First GT Trip Andaman Islands February 2018 Advice Needed

[Padraic Clear]

Hi everyone,
This is my first post on this . I've been reading a lot of valuable information on the forum which is really helpful.
Myself and 3 friends will be travelling to the Andaman Islands in February for our first ever GT & dogtooth tuna trip. We will be based in Port Blair for the trip and will be fishing for 6 days.
We have started to look at purchasing equipment for the trip and are starting with lures. Could people recommend some poppers, stick baits and jigs which have worked over there or in similar locations. Maybe a top 5 of each. Colors and sizes would also help. There's so many lures out there it can be a minefield for those who haven't fished for these species before. Any other advice for the area would be gladly appreciated.
Thanks,
Padraic.

[Chris Dennis]

Poppers generally from 125 to 150g, but take a few bigger ones when you fish on the deeper reefs. You won't go far wrong with Heru Cuberas in black, fusilier, red head / blue, red head / white etc. Poppers have done most of the damage on my trips to the Andamans.
Stickbaits from 125 - 180g. Siren Sorry Charlie or Bad Mon, MB Custom Lures - Slider, PK etc, Orion Bigfoot, Heru Wahoo

Jigs 150 - 300g

Gts / Doggies :
Topwater gear - PE8
Jigging - PE6

[Samuel Reinikainen]

Im going there too, but in march. I will also bring a lot och cuberas in 125-180g. Heavy to work with, but makes big splash and the gt´s like that

[Bent Inge Bentsen]

I had a trip to Andaman Islands in 2014, it's a great place to fish. I used Heru Cubera and Hammerhead E-cup most of the time. I barely used stickbaits, but had some strikes on a Orion Nambas stickbait. The biggest GT of our trip (estimated to 37kg) was taken on a stickbait. I would highly recommend you to bring some lightjigginggear as well. Most of us fished with jigs 200-300g, but one had brought a lighter rod and fished with 60-100g jigs. He caught a lot more fish than us while jigging. Here is a video from my trip if you are interested:

[Padraic Clear]

Thanks for the replies its great to hear whats worked in for anglers over there. Have most people found poppers to be the most productive lure for GTs in the Andamans? Also how many of each lure type should we have to cover 6 days fishing?

[Chris Dennis]

We're all guilty of taking far too many lures on a trip 'just in case' and i am no exception. Many of them never leave the guest house let alone get wet !
Apart from one very expensive trip where i lost 6 lures for various reasons i have lost very few lures in the Andamans.

12 poppers and 8 - 10 stickbaits should be plenty. If only......

I don't do a lot of jigging but i would take 3 x 150, 4 x 200, 3 x 250 and 3 x 300g. You will lose jigs to biteoffs from doggies, sharks and occasional snags.

I have caught most of my fish in the Andamans on poppers, some on sinking stickbaits but very few on floating stickbaits. I have always found that opportunities for using floating stickbaits are limited due to currents / waves, fishing over deeper reefs etc. I always take the skipper's advice on lures and they very rarely seem to recommend them. Maybe they have seen me try to fish with a Gamma...

Oh, and if i remember correctly Jet Airways checked in luggage allowance is only 15kg + 7kg hand luggage so it's damage limitation !

[Moncho Ferrer]

I was in the Andaman Islands early this year and pretty much caught all my fish on stickbaits. Furthermore, a lot of the GT I got was by skipping the stickbait on the surface nice and fast. The result was some wonderful explosive action.
Since I was not using any poppers on the trip I lent my popper setup (Reversal 80 with SS Glans) to my friend and he ended up with his best session of GT fishing. In one late evening session he landed five GT which included his personal best.
As far as my trip was concerned both poppers and stickbait worked. Good luck with your trip.

cheers

[Padraic Clear]

Great info here guys. Sounds like we'll need to be armed with a selection of poppers and stickbaits as well as some jigs to cover all scenarios.
Has anyone any experience of fishing a lighter setup for other species in the Andamans? I was thinking about bringing a Stella 5000sw and suitable rod to try if the GTs weren't biting. Am I wasting my time bringing a lighter setup or could I get some use out of it?

[Chris Dennis]

There doesn't seem to be any reason why you shouldn't take a PE3 outfit however I haven't personally bothered with one myself or indeed seen anyone else use one either. I do however take a PE5 outfit as there are a lot of smaller gts about and occasionally the odd yft.

Thr lighter jigging outfit could be a good call, i've seen 2 nice doggies caught over shallow reefs when trying to catch livebaits.

If you want a break from popping etc its worth putting out a livebait. Bunte is notorious for trying this and it resulted in a 400lb black marlin, a biiig sailfish and a shark on our last trip.