Fishing in Goa India.

[samfish]

Hello all,

Have just returned from a trip to India, spent a couple of weeks fishing in North Goa. Did most of the fishing with lures at night over the week either side of the full moon.

The fishing was done from the beach at the mouths of rivers where sandbars are formed due to the long-shore drift. These bars seemed to attract barramundi and mangrove jack which would run into the estuaries with the tide. Great results were had by all 3 of us in the party mostly on bomber long-A style lures and swimbaits. The locals took one look at our braided lines and soft plastic lures and made a unanimous decision that they " won't work". It did'nt take long before they came round to our way of thinking and had their mits in our lure boxes though!!!

I am going to attempt to post some piccys of the fish we caught which is a new thing for me, so bear with me, and I'll try my best to get some up there to share with you all.........here goes.....



If it worked then that is my 19lb barramundi!

[samfish]

[samfish]

We also did some lure chucking in the freshwater too......this is one of the beasty mahseer that I managed to bag. These guys really pull your string.....

[tom_o_m]

Thanks for the pics, looks like a cracking holiday
well done

[captin]

well done m8 i allways stay in anjuna had a few small sand sharks running along the beach just trying to get some line back on the reel india is a magic place boom shanka mate did you go to eny fill moon parties bamboo jungle or disco valley tight lines captin chilum

[samfish]

Hey Captin,

There were no full-moon parties going on while I was there. The Goan police have enforced a 10pm music curfew with heavy penalties requiring some serious baksheesh if you get caught. The local communities seem to have finally had enough of the parties and the extras that are associated with them. It's a double edged sword really as the parties and party people were bringing alot of money into the local community. This has now stopped and the whole 'trance scene' appears to have upped sticks and moved on. There were however a fair few parties over the xmas + new year period which had a blind eye turned to them! It seems the good times can't go on forever though!

[mahoo]

Hi Captin, I have been to a few Bamboo forests, disco valleys and Coco beach affairs! some five years ago now though! but I am going back out in about a weeks time for a couple of weeks.
Samfish,
Great fish you have caught there, can you let me know where and on what methods you caught them on as I would love to catch a Barra anywhere near that big, and in the past I have stayed in both north and south Goa. (5yrs ago)

Cheers guys

Mahoo

[deangonsalves]

amamzing catch there !! could we have more details as to where exactly in North Goa did you hook with the barrmundi etc...
cheers
Dean

[samfish]

Hey Dean + Mahoo,

I was staying near Harmal in North Goa. It's a nice spot - well chilled!

Our fishing was done from the shore around here and from the many river mouths that are to be found along the coast. The estuaries are the best spots by far.

We were targeting them with lures on a medium/heavy spinning outfit using Fireline in the 20-30lb bracket. The trick is to fish at night using shallow diving bomber/minnow type lures and swimbaits or rubbers on jigheads. It's essential to fish one week either side of the full moon as the tides are then best to push the Barra up and into the river mouths. 2 hours each side of high water is best!

The moon is helpful as it is the silhouette of the lure going over the fishes heads that triggers a response. Their eyesite is phenomenal and they home in on the lures with no problem. If there is no moon due to cloud, this reduces your chances. However the weather is usually clear during the dry season so it should not be a problem. You can forget it during the monsoon as the water colours up and the fish are harder to catch!

Dont bother with wire traces, it knackers your presentation. Tie an 800lb mono leader with a uni to uni knot to your mainline and this is enough to prevent the abrasive pads in the fishes mouth doing too much damage. You will probably need a new leader after each fish though!!

There are many rivers reaching the sea along the Goa coast line and we had success from 3 different estuaries. The fish are found all along the coast, just get yourself to any rivermouth and you have the old bottleneck effect working in your favour. There were some nice rivers reaching the shore down in the south aound the Patnem/Palolem area.....

Hope this helps!

Sam.

[samfish]

Just hail a local taxi and ask the driver to drop you at the nearest river mouth. They know all the spots, they will even hang around and bring you home later for a couple of hundred rupees!