenty more about our business on our main site, www.captmikes.com, or if you want to book a trip with us you can email Penny, and remember to check up with us regularly for the big catches and tall tales!

Happy Hunting!