Russian Roulette

Our friends from from Russia who fished with us in October last year were back for round two. They we keen to fish some different places from their last trip so we split the areas they fished both north and south of Port Blair.

The fishing was intermittent very good and at other times a bit slow, the doggies did a bunk this week and were conspicuously absent except for some small ones.

Happy anglers on day 1 the trip, its always great get a few GT’s under the belt on day one!!

Jigging and popping both worked for GT

A spectacular sunset from Havelock Island

Grouper taken on an Orion Lure, which works very well

Large schools of blue-fin trevally provided entertainment too

Some nice medium sized fish in the 20-25kg range

And suddenly as the Andaman’s has always fished, big fish…

A 46kg GT

If you like the surprise element then this is really it.

Team SFI

First timers popping & jigging

We had two visiting French anglers who were out to try their hands at heavy tackle poppering and jigging for the first time, initially their tackle was bit under gunned for what we normally use, so we had to rig and kit them out as well as do some basic training to make sure the guys knew how to use the lures correctly.

At first a 25kg GT

Then a big GT was hooked

Not bad for the first time a nice estimated 35Kg fish

A Napoleon Wrasse on jig as well

Team SFI

The Andaman Ashes Part- 2 England

Stu, Bob and James fished with us last March when we had a freak storm which hit Myanmar after passing close to Port Blair, we were glad to have them back and give them a taste of the fishing action that they missed.

This was their second popping trip ever and given that they only fished 2 days last time it was their first real experience with the proper gear of what heavy drag GT fishing is all about.

We had many, many great strikes, a lots of them captured in real time footage and also many fish missed that fortunately or unfortunately could have swung the “Ashes”, but then again if you are popping or jigging for the first time, many would really be scared when you see a huge bow wave come up behind your popper and smash it and you are being yanked around before you know what hit you….

 

 

 

A hook up really close to the boat for Stu that nearly ripped his rod out of his hands!

 

The Cream of all GT strikes for the week, check out this monster as it crashes a popper!

 

Here is the link to some of the strikes we had on Popper, truly amazing stuff, thanks Stu, Bob and James for capturing it for posterity.

YouTube GT Strikes

It was also a trip to take in the some of the natural beauty of the place as you can see from the pictures below.

 

An early morning from of the bay in Port Blair.

  

James enjoys the view of bow riding dolphins who we taking a break from smashing flying fish with the yellow fin tuna.

Team SFI