Website Updated!

Once the monsoons set in we get a much needed break from the hectic fishing season here in the Andaman Islands. This break also lets us plan for the season ahead and reflect on the happenings of the past season. Putting up the gallery of the season that's just passed is one of the best things of running a charter, fishing some really wild water like the water we fish here. It also lets us know just how well we've done! We tend to forget about a big fish or 2 especially when we see so many quality fish being landed and released. Please check the link below to actually see what a great fishery the Andaman Islands are. Enjoy!

http://www.gamefishingindia.com/gallery2012.html 

We also added a brand new boat to our fleet! We now have Rampage, our 37ft center console which without a doubt is the best popping and jigging platform in the Andaman Islands. She works really well when it comes to the variable sea conditions we have here in the Andaman Islands. Though not really designed as a trolling boat she has the ability to raise fish.... some big fish as well. We landed our first 400+ pound Blue Marlin fishing from here and raised a few others. Apart from being fitted out with a top of the line electronics package that makes it hard for fish to hide she's also equipped with saltwater wash down hoses that are most useful for reviving big GT and also keeping all surfaces wet when we have a fish on board. The freshwater wash down's also help anglers cool off when the temperatures rise.

http://www.gamefishingindia.com/boats_Rampage.html

Our Big trip of the season was when we hosted Kozo Okubo and Eric Le Guyader in Feb 2012. Apart from having Julien Lajournade , chief editor of Voyages De Peche fishing with us as well we had Ryan Lobo, filmmaker, writer, photographer and good friend to join us on the trip. We'll soon have a separate gallery up on his photo-essay of the trip. We'll have a blog post up once the new gallery is ready!

As always watch this space for more. 

Team SFI

Kozo and Eric in Andaman!

Below is a link to a short video primarily shot by Alban Regnoult , of Kozo Okubo and 

Eric Le Guyader fishing off Rampage. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ablpcVp9kA

Objectif Big GT !

It took us over a year of careful planning, a flurry of emails and phone calls around the world to plan one of the biggest trips in the Popping and Jigging world in the 2011-2012 season. We'd always wanted to host some of the worlds best GT anglers and pit them in a battle against some of the biggest GT in the world. The Andaman Islands have for long been on the GT fishing map, known for a place with prolific GT populations and many other species that readily hammer poppers and stick-baits thrown at them.

We'd previously fished with Eric Le Guyader, the famous French angler and maker of Orion Lures, which are some of the best surface lures ever made for targeting tropical species. So it was only natural he was high up on our list. We also liked his individual style of GT fishing. Fishing with a person like Eric makes running a charter operation in a far off place where logistical nightmares happen on a daily basis worth it all! He has the ability and can land big fish with no fuss! Just what we like....

We then were stuck for another angler and that's when our guide Alban Regnoult came up with the idea of us inviting Kozo Okubo from Japan. A month and many emails later Alban gave us the good news that Mr. Okubo had accepted the invitation and had another surprise for us.... Mr. Okubo was going to be joined by Mr. Toshio Ogasawara of Smith! Mr. Ogasawara's probably best known in the world of Popping and Jigging for having designed the Smith WRC HIIB Rocket!

The 07th to12th of Feb 2012 was to be a epic fishing week in the Andaman Islands. We were going to have 2 larger than life fishing personalities from different parts of the globe targeting GT in our home waters. What made this week so special was watching 2 anglers with very distinct styles of fishing,  fish fighting and working lures to raise fish where most other anglers would have given up. Also noticeable was the number of big GT they raised! A friendly clash between 2 Titans of their own worlds.

Having these 2 angling giants with us meant we needed to have the week recorded. Again after much thought we decided to go with the Voyages De Peche in spite of not being able to read French! VDP is one of the best magazines in the world that covers fishing in the Topics. The Andaman Islands have featured many a time in the magazine and the Andaman Islands were not a new experience for Julien Lajournade the chief editor of VDP.  Julien was to write an article for the magazine and do a bit of popper fishing on his own with Eric and Kozo. 

Alban Regnoult who's fished with us now for 2 seasons helped with tying the loose ends together and making sure everything was in place before the group arrived. He also assisted on the boat and helped land fish and generally made sure everything went smoothly on and off the boat. He's been an invaluable asset to us in the past seasons.

Now that we had everything pretty much ready to go we invited Ryan Lobo, filmmaker, writer, photographer and good friend to join us on the trip. Ryan's no stranger to the Andaman Islands and has visited the Islands on numerous occasions. Ryan has in the past taken photographs for us on various fishing trips. It was good to have him on board taking pictures in his trademark style.... much unlike the run of the mill fishing photographs we see all around us. 

Predictably the trip went off without a hitch and it was an awesome experience for all those involved. A complete report of the trip can be found in the latest June-July 2012 edition of the Voyages De Peche magazine at the link below:

http://www.journaux.fr/voyages-de-peche_peche_famille-loisirs_84909.html

We also thank Julien Lajournade from Voyages De Peche for the Photographs used in this post and many more he's sent us from a week of spectacular fishing.

We'll have more up in the following weeks regarding the fishing, lures used and more for those interested in coming to the Andaman Islands to try their hand at catching GT like these guys did!!

Darran Davis & Akshay Malavi.

Kwality Fishing Part II

We were visited again, twice for this season by Javed from Bombay who's well on his way to becoming a popping and jigging addict! We fished a wide area on this trip, first starting from Havelock and working our way down to the South Andaman chain. We lost a day at the start to a bit of engine trouble but soon were on our way fishing. The conditions in April were almost perfect and we took this opportunity to troll as well between spots.

A nice Barracuda caught while trolling on the 200 meter line. Being a volcanic island chain the drop-offs are pretty close. Also have some great pelagic action for those willing to try.

Above Irfan getting into a bit of his own action with some nice Big eye Tuna and Wahoo.

Javed with a very decent Big eye Tuna... the biggest of the trip.

Above, some of the GT caught on popper and Rusty Job fish on jig.

Halcyon III our center console power Catamaran we were fishing from back in Port after the trip.

Team SFI.

Average Angler Video

Those of you who follow our blog will remember these crazy Aussies who won the Andaman Ashes last season. Well they've come out with a video of their fishing trip with us. The video's been put together by David Lim who's done an excellent job. 

Enjoy this small video at the link below:

Average Angler Video

Team SFI.

4 French

We had a group of visiting anglers from France who were restricted in their options for the dates during which they could fish with us because one of the group members was accompanied by his son who was fishing in the tropics for the first time popping and jigging.

We had suggested that they change their dates as the first 4 days of their trip had very very little water movement and the last 2 days saw the start of the build up to spring tides but this was not possible for them.

The fishing as expected was hard, fish not taking lures big, small what ever, the sea conditions were flat calm, and very humid, not good when you need to cast all day.

We tried really hard and there was some success each day we lost probably the fish of the trip on day 1 and day 3 when we managed to hook up some really good fish only for them to come off, thats fishing though!!

Flat calm seas

A first GT in the tropics on popper

We did get lucky some times though..

On the last day of their trip we had better tides and as the build up to springs began and this was really the best day of the trip with multiple hook ups, big doggies following and taking surface lures in schools, repeated full blown attacks from GT’s, we even got the biggest fish of the trip a 20kg odd fish this day.

Father/ Son with the 20kg and a black GT from the same bait school

Team SFI

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