Fly & French.

Mid February 2010 saw us fishing with Austen (www.uksaltwaterflies. com & www.saltwaterflies. com), Mike and Peter from the UK. Though they were primarily fly fishermen they were keen to mix a bit of fly fishing along with what we're best at..... popping and jigging!! Above Mike makes contact with a brute of a GT on his first cast in Ritchie's Archipelago. Mike's well deserved GT below that succumbed to a Cubera 150.

Above are a series of pictures of the fly fishing and the fish caught on fly here in the Andaman Islands. We drifted off some great reefs and chummed up critters that were willing to take fly. Somehow the GT weren't particularly interested in fly this trip, but they didn't shy away from poppers. The fish first on the scene and ready to take fly were green jobfish. The coral trout weren't too far behind as well.

We spent the second half of the trip fishing poppers on our favourite reefs and had no shortage of action. The GT were readily taking popper and the fishing was great.

Above, Mike with another thick GT caught on our way back to Port Blair after a couple of days of fishing from Havelock.

Austen and a Red Bass.

Mike with another couple of nice GT, all caught on popper. It was great to see them enjoy chucking poppers at the reefs, knowing that it was only a matter of time before there was a dark shadow under the popper and then a violent crash as the GT hammered popper after popper.




Mike with us before his departure over a couple of drinks recapturing every moment of what turned out to be a great trip. We hope to see Austen, Mike and Peter soon and wish them many a big fish!





The same week saw us fishing with Alain and son, who were first timers in the Andaman Islands. Alain himself was no stranger to popper and jig fishing, but it was his son's first trip in the tropics. Alain with a nice Blue Fin Trevally.






Above, Alain fighting a big GT that put a nice bend in his rod and pushed it to the max.

Alban releasing a big GT after a savage fight and a quick couple of pictures. It's always leaves one with a great feeling seeing a majestic fish swimming away.

A small GT a moment before release. Smaller fish are unhooked in the water and not brought into the boat. This ensures they're released relatively 'green' and minimizes shock.

A popper crashing through a bait school. We often pop bait schools of small bait fish and they usually have larger fish lurking around. This bait school produced the second big Blue Fin Tervally of the trip.

Above some of the jigging action fishing the drop offs which we regularly jig and know are fish producing marks. The abundance of deep water bait also ensures we have some great jigging here in the Andaman Islands.

Darran & Akshay.