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Maldives adventure

Hfisho77

By Hfisho77
in Saltwater

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Hfisho77 Newbie

Hfisho77

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Well a little while ago my dad had his 50th birthday, and for his present he wanted to spend a holiday sailing in some tropical paradise. This suited me just fine as no matter where we went I knew one thing for sure – there was a good chance that the fishing would be amazing.

So it was decided that in the Easter holidays we would head to Fiji, but that was called off due to the cyclonic weather that was being experienced over there. This particular holiday was not available for the rest of the year, so after much consideration dad decided that Maldives was the place to go - and that is where we headed these holidays.

We were to spend the 2 weeks on a yacht owned by a French couple who had spent their lives sailing around the world. They advertised themselves as mainly being a surf charter, however as well as surfing, we also hoped to snorkel, and of course… FISH!!

The Maldives is a collection of 26 atolls, within which there are 1192 islets. Due to our relatively close proximity to the inhabited islands we did not experience the best Maldives has to offer from a fishing perspective, although many fun sessions were still had.

The yacht was equipped with a small rubber dinghy and 15hp motor, this would be my fishing vessel for the trip. Every afternoon, after a long morning of surfing and other activities, I would take it out and fish the reefs near the yacht’s mooring for the night (we moved to a new location each day).

A variety of methods were used including popping, jigging, trolling, plastics, and high speed slugs. Unfortunately, I learned from a few of the local fisherman that it was not currently the best season for fishing in the Maldives, with March-June being the prime time due to the NW winds providing the conditions which attract vast quantities of fish.

Despite this, the fishing was still good to say the least, with a myriad of species being landed throughout the trip. This included the ever present Bluefin trevally, which often provided hours of entertainment chucking plastics and metal slugs across the flats. A variety of reef species were also encountered including numerous emperors, sweetlips, cod species, coral and coronation trout and small red bass. On the pelagic side of things queenfish, rainbow runners, a multitude of different trevally species and countless mac tuna made themselves known.

Popping and jigging on the heavy gear proved largely unsuccessful, and fish landed on jigs were usually smaller than the lure itself. Big poppers were often thrown early in the morning, and I did manage to raise 3 GTs during the trip, but the best I could get out of them were investigative nudges. That was until one morning, when I was popping just behind a surf break and the most insane feeding frenzy I have ever seen erupted, by chance, all around the boat! A mixture of flying fish and sardines were being churned up by big pelagics and red bass, one of which practically cleared itself clean out of the water to engulf its prey. When my younger brother’s popper hit the water, he hooked up almost instantaneously. Seconds later, I see a bow wave behind my popper, and almost in slow motion, I see the mouth of a GT inhale it. Unfortunately the leviathan my brother was connected to bit him off after a blistering run, so it was just me vs. GT. Connected to the fish with 50lb braid and 80lb leader, it pulled drag off the locked spool with ease. We chased the fish around in the little dinghy for around 5 minutes and towed it to deeper water, but it managed to find a coral bommie on the bottom, I was gutted. We rigged up again, but as fast as the frenzy had appeared it disappeared.

Later that day, we headed to a small sandy island that we spotted on the horizon which just poked out of the water. Surrounding it was a huge reef formation with an insane drop off going from 2-40m. There were birds working round the edge and the place looked very fishy. Keen to get my brother onto a fish as he had not caught much so far in the trip, I rigged up a 25g metal slug on his 4-8kg reef rod matched with a 4000 sienna loaded with 15lb braid and 30lb leader. The edge of the reef was in casting distance from the yacht, so we walked up to the front and he sent a cast at the reef edge. Letting the slug sink for a while down the face of the drop off he commenced his retrieve. Barely 5 turns of the handle and the drag has kicked into action and is working overtime as the fish heads into deep water. This thing was not slowing down, so with some tricky manoeuvres and passing of the rod we made it to the back of the boat and into the dinghy in pursuit. The fish began to slug it out down deep, and with the drag wound up as tight as the rod would allow, by brother was tiring, unable to turn the fishes’ head. I took over the rod and was able to work the beast up from the depths, to within about 5 metres of the boat in fact. Before we got the chance to have a good look at it, it took off and did not stop, stripping line until it reached the backing. For the next half hour this is where the tug of war continued, until finally it broke, coming to the surface and showing every last ounce of attitude as it saw the boat. We were not sure how we were going to land it due to its size and the absence of a net, but when it came boatside it began floating belly-up, and with a quick tail grab it was hauled into the little dinghy. Hi-fives all round and our first dogtooth tuna was on the deck, it measured 1.2m. Unfortunately due to the long fight, there was no chance of a release, so it was sashimi for a week! I’m still not sure how we landed it on 30lb leader and a tiny slug.

We landed plenty of other fish throughout the trip, but nothing quite like the dogtooth. The most fruitful methods of fishing were chasing the feeding birds with metal slugs, many big fish were often spotted feeding in here, however they were virtually impossible to land due to the dense reef almost everywhere across the flats. Flicking the reefs with plastics was also very successful, and many epic bust-offs were also experienced whilst doing this. Anyway, enough stories, here are the pics.

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JarrydA Newbie

JarrydA

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I'd also like to commend you on such an excellent piece of writing. A real pleasure to read. You should be very proud of yourself. B) Thanks for doing it. :)

I agree, its hard to believe hugo and runty go to the same school :woohoo:

Great report and looked like a great trip mate. Well done.

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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I'd also like to commend you on such an excellent piece of writing. A real pleasure to read. You should be very proud of yourself. B) Thanks for doing it. :)

I agree, its hard to believe hugo and runty go to the same school :woohoo:

Great report and looked like a great trip mate. Well done.

Would it surprise you the two creators of this site also went to the same school :P

Well done Hugo.

Awesome read mate.

I love those blue fin trevs.

Angus

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Doobsy Newbie

Doobsy

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I'd also like to commend you on such an excellent piece of writing. A real pleasure to read. You should be very proud of yourself. B) Thanks for doing it. :)

I agree, its hard to believe hugo and runty go to the same school :woohoo:

Great report and looked like a great trip mate. Well done.

Would it surprise you the two creators of this site also went to the same school :P

Well done Hugo.

Awesome read mate.

I love those blue fin trevs.

Angus

We won't hold that against him even though he did start a paragraph with a conjunction.

:P

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Do$tylz Newbie

Do$tylz

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mate. Epic. I wish I could have done an awesome trip like that when I was your age.

Good read and great pics too. Very jealous about that doggie too. That's unbelievably lucky to have pinned it in the side of the mouth and the leader stayed away from its teeth. Well done man.

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Hfisho77 Newbie

Hfisho77

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That's unbelievably lucky to have pinned it in the side of the mouth and the leader stayed away from its teeth. Well done man.

Yes very lucky indeed, there were actually some very tense moments boat side, despite the fish being practically dead, it rolled on its side and the line went across it's mouth and we could see the leader in direct contact with its teeth. We also found some rather large bait fish in its stomach, including small reef species up to around 35cm long which was pretty cool. A lot bigger than the little slug we caught it on! Here is a pic of the state the little lure post-dogtooth:

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it's looking even more worse for wear after the 20 odd more fish it caught after this, it now has virtually no paint remaining B)

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