Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: 2012
Before my kidney function deteriorated and prevented me from travelling outside of the UK, I loved nothing better than a foreign adventure.
I live in hope of a kidney transplant and the chance of doing it again but for now, let’s look back to this week in 2012 and a trip to the remotest place I’ve ever been, the fabulous Andaman Islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Seriously, there are islands here you are not allowed to set foot on and even Stone Age tribes untouched by the modern world. Google ‘ Sentinel Island Cannibals’ if you don’t believe me.
Anyway, it all began in a hotel in midWales where I was running a fishing course. I was talking with a bunch of guests about mahseer fishing who’s view was, forget mahseer, I should try GT fishing. Try it once and I’d lose all interest in mahseer. Oh yeah?
They were not wrong. The fight from a giant trevally is brutal. They snap rods and smoke reels. Pound for pound they are the Tyson Fury of the seas. What’s more, you catch them on surface lures. It’s like floater fishing for carp on steroids. When introduced to the tackle I’d need I was sceptical. Leaders of 200lb? Lures the size and weight of a can of lager? Reels that cost the thick end of a grand. OMG! I went with the flow. Surely I’d try it, work things out and find a more subtle way?
Well, the guide positioned the boat over the first mark and checked the drag on my reel, setting it so tight I could barely pull the 80lb braid from it with a gloved hand. Whatever. He pointed out the direction to cast and explained how to make the lure ‘ pop’ on the surface. This was dog work. In no time my shoulders and neck were aching and then the water in front of me exploded as a GT hit the lure.
“Strike! Harder! Again! Harder,” hollered the guide. And then the fish simply let go of the lure. All my efforts failed to move the lure and set the hooks, so powerful were the fish’s jaws.
The next take was a hook- up. The drag, previously set so tight, suddenly lit up and the fish screamed off like I’d snagged a passing train. My God, these fish were powerful. And every bit as exhilarating as I’d been promised.
I hope to return, but will I be strong enough to cope? It’s as far removed from carp/ barbel fishing as you can imagine. But right now I’d sacrifice all my foreign adventures and memories to be out and about on the banks again.