I just returned from my second trip to the Andamans in India. GT fishing from the US is a difficult task and getting to the Andamans is not easy. I think this is one of the things that makes it so special. It requires an extra flight from just about everywhere in the world because there is no International airport there. I have the added hassle of no International airport close to me in the states so the Andamans is 4 flights in both directions and a hotel stay on the way there for one night in India. A full 2 days of travel required at minimum.
Regardless…As the fishing operators have splintered over the last few years in the region there was no real question as to who I would fish with. Akshay Malavi is an owner operator and one the best guys you could know. His new operation Andaman Angler has taken his many years of knowledge and put it to great use. His wife Nargis runs the show behind the scenes and Arjun is one of the best captains I have fished with. The boat is a brand new 38’ Royal Craft set up perfectly for jig/pop. They are using a local hotel that gives us our own rooms and bathroom in a condo style setting with living room/kitchen and individual bathrooms. Certainly nice to have your own space to retire to. Whatever you need will be stocked in your room and on the boat as you wish. Service is very good and the new format gave us access to the hotel cook so food was very good.
The fishing there is varied from day to day and sometimes from minute to minute. We spent a day deep jigging for doggies and spent another day just popping shallow reef. The rest were spread out from jigging to popping based on bait/current and timely opportunities like a random school of yellowfin we saw while in transit between spots. The fish were varied as well with a heavy lean towards GT. We caught GT, wahoo, yellowfin, dogtooth, red bass, jobfish as well as some other trevally/snapper species. We caught well over 100 GT for the trip between 3 anglers. There were many double/triple headers and on more than 1 occ