Elliott took the opportunity to fish the July weekend while on a working visit with Shimano to Malaysia and Singapore.
A really nice guy and being an avid fly fisher his main desire is to catch a sailfish on the fly. Rompin offers him a great opportunity to do so according to him as compared to where he was at the time.
Rough and Slow
There actually wasn’t too many fish out there on the first day but most sailfish that we raised were HOT and exactly the type that will usually bite! We had a promising start as early as 10AM when we raised a sailfish that chased the teaser to the back of the boat.
I called for the cast and voila!, a barracuda came out of nowhere for the fly and ate it!
This is not the first time this has happened, leading in a sailfish and pulling out a barracuda instead.
For the next five hours we only saw two fish come up to the teaser. Out of that two, one followed but did not result in a shot. Slow day at the office till that stage.
Party Time
Someone let the dogs out at 3pm and things just lit up!
First at 3pm, we had two fish going after both sets of teasers. Both fish came in hot, a cast was called and Elliott made the shot.
It wasn’t the perfect execution but the fish was all lit up and went around a couple of times behind the boat.
That sailfish actually stayed behind the boat for nearly 5 minutes!
The fly was presented a couple of times but there was no eat, there was maybe a bump. A fish that hot should have normally eaten the fly but things don’t always work out like we want them to.
Elliott is excited now.
Closer
15 minutes after that two hot fish, we raised another hot fish. A shot was made and this fish ate the fly, more than once. The fish took off, line spilled out from the reel but somehow it came off. Aaargh!
All that excitement got Elliott and the crew really pumped up.
And Closer
Another 15 minutes later the third hot fish appeared all of a sudden and the teaser was quickly retrieved and a cast was made.
Elliott adapted quickly and put his new learned skills to good use. This fish ate the fly but somehow dropped it and came back for seconds.
Elliott gave the line a couple of good hard yanks and the fish took off, literally. And this time everything was looking good – and the sailfish spits the fly out. Bummer!
Things quietened down after that. The wind started to pickup. We raised a couple more good fish, made three more casts but they were not hot fish like the earlier ones.
Different Day Different Strikes
Conditions looked better on the second day from the get go. Sea was calmer and a lot more birds in the skies.
No words needed, you get the picture! Epic day with three sailfish landed on the fly.
Great effort by Elliott at only his first attempt.
