Earlier this year Richard Larter and Roy Stace walked through our front door. They were the first foreign angling clients we’d had who walked in with a tan! They were on a long trip through S. E. Asia which they ended with a week of fishing in the Andaman Islands.
They’d fished in many a fishy location before for various commonly sought after tropical fish but this was their first full blown GT popping trip. Armed with a bunch of popping rods and a bag full of poppers and stick-baits from Orion Lures in France they seemed pretty ready for the task at hand.
After setting up their tackle and an initial briefing about the fishing explaining how hard GT hit surface lures and the absolute necessity to strike hard and send those hooks home they went off for day of sightseeing in and around Port Blair.
Richard casting at a very fishy spot. We fish this corner of blue water that drops from 5 to 50 meters in a flash and has a healthy population of GT patrolling the margins. We keep the boat well off the reef and cast in to the shallows. Big GT come up and smash poppers as they’re fished off the edges of the reef.
Richard was soon rewarded as his Cono Cono 150 was smashed by this nice fish that almost pulled him off the boat. As you can see he’s mighty happy with his accomplishment. The prefect specimen waxs released after a quick photograph and we hope to cross paths with it again.
Roy with a small GT that came up and nailed his popper of a spectacular island called Rutland. This fish was caught from one of the many bait-schools found in the area.
Richard again with a beautiful specimen. These fish were coming up on deeper reefs and not shy to hit poppers meters from the boat.
A very lucky Roy with his trophy Dog Tooth Tuna. The Dog Tooth Tuna is right at the top of every anglers list. They’re normally targeted off seamounts and drop-offs with jig, but this season we had them coming up on a regular basis and taking poppers. It is pretty rare to get these brutes on popper as they’re hard to hook and even harder to get to the boat.
One wasn’t enough for Roy so he soon caught his second Dog Tooth Tuna on popper.
A spectacular sky and signs of a distant monsoon on its way. All Islands are covered with lush tropical jungle and the settings are simply awesome. We’re quite lucky to be the only charter fishing the southern waters and have some of the world’s best waters within easy access.
Roy with his monster GT. Bigger than what he wished for! Another happy angler strikes a pose before releasing this fantastic fish back to the sea.
With the Yellow Fin Tuna season approaching the drop offs become one the first probable areas where these fish will show up. On our daily commute to our GT reefs all eyes scan the horizon to the east, looking for tell tale signs of Tuna. The easiest way to spot them are the birds…. and this time there was a cloud of them. Sure enough there was Tuna on the surface and the action was better than what we expected so early in the season.
Roy battling with a nice 20+ kilo tuna for a quick photograph. We fish for them with poppers and stick-baits and the action is almost instant. Over the years we’ve got pretty good at predicting where and when these fish will show up. This time however we were taken by surprise… goes to show you learn something new every time you are out fishing.
Richard and Roy with a pair of tuna. Double and triple hookups are very common when the fish are up on the surface in a frenzy. They’ll pretty much take anything that comes their way.
Roy with another nice Yellow Fin… These fish and many more were caught in a couple of hours before we called it a day. On days we see tuna we know our anglers will probably last a couple of hours before they’re burned out. Aching arms and sore backs are what go with this sort of fishing.
After the crazy Yellow Fin Tuna action it was back to business as usual. The boys were after GT again. Poppers were working great and the boys pretty much used only 2 poppers for their whole trip, the Cono Cono 150 and the T-Rex 150…. both by Orion Lures.
Roy with another monster GT. This fish was caught off a white sand beach. Fish typically caught from sandy areas tend to be lighter specimens. Also safer to fight as the chances of getting reefed are non-existent. As you guessed fish from deeper reefs and rocky areas are darker specimens.
Roy with another nice GT. The boys had spectacular days fishing. On some days they returned with up to 18 GT from a single spot landed and twice that number attacked poppers, but failed to get to the boat.
All this without dropping a single jig. The guys next time want to carry some jigging tackle with them and try and catch Dog Tooth Tuna and GT on jig. We’ve got some specific areas where these fish are plentiful and makes for some very interesting jigging.
Get in touch with us for what will be a week of really great fishing amongst a spectacular setting while out fishing and a comfortable no nonsense guesthouse we run just for our angling clients.
Much much more to come of what has turned out to be the best season ever!
Team SFI
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