The last time I went to the Maldives with Shawn , we experienced much of the culture and island life in one of the many local islands in the Maldives. We even spent the nights at a simple home-stay and ate local food. That experience was extremely refreshing since I always loved to discover the people behind the places I traveled to. I found out that there was so much more to the Maldives than just sun-tanned westerners lazing around in the beaches (and their drinks). Can you put fishing into a honeymoon? Yes you can! Fast forward to 2018, I was now married and appointed to be the chief organiser of our honeymoon trip to the Maldives. At first, I wanted it to be an all relaxing luxury stay at a secluded resort on an island in the Maldives. As time went by, I knew we would be bored after just a few days doing nothing in a resort (which some people argue is what exactly you should do in a honeymoon). After a little tinkering and searching around, I had the perfect answer - I would...

Are you looking to bring your wife or girlfriend on a fishing trip? Then the Maldives would be an excellent choice as it provides a comfort and is also suitable for beginners. I was quite worried that Bakgal would be daunted by fishing in Maldives. After all, it is our honeymoon and fishing there can be quite "hardcore". We will also only be fishing with artificial jigs and poppers which require proper technique. I got worried for nothing though as Bakgal managed to secure so many kinds of fishing during the trip even though it was her first jigging trip! We booked Seagal Sportfishing Maldives Fishing Charter for a few days so we could have a relaxing Husband and Wife only fishing trip. Credit to the Captain (none other then Captain Ibrahim Ibee, previously Captain of Noranee 2) because he brought us to easy spots where the fishes weren't too big (very important), were very tasty and just had the right amount of fight in it that was suitable for a honeymoon fishing t...

“It’s not about whether the fish were bigger or how easy it was to get the fish on jig but rather, it was that two hours of catching various, unique reef fishes with just about any jig in your tackle box. Yes some jigs were better than others and I’ve caught bigger fish on light jigs but never before was I so enthralled with jigging before. It was kind of like catching Pokemon except that it wasn’t a virtual game. It was real – the strokes, the sights and the sound. Simply beautiful.” – Nigel, when recollecting his light fishing adventures in the Maldives (2016)   Beautiful video done by Shawn shows most of the light jigging action we had. Skip to 4.44 if you want to avoid Nigel losing the big fish (grrr...) Well, so this is it. I know I mentioned that light tackle fishing in the Maldives wouldn't work but the weather was turning bad and the the fact is I still love some light jigging fun. Singaporeans are still quite good at it so off we went for some small fishes. The l...

Ice cream - the local lingo for being outgunned/no fish In my overview of my mini Maldives adventure, I shared about being well beaten by the Giant Trevallies (GT) of Maldives and well, all my shame is being showcased here. Although I fish a lot, I’ve never truly went on a “Big game” fishing trip except for a one time New Zealand Kingfish jigging trip so this was a serious eye (sore) opener for me. 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:   We were seriously under-gunned One of the headaches of not being on an actual “Big game...

With the famous boatman Shawn Maldives still is one of the best fishing destinations that all anglers dream of. The crystal clear waters, the pristine beaches and the occasional catch report from the fishing forums all scream to us. A few weeks back, when a chance to go for a fishing trip (with some exploration of course) came knocking, I knew there was no turning back. I grabbed the famous Shawn from www.singaporefishing.org and he too said yes without any hesitation. He asked me, “So what’s the fishing like and what’s going to happen?” My reply was, “I really don’t know. We hear stories from our friends but those are from the big game charters, luxury fishing boats and people pay thousands to fish from these. I think we’ll just go with local fishing boats and cast our lines from the island. Should be decent fishing but light tackle is okay.” So both of us just packed lightly, did some research and at the end of the day, our main fishing gears weren’t really what o...