Sanjeeth and Jane, travelling in Sri Lanka for their honeymoon decided to spend two nights and a fishing day on Bolgoda Lake.

During breakfast, I met this young couple from Bangalore in India. We talked of the days they had spent in Sri Lanka and started talking about fishing. That’s when I discovered they have never fished before. I wasn’t expecting that! Anyway, we decided to start the day with a casting course and end up practicing on the boat. After a 30 minutes casting course from the shore, we went fishing. The first casts were not so accurate and there were a few mistakes like to forgetting to open the bail arm or close the bail arm, but after 1 hour of practicing they were both casting more accurately. Jane had the first bite of the day, with a big Giant Herring jumping in the air but the fish come off. Around 10 a.m. the heat started to be uncomfortable for the couple so we headed back doing some trolling along the way. We had one bite but the fish was not hooked properly.

After a nice Sri Lankan curry and a quick nap, Sanjeeth got on the boat for the second part of his day fishing, but Jane preferred to stay at the villa, have a rest and enjoy the swimming pool. We headed straight to the area where we’d found some fish activity the morning. When we arrived, Featherback were rolling on the surface, but being fussy eaters, they didn’t have any interest on Sanjeeth lure. Sanjeeth suggested I take Jane’s rod and join him for a few casts. He was fishing middle water and I tried on the bottom. After a couple of cast I have a proper brutal Mangrove Jack bite, the fish went straight to the structure and I was stuck. I tried to release the hook from the structure and managed to get it free but without the fish.

In the early evening the fish start to be more active, we started to see a few follows. I decided to change my lure for a small popper and immediately I have a bite, a big Giant Herring started to jump like hell, I give the rod to Sanjeeth and he landed this nice fish.

I give him the lure and he had a bite, but he missed the fish. Finally he had one, a bit smaller, but his own fish, the first one !!

So happy for him. We could have had 30 minutes more of fishing but it looked like there was a storm approaching and it was time for us to return quickly.

It was a pleasure to have Sanjeeth and Jane on board. They enjoyed their day at Bolgoda Lake with the wild life, landscape and their first experience fishing.

Nico - Head Fishing Guide