Wednesday, May 26, 2010

MALDIVES MAYHEM Part 1

It was time for a week in paradise again for 6 lucky anglers. This time though, the weather had other ideas and unfortunately most of trip was hampered by strong winds and big seas. None the less, some nice fishes were hooked and landed, giving all anglers some joy!
Getting prepared...

First things first, breakfast...
...with juice of course

All prepped

The reef beckons...

Hook up on popper, new FCL LABO rod gettin' bent...

Workin'...

First GT onboard!

Recounting the fight...

Surprise on Mangrove Studio Awaumi popper...

20kg-ish Doggie, good way to start the day...

One more cast, one more Dog! Smaller one...

On Orion Bigfoot...

Red Bass on new Heru sinking stickbait...

All smiles...

Hearty meals served daily...

Hooked a Black Jack first drop...

New jig by Geecrack doing its job, with a nice GT

First of many groupers to come...

Nice GT on a cruiser...

Good end to the day...

Bluefin on light jig just on dusk...

Nice Dog of about 10kgs on light jig...

More GTs to start the day...

And more...

... and more food!

... and more fights!

Typical Maldivian Gee...

Young teenager, one of many...

Everyone got in on the act...

Some Red Bass too...

All through the day...

with all sorts of poppers...

Even two Gees on a stickbait...

The lucky angler!

They just kept coming...

and coming...

and coming...

and coming...

Until the sun had enough...

Lil' Emperor on Keitech Swing Impact

Dolphins in the bay...

Back to jigging, with a Black Jack...

Coronation Trout, for dinner!

More Groupers...

Rosy Jobbies...

Jigs couldn't get off the bottom without being hammered...

The species count continued...

Three different rods, three different cods...

And some real unusual ones too...
Friendly neighbours...

And of course the odd GT on popper...

Desert Storm liveried grouper...

Then we got into the Coral Trouts...

Everyone hooked up...

No shortage of smiles...

... and workouts!

GTs were a pain to pull from the depths...

Coral Trouts made the effort worthwhile...

Big 'Desert Storm'...

More neighbours...

A lil' puppy Dog...

More red!

Big, hard-fighting Rosy Jobs pulled some drag...

Red was the colour of the day...

Pink too!

A rarity of sorts, on the new Geecrack Long Gun jig...

Tasty Long-nosed Emperor...

Bottom-dwellers were definitely not hard to find...

The only YFT for the trip, on a fave jig - the Evergreen Caprice!