Makassar, South Sulawesi Indonesia - Part 3 Jailamu Islands

After a dissapointing 1.5 day at Takarewataya reef, we moved to another spot further down south where Jailamu Islands are.

A view of Jailamu Island

Everyone tried popping at the calm surrounding but with strong winds, i had trouble standing to cast

The deckie taking a break

Jason landed a handsome Coral trout on Sevenseas Hooker

Followed by Darren with a GT on Sevenseas Revolver jig

Darren Yuen hits another GT .... this is a good GT spot

Jason also hit another one at the same spot on hooker

Dogtooth by DarrenC

Coral trout on Revolver...this is hell of a jig

Emperor..I wonder why the fish sizes here are so standardized

Coronation trout on Hooker

Some weird fish, unidentified species

Coral trout on Sevenseas hooker by DarrenC

Kelvin's Jobfish on Shout Stay

Little doggie brought up ..felt so heavy suddenly it came up so light...tail was bitten and broke

Kerisi on Hooker - 1

Approx 8kg Kerisi on Hooker -2

Darren-C amberjack-1 10kg on Fisherman Andaman

Darren-C amberjack no 2 10kg also on Andaman

All in all, this trip came up with quantity but not size. Also the boatride was kinda long. It took us 7 hours from Makassar jetty to Tarakewataya and from Takarewataya to Jailamu Islands another 4 hours. The major pain in the ass was the journey from Jailamuk back to Makassar which took us a whopping 13 hours !! With the rough sea conditions and strong winds, it made matters worse when the deck's ceiling was leaking from the rainwater from the top deck.

It was quite an experience for me, but sad to see that most of the fishing grounds reef has been ripped apart by commercial fisherman by bombing the reefs :(. Hopefully one day, there will be better charter boats operating in Makassar as most fishing boats in Makassar are converts from diving boats.

Makassar, South Sulawesi Indonesia - Part 2 Takarewataya

Waking up from the nap was kinda dreadful as we only have less than 3 hours for it. Thinking I was late, I ran helter skelter enroute to the reception only to find out the rest are still in dreamland ! After waking up everybody, we proceed to the reception to wait for Wiwied's arrival. We were ready to board Theodoras after 1/2 an hour's wait at the jetty as they'd to pickup another 2 participants on this trip at the docks where she is berthed.

Length: 47 feet x 12 feet

Engine: Single Yanmar Marine 120HP Turbo max @ 8 knots

Electronics : GPS & Echo sounder

Cabin : 4 x aircond, 4 x open air The sleeping space on the deck

The boat also lacks of rod holders which the sleeping space was turned into rod table !

Our first destination was to head to the reef called Takarewataya about 70 miles away from Makkasar which took us nearly 8 hours to reach. One significant landmark on this reef is the lighthouse that caught my attention. Its design explains that its a very old light house and we were told that it was built by the Dutch during the Dutch occupation days in Sulawesi. Surprisingly, its still functioning today and its smacked right in the middle of the reef.

The lighthouse from far

First blood of the day, Bluefin Trevally

Rod: Seed Custom

Reel: Ryobi Safari

Jig: HOTS Kten

Coronation Trout

Reel: Evergreen Poseidon Slowjerker PE3

Reel: Shimano OceaJigger 1500P

Jig: Sevenseas Revolver

Dogtooth Tuna

Rod: Evergreen Poseidon Spinjerker PE 3

Reel: Shimano Stella 6000FA

Jig: IMA RODogtooth Tuna

Rod: Evergreen Poseidon Spinjerker Pe2.5

Reel: Shimano Stella 5000FA

Jig: Sevenseas HookerGrouper from 160meters

Rod: Tenryu Jigzam PE 3-5

Reel: Shimano Stella 8000FA

Jig: Sevenseas Hooker

As little as the picture shows of the catches, the spot was indeed very unproductive on the first 2 days there. From our observation, it seems that there are alot of small boats out there anchored on the shallower portion of the reef. According to our guide, the locals bomb the reefs for fishes for a living due to price of fuel is expensive in this part of the world, it would be more worthwhile to bomb the reefs than netting. Quite a sad sight infact. After spending the 2nd morning without much bites, we've decided to move on to the next spot which is 5 hrs away further south of Takarewataya.

Makassar, South Sulawesi Indonesia 22-27 October 2008 - Part 1

This trip was initiated from Jason who had kept in contact with the organizer who organized his trip to Padang earlier this year. We were told that this trip, we'll be heading to Takarewataya Reef and Jailamu island at the southern waters of Makassar onboard a dive boat converted to fishing boat, Theodoras on a 4 days 3 nights expedition.

As the date for the trip was getting nearer, I was informed by Jason that there were more slots available for this trip. So, after thinking for some time, I hurried to get the necessary bank procedures done and rushed home to book my airtickets. In the lapse of 5 hours, I was a confirmed angler for this trip together with Jason, Kelvin, Darren-Y and Darren-C.

Kelvin and Darren-Y monkeying at the gate anxious to get there

Daniel from Ipoh, good to go with Darren-C

AK 1026 to Ujung Pandang, Makassar. Yup thats our flight. Air Asia, Now everyone can fish !

On the evening of arrival, we were greeted at the airport by our organizer's friend who transported our equipments and luggages to the hotel while their owners were escorted away to do some groceries shopping for the next 4 day's supplies of our kretek cigarretes, Coke, Pocari, rootbeer and junk food.

Touchdown at Makassar !!

Our little pickup truck. Trust me this old junk aint a junk ! Anyway, its our luggage and equipment's ride :)

Right after that, we were chauffered to the Hotel Pantai Gapura to meet up with Wiwied, our organizer and guide for this trip and check into our rooms. Once everyone was done with their luggage, we were brought to this BBQ seafood restaurant Apong, supposingly to be one of the best in Makassar town.

The reception areaMeeting up with Wiwied Apong BBQ Restaurant !!..Finally some REAL food.Kelvin and Darren-Y monkeying with Fanta botol infront of the lense Thats what i call SOLID seafood !Another view of everybody at the restaurant

After a hearty meal of Makassar local seafood dinner and a good chat, we adjourned back to our hotel rooms to cat nap and wash up ourselves. What impress us the most was this hotel have their own jetty and we'll be boarding the boat at the hotel's jetty itself at 2.am ! This could buy us more time to cat nap as by the time we reached the hotel, it was already 11pm !

The walkway leading to our rooms...Good night for now...to be continued in Part 2

To be continued ....

26-28 September Pulau Jarak - GT Chaser

This was a long planned trip since the first trip on GT Chaser earlier of the year. Exactly one month after Lucornia, my hands got a lil itchy and I went on to this trip to expect some fun from the GTs of Pulau Jarak off the coast of Perak with a totally new group of anglers. As this was Joseph's first live-on-board trip and also first Pulau Jarak trip, a Golden Snapper and 2 groupers was the jackpot first timer prize on this trip followed by Jason with 1 Grouper and a Golden snapper.

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Although no monster GTs were landed this trip, the juvenile GTs certainly did provide us with some fun on light popping setups. I've personally hooked up an unstoppable train when I was jigging with Evergreen Poseidon Spinjerker PE 2.5 and Shimano Stella 5000FA setup with Shout! Stay jig when the fish decided to give it a run to the other side of the boat, causing my line to graze the body of the boat while sticking my rod down into the water. When I've managed to shift the rod to the other side of the boat, the fish continued with its run. As I continued to crank back some lines, I've noticed there were frays on the mainline which I'd suspect it resulted from the line grazing on the boat's body earlier.

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Looking at it, I've tried an managed to retrieve back more line to get the frayed portion back into the spool. Unfortunately after what seems to be a lifetime tug of war, the fish decided to give me some good headshakes like as if its telling me `bye bye`and it gave its best burst of its last bits of energy resulting in the horniest scream my Shimano Stella 5000 can ever give followed by a loud *piak*. It was like waking up from a sensational wet dream which I knew it was not a dream, I looked at my Evergreen Poseidon Spinjerker PE 2.5 dissapointed, without the sexy bend it has produced 2 minutes ago.

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What an`orgasm` I had went through. If only it could reach the `climax`. This is the 3rd time this year at Pulau Jarak on GT Chaser I've got bullied by these unstoppable train. Hopefully on January next year, I'll have all the fate to bump into them again and try my very best again to fight them. 0-3 but the game is not over yet. I shall prevail !

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Below are some pictures from Jason's camera as I've yet to receive photos from the other camera.

Jason's opening account in first day's jigging

1-2kg speciment on Tenryu Jigzam PE 3-5, Shimano Stella 8000FA, Fisherman Marado jig

Jason's first hit on Popper

Albert's GT on Halco popper

Lucky first timer on GT Chaser with his 2kg-something-3kg angchor

Followed by a good sized grouper

Khoon wresling his first catchAnother baby GT!

Loading the rod

Juvenile specimen on Shimano Caranx Kaibutsu Light Pleasure, Shimano Stella SW10000XG, Jai popper

Khoon hits another

Big eye trevally in broad daylight ??

Jason's barracuda taken on jig during the hot boring afternoon

Double hookup at sunset
Another hit before the sky gets dark

Also on the same popping setup

Edmund's hookup Happy angler with his first GT on his first l.o.b trip

Before we anchored for the night, I've managed to land another GT

Khoon's GT on the final day that made us thought it was a giant grouper Birds following behind the boat as there were plenty of baitfishes swimming behind and beside the boat