When Yves Fraisseix, our good friend in India, was scouting for the right destination to start a new fishing operation, the Laccadive Islands was just one of several possibilities. Then he started to ask around about the necessary permits to run a fishing operation on the islands. Most reactions were like ”You can’t”, ”Don’t do it”, ”Too complicated” and ”Impossible” – and those were the more positive ones. In Yves’ own words, ”that’s when I knew I had found the right place!”

We all know that – all things equal – the lesser fishing pressure, the better fishing. Here was a whole group of islands in the Indian Ocean that no one had ever fished! For Yves, all that was left was to make the impossible happen. He eventually did, and when all the red tape was finally cleared, and he got the permissions to bring foreign anglers to the Laccadives, it was just a matter of finding the right boats and someone to run them, right? Well, not really…

We won’t go into detail about how the locals first thought, he was downright mad, when he returned fish (=food) to the sea – and as a consequence refused to take him out again. Or how six different Indian authorities each need to approve a ten page form for every client. The thing is, when you throw your popper toward a reef that has probably never been fished before – you don’t care about all the obstacles that had to be cleared on the way. Yves took care of that, anyway.

SEASON: November to May.

FLY TO: Cochin.

TYPICAL ITINERARY:
Day 1: Arrival in Cochin, short transfer to hotel.
Day 2: Flight to Agatti, boat transfer to tent camp.
Day 3-8: Six full days of fishing, mainly as live aboard.
Day 9: Boat transfer to Agatti for the flight to Cochin. Short transfer to hotel.
Day 10: Early morning transfer to the airport for the flight home.
Longer trips possible.

PRICE: From €3800 per person for an eight nights, six days fishing package.

INCLUDED: Flights Cochin-Laccadive Islands (return), all transfers and all meals on the islands, six full days of guided fishing (three anglers per boat), eight nights at hotel/resort.

NOT INCLUDED: International flights to Cochin (India). Soft drinks, gratuities, possible overweight Cochin-Laccadives Islands (approx. €150 per angler).

Therefore, fishing in the Laccadives is all about getting to the remote islands – and not least getting the special permissions to go there as a foreigner. If you find any local fishermen around these islands you can be pretty sure they are only targeting yellowfin tuna – with poles, lines and hooks in the most sustainable way – and the fishing around these remote islands can be absolutely amazing. All the popping is carried out along near endless reef edges, quite similar to what we fish in the Maldives further south.

Since our first visit in 2012 a lot has changed. The boats have gotten bigger, the engines are less noisy and run reliably, the food is better and the crew is working harder than ever. There is even a toilet on board now, which is a real step forward. You should, however, bring along a good dose of adventurous spirit, as we still spend the nights on the water, on mattresses under the stars.

When we are not fishing the remote islands, we sleep in a well-equipped tent camp.

We use the local wooden boats, from which it is easy to fish. There is plenty of room for three anglers and the boat crew now knows how to steer the boat to position it ideally along the reefs. The boats are not very fast, but since we cover the longer distances to the distant fishing spots at night, we lose no valuable fishing time during the day.

The Laccadives experiences a tropical climate all through the year without much variation.

The temperature ranges from 25^oC to 35^oC and outside the monsoon season (mid May to late September) the sea is usually calm. December to May are the driest months.

The fishing season runs from November and into May.

Though most people still haven’t even heard about the Laccadives it is relatively easy getting there.

From Europe there are several one stop flights via Dubai or Doha to Cochin in India. Here we spend the first night (included in the package) before we board the flight to Agatti in the Laccadives the next morning.

From Agatti we continue by boat to the neighboring island Bangaram where the tent camp is located. And from Bangaram we start our expedition, either going North or South.