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Located in the Indian Ocean, the Andaman’s is closer to Thailand than mainland India. Over 350 islands make up the Province of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Severely hit with much devastation in last years Tsunami, the islands and their inhabitants have recovered quickly.
Gaining access to Andaman’s requires not only an Indian visa but also an additional endorsement to allow visits to them. After much debate from the Indian embassy as to whether or not we would be granted a visa, one was eventually forthcoming and we were on our way after some 8 months of planning. Actually getting to the place from Vietnam, involved an overnight in Bangkok, a flight to Calcutta two hours in the wrong direction, and then a flight southwest to Port Blair. Later this year flights are scheduled to start from Bangkok directly, which should make this fishing destination accessible to many more people. Hopefully the local infrastructure will be able to sustain the demand, which inevitably will be placed upon it.
Our captain had steamed up from Phuket, a crossing of 450 nautical miles, and 48 hours. Permission to fish in the surrounding waters is restricted to a maximum of one month per year, and solely on a catch and release basis. There is no commercial fishing allowed in the area and the waters can truly be described as virgin. Having quickly cleared immigration and customs, we were off, and ready to go for 8 days of the most memorable fishing.
Steaming out of Port Blair we headed for the islands, south of the capital, jointly called “Passage” for 4 days concentrating on popper casting, and trawling around the islands. Passing white, palm fringed, sandy beaches, incredible due to the geologic construction of the islands depths in places exceeded 600 meters, and the islands are natural incubator and nursery for all manner of fishes and fry.
Soon into some very heavy Giant Trevelly taking Thai-made poppers, the fish are unaccustomed to fishermen and readily took the lures. Rods were custom made and balanced by Shimano Stella spinning reels. Whilst expensive at over 500 USD a go, these performed faultlessly in combination with braided line. Not only the size of the fish were incredible but the quality in addition, when they hooked up they fought like they were fighting for their lives, with limitless power. We settled in for our first night aboard the boat. Action at night was as if not more incredible than during the day. It was not long before we had our first taste of oceanic white tip sharks. The first night they did not run so large and the next morning and following we took a cooling off first thing before breakfast. Later after visiting “Barren” and landing some very large examples (often missing still bigger ones), no one seemed to want to go “skinny dipping “ in the mornings anymore, for some reason
Action during the day revolved around a mixture of trolling between islands and spells of popping casters around the islands. For trolling, custom-built 30, 50 and 80 rods and shimano Tiagra reels were the order of the day. An expensive set up when you are running 7 lines at a time. Trolling produced a mixture of fish, multiple Barracuda, Wahoo, Skipjack, Yellow Fin and some incredible strong Dogtooth Tuna (man they can fight). With the addition of one very substantial Sailfish. We also had good Dolphin Fish, which supplied a very tasty meal one lunchtime. (Hook ‘em and cook ‘em in this case rather than catch and release).
Other catches included a “Trash Fish” as it is regarded locally “ Long Tom” which would appear familiar to anyone who has fished English waters in the summer. It is a relative of the Garr fish family, except growing to excess of 20 lbs. The crew was not impressed but for us it was good fun. These fish were regularly seen jumping out of the water, very often chasing something more substantial and the teeth marks in some of the fish we landed pointed to some very large specimens of these being present.
The crew were always on hand with a cup of tea, and being Thai the meals they produced three times a day (or any other time we wanted) can only be described as mouth watering. Of course primary based on seafood, it was first rate. The exception to this was breakfast time, when, no doubt influenced by the English captain, we would sit down most days to a full English breakfast, before heading out for the day’s adventures.
After 4 days and a short return visit to Port Blair for re-supply our attention turned North to an isolated island named “Barren” very aptly named. It is an active volcano which drops off 60-100 meters within a few yards of the shoreline and quickly still further to over 1000 meters. In the mornings and evenings, it was an eerie site to watch the smoke rising up out of the crater. Surprisingly there were goats on the island, no doubt left over from when the British occupied this part of the empire and Andaman was a former prison colony. Action here was incredible, whilst trolling we managed to raise several marlin, but none would hook up. (On the trip from Phuket and returning a substantial monster estimated at 700lbs was landed and another in the 500 lb class taken). These big fish are certainly there, but with limited access and so many possible places to fish, yet only a few percent of it having been tried, no doubt some records will fall to anglers in the future brave enough to make the journey and find the real hottest spots.
At night the action was more extreme than during the day. Huge GT, Coral Trout, Red Sea Bass were abundant. Biggest problem was being able to get the hook to the bottom, and then back out again with a fish, before something else took it. Time for some wire trace and white tip sharks at anything up to 500lb were the order of the day. Strips of Baracuda caught during the day proved very popular bait
On the final evening of the trip, a colleague struck up on “ just another shark”. Having refused his offer of taking this one, I was later to regret that decision when he landed the largest Red Sea Bass of the trip, estimated at well over 15 kg.
It was impossible not to catch fish on a combination of pilchard, live squid (easy to net off the boat at night) and just about anything else you could put in the water. Double hookups were common, (good size Grouper and Red Sea Bass on a single cast – “childhood fantasy of fishing come true” It reached the point of exhaustion with the number of fish hooking up and being landed
During the day, huge Manta Rays were seen both on the surface and jumping from the water. Turtles were evident, schools of feeding dolphins numbering over 200 a common sight. The captain spoke of seeing Dugongs on the last trip, - it was a scene straight from a “Jacque Cousteau documentary”
To describe it as a trip of a lifetime does not do it justice. Difficult and certainly not cheap, but for the intrepid sea/game fisherman there can be few other places left on earth to match it. I would do it all again in the drop of a heartbeat, the pictures speak for themselves.
Kim Johnston Services Manager Vietnam
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