Sri Lanka Fishing in January- Report

 

Early January saw us experimenting and trying out the inshore species again, then our guides have arrived Nicolas Jamin and Erik Ouwens both back from a break and very eager to get going, we had decided that we would look at expanding our jigging options available as we had caught some nice fish on jig earlier, quick checks of the boats and equipment and we are ready to head out jigging, there is so much happening now that its very exciting with big fish and multiple species coming up regularly here are a few excerpts.

First up we have Erik with a nice gold spot taken in a new jigging spot

And of course no jigging spot is complete without paying the Sri Lanka tax in terms of lost equipment to the Spanish mackerel around, this one was not so lucky though and was landed before it could bite through….

Another one that we got away from the tax…. all were not so lucky and lots of jigs were donated.

Nico used his speed jigging technique to bring up this nice Dog tooth tuna

And another one so we have a spot with more than one !!!

A big Maori Perch for Nico

More small dogtooth tuna this time with a client and again on jig

A really big long nose emperor again on jig and in the favourite pink colour

Now a big gold spot trevally on jig again

Now a new species of group too anyone with a name for this one below???

Of course when we had the opportunity to pop we did and this is one of the few big 40kg GT that was actually landed when you start to have fish like this coming up you need to have the right equipment and shortcomings will be exposed, below Jean Luc poses with one of a few he finally managed to hook up to.

This smaller GT was landed just after we hooked into a beast that the angler could not set the hook on, it is still 25 kg…

Erik with a very nice Dogtooth landed from one of our new spots 48kg and on PE 3 it was a workout for sure

More average size GT from our new spots, roll on the season we will be ready.

A day trip client and first time GT hunter Gunter with his first ever GT, you have to be very very lucky to get a 40kg GT on day one

Eric with a super Red Bass taken on popper, who says they are not here too!!!

Nico with his first go at an old haunt a 30kg GT

Followed by one of 25kg

And of course its not all anglers who fish with us always here is celebrity “Spiderman” who did not manage to land anything!!!

Lets go fishing guys,

Tight lines.

New Year Barramundi and others

 

Our long time fishing clients Ian and Nick had asked us if we could do a specific inshore trip for them to target wild Barramundi, so of course we jumped at the idea to give it a shot, a time and place was decided and we there early on d-day to see what results would come from this trip that was both a trial and exploratory in nature.

Good weather and conditions help build up the excitement on day 1

To get fishing we just need to have our customers step out of the accommodation and into the boats, guess you cant ask for a better fishing location than this.

Its scout, look and try for a bit as we fish some of the spots we have tried before to see if they will produce again.

The boats are ideal to fish 2 anglers comfortably and are very suited to the terrain.

Oh, we must add that Ian told me he had a surprise angler on the trip and it was none other than Alvin Lim of Anglers Outfitter in Singapore, a high quality tackle shop that is know for its customer service. Alvin had the first hook-up and landing as we came round a quiet corner…

We start off the trip with a good sized feather back for Alvin.

Ian is up next into a small Mangrove Jack, we do some more scouting and looking for possible Barramundi spots that we will target on different parts of the tides.

Before we head back for a simple breakfast as everyone is really keen to spend as much time on the water as possible.

We land more Mangrove Jacks and look to try out as many lures as possible to see what works and when.

Now its Nick’s turn on a good sized feather back too..

Alvin scouts as he fishes for any visible sigs of activity.

Ian with another mangrove Jack on a different lure.

Meanwhile Gerard has done the trick and landed the first Barramundi of the trip with the other boat.

Quickly followed by Nick with another nice wild Golden hued Barramundi. Now there are some smiles about for sure!!

Next up is a brace of Mangrove jacks from a school of them for both Nick and Gerard.

Another Mangrove Jack and the session is now rocking

Nick tops off the session on day 1 with another Barramundi, what a start to the trip.

More scouting and exploring as we try out all the likely places.

and the small creeks that get bit eerie and dark, you just know that this is the best place to meet a large crocodile and we did see some, no swimming for sure!!

Exploring the creeks

you never know what you are going to get which is the surprise element when you explore and that is something that is unbeatable.

Another spectacular sunset in Sri Lanka.

An early morning Barramundi that fell for an old tried and tested colour the fire tiger and Ian is a happy man.

Mangrove jacks abound here and are feisty little fighters that provide great sport on light tackle.

A small GT now on lure, he will hopefully be well over 40kgs the next time we meet with him again.

Lots of Mangrove Jacks we feeding as well

We caught many Mangrove Jacks in this session

A very large feather-back is landed by Alvin, we landed some really good sized ones on this trip.

The biggest of the feather-backs we landed

Alvin with a big herring he managed to land and put up a great aerial display.

Here is one of a herring getting airborne just before the landing net is put to use.

Now a large tilapia

Another species to take on lure here.

By far the most common fish the Mangrove Jack

Alvin lands a nice Barramundi, he lost a+ big one just before this as it could not be stopped before it got into a weedy patch.

Another view of Alvin’s nice Barramundi.

Another yummy lunch noodles with prawns, just what you need when you get back after a few hours on the water.

 

We had a few of these herrings they give you an awesome fight on light tackle, they really take off and leap out of the water trying to throw the hook, so if you get one on board its and achievement.

And look what we have here… while trying different lures for Barramundi and Mangrove Jacks, Ian has an aggressive bull frog go for his lure, anyway we released him, I am sure he was bit surprised though that his meal was not what he thought it was.

Another Mangrove Jack to document on another lure.

Well the bull-frogs were not messing around, one for Alvin as well and who thought frogs were cannibalistic.

As the sun set on another great trip, we did all that we had set out to do, got all the species that we wanted, experimented and tried out different things and a number of lures to see what worked, although we missed out on some big Barramundi we proved again that they are here and we catch them too.

Till the next report

Tight lines