Ahoy captain, let’s go spot some fish

The activity of fishing in the deep sea was always considered as a fisherman’s job, but not many knew it’s also an international sport. But siblings Sangeeth and Santhosh wanted to change the perception and started the sport fishing company called Blue Waters to provide deep sea sport fishing adventures along the coastline. We decided to spend a half day with the team at Chennai harbour to get an idea about this recreational activity that has become a rage for many. Mukundan Sampath, an avid swimmer and one of the team members of Blue Waters, took us around the Chennai Port and explained about the deep sea sport fishing.

“People didn’t know about the existence of this activity because we don’t have any such facilities available in the country. It is a very common activity in foreign countries and tourists travel around just to experience fishing in different part of the world,” says Santhosh.

When started off they received a lukewarm response. But once people came to know about it, many showed up at the Royal Madras Yacht Club in Chennai Port, where the company is operated from. “We have two speedboats (a custom-made and an imported one) in which we take people for fishing expeditions deep into the sea. We do fishing up to 6 hours in the deep sea where we travel five nautical miles (approximately 9 kms from the shore).

At the reef from 70 feet, there is a sudden dip of 230 feet depth where we troll — it’s a very good place for fishing. There are remnants of a Bangladeshi ship that was sunk in 1980. That is another huge habitat for fishes. Once a fishing trip is confirmed, we send the details to the port authorities for permission. Usually, they don’t make any fuss about it! We have people between the age group of 8 and 80 on board,” he adds.

For deep sea fishing, one should have knowledge about weather patterns, navigations and safety precautions. “Our boat master is from the nearby fishing community. So every day, he will get to know about the weather conditions. He also knows the best fish spots along the coast. We follow the catch and release practice that is a technique of conservation,” says Mukundan.