Jigging the Andaman

I have just come back from the Andaman and I must say that it has been a very surprising trip. I knew that Akshay and Darran had been working hard on the jigging side, but until I could figure out myself I didn’t know what to really expect.

I must admit that the results have been quite spectacular, not only in term of fish landed or size, but in the map that these two guys have been able to design in the last two years. During our week we fished areas that are probably untouched as far as jigging is concerned, and the long trip to Invisible Bank, once the Mecca for the vertical style, is no longer necessary.


In fact we visited the Bank on a beautiful day, blessed with a flat calm sea and fast run, and we landed a massive amount of fish. Thus, the majority was GT and apart from one decent animal, most of them were medium to small size. It was also more difficult to find the right places, the area is indeed very big and scouting the places is not something that can be done on a daily basis, and we hopped on the biggest school of fish by chance, moving from one place to another.

So the right places are not too far away from the dock, well at least as far as Andaman is concerned, and the marks on the plotter are growing by the day. We landed a very interesting variety of fish, from GT to Doggies, Snappers, Ajs, you name it. And the funny thing is that in certain areas you can have two guys tossing poppers and one jigging and they all will catch fish.

I have to say bravo to my Indian friends, they worked hard to develop a brand new fishery, and it will sure payback in then future giving more opportunities to their costumers. Check their web at: Game Fishing India

Back to the Tropics

Off I go my friends, back to the tropics. It is going to be a humid and sweaty week, sounds awful yet is great, I missed it big time.

4 guys plus myself, fishing unknown waters, with not a single clue about what we can expect even though, expectations, as usual, are pretty high. Fishbase made us droll with all the sport fish available, and if only 50% of what they say is true and those species are available in decent numbers we're set.

This is an exploratory trip, probably will be mostly dedicated to jigging but we will carry popping gear too, just in case. We have 5 days to scout the waters around the island, not much time, yet enough to get an idea.

I hope I will come back with some good pictures and a decent story for the blog, keep posted !

Fly fishing at the Azores

Fly fishing anyone? This shot has been taken in a small island at the Azores, Flores. The small rivers are full of Rainbow Trouts, as aggressive as they get. In some rivers they are bigger, in others they are small, I mean, very small. yet they are great fun and boy, ain't the landscape amazing?


Here you got a couple of shots I took from a bridge overlooking one of those rivers, Rio Grande, well, big river... All right, is a small island so this is a big river, correct? The guy who's fishing is my friend Boris, shorts, sneakers and a too powerful of a fly rod, but we didn't exactly know what to expect

This photo is from a smaller creek with fewer trouts, yet a tad bigger. I enjoyed very much shooting Boris while he was fishing and also had a chance to take some landscape images for myself. I was carrying the tripod all over the place, playing with the flash and finally I left some room for the cameraman filming the whole thing.


I wandered a bit, looking for a spot I liked and finally found a bunch of hydrangeas overlooking the water. I took three different exposures and mixed them in PhotomatixPro3 for an HDR image, which I actually like a lot. Flores Island is an amazing place, think about visiting

If fishing can go wrong it will go wrong

Figure that! Three days of shooting in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. Big Fish is the name of the show for the Italian Satellite TV Sky program Caccia & Pesca. Last year, same dates together with some Japanese anglers we caught 3 Amberjack over 70lb and Pink Snappers in the 30lb range. Perfect deal for the show. We have new moon, great tides, wind and the best skipper. Sound awesome! Unfortunately things are not as bright as they seem.
Fish don't want to cooperate. No bites. Plain dead. Day one welcomes us with heavy winds, too heavy maybe even though I favour them to flat calm at least for fishing. The crew is affected by the waves. One guy spends the rest of his time lying on the floor. The others do a bit better but due to the lack of action, happiness is not exactly what you feel in the boat. Tomorrow is another day!
I spend some time in the evening trying to grab some decent images around the beach. Not a great result though. Tomorrow is another day!
Day two. Fishing wise it gets a little bit better but nothing to rave about. We had probably more bites but anything is better than 2 in my accounting. The skipper, a very good fisherman, beats my ass. I save my day with a decent Bonito. The wind is lower, sea more bearable. A frigate mackerel decides to commit suicide to serve as a great sashimi, readily fixed and served in the cockpit. Tomorrow is another day.
Day three, last chance. The crew has lost their hope. I still believe we can sort out something good. I know the big cows are there, is just a matter of finding one in a bad mood. We're jigging. Solely jigging with heavy irons and short rods. I have a good bite. Spit the hook, one more jerk and hits again. Solid hook-up, heavy headshakes and then a heavy dead weight coming up. Uuuuhm, I know what this feels like. Grouperish I'd say and in fact the animal comes to the surface and shows its hefty body. Maybe a 20/25 pounder, not enough for the show yet a precious catch for these waters. I can smile. Same exact moment, Jose, my fishing buddy from the Island, has a furious strike. Short fight. Too short. The fish pulls the hook and I'm sure it was a good one, maybe the one we were looking for. The drag cried loud.
Day 4, I fly back home. Lots of work to do and another trip in 7 days time. The day after they return to the water with Jose and enjoy the best day of fishing. 6 or 7 fish and yet no giant.
Kudos for Victor, the smiling skipper that never gets out of ideas. We'll come back, I know they are there....