For the third year in a row the family had decided to spend Christmas in the Maldives. I had four days of fishing to look forward to and had chosen the four days around the full moon, which happened to occur just around Christmas. Maybe not ideal given that this was primarily a family trip but what can you do...
I had decided to pack light and only bring three rods; one dedicated stickbait rod, one light tackle rod and one heavier rod that I could use for the few poppers I had brought as well as the largest stickbaits. The choice fell on a Carpenter The Blue Lagoon 80/40 (PE8), a Carpenter Black Current 80MRF (PE2-4) and a Ripple Fisher GT80XH nano (PE12) - or at least I thought so. While unpacking my rods I noticed, to my great despair, that I had packed the wrong rod tip to my Ripple Fisher. I had accidently packed my Ripple Fisher GT82LC tip! That's what happens when you don't pay attention! Two Stella 2008 18k and a Stella 2008 6k accompanied the rods. Stella standard and SOM spools, filled with Varivas Avani GT Max PE8&10 and Sunline Monster PE3, 4&10 lines.
I had packed 27 larger lures, of which only seven poppers. Stickbaits had accounted for all my GT catches the prior two year, so I had brought 20 larger stickbaits - mostly floating, as I prefer topwater to subsurface strikes. The larger lures were complemented by 14 smaller ones for the light tackle set-up.
Captain Mohamed picked me up at the jetty at 7.30am on the first day. Ahmed, one of his younger brothers accompanied him. This year, GT Fishers Maldives had upgraded their boat. Same make/brand as the previous boat, but with an additional six feet in length (37ft in total) and a cabin provided additional comfort compared to the old one, which was good as the wind had started to pick up the day before. Also the new boat was powered by twin Yamaha 200hp engines.
The wind was blowing from the northeast at ca 7m/s. We headed north/northeast and after a ca 30 min boat ride we started fishing around the most northern islands of the atoll. I picked a Gamma GT 140 black abalone as my first lure and had a bite already in the second cast. Good start, I thought as a launched another cast against the reef. It didn't take long before I came tight. The fish immediately turned and went for the reef but I managed to stop it. Then it changed tactics and dove towards the bottom and somehow managed to get the lure stuck. At first, I though that the fish was still hooked but as soon as we got the boat over the structure, I realized that is was long gone. Luckily, I was able to free up and retrieve the lure - phew! An additional benefit of fishing with barbless hooks.
A few casts later I caught the first fish of the day - a red bass and not long thereafter I caught my first GT for the day on a red head silver bones RAL Haku 120. No giant, but still a GT.
After fishing for an hour and a half I made a horrible realization, I didn't have the strength to continue fishing with the heavy set-up! The last year's extensive traveling with virtually no exercise, in combination with unhealthy food and too much red wine had taken toll on my physical strength and stamina. I simply wasn't fit enough to swing +200g lures for six hours in a row, while at the same time trying to make sure to stay on my two feet in a rocking boat. As a consequence, I had to switch to my light set-up. I also decided to sort out virtually all stickbaits that weighed more than 140 grams unrigged and leave them, plus all poppers, at home the following three days. A huge disappointment, as I had really looked forward to test a whole raft of new lures on the trip but it was also a real eye-opener. I am not getting any younger and since you only get one body, I need to start taking care of it. If for nothing else, then at least to be able to fish full days when going on future fishing trips. I continued fishing with the lighter set-up the rest of the day and ended up catching 9 fish in total, of which only 2 GTs. I had brought only fourteen smaller lures and lost two of them already the first day.
The most memorable fish from day one was a GT that I saw swimming in a zigzag pattern very fast just under the surface before smashing my lure, only to be lost a few seconds later after pulling out some 10-15m of line from my SOM 6k reel.
On the second day, Mohamed and Ahmed picked me up at the jetty at 7.30am again. This time we headed more north-east straight away. The wind had slowed down a bit, compared to the day before and the sky was partly cloudy, but mostly clear.
The second day turned out to be the most productive in terms of fish caught. I managed to catch fourteen fish, of which nine GTs. The largest around 20-25 kg. The fish put up a good fight on my PE2-4 set-up and at one point, Mohamed had to chase the fish to avoid me being spooled. The fish bit over a Orion S-Kiv 45 in fusilier. A few casts later, I lost the lure when a shark threw itself over a smaller GT that had taken a liking to the same S-Kiv. The line peeled off the spool at an alarming pace before I decided to try to stop the fish before being spooled. The line broke somewhere between the reel and the leader so I decided to change spool before continuing to fish. I lost one more lure that day and was now down to ten remaining smaller lures.
I had most action when casting over the water between the shallow and deep water, in the direction we were drifting.
Day three started off slow. The weather was pretty much unchanged from the day before, with partly cloudy and sunny skies. We had to fish close to the island where we were going to get petrol and given that it was Friday they didn't open until 9.30. Mohamed told me that a customer had caught a 60kg dogtooth tuna where we were fishing. I got excited since I had never caught a dogtooth tuna, despite coming close several times while fishing with Jason & Mady in Tanzania last year. However, that was on jig, not while fishing topwater. Catching a dogtooth on a stickbait, that would really be something I was thinking to myself, while launching another cast.
After we had re-fueled in Naifaru, Mohamed started heading North. Some 20-30 min later we arrived at the next fishing spot. I had borrowed Mohamed's rod - a Ripple Fisher Fanta-stick GT 79 Reversal, paired with a Daiwa Saltiga 5000H and PE6 line. I started fishing with a black silver bones RAL Haku 120 and we were drifting along a reef with some deeper water just next to it. When retrieving my lure, I noticed that a fish repeatedly charged it while I was bringing it towards the boat. However, it did not bite properly. Just as the lure came back to the boat, I saw a large fish tracking the lure a few meters below the surface when both Mohamed and Ahmed started screaming - "dogtooth, dogtooth"! Mohamed told me to cast in the same direction as the last throw and when the lure was halfway back to the boat, I had a fierce strike on the Haku. When I set the hook, the fish immediately ran for deeper water. The reel was screaming loud as line quickly peeled off the spool. Ahmed put in the gear and slowly followed the fish to the deeper water before putting the engines back in neutral. The fish made one more run and then came up reluctantly as I was putting heavy pressure on it with the help of my Glide rod belt. When the fish was some 10-15m below the surface, we could see that it was a dogtooth. Not as big as the one that followed my lure in the cast before, but still a decent sized fish and more importantly, my first ever dogtooth tuna. And as if that wasn't enough, caught on a stickbait!
I had two more dogtooth bites/followers at the same reef, before we decided to move on. Unfortunately, none of them bit properly.
I had numerous strikes throughout the day but only managed to catch five fish, of which three GTs. But it didn't matter that much. I would have been perfectly fine only catching my dogtooth that day. Nonetheless, I also managed to catch my third shark on topwater. A one meter plus white tip reef shark found my black silver bones Haku 120 irresistible. After a few camera shots, it was returned unharmed to the sea. A new personal best. I lost another small lure so down to nine by now�
The last day Mohamed and Ahmed picked me up at 7am since they had to drive back to Male later the same day. The wind had picked up a bit again and it was cloudier than the previous days. We even had some light showers, but nothing major. Mohamed drove northeast and we slowly fished our way back home to the resort. When we made our first stop, outside the reef/atoll, I had a decent sized GT crushing my red head silver bones Haku 120 in one of the first casts. Unfortunately, the hooks didn't stick. A few casts later, after having changed to the black silver bones Haku, I had another good strike. This time, the hooks stuck. The fish made a quick and long first run, towards deeper water. Maybe another dogtooth, I was thinking as I put pressure on the fish. However, I quickly realized that this wasn't the case. The fish didn't have the same strength and stamina. When it came closer to the boat, I thought I had caught a wahoo at first but as the fish broke the surface, I could see that it was a decent sized a barracuda - the largest I had ever caught.
The last day was the toughest day. Around eleven o'clock, following a brief rain, the fish virtually stopped biting, up until then, the action had been very good, although we didn't manage to land a lot of fish. But following the rain, the fish had locked jaws. We tried several spots that had been productive on prior occasions but were only able to get a few more non-committing bites. We decided to call it the day already at 3pm. I finished the day catching only four fish, of which two GTs.
The last two days, we casted more towards reefs and just as previous years, the first 10-20m of the casts were the most productive. Probably 90-95% of the action, came in this part of the retrieves. Another observation during the trip was that the GTs typically hit the lures just one time. So if it missed it, or if you were unable to set the hooks, you didn't get another chance. "One kiss only" quickly became an expression we used on the boat.
When summing up the trip, I had caught a total of 33 fish - 16 GTs, ten red bass, two bluefin trevally, one grouper, one shark, one dogtooth tuna, one barracuda and one unknown reef fish. I had also set three new personal bests: white tip reef shark, barracuda and dogtooth tuna. Not bad, given that I was only able to fish hard core - the way I usually fish - for a few hours per day. In addition, we had plenty of strikes, missed strikes and followers every day, so I had had plenty of chances to improve the catch statistics.
Next year, I am going to make sure that I am fit enough to fish hard for the full duration of the trip! Also, I am gong to leave the 18k reels and PE10 lures, spools and lines home and bring the 8k, 10k and 14k reels and PE6&7 lures and spools instead. Below I have inserted some pictures from the trip. Hope you enjoy them.
/DaButt
Tackle used:
Rods: Carpenter The Blue Lagoon TBL 80/40, Ripple Fisher Fanta-stick GT79 Reversal, Carpenter Black Current 80MRF
Reels: Shimano Stella SW 2008 18k and 6k (Japan model), Daiwa Saltiga 5000H
Spools: Shimano Standard 18k spool, Studio Ocean Mark 6000, Daiwa Saltiga 5k standard spool
Lines: Varivas Avani GT Max PE8, Sunline Castaway Monster Battle PE3&4, Daiwa Boat x8 braid PE6
Leaders: Sunline Big Game 210lb, YGK Castman 170lb, Seagar Fluoro 60lb and 80lb, Andei Fluoro 60lb
Terminals and hooks: NT svivels 1&2/0, Carpenter 350lb split rings, Owner Hyperwire 8&9 and 11&11H. Shout Assasin single hooks, Gamakatsu GT Recorder, Owner ST76, BKK GT Rex barbless trebles
Top producing lures: RAL Haku 120, Yambal GT Harrier Tiny, Orion Big Foot 70 and Orion S-Kiv 45
