INDIANANGLER

A sky full of shining stars and a three quarter moon at 50-55 degrees was our source of illumination. We had been fishing for about 3 hours with only Mani having success with a catfish a shade under a kilo. I reeled in and discovered that my hook was missing so tied on another Owner 6/0 and baited it with a fillet of the freshly caught cat. Made the cast not knowing if I had hit the spot I wanted because of the darkness.

Then followed the surf casters silent vigil, fore finger gently holding the braid, time loses its significance when surfcasting, only the finger holding the braid matters. Suddenly a sharp tug and then the angler's instinctive reaction to it, the strike, short and firm in this case.

The universe stops and then the surfcasters dream comes true, the magical sound of running drag and bent rod. I had set a loose drag and on the first run turned it up a notch or two. A short pause then another run and again the drag was tightened a notch or two. This went on for 4 or 5 runs the fish made. At times I did manage to lift and pump a few precious yards of line back. The fish headed to my left towards a sandbank and Shekar who had joined us while engaged in his duties of saving Ridley Turtle eggs commented if it beached itself on the sand bank it would be impossible to retrieve so we followed the fish to the sandbank. Shekar showed me where to wade across the channel onto the sandbank and this is where the finale took place. Me on the edge of the sandbank closest to shore the fish just off the opposite edge of the sandbank in deep waters and Shekar who took a look at the amount of line left on my spool and took off to my left urging me to keep a steady lift and pump retrieve when ever the opportunity presented itself.

By now the fish didn't exert as much force as it had earlier but I was still cautious. This caution was due to 15-16 feet of 17lb mono which connected my 30lb braid to my rig. My hook line was about 3 feet of 30lb fluro and my 4 oz bank sinker was rigged on 50lb mono. Prithivi had shown me this rig and said it is easier to cast with the mono than with braid. I fought the fish and brought it into shallow waters and then onto the sandbank. Shekar ran across and completed the act.

In all the GT made 7-8 runs and what helped me was the fact it ran towards a sandbank. Also, the length of the 11 foot Daiwa Emblem surfcasting rod gave me the advantage as far as leverage was concerned.
Tackle was Abu Cardinal 606 ALB spinning reel with about 250 yards of 30lb braid matched to 11 ft Mh 15-30 lb Daiwa Emblem surfcasting rod

Awesome Catch Bro.....Thats a Beauty......

Very Nice catch. What weight?

/Pritam

awesome feelings. Next day Sekar caught another GT of 15kgs 30 mins later than our timing. Night fishing is another thrill and we should go often.

David the Lucky guy... congrats on your persistence and patient which an angler should have. This GT should have weighed surely more than 20kgs.

Robert

Thanks Viper and quietkuki...weight I guesstimate anything between 20-25 Kgs.

Regards
Pandim

Congratulations Once again David, Your patience and enthusiaism towards fishing everytime gives yous success everytime.

You holds the biggest catch of the spot. It was almost 5 years ago some one caught such a big catch.

David become talk of that village now.

We all were tired of fishing the earlier day and not so keen to go on that day. We packed up slowly and on the way seraching for bait fish.

We bought dead mullets and i was looking at some different kind of sardin. David was insisting me not to buy any more. but i bought it some even though david was telling not to buy. This sardin really worked well with Cat Fish.

I'm not very sure about the bait name, it looks like sardin but little flat and harder than sardin.

Congratulations David!

Amazing catch, thanks for sharing the info.

See you soon,

Markus

FANTASTIC! Great fish and an equally engaging write up.

Congratulations David Nice catch, you are very lucky in 2010.
Saravanan

Wow. Simply Wow !
I knew there had to be a good use for those squeeky little catfish.

Amazing catch mate. And yes well narrated as well. Thanks for the post. You definitely deserve a big catch like this one.

Cheers. DeZZ

Thanks madvento,mahaseerken,Saravanan and Ken L

see you in chennai soon madvento

hey,

great going sir, hats off..

thank you for sharing..

regards,
pranav..

Hi Davi
Your sure rock.
Congrats and wish you many more 'hook ups'.
Cheers
Ravi

Markus, Ravi... keep in touch.. this Saturday we will go some spot. I will discuss with David about it. Mani is in Bangalore that time.

Cheers
Robert

Hi Robert
I am going to be away from town for the next one week,starting tomorrow. Wish I could have joined you guys.
Any way lets do it again once I am back.
All the best.
Ravi

Sure Ravi Keep in touch. I will also be out of country until Mar 15. I am going to miss fishing.

Robert

Thanks teritex and tenx10

Ken this is teh second time that we have te squueky catfish coming to good use ... once before i think it was a Indian Salmon in Cochin harbour posted by one of the forum guys ... Ali tried it one night when we were baitfishing ..... but had to eat the bait that night

Congratulations!!! That is a monster.

great going pandim,,,,,
in goa,,i hav a friend who has caught a 35 kg gt on live catfish,,,in the monsoon season,,,actually he was fishing for big grouper which he often catches,,,when this monster gt took the bait...also a paticular type of cat is used to catch big snappers..
few people know this

Thats a huge one
Looks like you guys are rocking!!

Cheers,
Binu

Binu, Nice to know you are in loop. Mani told me about you often. When you are back to India.. we would go fishing together.

Great catch David.

BTW, are you puting your 8' shimano rod to use these days?

Maruthu

Hi Maruthu

the 8' Teramar is not a seeing any action these days, problem of carting it around. I've got the ideal lure for it, rapala x-rap subwalk 2 oz but till I can afford a car it's a no go.

Regards
Pandim

Sorry to hear that. Congrads again on the fish.
Cotten Cordel Redfin lure in chrome w/ black back was very productive in that beach before dusk. Just sayin.

Maruthu

Congrats David, that is a nice stocky GT, looked like a real bruiser...and that to taken with fillet of cat awsome!!

Well, at least you wouldn't have been short of toothpicks.
Each morsel comes with three....

That is a dream GT... Congrats.

Santosh

Great catch. Thanks for sharing the pics.

great catch david

Exceent catch.
Cheers
Mayur

Robert, I'll join you guys in another 6 months or so..
Till then please keep posting the pictures
, its nice to know fishing in Chennai has improved a lot and you guys are having fun!!

Cheers,
Binu

amazing... congrats buddy. this is awesome. thank you for the pic and the nice narration. it felt as if we were there with you...... some day

Nice Gt David!. Chennai is becoming a Gt Heaven.
looking forward to more reports from you guys.

Jeen

Great Fish David and big congratulations on landing such a beauty.

I am sure that beach fishing holds a lot of potential and it should be given a proper try. The catch report of Ravas on a live catfish and then this report are really incouraging.

Keep trying and keep posting.

It was also a great writeup..

Regards,

Ali.

real good ill have to come back

OMG! This is a real Gaint. Waow Amazing!

wow , congrats .

hi david.. long time.. how are u..is ur mobile number the same?