The middle of November saw us fishing with Alfie, Adam, Sali and Sharil from Singapore, the guys had planned their trip over a year in advance and had high expectations after hearing about the GT’s on top-water in the Andaman Islands from other anglers in Singapore.

Fully kitted out with an array of Carpenter rods an assortment of Shimano Stellas, the guys were eager to be on the water and into the action. We have had some unsettled weather with the onset of the northeast monsoon, but the forecast looked good enough for us to get out. It was windy but as GTs normally like the wind there was good action both on popper and on jig, with Alfie landing a nice fish close of 30 kg on the jig just before we called it a day. His custom jigging rod snapped shortly after he set the hook so it was good we were headed back after the fish was hand lined in.
The wind picked up the next day so we fished the leeside. The action had slowed down probably because of the pressure drop but the group still managed another 30kg GT on top-water, keeping the motivation up.
The weather then eased up for the last 2 days allowing us to push to some of our new spots, plus the group had the bigger boat Rampage so it was more comfortable for four anglers. We headed out to one of our jigging spots around the 100 meter mark and immediately got stuck into a large school of Yellowfin tuna all of the schooling size. There was nonstop action, including a few dogtooth which probably did not get a chance to hit the jigs because the Yellowfin were so thick. As marlin love to snack on Yellowfin it was not long before an estimated 250 lb black marlin jumped on one of the jig caught Yellowfin, to jump and then head for sunset. On a jigging rod, a marlin of this size is a serious workout, after playing it for close to 40 minutes the hook finally pulled and to be honest I don’t know if the angler was more relieved or disappointed!!!
With the improving weather we pushed further for the last day and had an incredible session with lots of GT, missed bites, bust offs and the regular swearing. Alfie got a 121 cm estimated 35 kg GT and Adam a 45 kg white tip reef shark to end the trip as a bunch of happy anglers.

Species caught:

GT, dogtooth, jobfish, twin- spot snapper, rainbow runner, spangled emperor, coral trout, yellowfin tuna, whitetip reef shark

Equipment used:

Carpenter Rods, custom jigging rods
Stella Reels
Poppers: Craftbait and El Toro

 

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