With the start of the onset of the Southwest monsoon we’ve moved our operations to Sri Lanka’s North East Coast and started off the season in Trincomalee with a group of Single Anglers.
Four guys from across the world landed at Colombo airport, all with previous GT fishing experience in their baggage. Kurt and Christiaan had both flown all the way from South Africa to spend 6 days Popping for GT in the Indian Ocean while Alexandre arrived from Hong Kong. Assad flew in from Israel and combined his travelling plans in Sri Lanka with a 4 day fishing trip.
The wind was forecast to be quite strong but still fishable, and from experience, both Kirinda and Trincomalee work well in choppy conditions. Looking at previous records, we see that Trincomalee is a place where patience and perseverance pays off and although you might not see a frenzy of activity you are quite likely to catch a very big one…if you can hold on to it!
As a warm up Kurt missed a bigger GT already on his first day as it tried to grab his popper on the top of a wave causing it to jump through the air while being tangled, instead of setting the hook.
With the water color slightly less green the next morning the group decides to go jigging with great results. Kurt catches a beautifully colored grouper while soon after Assad manages to land a nice, silvery GT on his jig.
The day continues with popping and shows a good result in the choppy conditions, landing 6 GT and among them a great fish at around 30kg caught by Kurt!! 7 GTs are also missed on popping with a big one attacking Kurt’s Adhek Gecko popper three times in a row. The day ends on a high note with Assad catching a beautiful and good size Red Bass.
The Following couple of days bring a dose of bad luck. The guys get many hit’s on the poppers and stick bait but lose fish on sharp rocks and hook pulls. Assad gets an attack from a bigger fish that breaks loose from his popper after only a few seconds. At the end of the day, Assad lands a nicely colored 25kg GT!
Day 5 arrives and Assad decides to stay an extra day to get revenge for his lost monster from the day before. Even though the water is quite colored, it boils with life. The day starts off with some top water action for yellow fin tuna with bait, birds and dolphins all around!
Kurt hooks a nice YFT on the first cast on his floating stickbait. The fish unhooks itself from the treble hooks where a single hook might have held on better.The wind arrives, and the group decides to go popping for GT. Instantly they catch 3 GT on the surface at around average size.
Suddenly Assad hooks the biggest fish of the trip. As soon as the fish is bullied off the reef and the fish is starting to show color under the boat, the hook pulls. Everyone on the boat saw that it definitely was what is defined as a “Trinco Bay Monster GT”
On the 6th and last day Assad continues his vacation in Sri Lanka and the remaining 3 anglers, Kurt, Alexandre and Christiaan keep fishing. The previous day, Alexandre had 2 bites at a deep water plateau that we just discovered. This time it was Kurt’s turn to hook a good size trevally on jigging, estimated at around 20kg.
Look out for other Single Angler Trips that we announce throughout the year for your opportunity to make new friends and experience some of the great fishing offered at our destinations.
Tight Lines!
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