INDIANANGLER

Greetings!

First of all, my apologies for not posting much reports in the recent past.
I was busy with life in general, and with my wedding and everything in the recent past.

Yes, I have been fishing whenever I had the chance. But my recent trips were very short, like just the weekends. Earlier I used to take a couple of days off and go to the shore for like four days and fish mainly the evenings and sometimes the mornings if I was up early, which rarely happened. Since I've been fishing short trips I started fishing throughout the day and I've discovered a few interesting things that I'd like to share....

Back when I started fishing, it was always early in the mornings or late evenings around dusk were said be the most productive times for fishing. However, we also used to primarily fish diving lures and some other hard bodied lures. But with the lure choices available to an angler in today's world, I don't think an angler should restrict to a certain time of day to fish. Most of the fish, we caught in the recent trips were around noon, and that surprisingly include the elusive Barramundi.... Other species being Rawas (didn't manage to land), Mangrove Jack, Groupers and small Trevallies. I missed a few nice Barra on a surface spook and when I was fishing with Binu, he lost a few Barras and a decent size Grouper on soft plastics as well, however we managed to land two Barramundi and a couple of MJs, all that around noon.

Lures that produced were Spooks and natural looking soft plastics like crawfish lures and such. I ordered some lively looking lures after the results from the previous trips, but I am yet to try them. And the other interesting thing that I had noticed was that some places produced better during the incoming time and some just light up like a Christmas tree during the outgoing tide. I think knowing this kind of information comes from putting your time at a certain spot and fishing it throughout the tide and observing very carefully for activity. That's all I got for now and I'll post pics when I get home later tonight. For now, I'll share some video links, but stay tuned for pics as well....

https://youtu.be/LIFFHnJns48

https://youtu.be/5Td7WoCQOGk

https://youtu.be/thQ4J9zkLiE

https://youtu.be/ARAxx-Vj3iU

Cheers,
Maruthu

Hello Maruthu,

Congratulations on your marriage and our best wishes to both of you for a long and happy married life.

I have only seen the first listed video. Beautiful location but a tad scary .... were you prepared fully for rock fishing?

Fishing can be good at any time of the day, some periods are more productive than others. I see that the Squidgy is still performing!

Will see the other videos and revert.

Kingfish

Thank you Kingfish!

Yes, that place is sometimes scary.
I definitely need to upgrade my footwear, but otherwise I just need to be very careful.

Maruthu

Here come the pics....

Hi Maruthu,

Completely agree, I have always advocated that anglers need to experiment and broaden their horizons. With the lures available now, we can target more species and at different times.

Come to think of it, most of the Barra I have caught have actually been during the afternoon and the colour if I remember correctly a lot of the plastic lures were orange or had a fair bit of orange on them.

Regards,

Bobby

And some more pics....

Hi Maruthu
nicely written report and some lovely pics... afternoon sessions have been really productive for me till now ....its the heat that makes you think twice ...just wanted to give you a heads up to have a look at columbia -drainmaker (3/4) series of footwear/watershoes ....i have been very impressed and happy with these on the rocks ....aslo a fish ninja hoodie with a spf 50 rating will help with heat .
Regards
parag

Maruthu,

Very nice pictures and a good mix of species caught.
Keep up the reports and videos.

I noted that you took the Trevally home ... are they good eating ? Not eaten normally here in Australia.

Did you have an insulated cooler with ice, in which to store the fish so they don't spoil in the heat?

We normally freeze bottles of water and take them in the cooler. So when they melt in the heat, you get beautiful cold drinking water. The fish can be kept with the frozen bottles to avoid spoilage.

Kingfish

By the way, I tried a catch and cook with my friends recently. Hope you enjoy the video....

https://youtu.be/uV7sK41_JbM

Cheers!
Maruthu

Hi Kingfish,

I have eaten GT in the past, many years ago, but not for a long time, it was quite good and that too it was the largest GT I ever caught. I remember it was my God Sons Christening or 1st Birthday for a huge party, it was prepared by the cook into fish pakoras or tikki, cannot recall, however I remember all the people telling me how tasty it was, of course it could be the romance of eating a fish that was hunted that was making it taste good. Then again as you say, with all the Indian spices etc, something bland can be converted into something tasty.

My friends who take some GT back say they taste very good. Anglers from the west who eat GT say you got to take off the Dark Flesh that runs midway on either side of the fish and eat the white flesh.

Regards,

Bobby

Hello Bobby,

I learn something new everyday! I would never have thought that GT were good table fare.....
good fighters on tackle yes !!

Being North Indian, fish does not figure that often on our menu. Consequently, it is educational to
learn from forum members that various types of bream, Trevally and now Giant Trevally are not only edible but good on the table also.

I release almost 99% of the fish I catch, keeping the occasional barra. I may now try the other species
as a meal.

By the way, I once tried mahseer pakoras at Bhakra Dam. Not nice at all, they had a muddy flavour
which the cold beer could not dissipate!

Regards,
Kingfish

Kingfish,

I ate a small Mahseer last week that got hooked in the eye and badly hurt. It didn't taste good at all.

Regards,
Maruthu

Hi Kingfish,

While on the subject of fish Pakhoras, Masheerken had taken my son and I fishing on the Ganges some years ago, one of our jointed lures got stuck in the middle of the river on some large rocks and we had to break it off. The next day the water had dropped considerably so I waded in and was fishing, I noticed something in the water, it was a fish attached to that lure. The other end of the line was still stuck to the rock, the lure was caught in the current and all night and the fish took it and could not get free. It was quite finished by the time I found it so the camp cook made pakhoras out of it. I was a loach of some sort. We were looking forward to eating it by the campfire that night. The Pakhoras looked and smelt awesome, but the fish was tasteless, it did not taste like anything, not bad at all but not good either and the texture was different even, slightly pasty but not offensive. Your could eat it but could not enjoy it, if I had anything that tasted like nothing, it would be that fish.

Regards,

Bobby

Bobby and Maruthu,

Yes ..... we should release all mahseer.
They are excellent as a sportfish only!

Kingfish

Hi Marthu and Binu, Awesome report and pictures.

Vijay.