Two or three hundred metres astern, a trio of enormous creatures erupt from the sea like Polaris missiles. This is the moment we've been waiting for. One of the crew hands a rod to the customer in the fighting chair, line still stripping off the reel at a rate of knots. Periods of meditative peace, interludes spiced with a fine anticipation, are punctuated with bursts of action and high excitement. Big-game fishing is also a great excuse to sit on a boat in the sun and drink cold beer.
Fishing is the most popular participant sport in the world.
Gamefish are blue-water species. They like deep, clean water with movement and lots of baitfish. And this is precisely what the Andaman Sea has to offer. Barracuda have the reputation, but compared with wahoo, they're pussycats. It's the sailfish and marlin, however, which are the most popular catches.