Visiting us from Australia, Tania and Seamus had clubbed a GT fishing trip with their annual vacation. They wisely choose to get the fishing out of the way before they carried on with their holiday. It isn’t often we get anglers from Australia but the number of Australian anglers visiting us has been steadily on the rise.

Tania and Seamus came with very set goals in terms of what they wanted to catch. They showed us pictures on their mobile phones of various fishermen with their prized catches and hoped they’d get the same. The great part about the Andaman Islands is that relatively novice GT anglers like this couple can very easily achieve the goals they set for themselves because we have plenty of GT in our waters.

As Tania and Seamus were on an extended holiday, they did not want to get stuck lugging their rod tubes with them after their fishing trip. They carried their reels, terminal tackle and lures and hired popping and jigging rods from us. Like with most clients, the first day was spent tackling up and discussing the fishing for the week ahead.

GT Double Hookup

Our first day was spent fishing off a nearby Island and was primarily an introductory session so they could get comfortable casting large poppers. They were pretty happy with the results and had a double hook up with a small GT and a small Dogtooth Tuna. They also caught some Bluefin Trevally and more GT while fishing off shallow reefs.

25+ kg GT

Now that they were comfortable casting poppers and got a hang of GT fishing pretty fast we went down South to one of our prime GT popping areas. It wasn’t long before Seamus was pinned to side of the boat with his rod bent over and line peeling off his reel. A very respectable GT came up and smashed his R2S Dumbell. A short while later, the fish was brought in, photographed and released. Tania and Seamus had told us that they’d be happy and consider their trip a success if they caught a GT over 25 kilos. First session of Day2 & already they had accomplished their mission.

Tania's GT

It wasn’t long before Tania caught her own GT and fought it up to the boat. This fish and many more like it were caught and released before they decided to head off and jig.

Dogtooth Tuna

Dogtooth on Jig

Another goal of theirs was to catch a Dogtooth Tuna. This was the second fish that sealed the trip for them. We were jigging between two islands where the waters drop off to a maximum depth of 80mts. Certain points between these islands have walls between 60 and 80mts. It is at specific structures like these where the Dogtooth Tuna hang out. It makes catching these fish a lot easier when one knows what kind of structure they like to hang out in. All the marks of fish on that particular day were just off the walls and we had the current taking us from shallow into deep. This fish struck pretty high up in the water column and torpedoed its way down into the depths. A tight drag ensured it did not get its way and it wasn’t long before we had a totally spent Dog Tooth reluctantly circling the boat.

Coral Trout

Red Bass

The next morning, we headed South again as the winds had picked up and we were limited in terms of offshore spots we could reach. We fished close up on the leeward side of the islands where conditions were flat and calm. We spent the whole day fishing reefs and trying to target different species like Grouper, Snapper, Coral Trout etc., Tania soon landed her first Coral Trout and Seamus caught a great looking Red Bass.

GT double hook up

GT release

The GT were not shy of poppers and above are pictures of one of the many double hook ups we had.

27+ kilo GT

Seamus struck gold again by hooking into this GT again on popper that pulled the scales down to 27 kilo. He had caught his best GT and had bettered it on this trip. After much jubilation we called it a day and headed back to port.

GT Giant Trevally

The next day was spent focusing on jigging as the winds had made water conditions choppy and not favorable for poppers.

GT on Jig

We were soon fighting GT on jig as we were fishing deep submerged reefs at a depth of 60mts. The GT at this depth are not shy to take jigs and are very easy to catch. Again, we caught many fish and kept the duo busy.

Mackerel Tuna

Mackerel Tuna

We moved to offshore reefs after the tide turned with the hope of trying to catch some more Dogtooth Tuna but we found schools of Mackerel Tuna sitting above them. It was impossible to get a jig down as we would get a bite on every drop.

strange fish on lighter jig

weird fish

When we switched to lighter jigs on the way back home we caught some strange and wonderful fish.

Big GT

On the last day we decided to focus on throwing heavy poppers and get a trophy fish for Seamus. On some spots, especially deeper reefs, the action maybe slower but we tend to get some huge GT coming up for surface lures. On this particular day Seamus was lucky enough to hook and land a fantastic looking GT that was well over the 35-kilo mark!

Andaman ferry

A rust bucket local ferry in the port as we headed back home.

Tania & Seamus with the team

Tania and Seamus with the crew after a very eventful and successful fishing trip. They arrived with pictures of somebody else’s fish on their phone and went home with some spectacular fish of their own. It gives us great joy to see smiles on their faces and we hope they catch even bigger fish on their next trip.

Tight lines!

Team GFA