[Paul Andrew hall]

Hi fellow anglers I'm off to olhuveli Maldives next month for two weeks, and have done some ground work on fishing out there, but not had much joy , even getting my holiday company to email the resort to which they did not reply. Can any one help with any advice. I'm hoping to have a days charter for sails and also taking a spinning out fit but no idea on lures etc . Cheers Paul

 

[keyfonts]

morning Paul,

by the looks of the island site there are sunset and "deep sea" options. I've done organised trips at a couple of the islands, just manage expectations! the Maldives is an amazing place with awesome prospects but the tourist islands generally aren't geared up to anything serious. If the island has a sport fisher or dhoni you can charter for sensible money then fishing the reef edges and any pinnacles that may be local is the way forward. Jigging is one option and spinning is the other. Maldives is more of a pencil and stick bait location than massive poppers. Lures around 80-120g would be good. Obviously you'll need the gear to throw them. . . .

Trolling wise the red / pink Maldivian homemade lures out fished the skirted lures and plugs I took. Pink seems to be the best colour lure wise with blue working well in the evening. Once the light starts to go look illuminous.

The sunset trips with bait are great fun. Take the wife along and enjoy. This is an opportunity to cast lures as they normally anchor the edge of the reef. Live bait is fun to try. Casting a live bait towards the reef and then slowly retrieving can also work.

Last year when I was in the Maldives I had good success with glow lures in the evening. The savage gear sandeels worked very well.

My report from last year may be worth having a read through. Loads of info out there.

http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/threads/yasawa-princess-maldives-report-2015.3511755/

 

[Paul Andrew hall]

Hi keyfonts, thanks for your reply, also read your report from last year, now my five weeks is going to drag can't wait to get there after reading that. I'm taking in the way of gear a finnor offshore 650 fixed with 40lb power pro attached to a finnor traveller valhal 50-300g for popping and spinning and either a boss extreme 400/2 or the 500/2 with 50lb super 8 slick attached to a penn regiment 30lb travel , what do you think ? . Defo taking a range of savage gear in pinks, blues and alluminous. Surface poppers and what do you recommend for jigging and what hooks for live bait, sorry to throw all these questions at you but I dive as well so I have 23kg extra allowance for both so getting it right is imperative. Once again thank you for your reply and look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks Paul

 

[keyfonts]

Hi Paul, Not an expert myself, still learning! One thing I have learnt is travel rods tend to be the weak part in the Maldives. I’ve got a couple of purpose made jigging rods 80-12g and 150-400g that make jigging much more comfortable and have the stopping power to halt reef dwellers trying to head home. Popping rod wise i used an uptider last yr which was way too heavy. I’m waiting on a new popping rod to arrive for this trip which will be about half the weight of the uptider. For ease of travelling and the amount of time you may or may not get fishing those rods should be fine.

I’m taking an accurate 400n 2 speed for my lighter jigging set up. That’s got PE4 ygk line which works out bout 50lb and is a really nice and light but with plenty of power.

My popping reel is a 14k stella with 85lb daiwa depth hunter. Possibly you’ll want to upgrade the 40lb pp as that’s quite light for the drag settings you’ll be using when casting at the reefs.

Live bait hook wise I’m using circles from around 5/0 to 14/0 depending on the size of the bait.

Jig hook wise owner sj 41’s in 9/0 and 11/0 and mustad hoodlums 11/0 and 12/0. The mustad hooks are considerably cheaper than the owners. I use 700 lb Kevlar assist cord. Made up about 30 assists on the weeknd in preparation.

Jig wise when I was there last yr Williamson’s worked well as did the fallings by jigging master. However the local guys we were fishing with were using Chinese copies bought in male and they caught more fish than we did!

As I said previously stick baits seem to work better in the Maldives so make sure you have some in both sinking and floating.

What dates are you flying? I’m back out mid feb via a stop off in Abu Dhabi. Jealous of the extra weight allowance, I don’t get that as an angler, maybe I’ll have to chop the top off a dive cylinder and stuff it with jigs. . . . . .

 

[Paul Andrew hall]

Hi keyfonts that's some great advice, thanks. I was going down sea view tackle Saturday gone but glad i waited to here back from you, now I can pick pretty much every thing you mentioned. Luckily I already have some Kevlar assist cord which was made ready for the halibuts in Norway in July I'll use them and replace later. Also I'll strip off the 40lb pp as I have a spare 80lb so I'll load up with that. Myself and the better half are flying out on the 19th Feb for two weeks, BA flight direct to male 1810 night flight. Is was a little extra to pay for BA direct but this was the advice of my agent, ( tropic breeze ). Once again thanks for your help, and if you ever need any help from me, i do a lot of charter boat fishing out of Plymouth, usually once a fortnight if not more as my mate runs a charter boat, sea angler 11, and I also, as of last year I go to northern Norway once a year. So if you ever need any advice in that direction feel free to ask. Cheers Paul