Hi Guys, It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would put up a few images of my latest trip to India. I've been out again on the west coast which is called the Konkan coast. It is probably one of the most interesting stretches of coast on the sub continent because a mixture of terrain. There is everything from decent estuaries, rock fishing and good surfcasting as well as some good fishing up the rivers themselves. 

I bought a little van a couple of years ago which makes exploring much easier compared to a bike or by public transport and this trip we really did see and camp in some beautiful places. The coast we fish is a little way north of Goa and generally there are not too many people In terms of India. There is a fair bit of pressure from commercial fishermanbut this is mainly offshore with boats targetting spaniards, various other species and prawns. Inshore there are still many places that haven't been screwed.  

The main two species I target are Barramundi and mangrove jacks. These are the commonest species in the area and if you know your stuff there can be some world class light tackle fishing from the rocks and estuaries. Some of you guys might remember my previous posted and some of these fish:) There are also Gts, cod, queenfish, spanish mackeral and cobia about and these we usually target from a boat but to be fair until i have a decent boat with electrics I prefer the landbased fishing and casting lures from my kayak which can also be very productive. Generally the fishing is pretty good if you know your stuff but I can imagine if all the commercial boats caught fire it wouldn't be a bad thing. The local fish market shows what can be caught if you know the offshore marks and the fish out there are very similar to the north of australia, with huge golden snappers, black jews, speckled snappers and queenies often coming in, all of good size.

This trip we really tried to get to know a couple of hundred kms of coast well which was great. I did a fair bit of snorkelling during the day (when the fishing isn't great) and often found myself swimming through large shoals of mangrove jack of anything up to 6-7kg and pod of 5-10 barramundi ranging from 4-10kg. Some of you guys would be thinking this is spearfishing heaven but in India its not really a very popular pastime and is really frowned upon by the locals. probably for the best really because it wouldn't take long for the fish to be wiped out going by the areas they live in.

A very memorable trip we did around new year was to take the kayaks and head up one of the large rivers that empty into the arabian sea. We spent six nights in total to reach the top and return and all in all it was a very pleasant way to spend just over a week. we caught a fair few mangrove jacks and early on new years day i had a cracker barramundi; my first in freshwater in India, which put up a super fight. I couldn't have thought of a better way to start the new year!

On this trip I also taught my girlfriend Aurelie to fish and she did pretty well considering it was more or less new to her. First trip for her was to the rocks on near full moon and she managed to hook and nearly land a big mangrove jack around 5kg (hook popped as we were ready to land it) and then she went on to get stuck into the barra. It was great to see as she was a still a little unsure what to do with such big fish. the first barra smashed a bomber and proceded to jump and cartwheel around 25 yards out the hooks feel out. The second she hooked was a solid fish of between 8-9kg which really made her scream when it started jumping and running hard but again it got lucky and threw the hooks. The third one was smaller but not so lucky and we managed to land it! while that was going on I managed to just hook and lose two!

I've written a few posts on my blog about the trip for anyone that would like to read more. one post is in a diary format. www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

Right onto the photos...

Spot with super potential. i could see a good shoal of fish from my view point and also some turtles swimming about

New year morning barramundi. a good fish and my first Indian freshwater barramundi

deserted coast north of where we live. Big Gts and sharks patrol here! And apparently tigers. After camping a few nights the police turned up and declared that it was unsafe to camp there due to the tigers and snakes and foxes!! oh and crazy locals! Hmmm I can see that if something happened it would be mean much work for them..In Indian camping is a bit of an alien concept in many areas so we olbliged and moved to a new spot. To argue would have been futile!

before the police chased us off we watched around 25 local guys hunting this fellow in  a small forested valley set just back from the beach. the hunt went on for quite a few hours! We watched from the valley top until we decided they were hunting their shadow and so went to the van to cook and make coffee. 15 minutes later an indian came flying out of the bushes with his ancient bamboo spear and made a run for it. Seconds later a shot rang out fiftteen yards away and the wild boar was dead. 

Aurelie's pb Barramundi. Not bad on 4kg line :)

Noel and Graham came to visit with a friend from further down the coast and managed to land this lovely malabar rock cod. happy days!

My friend Ashok with a brace of good Indian Barramundi. The moon was up and a pod moved in and it was a bite a cast but for some reason only on ashoks rod!!

One more decent barra for Ashok

a decent beach with no people. Nice place to spend some hours :)

One of the better trevally from the trip. this was at the start when a friend from uk joined. after this I didn't do too much popping.

Double hook up on Gts from the rocks. James had never caught a gt before so the sight of a hungry pack chasing our poppers down was something special. we kept a couple and cooked them in the coals later on.

Rapan net; The locals often put a large 'u' shaped net off the beach for sardines and usually they get a good haul of up to a ton. But surprisinly there are not too many pelagics chasing the sards. However they did get a 65kg cobia in this net a few months ago and i saw a 35kg gt pulled out a couple of weeks back

Nice little GT on the popper.

And one more

James first Indian barra. He caught this on a very hard night when we thought there was no chance of a fish! not bad for a first attempt.

I managed to get a couple of barra on the fly. It's something new for me and also for the indian coast as i believe no one or very few people have fly fished the konkan coast. there is some good potential and i look forward to getting a big barra on the fly

A good estuary barra for aurelie towards the end of the trip.

And a super hard fighting mangrove jack for Aurelie on a night when the fish were climbing up our rods :)

Camping with friends after fishing

Good brace of fish. On nearly every cast either a jack of barra tried to eat my lure and they were even taking soft plastics on the drop. good fun until the tide came up and i had to make a break for higher ground

we spent aurelie's birthday camped on this beautiful beach and didn't see another soul. we did however see fresh leopard footprints but lived to tell the tail! a few days after this we met the main Forest Department boss who oversees the wildlife in the district. he told us the leopards that live here are classed as 'Civilised' and don't eat people. I knew before i met him they don't usually eat people but now i'm fully at ease!

Nice jack on lure off the beach

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Aurelie and her pb mangrove jack. 

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 Kayaking up the river at new years; early morning

One more solid mangrove jack on the lure from the estuary

Lunch stop before fishing :)

One of my last barra of the trip. It was great fight on 4kg line with strong current. I'll remember that fish for a while :)

One of our neighbours :)

Ok that's it for now. Hope you guys enjoy the photos. i might put a few more up later if I have time. I had a quick look through the forum and it seems some great fish are getting caught on the west of oz. I miss it a lot and might have to come visit again soon if i get the chance. Tightlines everyone, Scott

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com