この年末年始は目出鯛事続きで、3週連続で50㌔オーバーがラヴィヤニ、北マーレ、ハーアリフ環礁で連続して出てくれました。 今回は最初に2014年12月21日から3日間のクリスマスチャーターでの北欧スウェーデンのお客様、なんと2014年1月に初GTフィッシング@モルディブから三度目の今回の釣行で50㌔オーバーを上げてしまいました。実は、その翌週初GTで1日ポッキリチャーターで近場北マーレ環礁でイキナリ50㌔を釣ってしまったお客様もいますが、それはまた後日。
ご存知の方も居るかもしれませんが、当ブログ日本語版と英語版両方存在します。中身は必ずしも一緒ではなく7割位が共通で、その日の気分で英語か日本語どちらかでオリジナルを書いて、価値アリと判断するともう一つの言葉で意訳的に綴るようにしています。 今回のブログは敢えて皆さんの英語の勉強を兼ねて?オリジナルの北欧のお客様の英語でのレポートをそのままコピーさせて頂きます。 許可は勿論頂いています。 というのも、中身が非常に品質高く、そのままの言葉をお伝えしたいと。 本人も母国語はスウェーデン語ですが、外国語の英語で一生懸命書いて世界に情報発信してくれているので、私達も一生懸命彼の文才満ちたストーリーを読ませて頂きましょう❢
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Maldives Fishing Report December 2014
Almost one year had passed since I fished with Captain Mohamed at GT Fishers Maldives last time around. Also this time I had booked three days of fishing since I was on vacation with my family. We had chosen to stay in a resort on the Lhaviyani atoll for this year's winter vacation and I was excited to learn how the fishing compared to the South Ari atoll.
Mohamed and his deckie Ali picked me up at 8 am at the resort. We headed northwest to fish the western and northern parts of the atoll. We worked our way north as I tried lure after lure without any strikes, not even from red bass, which are so plentiful in the Maldives. It wasn't until late into the first fishing day when we reached an opening in the reef where two currents meet that things started heating up. I had several strikes and it wasn't long before I landed the first GT of the day. Soon thereafter, I had another strike and when I set the hook the fish went crazy swimming fast from one side to the other. It was fairly shallow where we were fishing so I kept my rod high while putting as much pressure on the fish as I could. We soon realized that the reason for the GTs fierce flight was sharks and halfway into the fight the shark caught up and in some strange way, the shark managed to get the second hook into its mouth. A few minutes later, we could lift a half dead GT and the shark on board. My first bluewater fishing double. After a few quick shots, we released the shark but the GT could unfortunately not be saved. A few casts thereafter, I caught my second shark ever on a lure when a larger white tip reef shark almost swallowed my Hitter X-slide 120 black mac. When we eventually got the lure out of the shark’s mouth, I quickly realized that I had to put in a new order to Hitter lures when I returned from my fishing. The X-slide had taken some real heavy beating. We caught a few more GTs at the same spot before moving on.
Following a short boat ride to the next reef, I put on a black Yambal GT Harrier 205. There was a nice swell rolling in from the sea and at times I had a hard time keeping my balance at the bow as Mohamed slowly brought the boat forward. In my second or third cast, I had a really big GT coming up from behind. It missed the GT Harrier by an inch or so, turned, only to miss the lure once more before disappearing in the swells. Damn, there I lost my chance of catching a large GT on this trip, I thought before launching another cast. However, after having caught another GT, I had a massive strike on my black GT Harrier. Already when I set the hook I felt that the fish was big. The GT went deep. Fortunately, it swam towards the boat where the water was deeper. Mohammed backed the boat up to make sure that the line didn't break when the GT passed the drop off and then put the engines in neutral to let me play the fish. I kept hard pressure on the GT but it continued to take line. When I eventually managed to turn it and regain some line, I could only bring it halfway up before it turned and started taking line again. My fishing gloves were wet and had become very slippery so I almost lost my grip. I screamed at Ali to take the gloves off. When they came off, I once again turned the fish and this time I didn't let it turn its head again. I kept pumping until Mohamed could grab the leader and gaff the fish in its lower jaw.
It wasn't before the fish lay on deck when I realized how big it was. Mohamed and I measured the fish - 147 cm from jaw to fork and my second largest GT ever! We estimated the weight to somewhere between 50-55 kg.
After the fish was landed, I caught a few more GTs and ended the day with eleven GTs to my name. Mohamed also caught one GT so the total for the first day was twelve GTs - not bad! In addition, I caught two sharks, my first sharks ever on artificial lures and three red bass. I lost one lure – a Gamma 140 abalone. The 175 lb fluorocarbon leader snapped when I set the hook. It was the very same lure that I lost, but was able to retrieve, on my January trip to the Maldives. However, this time the lure unfortunately didn’t surface again.
When we headed back to the resort later that afternoon I felt like I was walking on clouds. What a fantastic start to my fishing! I knew that it would be hard to beat that the following two days, but I really didn't care, especially not after having landed such a fantastic fish.
The second day, we fished on the same sides of the atoll again but decided to start fishing where we had the greatest action the first day. The fishing was ok with lots of strikes and a few GTs caught, but many fish missed the lure and some others I was unable to set the hook properly. Around the tidal shift when the bite slowed down, I shifted to my light (PE2-4) set-up and put on a Smith Tobiika sardine. After three or four smaller GTs, a 20 kg+ all of a sudden took an interest in my Tobiika. Thinking back on the episode, I am not really sure if I tried to entice or avoid a strike. Nonetheless the GT smashed my sinking Tobiika and approximately twenty five seconds later, I watched the last meters of my approximately 120 meters of PE5 YGK Galis flow out of my SOM 6k spool, before the line snapped. That's what happens when you bring a knife to a gun fight, I thought as I put on my reserve spool.
The sea was very calm and as I was standing at the bow, casting towards the reef, I suddenly saw a majestic sail on the surface a few hundred meters outside the reef. Mohamed quickly turned the boat around and I switched to my Carpenter Endless Passion 85/36 which was rigged with a Bridge Ayakasi 180 flying fish. Despite trying to cast both in front of and on top of the big sailfish, it showed no interest in my lure so we gave up trying already after a few minutes.
Soon after returning to fishing for GTs along the reef, I hooked up to another large GT on my black Yambal GT Harrier 205, the same lure that I had caught the big GT on the first day. However, this time we didn’t react fast enough when the fish headed towards the drop off, resulting in a cut line and lost fish. I had another big fish, either GT or shark, following my blue Seven Seas Valkyrja II 210 just beneath the surface without engaging.
Although I ended the day having caught eleven GTs and one bluefin trevally, the average size of the GTs was smaller than the first day so the third day we decided to head northeast instead of northwest.
There were fewer inhabited islands on the west side of the atoll and the reefs were longer. Mohamed stopped at a few spots that had been productive for him in the past but the GTs weren't cooperating. The hours passed but still no GT. Had we made a mistake when deciding to switch sides of the atoll? Soon thereafter, when I had just put on a Strategic Angler Walker frigate mackerel, I caught my first GT for the day and it was soon followed by another three fish on the same lure. These fish were all larger than the average fish caught the days before and put up good fights. However, they were no match for my Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H, paired with a Stella 14k and Yumeya spool, which I had brought as my "heavy" set-up. We continued to catch fish as we moved further north and when we were nearing the end of the fishing day, I had caught ten GTs and four red snappers. The scenery was beautiful and at one point in time, we had some 40-50 dolphins around the boat - a fantastic sight!
Just like in January, I had no luck with poppers. All my GTs where caught on stickbaits. However, unlike January, we spent more time fishing the water close to the drop offs than the reef. We also chased bait fish more actively and several times I got strikes when casting towards bait fish. I changed lures quite frequently and often times I got strikes soon after I had changed lure, just like in January.
I caught 42 fish in total, 32 GTs, 7 red bass, 2 sharks and 1 bluefin trevally – a very good result. Mohamed and Ali provided excellent service at all times, I didn’t even have to change lures if I didn’t want to. If you are interested in fishing in the Maldives, I can recommend that you get in touch with GT Fishers Maldives. I will be back again next Dec/Jan!
Below I have inserted some pictures from the trip.
/DaButt
Tackle used:
Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H, Stella 2013 14k, Yumeya spool, Varivas Avani GT Max PE 7, Seaguar Fluorocarbon 175 lb, NT swivel, Hyperwire #11 split ring
Carpenter Endless Passion 85/36, Stella 2008 10k, SOM 16k spool, Varivas Avani GT Max PE6, Seaguar Fluorocarbon 150 lb, NT swivel, Hyperwire #10 split ring
Kaiser Lightcast 73H, Stella 2008 6k, SOM 6k spool, YGK Galis PE5 and Varivas Avani GT Max PE4, Seaguar Fluorocarbon 80 lb, Fisherman swivel with cork screw