Fishing Reports
and News
We gone mainly for popping, it was the first GT popping experience for Shane.
He had 8 strikes and he caught 2 GT's, with a solid fish of 20kg+. He missed 2 big fish in the afternoon but he was happy to caught these first GT's ever on popping.
Congratulations Shane ! It was nice to have you onboard Diviya and thanks for the tips regarding marlin fishing, I will have a try soon and let you know how it work in Sri Lanka
Tight lines
Capt. Nico
Last week-end, I was guiding the lovely Claudia from Germany, which is also a famous carp fishing girl in Europe, with close to 70k followers on Instagram. It was her first ever GT popping experience.
After, loosing a nice fish who reef her, she finally caught a powerful GT and she enjoyed !!!
Stay tuned for the full report of Claudia.
Tight Lines
Capt. Nico
First GT popping experience for Chris and his sister.
After they missed a couple of fish, she caught her first GT ever on popping, congratulations !!
Tight Lines
Capt. Nico
Last week end, I was fishing at sea with some good fishing buddies. Here's the report of Pershy from the Facebook group Awesome Foursome :
"Good day dear friends.. would like update you on a wonderful outing today with sportfishinglanka.com, Damith Wicks, Eraj Fernando, Nicolas Jamin and Junior Ryan Fernando.
Weather was just right and the day started with high speed trolling to the drop off on their wonderful power catamaran hull “Divya”. It was the most comfortable ride you can ask for with sheer speed and stability in high sea. The onboard technology is immense and is captained by the highly knowledgeable Nicolas Jamin. Though the trolling episode was not showing good results, Capt Nico’s decision to drop the jig were very productive to the core. All the fish caught on jigging were RELEASED with the guidance of the capt. Total catch was 1 Pompano Trevaly, 7 Giant Trevaly and 2 Amberjacks."
Another great day fishing in Sri Lanka with you guys, till the next
Tight Lines
Capt. Nico
Last week, we started our sea fishing season with our first group of angler. This group was composed of Yamada san our travel agent in Japan, Omoto san from Salt World Magazine, Otsuka san the CEO of Studio Ocean Mark and Sano san, field tester for CB One and SOM.
During these 4 days fishing, they had an insane jigging session the first day, where Sano san caught a nice dogtooth tuna and Otsuka san a 30 kg GT. Mainly the catches were GT's, I have try some deeper spots to look for amberjack but sadly without success, anyway our guest were happy with the powerful GT's.
Popping was a bit slow at the beginning, but the last two days the reef and our different popping spots were on fire !
They caught some nice Gt's and nice king mackerels. Average size of Gt's was around 15-18 kg.
The biggest fish was caught by Yamada san with a decent 20-25 kg fish and sadly Sano san lost the 2 biggest fish, who broke the line on the reef.
A very nice trip to start our sea fishing season. A report of this trip will be publish soon in Salt World Magazine.
It was nice to met you and guiding you guys.
Tight lines
I had our first sea fishing trip of the season on our new boat Diviya and fishing was good !!!
Just finished a nice trip with in guest star Japanese angler Sano san, field tester for SOM and CB one, who caught this nice dogtooth tuna on jig.
Otsuka san, CEO of Studio Ocean Mark was also part of the trip and he was lucky to caught the biggest GT of the trip, an estimated over 30 kg fish also caught on jig.
This fishing trip will be publish in the famous Japanese magazine Salt World.
We had also some good action on popping, stay tuned the full report will come soon.
Tight Lines
Capt. Nico
Mid May, as the southwestern monsoon started to settled, our regular singaporean angler Su Lin informed me she will be in Sri Lanka in a couple of days and she wanted for one or two days fishing at sea. She wanted to do some light jigging and have a try on popping to catch her first GT. I told her the true regarding the weather forecast, but I promise her if we have a good windows we will go.
The day before her arrival, I send her an email with last weather forecast and I told her the only day we can go was on her arrival day... I knew she will arrive in the night at Colombo and she will need to wake up few hours after she arrive in her hotel. But Su Lin was so happy to go fishing, she just reply : "So, I will be waiting for you to pick me at my hotel tomorrow morning at 6 am. Thanks and see you in 12 hours".
So next morning at 7:30 am, Su Lin was doing her first cast of the day. At this stage of my report, I want to precise it was the first time Su Lin was doing some GT popping, meaning casting a 130 gr popper with heavy tackle. And to be honest, to do that after traveling from Singapore and just few sleeping hours, I was very impressed and as a captain, I really wanted she caught her first GT on popping because she was deserve it.
It's for that reason, I was more kind and patient than usual when her cast were not so good. I gave her my best tips to increase her casting distance and make sure her popper make enough noise to trigger a GT bite.
After a couple of hours of intensive cast, Su Lin has the first bite of the day and it seems to be a decent fish. She sets perfectly the hooks and the GT goes in a long rush. After a nice fight, I landed the first ever GT of Su Lin caught on popper and it was a decent 20 kg fish. Su Lin was thrilled and I feel she started to be hooked on GT popping and my feeling was confirmed by her following long distance casts.
On the next spot, she missed a shy bite, but I knew we need to wait for the tide change to found again some good activity. After lunch, I try again the spot where Su Lin caught her first GT, but nothing happen. On the next spot, as she finished retrieving her lure and was about to take it out of the water, a GT appear from nowhere and grabbed her popper. Fortunately it was not a monster fish, otherwise in this condition the end is not in the favour of the angler. Sun Lin manage well and landed her GT, not a big one, but what a bite !!! We try for a while in some deep water spots where I spotted lot of baits on the sonar, but sadly GT's where not there or did not want to play with us. On the way back I make a last drift on a good spot and I spotted some baits in surface which seem to be afraid by a predator. I ask Su Lin to cast in there direction and on the second pop, a big GT grabbed her lure in a big swirl. Su Lin was ready for this fish and strike perfectly to make sure the hooks penetrate well in the solid jaw of this big fish. But the fish was strong, maybe a bit too strong for her, she cannot put enough pressure on the GT who found the reef and broke the leader. What a pity... Anyway Su Lin was really happy of her day at sea and promised me to come back next season to have her revenge with the big GT.
As usual, it was a pleasure to have you onboard Su-Lin and I really want to congratulate you for your catch you really deserve it !!! See you soon ;-)
Capt. Nico
Beginning May, we also have some good fishing days at sea, like the 2 days spent with Vladimir & Anastasia from Ukraine. The young couple was travelling in Sri Lanka and Vladimir as a crazy angler for predator fish in Ukraine, wants to do some saltwater fishing and especially with GT's on popping. Anastasia was also keen to have a try, but she never cast such big lures as 130 g popper.
First day, weather was beautiful and sea was also nice. After a quick casting lesson for Anastasia, we start fishing some of our good spots. On the second spot, Vladimir has a big bite close to the boat. Fortunately, the GT don't go under the boat and run straight out of the rock. Vladimir was very surprise how the GT is strength. After a nice battle, it's a 25-30 kg range GT I put in the landing net. A very good size fish for his first GT ever !!! Quick picture and we release the fish. We try some other good spots but the fish don't seem to play with us, till the tide change and in the afternoon we try some shallow water area and Vladimir was again in the game and caught another GT. Anastasia also had a bite but she lost the fish due to a slack line. Few hours before to get back the harbour, we try a last spot and Vladimir caught one more small fella.
The next day, Vladimir came alone, Anastasia has decided to stay at the hotel for some Ayurvedic massage. Morning was a bit slow, till we fished a new area where the water was more clear, I caught the first GT of the day, just after Vladimir missed one. We stay for a while in this area and Vladimir caught another GT and missed some. The afternoon, I decide to reach the shallow water spot where we have some good activity the day before. On the first drift, Vladimir had a serious bite and the fish was running so fast, it didn't gave time to Vladimir to try to stop it and the fish goes straight in the rock and the line broke. On the second drift, it was my turn to have a bite of a serious fish and the same story happen to me !! After that we try, some other rocks in this area but sadly without success, tough to finish the day with two big fish lost, but that's fishing.
Vladimir plan to come back with some friends to make a proper fishing trip. Waiting to see you again in Lanka to caught some GT's and to have your revenge on the big fish lost the last day !
Tight line
Capt. Nico
Middle April we have received the Jerry's for their second fishing trip in Lanka. This time, they wanted to focus catching GT's on topwater, plus doing a bit of jigging and finish their trip by some days fishing at Bolgoda Lake for Barramundi.
The guys were much better equipped compare to their last trip. This time, they came with proper rods and reels, and good lures for targeting Gt's. We started the trip with some really good action and they caught some nice Gt's.
Everybody caught his PB fish and "small Jerry" caught a cracking GT. Big Jerry also have a good GT in the 25 kg range on a PE 4 rod and a stickbait. Chugger popper made the trip as Cubera 150 or the usual Hammer Head E-cup. The last day a bit tired they let me join then and I caught a big GT.
Jigging was a bit slow during this trip in term of number of fish but the guys hooked some serious fish, like the unstoppable one who striped all the line, or the other one who fight for 45 minutes before big Jerry broke his rod and then the line. Small Jerry caught also a nice Shark and some groupers.
One day on the drop off we saw some big yellowfin tuna jumping and eating tiny red fish, we have a try but the tunas were focus on these small bait. A afternoon we go to found them, but without success despite some big school of spinner dolphin and pilot whales in the area.
They also did a bit of light jigging and ave lot of fun catching so different species and small Jerry caught a baby Napoleon Wrass just out of Colombo city on one our good spots.
All in all, it was a really good trip, the guys learned a lot during that trip, they enjoyed my sarcastic jokes and we have so much fun.
The last day we have a go at Bolgoda Lake and they caught some Barramundi and Mangrove Jack.
Guys thanks to come fishing with us and I know we will see you soon for another memorable fishing trip in Lanka !
Tight Line
Capt. Nico
A bit tired the clients invited me to cast with them at the end of the day... First cast and Boom !!!
Rod : Zenaq Fokeeto 80-10
Reel : Stella 18000SW 14
Line : Power Pro 80 lb
Leader : Sufix Superior 175 lb
Lure : Hammer Head E-cup (as usual)
Hook : 7/0 GT Recorder
Tight line
Capt. Nico
So happy our new sea fishing ground off Colombo is also producing Big GT ;-)
Rod : Custom (Century blank)
Reel : Stella 18000 SW 14
Line : Power Pro 80 lb
Leader : Sufix Superior 175 lb
Lure : Jigstar Darkstar 150
Hook : 7/0 GT Recorder
Tight line
Capt. Nico
We have received a nice Singaporean team anglers with Henry, his brother Louis and his friend Dereck for a great 5 days popping and jigging fishing trip.
During all the trip, weather was really nice, the water color on our popping spots was a bit green due to some rain the days before, but that don't disturb too much the GT's which come in surface to smash the poppers and stickbaits of the boys. We had some great action on topwater, especially the first day with a total of 13 bites but for only 3 GT caught...
The others days we mixed the day between popping and jigging. On jig the second day Derek hooked a big sailfish, but sadly it came off after a while and Henry caught a shark. We did also a bit of trolling, especially the last day, condition were perfect with a lot of life, with many birds under skipjack feeding, we also spotted some dolphin and some big tuna, but fish did not seem to play with us.
This trip was really nice, we had a lot of fun onboard, especially with Henry when he missed these Gt's the first days, but finally he landed plenty of Gt's and as his brother, he took his personal best GT during this trip !! Derek was a bit unlucky the first days of the trip, but after I gave him some good tips to handle his floating stickbait, he made up for lost time and he landed some good size fish.
I really hope to see you again in Sri Lanka guys, I really enjoyed to guiding you and Henry be patient before to catch your monster GT, that will arrive one day for sure don't worry ;-)
Tight line
Capt. Nico
Just back on the sea for a "Dad & son" day charter. Guilain and his 13 years old son Adrien wanted to finish their holidays in Sri Lanka with a bit of fishing. Guilain who is a expert fisherman in France for sea bass, has fished for GT before. He wanted to share this great experience with his son and asked me to make his dream true. It's always nice to have beginners on board, especially when it's a young boy who love fishing.
Morning we reach our first popping spot, I took time to teach Adrien how to cast with this heavy tackle and how to pop. I know it will take a while, but after his first cast, I was confident it can do it. His father Guilain was quickly in the game and on the third drift, I spotted a school of bait and he cast at the edge of them. A GT come up and smashed his popper. Guilain strike properly the fish and landed a decent GT, that's a good start ! A while later another GT came behind his popper but miss the lure.
Around noon, the current slow down and I decided to go for trolling. That will give a bit of rest to Adrien who started to be tired casting with heavy tackle. We reach an area where I know we have good chance to have wahoo and sailfish bite. When we reach this area, we saw plenty of birds and skipjack busting small anchovy. We trolled and we were waiting to have a bite. Sadly, we don't have any action despite a good activity with skipjack feeding around. Then we go again for some popping to end the day.
Adrien was really motivated to caught his first ever GT on popper. He kept casting, and like usual his effort pay off and a GT took his popper. His father came to help him, but Adrien handled it well and landed his dream fish. Guilain was so happy and proud of his son.
After a quick picture, Adrien released his fish. After this GT, Adrien's cast were just perfect and we can feel his motivation to caught another one and on the next drift he caught his second fish !!!
Guilain was not expecting so much for his son and it's with lot of happiness we decided to end the day and back to the harbour.
Tight Line
Capt. Nico
Last week, before our Head Fishing Guide Nico goes to Japan for the Keep Cast, we received Sam and his girlfriend from Australia and 2 french anglers, Nicolas and Olrich for a day charter at sea, mainly to target GT on popper.
Sam and Nicolas have fished GT on popping before, for Olrich, it was his first fishing experience. Early morning we reach our popping spot with a flat sea condition. We found plenty of bait and after a while Sam with his popper Cubera 150 cast close a school of fusiliers and on the third pop a decent GT come up and grab his lure in a nice splash. He hooked properly his fish and after a nice fight he landed the GT, he was so happy.
We continue to fish around, Nicolas missed a fish but the current slow down and we decide to try some jigging but fish were no keen to bite their jig, then we decided to back on the popping spots with the current increased. Good choice, we had a super action on popper. First of all, Olrich was fishing with a pencil popper, our guide Nico spotted a long tom running as something was big and afraid him. Nico asked Olrich to cast in this direction and just when he was starting to reel an absolute huge GT come behind his lure and engulfed it. Everybody saw the fish and the bite, only Ulrich as a beginner didn't see it... We all told him to strike, but it was too late, the big GT has released the lure from his mouth...
This action keep all casting and Nicolas caught a small GT and another one, Sam missed a very nice GT close to the boat and at the same time 2 big king mackerel came behind his popper but sadly don't bit it. On our last drift of the day, a massive whale shark came on surface and passed under the boat and let us in memory the nature is just beautiful.
Another good day fishing in Sri Lanka with happy clients !!!
Richard from Sweden was traveling with his family in Sri Lanka for a week and has planned to fish with us for a day charter, mainly to targeting GT on topwater. Richard has some experience in GT fishing from his previews fishing trip in Kenya and Thailand.
We start the day on one of our good popping spot, some fusiliers were cruising in the shallow rocks. At the beginning fish were not keen to play with Richard lure. Just before lunch, I spotted some baits near a shallow rock and I asked Richard to cast in this direction, on the third pop a GT come and smash his popper, the new Rapala XPlode. Richard strike perfectly his fish and landed a decent GT.
After a while, Richard take a break and invite me to cast. On my first cast, on the edge of nice rocky plateau I caught a small GT, not bad ;-) After lunch, I decide to reach our deep water spot to look for a bigger fish. On the third drift a decent GT came up and missed Richard's popper. We tried another spot where I spotted a school of bait, Richard casted close of them and a nice GT came immediately behind the lure but didn't grab it properly. We finish the day on the same spot we fished the morning and Richard caught another GT around a school of bait.
It was a nice day, with some nice topwater action of GT's, sadly some missed the lure, but Richard and I enjoyed our day.
Tight line
Capt. Nico
Last week, we have received Robin, his brother Tobias and their step father Thomas for a day charter to target GT's on popper. They were traveling in Sri Lanka and came from Galle to fish with us.
Robin wanted to catch his first ever GT on topwater lure. Morning was a bit slow, lot of bait cruising around our popping spot, but GT's were not keen to smash their lures. After lunch, we reach one of our favorite popping spot and we found some activity. Thomas caught a small GT on floating stickbait, Robin caught his first GT also and was so happy !! His brother has a serious bite on his floating stickbait, but sadly the fish hook off.
All in all it was a nice day at sea, with nice weather condition and it was not a bad day for these 3 beginners in GT fishing. Personally, I love to have anglers who catch their first GT with me onboard. Congratulations guys, you have never give up and you kept casting and you deserved your fish.
Tight line
Capt. Nico
I have just finished a super trip with the Gomoku guys Fred & Daniel and 3 of their friends to make a promotional video on their new jigging product and especially the new VMC assist hook. We did some slow and light jigging.
On slow jigging, they caught some nice fish, like GT, but sadly dogtooth tuna, their main target were not there these last days. They caught accidentally some big Shark (7 in total) which we have released safely. These bycatch were enough big and strong to test their new Storm Gomoku Kodachi and Adagio+ jigging rods, but some other big fish were to strong for their PE-4...
One day, 2 spools have been completely emptied in less than 1 minute with a 10 kg drag !!! I have a feeling some big Yellow Fin or Big Eye tuna are cruising around. Another day, Fred hooked a very heavy fish and absolutely unstoppable. Huge Grouper ? A new mystery to solve ;-)
On light jigging PE 0.8-1, they had great fun with plenty of different species.
It was nice to have you on board guys, waiting to see you again in Sri Lanka.
Capt. Nico
Last week, we received 2 Japanese anglers working in India for a 2 days trip Popping and light jigging.
Weather was nice, just the water was a bit green, but GT's were keen to smash the floating stickbait of Takagi & Egawa.
On light jigging, they have great fun with some black tip trevally and groupers.
Last day GT's were more active, they caught 4 fish, miss 3 and lost a big one, which broke the leader on the rock.
It was nice to see some GT's on surface action. I enjoyed to guide Takagi & Egawa. Hope to see you for another week-end trip guys.
Capt. Nico
It's with a lot of pleasure we bring Pershy and Shanaka from the famous Sri Lankan anglers Facebook group to fish with us during two days.
We start with Shanaka who was so excited to be onboard our 31ft center console boat powered with twin 200 hp. We have planned to go for some jigging, but before to reach the spot we do a bit of troll and Shanaka caught a yellowfin tuna. First jigging spots didn't produce so much fish, but we finally found some good activities on a new spot and we start catching plenty of skipjack. One of mine was attack by a much bigger fish and I land my skipjack with some big teeth mark... On the next drift Shanaka who was new in jigging technic, has a serious bite and fought a nice fish on light tackle and landed a decent GT on PE-3 line !!
Next day, Pershy were with us and as Shanaka, he was happy to go fishing on our boat, for sure it is a bit more comfortable compare to a local 19ft boat and 40 hp engine. We also start the day by trolling. After only 5 min, I spotted a sailfish sneezing behind a small skirt lure. To decide him to bite, I play with him and finally took the lure, but sadly I didn't hooked him. Few minutes later, Pershy was on with a nice wahoo. Just before lunch we reach our jigging spots. Action don't start before 2 pm and we start to catch some grouper, skipjack, rosy jobfish, rainbow runner and a nice Cobia for Pershy !!
During these 2 days, the sea was a bit choppy, but the good news, that was the last windy days, now sea is damn calm and we will be soon back for more action !!
Capt. Nico
Olly, who was travelling in Sri Lanka with his family, decided to go fishing at sea to catch some GT on popper and have a try on jig for Dogtooth tuna.
Weather was a bit windy, but we head off our popping spot early morning... but when we arrived we found 20 Sri Lankan big Navy vessel in our popping area... They were there to prepare for the Sri Lankan independence day parade that took place 2 days later... To be honest, I was not really comfortable to make a drift with these military vessel around us... We try for a while, without success, despite plenty of bait running in surface. Then we decide to reach our jigging spots. Olly has bring his own tackle he bought from Jigabite.co.uk, a good online tackle shop run by our friend Terry Smith in UK.
After some drop, on the first spot without any bite, I changed for our most productive spots and on the second drop Olly had a serious bite just after I told him there are some nice mark on the sonar. The fish take lot of line, despite the heavy drag and just when Olly was starting to fight, he lost the fish. When he retrieve his jig, one of his assit hook was broken and on the other one the hook was bent !!! Leader was also scratched !!! That was a serious fish for sure !!!
We change the leader for a new one and we put a new jig with stronger assist hook. And again Olly was on with another fish and this time the fish just cut the leader, bloody wahoo or king mackerel !!! Then again new leader and new jig, drop again and Olly was on also on a nice fish. This time no issue, Olly fight the fish and landed a nice black GT. We stay for while but wind picked up and make difficult to jig in good condition. Then we decide to be back on the harbour.
For sure if the wind don't picked up, Olly will have more action on jig. Anyway he enjoyed his day fishing at sea before to flight back in the cold UK.
Capt. Nico
