Ian

The second week of March saw us fishing with Ian and friends from Singapore. This was Ian's third trip with us and the group is a well seasoned group when it comes to popper and jig fishing the Andaman Islands. Ian had previously fished the Andaman Islands as early as 1999 and has a wealth of information regarding the fishing in and around these Islands. For the group this was a 'Big Fish' trip and they came totally prepared for the job. Nothing was overlooked, from split rings to rods, poppers to jigs.

Above, the crew setting up for their fishing, carefully going over all their tackle, to see all was in place and up for the job. Being used to doing this often they made it look simple and were completely set up for the trip in a matter of hours.

Ian started the trip off with a bang landing this nice grouper on jig! We were fishing a new area found during one of our many exploratory trips. Ian on the drifts at these new jigging marks was using a Smith Side Thruster jig in pink. On that particular day and it was deadly. He managed to stop the fish from returning to its cave fishing a high drag and brought the fish up with ease!

The two of pictures above are why guys like Ian return year after year. A truly spectacular GT caught on popper. The monster GT above went for a red/black Halco Haymaker. This popper in spite of being cheap and having a very light plastic feel to it still delivers the goods here in the Andaman Islands. A must on every trip when one gets tired of fishing with heavier chuggers and large mouth poppers.

The group on their way to fish a series of distant sea mounts in the Middle Andaman's. Marks like these are off charts and can only be found with extensive searching and actual fishing of the spots to see what surprises lurk deep below. A long run into the middle of no where but well worth it.

The jigging was nothing short of spectacular and the group was rewarded with a variety of species. The group above posing with a Dog Tooth Tuna caught by Darran on jig. Very often visiting anglers hook up fish they can't land and wind up getting reefed in a matter of seconds. It take a couple of seasons in the Tropics, fishing for big hard pulling fish before one realizes the strength these fish have and how to handle them.

Nicholas with another big GT caught on a Craft Bait GT-3 popper.

Hang Kian fighting a Big GT with his brand new Patriot Design Black Mafia rod. Even Hang Kian was taken by surprise by the power of a fish that size and after a tough fight, eventually came out on top with this awesome fish.

Nicholas taking a break from all the heavy popper throwing and deep jigging with some Inchiku jigging off a shallow reef. Here seen posing with a double hook up of Coronation trout that find small jigs, Madai and Inchiku irresistible.

The heavy set up the group was using to do most of their main popper work. Set ups like these are expensive and carefully matched for the job at hand. Buying tackle like this is well worth it when you see the results they produce. Now with high tech tackle being produced and developed mostly out of Japan operations like ours are fishing for fish that were once impossible to land on conventional gear.

This was a group that was fishing with us with a target in mind.... Big Fish! They were purely out for quality rather than quantity. We fished very specific locations in order to get our clients what they wanted. We saw over half a dozen huge GT come up and whack poppers, that never got to the boat. We saw PE 10 and 12 part mid-way and large trebles straighten... all in a day GT fishing here in the Andaman Islands. The great part is Ian's going to be back next season and it'll be a similar trip, with a very clear objective, guys who carry tackle to suit the job and results that leave many an angler in awe!

Darran & Akshay.