Andaman Sea India April 2015

Mysteriously the Andaman Sea has it is own charm just like any other destinations around the world, for some reason the place is magical and a favorite destination for topwater Dogtooth tuna.
I get greeted at the guest house by Akshay, Nargis and Nicolas.
I fished with Captain Nicolas in Sri Lanka and I have to admit that I enjoyed his company and the good time spend on-board, so besides coming back I was so happy to be on-board with Nicolas and to be able to practice my French for the next 7 days.

The plan was to fish with Paul, Stu and Bob whom they traveled all the way from the UK.
Stu and Bob fished the Andaman before and made a video on Youtube for their trip which hit over 2 million viewers,
The plan was to fish new area and work on another episode with new footages.

Nicolas worked out a plan to get us offshore for 3 days straight and the sea condition was great to allow us to do so,
so we set up and gear up to be out for that duration, the guys were so excited upon their arrival and you can see that from the way they start getting their gear out and preparing for the trip.

On our first day of the trip and in about half an hour away from the harbor we start seeing birds and spinner dolphin which soon turned to Yellowfin tuna, we had the joy to play around to fulfill our mission on the first day, the Yellowfin tuna where so active and we had good time chasing them around, we stayed for over 3 hours running and gunning until we had enough and made a call to keep on heading to invisible bank.

We arrived a bit late with no current at all, the guys start casting and we all manage to land small size GT’s until I decided to take a break, Nicolas took an advantage grabbed his rod and casted, on the second cast he had an explosion on his lure but we could not determine what it is until it was closer to the boat and we saw a beautiful Doggie about to be landed, we get it to the boat right away took a few shot and put it back into the water but I guess the shock was way too high on him and we could not revive him at all, we tried for over 20 minutes with no success.

After our long day We anchored in the area hoping for better topwater bites in the early AM, as the night start to fall and the sun is disappearing into the sea the night and the sky looked like a Christmas tree from a distance with so many stars to count, it is such a joy to be in the outdoor to enjoy the scenery and the lifestyle in that way.

 The morning came and we right away hit the spot with no current at all which made it so hard to set a drift so we decided to quit and hit the jigging spot.
There was life on the bottom and we surely manage to get so many species on that day while jigging, the sea was dead calm with no breeze at all but the constant jigging action made it at ease.
we pushed North on our third day to try a new spot and while on the way we saw a school of pilot whales, we approach them slowly until we were surrounded by them to enjoy a free show that lasted for about 20 minutes, they were so curious that they were sticking out their head to look at us, we had them on camera and video and they sure made a good show, we called the day off and headed back to Port Blair to refuel for the second part of the trip.

We headed to South Sentinel on the second half of the trip hoping for better action with full moon approaching maturity and no current, however our will and effort is there to make it happen.

On the way south we looked around hoping to encounter the Yellowfin tuna again but they were absent with no luck to find them, the weather was looking bad with heavy rain approaching so we decided to jig and wait for the bad weather to pass us, I believe we stopped at the wall to start jigging and we managed couple of small GT’s until Stu start screaming and his line start peeling, after a 10 minutes of huffing and puffing Stu manage to land a descent GT on the jig and to top it more that was his biggest GT ever landed so he was so happy for his achievement, took a quick photo and released him to fight another day.
we arrived a bit late to South Sentinel and we start popping like no tomorrow with no action at all,
I was a bit surprise as I was hoping to hit that spot hard knowing that this spot is very productive but again the lack of current made it impossible to sustain life in the area, so we decided to hit North trying to save the last 2 days and looking for a better life and action, we headed North and anchored close to Port Blair on that night.
the last 2 days of the trip was spend jigging more than casting and the micro jig did save the trip in general and in terms of catching different species and keeping everybody happy and busy,
no matter what it is still an experience and pleasure to be offshore.

I want to thank Game Fishing Asia for their hospitality and great service, it was a pleasure to fish with the UK guys.

  Tackle used:

Rod: Saltywater Tackle Race Point 250, 150, 100, El Maestro 77H, OBX-300, Daiwa
Reel: Shimano Stella, Daiwa Saltiga, Maxel
Line: Power Pro Hollow, Sunline, Tuffline
Lures: CB One Zorro, Moutoukenmaru, Carpenter Bluefish, Craft Bait, Hammerhead, Siren, Heru.
Jigs: Shout, CB One, Smith, Hot’s, Haoli, Shimano