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

Best Wishes for 2014

 

With 2013 almost gone team GFA would like to extend warm thanks to all our supporters and wish all our readers and clients the very best for the new year, Roll on 2014!!

The trip of personal best GT

For the first time we had a group of anglers who had fished for GT before but all of them were after a bigger fish than they had caught before and wanted to see if they could better their personal best catches till date. There had been a lot of to and fro emails on the tackle list and what was working the best, but at the end of the day it comes down to you and your luck at the moment you need it most.

Perfect weather and we are off with all expectations running high

On day 1 there was a slight SW’ly wind which I do not really like and the drifts were not the usual way so we needed to improvise however a few drifts into the first session and Nick is into a decent fish, we land it and its a PB for him at 20kg, a quick photograph and we are back to the fishing.

Jason then gets his PB with a GT in the 20kg range, in the first morning session too, the expectations are higher now.

Wong kept catching fish through the day, he had the most GT’s it was really quite funny because he would take a break and rest and everyone else would keep and when then needed a break Mr Wong would take a cast or 2 and hook a fish, his biggest of the day was a fish close to the 30kg mark. Below he poses with one of the smaller ones.

Saikat too is into the fun with a small GT so now we are in the morning session of day 1 and everyone has got a fish.

In the calm conditions the stick-baits worked well, of course the old GT Gamma is a favourite.

The Next session is flat calm, with current a few drifts as we wait for the current to pick up and look at the sounder to see whats going on down below, we have a few smaller fish first then Mr Wong is into a good fish, which takes a lot of line,

we were a bit surprised to see a GT in the 30-35kg range as it fought much harder, buts is again another PB fish for a happy angler.

I tell Saikat there is fish marking and to pop like he means it, on the 3rd cast there is is this huge explosion around his Craftbait GT3, I see him struggling but he manages to set the hook a few time and line is disappearing fast.

20 minutes later there is this enormously fat GT on the deck she is thick and wide with huge tail wrist and we estimate in the 45-47kg range for a delighted Saikat who has also got his PB GT.

Another view of the fish showing its girth above and below the Gama GT Recorder that had broken, such are the strength of these fish.

A bit of jig on the way back and Saikat is again into a good fish, that fights like a demon close to the bottom, and boy is he happy once he lands this super grouper below.

Next session Nick is into a another good fish which gives him a workout….. here he is with the hurt on at both ends.

and Nick resets his PB with another nice 30kg + GT, way to go boys!!!!!

What followed next was amusing a PE10 popping rod broke at the handle, not on a big fish but on an estimated 8 kg Spanish Mack near the boat, and that is Nick out of rods for the last session of the last day, his other rod broke and eye and was unusable…..what a time to go….

Jason has some bad luck with a big fish that he hooks up but breaks him off, some fish are just unstoppable here. However he is soon in another big big fish that has him gasping and he needs to put all his strength into holding on, with Nick behind him to support him in case of a line break.

Many minutes of pain later followed with some deft boat handling and the fish is under control, Jason is happy now and can manage a smile between the excitement.

And here he is all smiles as he rewrites his PB again this time with a 143 cm estimated over 50kg GT, it is also the end of the trip with some amazing memories for all anglers.

Till our next report

Tight lines.