Fish Story: Any tips on buying fresh fish/lobster from locals near Negril river?

I've only visited once to the little fishing spot near the river, and it was a great experience -- huge batch of fish, 15 dollars -- but this last reach it was pretty quiet .... Is there a good time and bad time to visit? Also, how much should I pay for lobsters? Like 500j per pound????

I don't have any answers about price, etc...but, I do know that they will cook up any fresh catch you would like. I would recommend talking with Vincent. He is the one that told us about buying fish there and the best folks to cook it up fresh. I love going down there after crossing the bridge at the round about. One of my favorite places...so full of life and fresh goodies galore!

Some really great people there fi sure. Whenever we are walking in the early evening or on a day when the sea is angry...we always stop by there to hunt for Vincent and chat a while. To me, it is a true adventure. Pon your next reach, head on down and have some great lion fish!!

Gerry123 big fan of your adventures/postings. Hope one day our paths cross.

I just asked my local in town short run taxi guy ( steppa @ elvis bike rental next to rayon) to assist me, we had a feast of barracuda (yes i know the potential hazards) and lobster and rice7peas and veggies. We were staying at Gatehouse Villas and Tony the manager was cooking for several of us but we had to buy the goods. Steppa found a spear fisherman with an 14 or 15 lb cuda for j250 per lb, after celebratory sub and beers and photos immediateley took to Tony and sliced off a piece and set on ant hill. 30/40 minutes / 2 beers/1sub later ants going crazy (and most importantly no dead ants) meat gone which equals good cuda to eat.

Once that was done steppa took me and wife to river market area by bridge and easily and quickly negotiated lobster purchase, we bought a local fisherman out (approx 8 to 10 lobsters in a trap) for j400 per lb. He was happy with the price and not much haggling back and forth at all. Steppa got involved very little. They also had plenty of fish very reasonable and older ladies willing to skin/scale/fillet them for very reasonable price. Being honest it was fun just visiting with the folks in that area no matter the price. Tony said we got a good price and we had an incredible feast.

Hope this helps and as always enjoy,enjoy, enjoy!!!

Jamb & Badnaz

That's beautiful, Jambarney .... I rent from ELVIS, I am all over this!

Gerry, hit up your boy Vincent. You hang with the guy nearly everyday. He will take care of all your aquatic needs. Man, I miss hanging with Vincent and Roger and whomever they happen to have riding along for the day. I look forward to spending much more time with Vincent on my next reach.

Bring your own plastic or ziplock bags. Great to giveaway bags that you may get in the states

The tropical Breeze Villa was completely set up for cooking. As an aspiring chef, I wandered down to the fish market and just stood and had a stripe and watched what went on. Big baskets of small fish coming out of traps being sorted. I asked lots of questions, most didn't mind answering. Little ugly fish they were all avaiding were stone fish. Nuh touch, mon. I had my eye on a big Kingfish, but its eyes were turning gray... i bough 4 beautiful Silver Snapper. I had never even tried one before. They cleaned them for me (they were as big as my forearm). Fresh Calaloo and veggies from the ladies behind the ice cream shop. Rice and peas. My 12 guests raved and threatened to keep me in Negril as a personal chef.

I was told to be there early before the restaurants go and buy out the fish. We had some lovely red snapper.Attachment 15130

I asked this young man to remove the sub from his lips for the picture. :p

Try Travellers Rest at Fish Beach. He is located just south of the market before the river, walk to end of beach. Although it's not a restaurant .. for a true JA experience, ask him to cook you up some Bonita (very little bones), some root veggies and rice -- we did this last summer. It was $20 US each and included the beers. His view and the breeze is magnificent. If you are really intersted, I'll email him and ask him to take care of you and give you the best rate. You'd swear Bonita tasted like pork chops, the way he cooked it. Take care,