u went up north or down south?
i am going there 2nd week of march.
any advise for me?
cus if th weather is anticipated to be rough, i'll bring more light tackle and focus on fishing the lagoons.
is the jigging result better than popping?
We went far south, I think Hudhavoo Atoll and the weather was pretty rough for most of the time which meant they couldn't get out to the reefs they wanted to jig. Inshore we got a lot of small to medium size fish like jobfish and AJs plus small doggies. I was fishing the Smith AMJ EXH and a Stella 20000 which was too much for these fish. If you can, take a lighter jig rod with 8000 size reel so you can get some fun from the smaller ones. Saying that I got smashed by a big yellowfin at the boat and our guide had a doggie around 40kg so you take your chances with light gear! Heaviest jigs we used were 300g but mostly 180g-250g were fine. The Sevenseas Hooker in 220g was best for me, they seem to like short baitfish size jigs.
For popping everyone was right, you need to cast far as the GTs are right in the surf on the reef and unless you can get your lure in there you are wasting your time. The guides seem to like pencil type poppers with a fast retrieve. As we were leaving there were loads of fusiliers inside the lagoon with GTs underneath so try to bring Orion Bigfoots in fusilier colour.
There's also a lot of bluefins inside the lagoon under the birds, we had a lot of fun catching these and small doggies with 40g metal slices on a light rod. There are much bigger bluefins in the surf where they pop for GTs so maybe try an 8000 size popping outfit there with smaller lures.
Hope that helps. The weather was getting better as we left so reckon by March it should be great, the fishing also got a lot better during the week, apparently the monsoon was changing or something which meant the weather was unusual for the time of year. The group after us was with Nicola Zingarelli from Caranx.net so maybe ask him for an update in a week.
If you want to know any more PM me. Good fishing!
