Andaman Adventure.

**Indian Angler** · 22-04-2006, 10:21

Its been sometime since I returned from those fantastic Islands, but my whole holiday in my mind has become one long day spent fishing. The way all holidays should be.

We were based on Havelock island, which is a couple hours from Port Blair (the capital) by boat. Our first day was spent unpacking the tackle and setting up. We spent the whole afternoon fabricating outriggers, so we could fish 4 rods from the back of the boat.

What worked really well for us in terms of fish caught was trolling. We had a spread of 4 rods to play with so we had plugs fished from the flatlines and jets/skirted lures from the outriggers. Over the duration of our trip we found the plugs were getting hit at all distances. Rapala Magnums CD 11, CD 14, CD 18, Halcos, Yo Zuri etc.. To be honest practically every plug worked. So if it was a plug..... it was my favourite.

While trolling we landed Spanish Mackerel, tuna, blue fin trevally, GT, Coarl Trout, Grouper, Barracuda, Grouper, garfish, jew fish and a bit of coarl off the reef

Spotted pods of dolphin, pilot whales, manta rays, balls of baitfish on the surface and alot of bird life.

Boats seen were some really fancy yauchts, the daily ferries that transport people and goods to the islands, local fishing boats, some navy boats and a couple of forest department boats. We also saw a couple of choppers flying around and a couple of spotter planes. Boats in the Andamans are basically meant to get from point A to point B. So they're really basic. In a local boat you can expect a top speed of 7 knots in calm conditions.

So one can't get anywhere in a hurry. This is a major problem if one plans to go far and get there when the tide is favourable. Being Indian its possible for us to stay nights on islands by organising permission or talking our way into doing it with the local authorities. This cuts down time spent in the boat travelling.

We were blessed with pleasent weather through most of the trip. A couple of days the wind did pick up, but it wasn't bad. A thunderstorm on the day we left, along with heavy rain.

Can't wait to go back!

**Ken L** · 24-04-2006, 19:51

Akshay. It looks like you had a ball and you definatly had some nice fish.
I had an e-mail from Scott the other day and it wasn't him that had the big mack but he did have a fair few smaller fish before getting his heavy rod broken.

He was using small local boats but found the lack of electrocs to be a huge disadvantage - especially when trying to fish out over the reef
.
Given the cost differential between a full on charter trip and hireing a local boat and driver though, it might be worth considering a portable GPS/sounder unit for a longer stay.

**Indian Angler** · 25-04-2006, 07:59

How did he manage to break his rod? I think you've mentioned it on another post. Darran got the tip of his rod knocked off against the side of the boat when a GT ran below the boat. I managed to bring a small GT in on a Team Daiwa Uptide and then tried again (stupidly) and almost broke the rod on another fish. We've pretty much pushed these rods to the max with Mahseer in the Cauvery, so its amazing to feel the awesome power of a GT.

The local boats are fine to troll from for smaller fish, but are a very unstable to pop from espcially when the wind picks up. I wouldn't pop from one of these boats alone. I don't plan on fishing 'blind' from one of these boats again. The next time we go out it will be with a fishfinder and a sonar.

**Ken L** · 25-04-2006, 08:26

Akshay. There's nothing like a first hand account. I've forwarded Scott's e-mail to your gmail account.
He's definatly not a fan of Harris rods anymore.