INDIANANGLER

Location Mumbai
Date Thursday Januarry 17th

The conversation took place between me and the fishaholic Santosh

Santosh called and said

Santosh: Pal do you want to catch some really big and mean fish this week end

Rajat (That’s me): What a question to ask partner, off course I want to. I have not caught any fish since that small MJ some way back, although I still feel good about my first sea fish but since then only eels were in my luck and I want to break the Jinx.

Santosh : Then get ready buddy we are going to hit the jack pot, pack your bags and be ready to leave tomorrow eve .

Rajat: Who else is coming with us

Santosh : Another crazy angler Dean, would you pick him up because he would be carrying some heavy duty tackle.

So it was decided that I would pick Dean up at 6Pm and then we would leave from Mumbai to go to the spot which is on the west cost near Ratnagiri. I packed and picked Dean up after fighting some terrible Mumbai traffic, we left Santosh’s house around 10 pm. We decided that it would be a good idea to have dinner then proceed, so we stopped just after Panvel finally the team hit the road around 11pm to be on its way.

It took us about 5hours( Because I was driving extremely chilled out enjoying the constant conversation about angling between Santosh and Dean ) to reach Hatkhamba we were only 30 KM from our destination and it was already 4am .

Santosh suggested and we all agreed to hit the beach straight. So quickly dumping our bags at the motel we hit the beach it was still dark when Santosh sailed out his first cast quickly followed by Dean and me. We were all excited to see some feeding near by and I thought My Baramundi is only seconds away but then nothing happened and we kept casting about one hour at the same spot without any luck. Dean decided to move out to another location on the rocks. Santosh and I kept casting at the same spot even Santosh’s lucky lure did not produce any hits.

Santosh and I decided to see what Dean was up to and started off towards the spot on the rocks, as we were about to reach there we saw Dean standing like a statue of victory with this 7 lb MJ dangling from his hand, both Santosh and I were jubilant the team account had opened . Santosh and Dean quickly started off towards the main spot and I tried to catch up with them I managed to make it to the rocks with my heavy body some how and we all started casting .

Santosh suddenly jumped , we saw his rod bend and he started to fight the fish but it broke his line in few second it was a huge Barramundi no doubt about that.

One hour went by I decided to take a break and smoke my cigarettes. Santosh and Dean decided to go back to the car and get some more tackle as we saw some feeding again near by but still not near enough. I started to cast again changing my lure to a firetiger

Santosh and Dean came back and I turned to look at them, they asked me “any luck?” and as I turned back again saying “no” suddenly I saw a brown shape shoot up from the depth of the sea to take my lure it was as if I was hit by a truck bam!!! the rod bended and the reel screeched and I was in seventh heaven, it was the duplicate if not little bigger(Ha ha ha Dean I hope you reading this) MJ of Dean's. I pulled it out with Santosh and Dean both simultaneously trying to guide me on how to do it. We all hugged each other once I landed it

Santosh pointed out that the boat guy will soon be coming and as we have decided to go trawling that late afternoon we came back to the jetty. We changed our tackle for trawling and sat on the boat and headed out for the open sea. The sea was looking calm but suddenly the wind picked up and we were in for some choppy ride finally we reached the place where we would begin our trawling and turned back. The sea decided to give us a break and the wind slowed down to a gentle breeze and we started to trawl

30 min went by and I decided to change my lure and as I closed my cradle arm after gaining desired length of the line ---Bam!! It was my turn to be the first to strike gold both Santosh and Dean shouted with enthusiasm trying to guess what I have hooked. I felt as if I had hooked a monster my rod bent in double. I started to pull the fish home It suddenly decided to go under the boat but some how I mange to guess its move and kept on reeling it . Santosh gaffed it and pulled it over . It was a beautiful White snapper( I was told it is called Finger Mark) of about 10lb. I did not knew how to react both Santosh and Dean kept on patting my back saying that it is one of the finest game fish one can land. I was just too happy to say any thing I had done it! I had finally broken the Jinx and landed two magnificent fish in a single day

Dean then decided to show his color and quickly hooked a 6lb GT well we were all smiles now. Suddenly Santosh yelled “hooked” and we all felt good that he finally has opened his account but unfortunately the fish was a big GT and just broke his line clean. I got hooked again but the Baramundi decided to spit out my lure on my face. Once again I got hooked but like Santosh a GT quickly broke my line. I knew I am done for the day with my lucky lure gone with the last hit .

Dean got “hooked” and we saw him fighting the fish suddenly he shouted for the boat to stop, we all realized that it’s a Grouper who had gone to the rocks and decided to sit there . Dean kept on fighting and after some boat maneuvers and his experience he landed this beauty of a fighter a 7lb Grouper it was really wonder full to end the day like that.

We decided again to go trawling in the morning and after packing all the fish in some ice we decided to call it a day. It was now almost 36 hour since any one of us had any sleep

We all crashed out and in the morning headed out towards the Jetty to be disappointed to know that we would be not getting any boat, as all the boats had gone for the morning fishing trip and our boat guy has decide to go too.

We decided to head back to the rocks and Santosh swore to catch a fish since he had bad luck of hooking and loosing two huge fish. We knew this morning was his and soon enough he landed his fish a MJ of 4lb although he was not very satisfied but at least we all had caught fish which is really the main thing.

We decided to end our tour as we had no indication of getting a boat and after saying bye to our local friends we headed back to Mumbai at around 1pm. We all were extremely happy getting six fish and getting hooked almost same number of times.
It was a good score and a good trip all in all.

Tour count:

2 MJ of 7lb each
1 MJ of 4lb
1 White MJ(Finger Mark) 10lb
I grouper 7lb
1 GT 6lb

Dean will load up the MJ pics and Santosh will upload the tackle details. I am uploading some tour Pics and final fish ensemble for you guys .

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arrey wah !! great report. first ken's and now this. seems like there some quality fishig happening in india at the moment. must have been some good sized fish around - considering the number that got away.
kudos
regards,
vikram

Good stuff chaps! Very nice.

Bops

Great Report and Great Catch Rajat!

You are really out of that jinx! sorry to know that you lost your fevorite Lure.

Good Show, keep it up.

Regards,


Arun

What a WILD TRIP !!
It was amazing guys,... great company, superb food (and booze ), excellent weather & of course the fish..
I will nail some of those big GT's soon.

Nice report guys....keep it up...lovely narrative

Why!!! I miss the good stuff????? Good going guys......

Incredible Dudes,

great report and wonderful pictures. Those cliffs look great for climbing.

Next time wait for me. Got to get me one of those.

"1 White MJ(Finger Mark) 10lb"

Looks like a GT (Giant Trevelly) to me. A great sport fish and one of the hardest fighting fish in the sea. Latin name is Caranx Ignobilis.

Fingermark are a Lucjanid species very similar to the MJ but lighter coloured and with a distinct dark "fingermark" spot on the flank.

Well done. Some nice fish there. Shame we didn't bump into one another.

Oh what a fun man, I wish I will be there, any ways Santosh Bhau M coming to catch some of those next week, so just inform them to be ware......

[quote="Ken L"]"1 White MJ(Finger Mark) 10lb"

Thanks guys for the replies and comments it was really a great trip

Dean you still have to upload those MJ Pics

Fingermark are a Lucjanid species very similar to the MJ but lighter coloured and with a distinct dark "fingermark" spot on the flank.

Yes ken there was a very distinct finger mark on the side of the fish Santosh is holding the white one. GT is the one lying on the ice box top
well thats what these guys told me but if it was not the finger Mark but GT I have no Problem I am still in seventh heaven Mate

Good show Rajat

Hi friends,
Nice trip and very nice report. Congratulation to all of you for your nice catch, spesially to Rajat, for his first good size fish . I would like to mention one photograph posted here (Second one) where santosh is fighting some monster . Now he says his line was broken twice…. Now – Now….. No fish can be bigger than the land Grouper santosh is fighting… .Ha ha ha ha………

Regards,

Ali..

Did you take the Fingermark on lure?

Ken, The fish I am holding is a fingermark.

Bobby, the fingermark came on a rapala 14 firetiger.

Sorry Rajat & Santosh for the delay in the pics .. works been crazy. Nice article Rajat .. it was a really fun trip with Rajat and his great catch !! keep it going
cheers
Dean

Rajats kill (click to enlarge)


Santosh


Dean


Theres feeding out there !!


Close up


enroute

hey Dean , Rajat & Santosh
Neat Show
Keep postin
Cheers!!!
m

Hello guys,
Great catch, congratulations.Liked the narrative.Nice to see people braving the cold and getting out there.Keep it up.
Godfrey

Hi Guys,

Nice pics and terrific location.That trevally looks to me more like a black tip trevally than a GT. What say you Bobby ?Mighty Marlin?




Jeen

Hi Jeen,

Can't really tell. But the Juvi GT's in that part of the country normally look like that with Bright Yellow fins and both tips of the tail fin slightly black or dark grey. However given that only the upper part of the tail is black and the way it is so you may be right. Well spotted mate.

Bobby

Congrats !
Good Report and happy fishing and ofcourse beautiful scene.

Sorry to know that you lost some lures – that’s part of the game

When Santosh said “ What a WILD TRIP !! ……. superb food (and booze), excellent weather & of course the fish.. …… … “ without sleep for 36 hrs. plus……………..its sounds amazing, and mouth watering.
Keep it up guys, this shows your spirit.

Wish you all good Luck.

Regards,

Ronald.

Hey Ronald,

Thanks for wishing good luck..... there is some unfinished business to complete. (will land one decent GT soon).

I hooked one bugger from the rocks, before I could react the damn thing broke me off.

Santosh

hey guys,
u really had a blast. nice catch. santosh that trevally must have made ur life miserable for some time. congrats rajat and dean. keep up. i wish i would also have been with u guys. anyways thnks for sharing the pics and happy fishing.
spoonangler

When Santosh said “ What a WILD TRIP !! ……. superb food (and booze), excellent weather & of course the fish.. …… … “ without sleep for 36 hrs. plus……………..its sounds amazing, and mouth watering.
Keep it up guys, this shows your spirit.


Ronald.[/quote]
Thnx Ronald it was really a very happy trip in all and Santosh is right we really freak out on the foody stuff and enjoyed it like crazy no matter how many hour of sleep i guess the adrenalin was flowing hard so there you are three crazy anglers doing what we all hooked on to plus some good time