Our second group with Eventur Fishing & Travel, our agents from Poland turned out to be a week of exceptional anglers and fishing. The group had travelled far and wide to many destinations in the world primarily on popping and jigging trips. We know we are fishing a fantastic location and providing a great service when clients like these turn around and tell us they have had the best popping fishing trip ever! They also ensured they booked their next slot before heading back home.
They were met at the airport by our crew and escorted back to our guesthouse over looking the bay in Port Blair. The best part of the remaining day was spent setting up tackle and discussing the fishing and the areas we would go to over the week.
Early the next morning, we headed out to towards the horizon with an exceptionally flat sea. The day was going to be hot but we were fishing some great tides and we knew the GT fishing would be hotter. We constantly scanned the seas as our Yellow Fin Tuna season has begun. We were not so fortunate on this day but we know we would see them later in the week.
The conditions in March and April are ideal for GT popping. We mainly have flat seas and the fish can easily spot poppers. We are fortunate enough to have a healthy population of Dog Tooth Tuna that do not hesitate to take surface lures. We see them more frequently in the earlier part of the season, but this time Tomasz was lucky enough to land one on popper.
Bogdan, leaning into a nice fish has been here last season and found enough reasons to come back this season for two consecutive weeks and is looking for another trip soon.
Tomasz with a Gold Spotted Trevally caught on popper. On this particular day we were fishing a deep reef where these fish seemed to be congregating. We were fortunate to witness this spectacle and lucky enough to have packs of 20 to 30 Gold Spotted Trevally follow and literally fight over poppers and stick baits. It wasn’t one of those days where we bothered to count how many fish we landed.
Witold enjoying the nonstop action. He was casting from the top deck of our catamaran Halcyon-III which in these conditions is a perfect platform as you are well above the water and get a good view of the commotion behind your lures.
Another Brassy Trevally, which were amongst the schools of Gold Spot Trevally. Sinking stick baits did just as well as poppers and it was a one-cast-one-fish session.
In the middle of all the commotion, Tomasz landed this mean looking Green Job Fish. We decided to move away from this location and come back later. Our primary aim was to get a trophy GT. Going by the conditions we knew it was just a matter of time.
Sure enough it happened! On day 1 of the trip after we were tackled up and ready we were all on the balcony having a chat when Tomasz made a comment that made everyone think. He said he wanted to catch a BIG GT, the biggest GT he could. He continued to say that he knew what it took – It was only a combination of repeated casts to get that one perfect cast, the right rod, the right braid, the right leader, the right knots, the right popper and a little bit of luck. The rest was out of his control.
Tomasz hooked onto another GT.
Not a bad fish. This one took a popper and tried its best to get back in the reef. It wasn’t long before we got some photographs of this great looking fish and released it back to the sea.
Kryzsztof holding up a Brassy Trevally he caught on stick bait. Over the last few weeks we seemed to have been catching quite a few of these fish on popper and stick bait, which is not the norm. We usually catch these fish primarily on jig.
Another bright and mysterious looking jewel from the deep. The last time we saw this fish was around the same time last season. We occasionally hook them on a seamount we fish where we specifically target Dog Tooth Tuna.
Jigging at one of our favorite seamounts, we knew we were into a big fish the moment Witolds’ rod was almost ripped from his hands and his Saltiga screamed as line seemed to fly off it. Luckily for him, he got his strike pretty high up in the water column. So, even though he couldn’t do much stuck the side of the boat the fish slowed down and he could start gaining line. The crew knew it was a Dog Tooth Tuna but didn’t say anything until we saw color. The strike of a DTT on jig and mayhem that follows is something to be felt and hard to explain in words.
The mixed look of horror and fascination on Witolds’ face says it all.
The sea at this time of year is full of life. Millions of small bait fish and squid have attracted bigger predators into the area. Right now it is an eat-or-be-eaten world out there, where even Skipjack Tuna like these won’t hesitate to take a stick bait three quarters its size. Quite often we have larger fish that decide a hooked Skipjack could make an easy meal.
Bogdan posing with all his favorites…his favorite fish, his favorite popper, his favorite Carpenter and we’d venture to say his favorite place to fish.
A common belief amongst us anglers is that the sight of dolphins on a reef is the end of the day of fishing. It is definitely the opposite when you see dolphin off shore. The large pods of dolphin herald the arrival of the Yellow Fin Tuna in our waters. We didn’t see YFT on this particular day but we could almost smell them!
Kryzsztof last appearance on the boat was after this fish. He spent his last fishing day relaxing on our balcony with a book claiming that he’d caught everything he wished for. When asked why he wasn’t out on the boat he complained saying the fish were too big and the sun too hot J We take that as a compliment.
A couple of pictures of Tomasz in action.
The group did experience some fantastic Yellow Fin Tuna on popper, possibly some of the best Tuna fishing we have had which will follow in a separate post to come. In the meanwhile, we get a much needed 24 hour break before the arrival of our next group.
Tight lines!
Team GFA
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