Let me start by saying that our trip to the Maldives was very last minute, we found a place to stay and then my next agenda was to try my luck fishing to catch a GT, Mahi Mahi (Dolphin Fish) or Wahoo. After contacting the resort where we were staying and finding out how much it costed, I looked online where I could find an alternative fishing charter. Which lead me to Fishing Booker and came across Latheef’s Alpha Royale crew. Our flight arrived shortly before 8 am and the earliest time we could go fishing would be the Night Fishing which would start at 4 pm. Giving us some time to relax, go for a swim and grab lunch before going out. Before Latheef confirmed the trip, he asked if we would consider heading out at 1 pm instead since it would be difficult to navigate back to our resort at night with the present of the reef into the jetty. No issues there with us, meant that we could still grab a quick lunch and be back later in the evening to have dinner.

Two days before our trip Latheef contacted us, giving us details where he would pick us up and what time. By the way, Latheef and the crew arranged to pick and drop us back to our resort at no extra charge (Fantastic!!!). He also told us the forecast and sea conditions what we could be expecting as it’s been raining and roughs seas.

On the day when we arrived it was overcast, soon after we checked in and went to grab breakfast the skies open up and it started to bucket down with rain - the wind was was quite strong too. Fearing the weather was going to get worse or continue, I was anticipating that Latheef would contact us to cancel the trip soon. About 1 hour until the crew would come to pick us up, the wind dropped and the rain stopped. Patches of blue skies started to appear - thank God our trip would not be cancelled or ruined.

After Alpha Royale came to pick us up, Latheef asked what type of fishing I would like to try fish. I really wanted to catch a GT so told him I like to give popping a go, if that doesn’t work we can go jigging or trolling if the fishes aren’t biting. We travelled 10 mins until we reached our fish spot, gave that area a good workout for 15-20 minutes no bites so we moved onto the next spot. No luck at 2nd spot so moved to the 3rd, again nothing so the 4th. One of the deck hands managed to excite a GT to bust the surface but it never managed to hook on. We gave that area another 10-15 minutes. Then we spotted a school of fish breaking the surface chasing bait fish, we quickly went to that area and trolled around the edges. Nothing to our lures and not far in the distance we spotted a pod of dolphins so we decided to take a little break and head over there to take some photos. There was literally couple of hundreds of them, it was amazing to see them up so close and more so when you see them breaching the water.

We then decide to give popping a break and head to a totally different area to jig for coral trout, wahoo and bottom feeders. No luck at the first spot so we moved to a different area again. On the way to the 2nd spot we can across a school of bonito feeding, so we decide to troll and within a few minutes we were on. Only managed to hook one bonito but that was a good sign of things to come. At least we’re on the board with a fish, even though it’s not the best table fish - a fish is a fish after all and we were happy to come out and catch something than go home empty handed.

We got to our 2nd spot, started jigging again and Latheef managed to hook onto a small rock cod of some type. He was ever so nice, passed his rod over to me and told me to bring in the fish. So I handed him my rod with my jig still in the water. After I landed the rock cod, fish on my own rod and this one felt heavy and had a bit of a kick to it.

Be hold when I could see colour, it was bright orange and straight away I knew I had caught some sort of coral trout. Wow, was it beautiful or what, so it turns out it wasn’t a coral trout but a coronation trout. What a prize and keeper! Took some snaps as a trophy. The deckhand and the crew cleaned the fish and later cooked it up for everyone to enjoy before we were dropped back to our resort.

I have to say the crew and Latheef were friendly, professional in all his dealings. We even shared photos and stories of our many catches we had on our phones. At the beginning of the trip with the weather we encountered on the day, and after trying the many different spots including coming across the school of bonito who weren’t interested in our setup. My hopes was fading away as the hours went by, but the crew and Latheef never gave up. If one spot or type of fishing didn’t work we would constantly more or change tactics to increase our chances of success.

Fishing is a game of patience as well a bit of luck is involved on the day, with a great crew our luck of catching a fish increased significantly with their drive and knowledge of the area.

Would recommend anyone coming to Maldives to look up Latheef and his