I've Just returned from a holiday in Goa and the two fishing trips I arranged and I thought I would recount the essence of my experiences for anyone else who might venture to this fasinating place.

Goa is an idyllic place to visit for a spring holiday. Wonderful people, beaches, hotel and food. But if anyone out there is in the re-cycling bussiness please set up shop in Inidia. Not only will you make yourself a billionaire but you might engender a cultural revolution which reverses the litter explosion which so mars this otherwise wonderful country.

Before I went to Goa I asked for any advice on various forums and sought out information from search engines. India is not a 'normal' tropical fishing destination. As always the internet proved it's use and I contacted a fishing 'skipper' called Tony Estrocio who has sety up a firm called Goafishing.com. Tony was very helpful before I left and through e mail I arranged two trips with him. More about these in a mo. But for the moment let me say from my near-virgin status as a tropical fly fisher thast I've learnt one important, and perhaps in retrospect, very obvious fact. In areas of high relative poverty and high population concentration, then overfishing will have made its impact, and this was certainly the case with Goa.

Tony has been a scuba diver all his adult life and is quite honest about the impact of fishing (both legal and illegal) pressure on the marine habitat. He talks of times 20 years ago whenh the inshore waters we fished had a full eco system with plenty of top predators; bull sharks, tiger sharks, hammerheads, sail fish and regular visits from whales. Sadly all of these hardly ever seen now off the waters of Goa. However, on our inshore trip we encountered small jacks, GTs, snappers, garfish etc. They gave me some exciting if frustrating sport on the fly. Tony told me I didn't need wire but I was snapped twice and when saw the teeth of some of the fish I realised why. We trolled lures for baracuda and grouper but had no luck. Looking back I wish I had taken some pirks to jig through the water column, which as Tony's fish finder showed contained some sizeable fish. How I was glad I bougtht some suitable tropical clothing and high factor lotion, as when the sun burned through the mist it became so incredibly hot. Stripper gloves also stopped me getting line burns as relatively modest fish tore off to the depths (by god they fight harder than any salmon or trout).

My next trip was five hours up the local river ( a big one). We saw crocs on route and then trolled parallel to the mangroves. Within two mintues we had on and lost two Barramundi of about 15 and 12 lb - babies as Tony called them, buit they performed the most amazing acrobatics. Then never touched another for the rest of the trip. We did however catch several respectable Mangrove Jacks. Sadly with heavy spinning gear they could not show their real worth as fighters. I tried my fly rod for them but poppers had no effect and I could not get my flies deep enough to tempt them. I also tried to get some small (Pacific??) Tarpon, but to no avail.

I now realise that the best time to fish in Goa is after the Monsoon from Setempber onwards when the temperatires drop slightly and many fish enter inshore waters to spawn. Then, even in a declining eco system, you can expect many threadfin salmon, groupers, GTs, baraccuda, king makeral etc. etc.

Tony and his helper Anil are smashing blokes and his prices are not extortionate. You can live as cheap as chips in Goa, though I enjoyed the luxury of the Taj Exotica with its lovely beaches at Benaulim.

As for the future I want to fish where conservation measures are strong and/or population densities are relatively thin. Any advice on Cuba or Costa Rica would be most welcome - (or anywhere else to truly blood myself next year or this autumn).

Thanks
Mick