Our regular French couple Thierry and Ghislaine were back in Sri Lanka for their third trip in Kirinda. Leon from Australia joined the couple for his first GT fishing trip and last fishing trip before the arrival of his twins in February. I was little worried about having two experienced fishermen and a beginner on the same boat, but that trip turned great, Thierry and Ghislaine shared their fishing experience with Leon, giving him advice and encouragement and we all had a lot of fun on board No Limit over the 6 days.
I have fished with the Baudry’s a couple of times in a few different locations and each time I have them the weather has been less than perfect! So this time like usual when the Baudry’s arrived in town the clouds closed in and we had rain each day. As usual Ghislaine blamed her husband, who is has developed a “black cat” reputation when it comes to the fishing weather. However as a bit of an exception to the “Baudry’s bad weather” rule the last 3 days were nice with a blue sky and sunshine.
To start with the fishing was a little bit slow, but we managed to find activity every day and land some GTs. Ghislaine caught a nice 20 kg + on popper, Leon caught his first GT ever on popper and believe me after that catch he is well and truly hooked on topwater fishing. We finished the day with a couple of small GTs.
Day two we opted to try some jigging, the strong oceanic current and wind didn’t make life easy for the anglers but we stuck to our guns and caught some fish, a decent amberjack for Ghislaine, a GT for Thierry and a king mackerel for Leon. That afternoon we went popping and caught a couple of GTs.
For day three we tried the deep water spots on popper hoping to catch a big one, but no luck with only a few smaller fish coming up to the lures.
The last three days of the trip, we decide to concentrate our effort on shallow spots only on top water. The strategy paid off with plenty of action. Most of the fish were in the 10 kilo range, but some better fish, one around 25 kg were landed and 2 “Kirinda monsters” came up on Ghislaine’s popper. The first fish was a beast and the scene is etched in my memory; Ghislaine was popping a Cubera 150, I saw 2 small Needlescale Queenfish jumping on the surface, they weren’t chasing the popper, but looked like they were fleeing on the surface as something big was entering the area. A few second later a huge GT’s back broke the water and zeroed straight in on the right side of the popper and made an attempt at obliterating it. The fish missed the lure, but honestly I think everyone was relieved especially poor Ghislaine, who with her slight frame and PE5 rod would have been in a bit of trouble!
The next day, another monster confirmed what we all thought the previous day, this time the GT took the Hammer Head E-Cup properly, Ghislaine set the hooks like a pro, but the fish was too much for the tackle running down the length of the reef before turning and breaking Ghislaine off as she held on for dear life. Bye bye watermelon E-Cup! Thierry who was little bit unlucky at the beginning of the trip landed some fish and a nice 25 kg+ Gt while Leon who had caught everyday but nothing really big pulled one out the bag in the last hour when he caught a decent 20 kg fish which for a first time angler is a great result and made his trip for him. You know somebody has the fever when they start asking advise on what tackle they should look at buying after their first trip!
The trip showed us again that although fishing Kirinda can sometimes to be difficult, like most big fish destinations, the rewards are there for those who are patient and never give up!
Keep Casting!
Nico
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