KRISTIAN MAELAND & FIRST 50KG OF 2020

Fishing is the luck of the draw, if it is meant to be, it will no matter what. If not, it just will not happen however hard you try. This week saw us with the trio of Arjun, Suresh and Vijooke on the Rampage, and Bent, Kristian, Robert and Sam on the Reef Raider fishing with us. Sam’s partner Georgie was on board to take pictures during the trip as well.

Apart from Sam and Kristian all the anglers this week were returning customers. Kristian was on his first popping/ jigging trip, and Arjun, Suresh and Vijooke were after big fish hoping to beat their personal bests.

As in a typical fishing week there are highs and lows of action. Sometimes the bite is really hot, and strikes are often, and at other times its hard work for little reward. This week as usual, we saw both.

We had Bent brought to his knees by a foul hooked GT which shows you how strong even an 18-kilo fish of the species is. Rob was the dogtooth magnet this week, and as one of GFA’s big supporters it is only right that he gets the first act in this report.

Rob had a small GT grab at his lure, which was then hit by another fish. Rob said, “small fish” and the next moment he had to literally hold on as the small fish took off, having to really hold on during the fight with heavy drag. The small fish turned out to be a 35kg dogtooth tuna, which we landed and quickly released.

Sam had great strike just as he was about to take his lure out of the water. Casting from the bow cage, barely 2-3 meters from the boat the water exploded, and good GT nailed the popper and ran the other way, leaving Sam holding on (which he did very well) to land a solid 25kilo GT.

Fishing a deep reef and casting into the deeper water, Kristian’s Temple Reef popper was taken by what we were sure was a good fish. It took off dragging Kristian to the back of the boat as he tried to stop the run and start taking control of the fight. Meanwhile, Sam who had just walked over to see how Kristian was doing, cast his lure, only for Amegari to be nailed by a fish that just kept going on an insanely long run in the opposite direction to Kristian’s fish. We had Captain Rama going from saying “slowly” to Kristian to “hurry up Kristian!” as the line emptied from Sam’s spool.

Kristian did just that, and as the GT came up, we quickly put it into the landing net and made off after Sam’s fish. Sam was down to the last 30 meters on this spool – so a run of 270 meters by the fish, wow!! This fish turned out to be a beautiful 60 plus kilo Sailfish which we quickly landed and got a few pics for the smiling angler. Surprisingly, it did not jump even once!

Now to the GT in the landing net – this was a beast! Only now did we realize that this was a 50 kegger and got some great shots as we revived it and put it on a most happy Kristian’s lap. At 137 cm length and 117 cm girth it was 51kg.

On the Rampage Suresh, Arjun and Vijooke had a really good first day, with plenty of big strikes and landed fish. Suresh got an estimated 25-28 kilo GT and Vijooke missed out to set the hooks on a real monster fish that came up after his lure close to the boat.

Moving to a jigging spot on the first drop both Arjun and Vijooke noticed that their jigs were not dropping vertically. Closing their bail arms on the reels, both were into good fish that took off, the fish had grabbed the falling jigs. Unfortunately, both fish bust off after really long runs, as they probably took the line over the jagged corals below.

Suresh asked if we get Barracuda here and we said yes and in these specific spots, the very next day he landed his first barracuda here and a great big one at that. More solid GT’s in the 20-25 kilo range followed for the team who had good action on light jigging which they also gave time to during the fishing week.

We saw some great sights and action this week! Also, worth mentioning is the huge dogtooth that followed Robs lure all the way to the boat after striking and missing it once, but just did not take the lure. A school of very nervous garfish were followed under the boat by 4 big GT’s that checked out Kristian’s popper but did not take it. One of these fish was massive.

Till our next trip report enjoy the pictures

Tight Lines!