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"Danish Delight"
at the Andaman Islands.
By Michael Andersen.
Our friends, Pia & Henrik Hansen from Denmark, were the first anglers
to fish the Andaman Islands with us in 2006.
They had decided to join us in Phuket and do the crossing onboard "Gecko",
to optimize the chances of catching a Marlin.
They didn’t have to wait long!!!!
At the drop-off just west of the Similan Islands a Black Marlin hit one of our lures,
and Henrik was straight into the action. On the 80lb bent butt Typhoon rod
with Shimano Tiagra 80W reel and a fired up "Viking"
the 220 lb Marlin was no match to Henrik.
He landed it quickly and got his well-deserved photo of the release.
They also managed to land a few Skipjack Tuna and two Wahoo before darkness.
Next morning within 5 minutes of putting out the lure spread, a small Marlin
was having a closer look at one of the lures, but decided not to have a go at it.
Not long after a Wahoo did go for the lure, but on the 80lb outfit,
this was nothing more than dinner for us.
During the night we passed the Invisible Banks, and had a good strike
on one of the luminous lures in our spread.
Unfortunately that fish is still out there!
We arrived at Port Blair at 6.00 AM and were told to wait
outside the harbour entrance for a short while.
As we all know, it is more fun fishing then waiting, and we therefore decided
to circle around the area with a few lures out. This produced two Wahoo
and a Queenfish, almost within casting distance of the harbour entrance!
After the accident of another Phuket based boat, clearance dragged out
until 2.00 PM next day, and the weather had then turned a bit worse,
forcing us to head south for Passage Island.
As we passed Cinque Islands we had a strike from a Sailfish and some serious bite marks
in a Yo-zuri Bonita, but unfortunately both cases resulted in no hook-up!
At The Sisters we tried popper casting from the dinghy,
where Henrik managed to land one, and loose one Giant Trevally.
We then headed back to Passage Island to find shelter for the night,
and caught a load of Red Snappers, a Barracuda and a Mangrove Jack
before we all went to bed.
Next morning Henrik and I had another popper casting session for GT’s
from the dinghy. Henrik had 5 strikes and landed one of them,
before we decided to go back to The Sisters for some big Giant Trevally.
On the way there, we had a Wahoo airborne behind the boat
as it very nicely cut the skirt on one of our lures!
At The Sisters, Henrik straight away was into some serious GT’s.
Maybe too serious!
One of them straightened a brand new Owner Stinger-66 5/0 triple hook, and another one
even managed to break the shank of one of these extremely strong hooks!
Not even with the help of Jonas taking "Gecko" into deeper water
away from the island, was there any chance of stopping the biggest GT’s.
One smaller GT was landed, before Henrik’s arms gave up,
and we headed for "Fish Rock".
Here we circled around the rock, and had action every time
we passed one particular spot. 3 Dogtooth Tuna, 2 Rainbow Runner
and a nice Spanish Mackerel, was the result of the short session,
before the popper casting once again called.
Back at Passage Island, Henrik landed one Giant Trevally
and lost another one that did the "Reef Knot" right under the dinghy!
As the wind picked up in the evening, we had to anchor close to the island,
but had fun with 4 Barracudas, a small Blacktip Reef Shark, a Sweetlip
and a Red Emperor before going to bed.
As both Pia and Henrik enjoy nature (almost) as much as fishing,
they decided to dedicate the next day to walk ashore on Twins island.
We did have a few tries with poppers in the morning, which awarded Henrik
with a nice GT in his first cast at "Fish Rock" and yet another one
on the west side of Passage Island.
After arriving at Twins, Pia, Henrik and I went ashore to find the place absolutely fantastic,
with loads of parrots, turtle tracks and tons of beautiful seashells.
As we got back onboard "Gecko", Jonas had naturally not been able
to just sit there without fishing!
He had put out a fish fillet on a free line rig, and had caught a nice
Gold-spotted Trevally that ended up on the BBQ, while we caught
Longtom, Barracudas and a nice Grouper at night.
On the 12th we woke up to some bad weather!!!
As the trolling areas would be limited, we once again decided
to spend some time "island hopping". We went ashore on The Sisters,
but this time brought a rod along. On the windy north side of the island,
we quickly spotted Giant Trevally’s patrolling the shore, and Henrik
masterly managed to steer one safely through the rocks for landing.
We also saw a big Shark and some much bigger GT’s on this side of the island,
but unfortunately out of casting range.
In the afternoon we trolled to Cinque Islands to spend the night there,
and had a nice Dogtooth Tuna before anchoring up and starting bottom fishing.
This produced a very nice Sweetlip, a load of Barracudas and a Red Emperor.
On what was supposed to be the last day, we trolled from Cinque
to Havelock Island and had a big Wahoo on the way.
We arrived on what Time Magazine voted "Best Beach in Asia"
at 12.30 PM, and had lunch in a small restaurant before going
on an "interesting" bus ride to the local market.
For people who have never been to the Andaman Islands, this market
would be impossible to describe, but it would be safe to say that Pia,
Henrik and I haven’t laughed this much in years!!!!
It didn’t help much that the wind had picked up in the evening
when we were ready to return to "Gecko", and we ended up
having to swim through the breakwater to get to the dinghy.
Only thing that wasn’t soaked was the cigarette I was smoking!
Next morning we headed back to Port Blair, where we arrived at 10.00 AM
just as the weather eventually started to get better.
Something the next group of anglers was very lucky with!
Looking back on this trip, we can only hope that Pia & Henrik enjoyed
catching their first ever Marlin, Shark, Dogtooth Tuna and Longtom
- biggest ever Spanish Mackerel, Rainbow Runner, Giant Trevally and Grouper
– even though the weather during this trip wasn’t at its best
for fishing the Andaman Islands.
Thanks again for a nice trip.
We really enjoyed your great personality onboard.
Tight Lines!
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