Well played, GTs of Maldives
 |
| Ice cream - the local lingo for being outgunned/no fish |
 |
| Comfortable Dhoni. Easily can fish 6 pax. |
We started the first day fishing with a pleasantly angler
friendly schedule. We would fish sunrise, break for lunch (return to island to
have our meals) and then go for sunset fishing. This actually was about 8 hours
of fishing considering sunrise fishing was 6am to 10am and sunset fishing was
4pm to 8pm!
I won’t write much about the actual fishing (you can view the videos to get a sense of that) but some technical observations below:
I won’t write much about the actual fishing (you can view the videos to get a sense of that) but some technical observations below:
We were seriously under-gunned
One of the headaches of not being on an actual “Big game”
fishing trip (and also because of conservative packing) is that we simply
brought too little of the serious, mean fishing gears. A quick check on our
fishing gear showed one thing – we were thoroughly under-gunned. I was quite
happy with my micro jigging, light jigging and light popping gear while Shawn
was happy with his strange array of random fishing gear (including a hastily
put together “popping” setup which was a Zerek popping rod and a Daiwa Freams
4500J).
I thought I was ready – simply because my gear served me well on numerous fishing trips except that my heaviest gear was a PE 2 – 3 CTS custom and Trinidad 12! I also did the “in-thing” and brought along my Shimano Ocea Jigger 1500 and Shimano Ocea Infitini Slow Fall setup.
I thought I was ready – simply because my gear served me well on numerous fishing trips except that my heaviest gear was a PE 2 – 3 CTS custom and Trinidad 12! I also did the “in-thing” and brought along my Shimano Ocea Jigger 1500 and Shimano Ocea Infitini Slow Fall setup.
How naïve we were. Bent hooks, bust lines… you’ll see later.
The Singaporean idea
of “light jigging” and coaxing fish is bollocks
Another key observation was that the concept of “aiya, let
the fish run and slowly bring it up… give it some slack” didn’t work at all!
Terrain was vicious here and a thousand times more treacherous than the terrain
we have in Singapore. Steep corals, sudden drop offs and even sharks – you name
it, you got it.
Coaxing the fish in is a reality most Singaporean light jiggers dabble in these days. Anglers use very light lines like PE1 and light drags to coax in the fish and while most of us managed it well in local or regional (Rompin, Pekan, Desaru etc.), the fishes at Maldives weren’t so obliging. I bust off about 4 – 5 suspected GTs (because Shawn always chickened out and refused to fight the fish) and this was after trying various means to get the fish up on light tackle.
Coaxing the fish in is a reality most Singaporean light jiggers dabble in these days. Anglers use very light lines like PE1 and light drags to coax in the fish and while most of us managed it well in local or regional (Rompin, Pekan, Desaru etc.), the fishes at Maldives weren’t so obliging. I bust off about 4 – 5 suspected GTs (because Shawn always chickened out and refused to fight the fish) and this was after trying various means to get the fish up on light tackle.
Often, a single scenario occurred – the GT would hit the jig
near the bottom and then take out line for 5 seconds and then reef me. If you
somehow manage to hook the fish near mid water, it was always going to be a
matter of terminal tackle quality. Our terminals didn’t stand up to the fight
though (and I must take some blame for not pairing the light jigs with bigger
hooks) and bent hooks came back frequently.
I had a really good chance to land one of the GTs on the PE 1 setup and Daiwa Branzino 3000 (with 12lbs Spiderwire!) but the SK Twin Seriola 2/0 opened when the fish was about 5m from the boat. Man…
I had a really good chance to land one of the GTs on the PE 1 setup and Daiwa Branzino 3000 (with 12lbs Spiderwire!) but the SK Twin Seriola 2/0 opened when the fish was about 5m from the boat. Man…
Presentation is key
Another technical highlight was that contrary to popular
belief, Maldives is not an “anyhow jig, any jig” fishing ground. When the fish
were really picky, the hit rates depended a lot on jigging speeds and
presentation. Changing jigging styles, jig action and colours proved to be very
effective and once you have a “winning” formula, stick to it. This was very
consistent throughout the few days of fishing and the long fast stroke with
pause technique probably scored the most hits.
 |
| Crippled Herring was a favourite among the fishes. |
But ok we still had
some fun
Thankfully, after all the crying, cursing and bruising of
egos, we still managed some fun. Shawn fought a good sized Dogtooth Tuna
(mistaken by everyone to be some tuna) on my setup (PE 1 – 2 Jigging rod and a
Shimano Stella 4k) and it was brought up for a good photo taking. Dogtooth
Tunas don’t usually fight better than GTs though and the fish was taken in mid
water so the “coaxing the fish” rule applied here.
Now, don’t be fooled by the sad faces because we still had fun in the next few days of fishing. When we realized during day one that light tackle wouldn’t make the cut, we opted for light fishing the next day and we were pleasantly rewarded by a large array of reef fishes. It was probably the best few hours of jigging I have ever experienced – more to come in the next post!
Now, don’t be fooled by the sad faces because we still had fun in the next few days of fishing. When we realized during day one that light tackle wouldn’t make the cut, we opted for light fishing the next day and we were pleasantly rewarded by a large array of reef fishes. It was probably the best few hours of jigging I have ever experienced – more to come in the next post!
 |
| Thankfully, it took the jig in mid-water |
 |
| Shawn brought up a decent doggie with my light jigging outfit |
If you’re interested in joining such a rustic fishing trip,
I can arrange one for you and although there are certain packages available,
such trips are purely exploratory and still at an infancy phase. If you have
good fishing finesse skills though, you’ll probably do very well. Contact me at
nigel.lian@gmail.com
Comments