Burma Banks 25th Nov to 1st Dec (Polaris Gold)

[alvindiana]

Just returned from Phuket on Saturday. Most of the pictures are consolidated with the trip organizer so only have a few pictures of my own to share.

Only managed to get on this trip just a few weeks prior (as a replacement). Really appreciate Mark (Teo) passing me his slot and also helping with the coordination with his friend Saw for the last minute visa arrangements. Was told this was mainly going to be a jigging trip. Told Saw that I was pretty new when compared to the others as far as long range trips and jigging was concerned, had only started jigging in my last 2-3 trips. Fortunately Mikey provided me with the shopping list for the trip and helped with the setup of my gear.

Was a little worried 3 days prior to the trip as Mikey informed me that one group was grounded in Ranong due to Typhoon. Saw checked with the Malaysia organizer Chi Yuen who then reverted a day later that Polaris was out fishing and there were no problems.

We had two groups meeting up in Phuket for the trip (suppose to be 11 but dropped to 9 due to two late withdrawals due to work commitments). So it was one group of five (Saw, Law, Goh, Gan, myself Alvin) from Singapore and one group of four (Marcus, Wai, Ken and Zhong Yao) from Malaysia.

We left for Ranong once the Malaysia group landed. Took slightly over 4 hrs to reach Ranong. Had our dinner and then checked into our hotel in Ranong. After checking in, we took a walk to the local pasar malam and some of the guys tried the fried locust and worms. Managed to get a $4 hat that served me well throughout the trip.

We had breakfast the next morning and then we boarded Polaris Gold after taking a look at a much bigger boat owned by a tycoon there (also called Polaris). Hit a slight hiccup about 30mins after we left the docks as the captain realized they needed more ice. We then had to turn back and queue up behind the trawlers for the ice. Looked like a long wait so I took a quick nap and when I woked up, we were on our way to Burma to do the immigration. Was told it takes around 30 mins to reach Burma.











After the immigration was done (our passports are basically kept with the burma immigration officers until we return), we left for Burma Banks. Everyone started their steup of their arsenal of rods and reels.

First destination took around 15hrs to reach so after watching a few fishing videos and setting up our gear, we all went to our bunks to sleep (Polaris has 2 bunks of 4 in the centre and one bunk of 4 at the front with another two beds just after that). Was on the upper bed on one of the centre bunks.

27th Nov.
At around 2am, we reached our first fishing spot. Was told the fishes normally came around 3am -4am onwards so we went back to bed and woke up again then. A few mack tuna and small YellowFin Tunas were landed at around 5am onwards. Saw had a strong hit earlier but the line broke after a short fight. We moved around a few spots throughout the day, only landed red groupers and mack tunas and small YellowFin Tunas (the crew brought up the red groupers thru their bottom fishing). In the evening, we continued to get small YellowFin Tunas and mack tunas on and off and most of us turned in after that.









Around 11pm, Ah Huat (Chi Yuen's partner in Malaysia who speaks Thai) rigged up a rangong and sliced a large piece of mack tuna onto his 3 set of hooks. He had a strong take but line was cutoff just above the hooks. He then rigged up another set with wire and after waiting to a while, I went to bed too. About an hour later, heard a small commotion so woke up to take a look. There was a 5-6ft shark (had a large head and it's tail looked like a thresher shark) at the end of the line. Ah huat had passed the rod to Goh after the hookup for him to fight. Ah Huat tried to lower a rope loop to pull up the shark as some of the guys wanted to take a picture with it but the rangong gave way and the shark swam away..

They rigged up another line but after waiting a while, I went to bed and woke up in the early morning. By then , they had caught a smaller shark around 1m.

28th Nov mid morning
We moved to another spot. Picked a spot next to Ken at the back of the boat. Dropped my jig and then couldn't lift it up. Thought it was stuck but everyone kept saying it was a fish. Line moved very slowly to the left and right with some line pulled from the reel on and off. I kept saying sangkok but was able to reel in a little bit of line on and off. Ken took the braided line by his hand and after feeling it, confirmed it was a large fish. After pumping in some line for what felt like eternity... actually it was only about 10-15mins, passed my rod to Zhong Yao to help.

Zhong Yao reeled in for another 10-15mins and then I tooked over again. Finally brought up the fish and it was a large GT. The captain pierced it's airbladder and released the air and they kept the water hose in it's mouth to keep it alive. After taking some pictures, we weighed the GT. Was around 34-35kg!! After that, several other large GTs were also brought up by the others as the captain adjusted the boat on and off. Captain also started popping and a few others joined in. Was told by the others (popping was at the front while I was at the back) that the captain was popping using his jigging rod and each time he hooked up a GT, he would pass it to one of the guys to fight the GT.

At around noon, after sensing my jig had reached the bottom, had a strong take with the first stroke of jigging the jig. Fish started it's strong runs. With Saw and Law's help, we moved the rod to the front to fight the fish. We then did a tag team (Saw, Law and myself) to pump in the fish. It was another GT weighed at around 28-29kg. Strange that the 2nd GT gave a much harder fight than the heavier one in the morning.





We moved to another spot after that. Wai brought up a medium size Dogtooth Tuna about an arm's length (medium size as compared to my baby Dogtooth Tuna who looked like a small tenggiri). Several other large GTs were brought in by the others as well. By the nightfall, most of the folks turned in to get some rest while the boat moved to another spot (we slept on and off during the longer moves between spots). Boat was rocking pretty hard by now with the strong waves and it continued until the end of the trip.

Was woken up around 2am when Gan went into the bunk to wake Goh as the tuna were around again. Started jigging and caught a small YellowFin Tuna, then a blue fin trevally and then a red bass one after the other. Only the red bass was kept while the first two were released . Then all was quiet again as far as jigging was concern.



Chi Yuen and Ah Huat rigged up their bottom rangongs and started their bottom fishing. Chi Yuen managed to get a smaller red bass followed by a large GT and then a large grouper around 6-8kg. GT was released. Ah Huat caught a small metre long shark.

29th Nov mid morning
Boat moved to another spot and while jigging with my light outfit, thought I had hooked up a small tuna but line kept peeling out from my saltiga z4500. After fighting the fish for a while, the reel stopped screaming and I started to pump the fish in. When the fish came in, there was only half a tuna (something had eaten the bottom half of the tuna and it was still alive)



A few hours later, reel started screaming again while jigging and the line went slack. Actually the fish ran parallel to the boat and had to bring my rod to the front of the boat under the rods of all the others who were jigging at the side of the boat. Ah Huat gave several strong jerks for good measure and returned me the rod. Fish didn’t really fight much after that but while pumping it up, it gave a final dash and managed to get away (Ah Huat said it was probably a Wahoo). The same happened to one of the others (i.e. fish got away as well).

Marcus had a strong hook-up and brought up a large GT. After that, we moved to the final spot which took 7 hrs. The fish finder showed lots of small fishes and we started bringing up rosy jobfish one after the other (mine kept failing to get a solid hookup). Ken added a piece of sotong to his jigging hook and caught one immediately. Several of us then followed and got the same. In total, we must have brought up around 40+ of the same fish. Ken left his fish mid-water and got a strong take. He brought up only the head of the fish (something had eaten the rest of fish cleanly).

At around 9pm, we started our 12hr journey back to Burma to get our passports back. Then we travelled back to Ranong. Tide was slow so we had to literally walk the plank from the boat to the jetty. Then the captain arranged for passport entry back into Thailand. .

Had a great time during this trip. Only wished the traveling time didn’t have to be so long. Was also hoping to experience larger YellowFin Tunas (but captain said traveling to the spot would take way too long)

The captain was a very friendly guy who had no problems with us visiting his cabin on top (some captains are concern about others viewing their GPS). To make it more interesting for the gang, he would jig or pop when everyone were tired and once there’s a hookup, pass the rod to one of us to fight the fish, mainly large GTs. (had the opportunity to fight a rainbow runner as a result.). Crew was very helpful as well.

Guessing overall estimated catch for us (was mainly at back of boat so couldn’t keep track of what was caught in front)
1 6ft shark (rangong gave way)
15-25 GTs (GTs were all released)
40-60 small YellowFin Tuna and mack tuna (majority of YellowFin Tuna were released)
40+ rosy jobfish
30+ red groupers
10+ small kersi
3 red bass
1 large grouper
several rainbow runners and bluefin trevally and small sharks (small sharks were released where possible)

We were not able to take a group picture with the fishes that were kept as the tide was too low to bring the fishes from the boat's icebox. (we didn't bring any fishes back to Singapore ourselves from the trip.)

[lsk20]

nice write-up

[edylie]

Thank you for the report!

How do you rate the fishing over burma banks if it is based on 5 stars rating.

I am heading there next week and hopefully to meet with some mama YellowFin Tuna ...

Was there any reason why the captain refused to hunt for mama YellowFin Tuna other than the distance reason?

-e

[stickbom!]

Inspiring report for blokes waiting for their turn to fish BB!

[Jordan72]

halo alvin...nice report...cant wait to be there next week.

[zeck]

Looks like BB is really "hot" for anglers this season! Alot of people going. My trip is in Jan 2008! Please CNR where possible!!!

[stickbom!]

Don't worry Zeck, if the charter operator doesn't have a no release policy we'll release whatever we can for you In any case, just be glad you're going to fish BB before the commercial trawling fleet hits the place. I believe permit have been granted for the commercial fleet to operate at BB so everything will be wiped out before long. A commercial fleet can do more damage in a day than any recreational operation in a year!

Anyway, I'm telling myself not to get overly excited about the trip JUST IN CASE the action we encounter doesn't live up to the hype

[liverpool]

Nice write up
gd catches thumps up

[alvindiana]

Requested the organizer to send me this picture of the 34kg GT.

To the guys going to BB, have an enjoyable and safe trip.

[stickbom!]

WOOOOOOOOAH! Nice one Alvin!! Guess I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and wait another 9 days for my shot at Burma Banks!!