INDIANANGLER

Hi Guys.

We went for a fishing trip to andamans, based out of Havelock predominantly. Last year's goa trip [first saltwater] had bombed big time with no catches whatsoever (except a few oysters caught on squid bait!!]. This time i went prepared : 9' 9wt flyrod with a bunch of saltwater flies, a cabelas baitcaster with abu garcia reel, medium heavy saltwater spinning rod with shimano 2500 reel. Also took along some rapala spinners, lures and spoons. The icing on the cake was the 3' plastic barbie baitcaster for our 2 year old.

First day was settling in and establishing a JUGAAD for boat [unfortunately my float-tube was veto-ed by the wife]. Organized a full day Dhoongi [small long boat used by locals for transport primarily. powered by a JUGAAD diesel generator!!], some beers, sardines and handlines. Went to the closest reef and tried EVERYTHING[flies,lures,and spinners] including lobbing chopped pieces of sardines on a handline. We caught quite a few small fishies including snappers, groupers,trigger fish,surgeon fish etc. In the end, we hooked up the barbie rod with the bait and BAM!! intense action for atleast an hour...we(read my wife) reeled in about 7 snappers!! All fish caught, only one released [a stonefish]..part of the deal with the boat owner.






Havelock Island







Coral Trout on Handline







Bonefish(??) on Handline







Jimmy with his tiny Grouper(tiger)?!







Jimmy and my daughter with the first Snapper of the day on handline







Jimmy with his Surgeonfish







My wife with the barbie rod and beginning of the Snapper streak.







Sunset from the Dhoonghi






After such a good showing of tiny tidbits we decided we needed help. So we got hold of Mike, who ALSO operates from a dhoonghi but fished for BIG game fish some 30 kms into the great wide sea. Luckily, he was also a flyfisher. We loaded all our gear, chugged along for a good 1.5 hours to reach his spot. This is all of ours FIRST sea big-game fishing endeavour so we had NO idea what was going to hit us. Mike decided to use my new lures (rather than his mended,broken then refixed lures). We fixed up the trolling rods with a bonito deep diver and a green dorado type deep diver( 30' below). I rigged up my flyrod with a bonito minnow fly as well. During the course of the day we caught bonitos on the bonito lure, bonito on my flyrod, corral trout,groupers and even managed to hook up into a Marlin!! The hookup happened when Mike was retrieving the other lure when the trolling rod with the bonito lure just went nuts. Being the closest I went for it and set the hook ( to the best of my trout sensibilities). The line was tight and when we lined it up about 300-400 mtrs into the sea...we saw a 3m Marlin jump up right where our line was! [ 3m and 400-400 mtrs are Mike's figures...we hadn't a clue what hit us]. Within a couple of minutes I lost the marlin. We also got to see a sailfish jump..7 times. Dolphins rode with our dhoonghi...and a shark hate my bonito while i was reeling it in!! We saw the fin...and everyone of the boat shouts [SHARKKKK!!!] all in all..an INTENSE saltwater adventure. not bad for our first game trip. Its hard as hell and all hell breaks loose on the boat the SECOND someone shouts "Fish On!!"









Mike's Dhoonghi : The calm before the storm. Everyone relaxing, slicked up with sunblock and enjoying the ride...







First fish of the day, 8-10Kg Bonito on the Bonito Lure.Slash marked are the shark bites.







Same Bonito with the slashes.







Jimmy with his first Coral Trout







Her first Bonito (ever)









Jimmy with a Grouper








Bonito








Coral Trout








Double Hookup. She reeled her bonito first. I'm still fighting a 2 Kg Bonito who totally swallowed my bonito fly








Both fished reeled in. My first saltwater fish on a fly. NOT a bad day at work, eh?!









My fish also had this guy in his mouth, whom my daughter wanted to eat. Sushi-time!









Flycasting at Dusk....








Dinner!






Day 3 : After getting a dose of excellent fishing, we took on Mike again. This time Jimmy bailed, he was too tired after the previous day. We lost our prized lure while trolling out from the shallows heading for the deeper waters. Greed, no good!!The fishing wasn't as prolific as the previous day but I got a Trevally.It was a VERY hot day out on the sea, with no shade whatsoever...








GC hooks his first Trevally ever. Not a GT but who cares!








Bluefin Trevally








Coral Trout








Same fish








Another One!








Closer inspection.








The lures minus the lost bonito







Day 4: Mike was busy so we got another boat and decided to try our luck. The sea was very choppy and we tried our hand at popping for the first time. the damn poppers were atleast a foot long..made a racket, but no fish got on. apparently rough seas aren't good for popping. Got some action on the trolling again. all is all, an excellent fishing trip, all fish released...will DEFINITELY go back.....









Coral Trout on a red minnow deep diver, trolled.








BARRACUDA..small guy but a 'cuda is a 'cuda..right?!








Cuda again...caught atleast 4-5 of these guys. Small.





That's it folks. can't wait for the next trip.

Hi Bobby,

A very nicely compiled report. The first picture of rainbow trout and the photo of sunset are breathtaking. The range of fishes caught are amazing. Very brave of you to even take a Barby rod to this place.

Congratulations and Regards,

Ali.

i dunno if its just me, but i cant seem to see any pics uploaded other than a pic of imageshack.us saying domain unregistered to register etc. etc....

thanks alibhai. the barbie rod held up fine..a little too much adventure for it but its a $10 rod...7 snappers is full paisa vasool, no?

af> try refreshing.

Bluefin Trevally and the coral trout in the 1st pic are beauties...
Ali Bhai, these should also go for the poll :)

bobby .. lovely to see the whole family having a great time out on the water..really cool.. i love the pic where u n ur better half have a fish each in your hands and ur lil one, is holding/ got her hand on her head..


i almost wanted to caption that pic in baby lingo... oh cwaapp they'r hooked..(it looks like she was thinking that) (and indeed y'all are hooked.)

Congrats bobby...you may have to re-size an image or two as beautiful as they are.

Bone Fish is a Job Fish

Surgeon Fish is looks like a Trigger Fish

Bobby

thanks bobby. i knew i wasn't right about the bonefish.. the surgeonfish we were pretty sure of...it was blue underwater...turned brown the minute it was taken out.

i maybe wrong though...not an expert from any angle [pun intended].

Well a better picture would help with your Surgeon. However the best way to ID a Surgeon fish is they have a scalpel like bones on either sides at the base of the tail where the tail joins the rest of the body (hence the name Surgeon), these bones come out when the fish is threatened and can inflict quite a cut. All Surgeon fish have these sharp knife like bones. You can see the dark mark at the base of the tail on this bright yellow - Orangeband Surgeonfish:



Uploaded with

Further more Suegeonfish are herbivores.

All Triggerfish has a bone at the tip of the Dorsalfin, or just ahead of it that stands erect when threatened or caught - Like a Trigger, hence the name.

This will help you ID the fish if you could recall. I took a second look at the picture, it does not appear to have a trigger in the picture, and the base of the tail is quite narrow, like in a Surgeonfish.

hi...i dunno that much about these fishies. we were told surgeon so i bought it. here's a better picture.

it was blue right till it came out...blue with black lines. it turned brown within seconds of coming out of the water...

Amazing!

Wonderful fish caught. The locations are awesome. Thnks for sharing the pics and happy fishing.

Congrats!

Congrats on the lovely catches.

Ravi