Maldives December 2009

After our first visit in November 2007, we were sure at this time that we would want to visit the Maldives again in two years time. In the spring 2009, Martina organized the trip and I was looking after the reservations for the boat charters. On the 2nd of December we started our trip. Martina and I flew with Emirates airline, from Frankfort to Dubai, and then finally from Dubai to Male. From there we took a “water taxi” (small airplane) to the Lhaviani-Atoll and then we went to our Resort “One & Only Kanuhura”.

This time we just want to have a relaxing vacation and fishing trip without getting stressed out. Our plan was not to wake up early, a cozy breakfast, have short distances to the charter boats – and no fishing “battle mission”.

My target was Sailfish and GT’s. The first week I chartered a “Dhony” (a local wooden boat with a wheel house) for $200 US each trip. One skipper and the deck hands were there for me twelve hours a day. In addition these people have to as well operate my camera. After the third day and with a lot of patience, they did an ok job. I got along good with these guys fright from the beginning, and they had a lot of motivation as well. After the first day, I trusted them already this much that I left all of my fishing tackle onboard.

The first three days were not really successful – Hardly any waves or wind, and that s on the Maldives, which is not a good requirement for trolling. A lot of fish followed the lures, and there was hardly any strike, or just touch gently the lure. Another problem was that the engines of the Dhonies were not powerful. Normally they work with wind and current to get enough speed for a perfect lure presentation. But for $200 US a day I don’t want to complain and start a discussion.

The still sea was still good for popper – fishing. The whole day we had action and I was surprised with some of their sizes.

At the first and the following days, the wind breezed up, and after all this I had finally blood blisters on my hands from fighting fish. Now we had more then once double – and even triple hook-ups. Close to the reef we had a lot of action: Each trip we caught up to twelve Wahoos, six sails, eight GT’s and a lot of bycatch. –“To ask for more would be rude”. These days I couldn’t even take my time to drink a cup of coffee – Strike after strike kept me busy. During these days I was glad when I could take a little break.

One the fifth day I had a double strike and the tip of one of my trolling rods broke off. – was that even too much for my tackle? After this I rigged one of my jigging rods up for trolling.

For the second week I booked the boat “Hibaru 1”. People that know the boat wouldn’t recognize it any more. The boat owner did a complete renovation – new paint, a new and bigger wheel house, and now you have more space and comfort then before. I think that just the hull and the engine are the same, but the rest completely redone. A captain, two crew member and a chef from Sri Lanka complete the boat crew. I paid for one day charter $300 US for twelve hours, including the chef – The only problem was the kitchen was not ready at the time to operate.

At the first day we caught five sailfish – I had the same problem like before, and the crew couldn’t operate my camera. The result is that I didn’t get one nice picture of this perfect fishing day. For the rest of the second fishing week, we had no wind and the ocean was flat like a mirror. Like the first boat, the “Hibaru 1”, It had too small of an engine, and this gave us problems to tow our lures at the right speed.

With a new wheelhouse the boat gained weight and it made this problem with a small engine even worse. Under these circumstances it was very, very difficult to have a right lure presentation. A fish had enough time and a clear view to notice something suspicious – but I can count on the GT’s all the time.

At the first day we caught five sailfish – I had the same problem like before, and the crew couldn’t operate my camera. The result is that I didn’t get one nice picture of this perfect fishing day. For the rest of the second fishing week, we had no wind and the ocean was flat like a mirror. Like the first boat, the “Hibaru 1”, It had too small of an engine, and this gave us problems to tow our lures at the right speed.

With a new wheelhouse the boat gained weight and it made this problem with a small engine even worse. Under these circumstances it was very, very difficult to have a right lure presentation. A fish had enough time and a clear view to notice something suspicious – but I can count on the GT’s all the time.

I switched to new strategies and a new technique – in the year 2006 Roberto and I thought about a technique that we saw with commercial fishermen to fight and catch a sailfish without a hook. Years before we built a prototype and now was the time to test it. I rigged one rod up with our “friendly – sail – lure” and the other up regular. It didn’t take a long time and we had a double hook-up on them two rods. The hook-less lure worked fine as kind, and in a short time I had that sailfish beside the boat.

“Was this just luck or was the lure really working?!” From now on, I fished only with the “friendly-sail-lure”. After the fifth sail the lure was a little worn out, but I proved it that our system really works. After the first strike with the sailfish sword, they tangle up so tight, so there is no problem to fight him with a regular hook. “First contact – friendly hook-up – no blood!” We think this is the absolute perfect lure for the future for catch and release sailfish.

I switched to new strategies and a new technique – in the year 2006 Roberto and I thought about a technique that we saw with commercial fishermen to fight and catch a sailfish without a hook. Years before we built a prototype and now was the time to test it. I rigged one rod up with our “friendly – sail – lure” and the other up regular. It didn’t take a long time and we had a double hook-up on them two rods. The hook-less lure worked fine as kind, and in a short time I had that sailfish beside the boat.

“Was this just luck or was the lure really working?!” From now on, I fished only with the “friendly-sail-lure”. After the fifth sail the lure was a little worn out, but I proved it that our system really works. After the first strike with the sailfish sword, they tangle up so tight, so there is no problem to fight him with a regular hook. “First contact – friendly hook-up – no blood!” We think this is the absolute perfect lure for the future for catch and release sailfish.

The popper fishing was still working without wind and waves. Day after day the fish were becoming shyer. On the second last day I hooked a GT over fifty kilo and after a hard fight I had him right beside the boat – the single hook was hooked in the back of the fish, and when we had him on the leader, the hook let go. Too bad because this was a super size GT. After this hassle, I had another three GT’s follow the popper, one attacked the lure twice and couldn’t get him hooked. The splashes reminded me of a Marlin strike – pure adrenalin!

The third evening we meet at the Hotel bar an Italian skipper named Mario along with his beautiful boat – a thirty eight foot Bertram named “Keyolka”. His charter price was $1200US for four hours, and $1800 US for eight hours. The Marlin he caught this season he could count on five fingers. However, he caught the same amount of other species like the local guys in their Dhonies. He even wanted to show me the fly fishing for bonefish, after a couple of cold drinks at he bar, he guaranteed me to catch one. Before we went to bed, he told me that he would contact me by phone to set up a trip – I am still waiting for his phone call.

Summary:

All together the trip was awesome. At the end I counted ten fishing days, five good size GT’s and a lot of bycatch. How many GT’s I caught all together I can’t remember. The only thing that I missed was a bonefish. I seen then and I feed them already – my next target is to catch them on my next trip to the Maldives.

I think that the “Hibrau 1” is completely redone in the next month. That boat is comfortable for two anglers and I am really interested to see the boat finally finished. A really nice add to the boat would be a stronger engine, so that we don’t loose that much time traveling between the hot spots, and you can troll the lures at optimum speed – please don’t forget the outriggers.

An alternative to them boats is a “Dhony” for $200US per day. Those boats are just recommended for day trips. All the skippers and crew know their fisheries pretty well. Some times I thought that the modern technique from rod and reel was a little too much for them. We can’t blame them for this, we have to keep in mind that when we charter boats like these, then we have to set up and rig up the tackle by ourselves. When you get stronger winds and waves, it can probably become a stressful fishing trip.

Important note

Supplement for the test of our „Friendly-Sail-Lure“ in November 2009 at the Maldives:

  • Fishing for sail is a very fastidious kind of fishing that leads a lot of beginner to despair. From our own experience we know, that a lot of angler change their rigs after failures from the rig with one hook or the modern circlehook-rig very fast. They use a second hook or a triplet-hook or other, adentures rigs. They want to hook the fish.
  • The employment of this system was a pure test run with a 100% „rate of success“. All the five Sails could be released without any problems. They were not hurted and to release the fish was easy. The cause was the construction of the lure and the Materialcondition – please see the film.
  • All the fish hung on the point of the sword, a result of the length of our lure. A winding around the muzzle did not occur – we classify the probability as very small. We can recommend this method for angler which have some problems with the classical methods without a bad conscience, all in the view of Catch & Release. Of course this method may be never used if it is locally forbidden or if you want to kill the fish. So caught fish are not a master achievement or a possible IGFA-record.

Stephan Kreupl in December 2009