INDIANANGLER

Greetings,

Hope you all are doing well during these times.

Fortunately, I managed to move to the west coast recently, but the fishing had been insanely slow. I think it attributes to the bio-luminescence, but I did put in a lot of time on the water and managed to catch some mangrove jacks. The fish seemed to be all in areas where there was ample freshwater and we managed to catch them all under bridges. I have a fishing buddy now and his name is Clinton and he's a pro angler from Kerala and we've been fishing together lately.

I have an Intex mariner 4 inflatable raft, which is basically a four-seater, but 2 can fish at a time on this boat and I also have a Suzuki 2.5 hp outboard motor to get us where we need to go. This setup has been doing pretty good for us in the backwaters and we are able to hold the bottom using a 6 KG kettlebell weight for an anchor. All we did was anchor next to the bridge pilings and flick soft plastic lures between the pilings in search of whatever lurked in those structures. We have only managed to catch mangrove jacks so far, but we are still very new to this kind of fishing and we do hope that other species like the bream, grouper, and barramundi would follow soon.

The squidgy lure that Kingfish from IA gifted me seems to be doing an excellent job in the backwaters more than any other lure. The most interesting part about this lure to me is that I've had fish strike this lure while fishing from the rocks in the open sea, but most of the time I lost the hookup. But, with the kind of fishing I'm doing now, the squidgy lure seems to connect well with the fish. Thank you Kingfish for the squidgy lures :)

I apologize for not posting reports here, but I haven't been taking many pics during my recent trips, but now I discovered a way to recover pics in decent resolution from the videos I've been shooting. Also, I am trying to get more pics of my trips going forward and will be sharing the same here. After all, this (Indianangler.com) was one of the two places where I learned as a newbie about fifteen years ago.

Here are the pics of the few Jacks I caught recently... Hoping to land some barramundi and threadfin salmon soon!

Cheers!
Maruthu

Hello Maruthu,

Saw the video on YouTube and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some magnificent mangrove jacks there ....
you will catch other species in due course.

Still not sure why you were unable to hookup with the same Squidgy from the rocks fishing the open ocean, this has me stumped.

Try putting a fishing scent on the lure ( I am not sure if you are able to get it in India) as I feel the ocean fish may be spitting out the lure immediately they strike . The natural scent may make them hold on a bit longer, enabling a hookup.

I am very pleased the Squidgy has proven to be so productive for you ... it has been a standout soft
plastic for me.

I gave some to RaMpEr to try out but he seems not to have any luck with them!

By the way, it is good you are wearing life jackets on the inflatable but the camo colour is the wrong choice. It should ideally be high visibility orange. Perhaps you can stitch some orange coloured patches on the jackets ?

Kind regards,
Kingfish

Hi Kingfish!

I do have some scent that I had purchased from Tackledirect and I shall use the same and see if it makes a difference. I think it has more to do than the fish holding on to the lure as I connect well with the fish under the bridges as soon as they strike, without any scent on the lure. I once saw a big barramundi over at least 10 Kilos trying to eat the squidgy lure in crystal clear water striking it multiple times in a zig-zag manner but missed the lure after an awful lot of strikes I wouldn't have even known that the fish was after it unless I saw the fish trying to eat the lure right under my feet. The same thing once happened with a mahseer as well which must have been about at least 8 Kilos or so, but the fish only struck the lure once unlike the barramundi. I think the fish are not able to suck the lure in flat water, but I think they strike way more aggressively in rapidly moving water, like the place I was fishing under the bridges.

I do have a life vest in orange, but I wear that when I'm venturing out in the open sea. I think camo is better in terms of not spooking the fish where I'm fishing as I'm kind of casting right over their heads. I still have a whistle in my camo life jacket though. Besides, I'm about 6 Kilometers inland where I'm fishing and I think I got a shot at grabbing something along the shoreline before being flushed into the open ocean.

Cheers,
Maruthu

Maruthu,

Try the scent, it may work on the finicky fish.

I have caught a blacktip shark off the beach with the same Squidgy, as well as a host of queenfish,
grouper, coral trout and snapper to name a few of the species that have taken the Squidgy in calm waters as well as in ocean currents.

Regards,
Kingfish

Kingfish,

I shall try the scent on the squidgy and let you know how it goes....

Cheers,
Maruthu

Enjoyed the video on youtube..

Thank you Bobby!
I will be posting one more video by tomorrow 7 am IST.

Cheers!
Maruthu

Nice video Maruthu ! and those are some good sized MJ's ! If you have a spare GoPro would be nice to see an underwater video by attaching GoPro along with a baited hook with some dead bait to see what other giants are swimming around.

@Binu,

That'd be awesome! But, I don't have another GoPro at the moment.

Maruthu