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Mark Harris

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Just back from a wicked day out at Batu Abah, the main GT site in Bali.  This was a last minute decision as I was supposed to be leaving for the UK to attend a wedding. What can I say other than thank you for the cancelled wedding...... (that's a whole other story... ).

Some members of this forum have been at Batu Abah when the north/south current is really running and it is an awesome spectacle. But I kid you not, today was like nothing I have ever seen there. The combination of the new moon with recent storms and 2-3 metre swells  hanging around as an after-effect of that, created an absolute raging boil on the run up to high tide.

After about 40 minutes I realised the absolute futility of casting chuggers and surface sticks into that - it was just impossible to work them. I also realised that for the first time in years I did not have a single pencil in my bag.  So it had to be sinking stickbaits and I started with the prototype new fast sinking Heru Bobara, which had been sent to me for testing.  A very good choice as this little beauty started to get hit immediately and I did not fish with any other lure for the rest of the session.

To cut a long story short - lots of hits, lots of misses and some very solid fish landed. Pride of place goes to a brute of fish which had me convinced I was into a 50 kilo animal. What I didn't realise was the enormous effect the ridiculous current was having on that belief.  This fish gave me hell before I got it to the boat. Measured up at 124 cm fork length with a beefy 101 cm girth. I called it at 40 kg but it could have been a bit more than that.  Two other fish in the 30 kg class (and one little 17-18 kg job) made this a day to remember.

All the fish were caught on the prototype new Heru Bobara with my Endless Passion 82/38. I cannot speak highly enough of the lure. Although it is a fast sinker, I was using it with quite a speedy, tapping retrieve which meant the lure spent much of the retrieve in the sub-surface. It has a roll which looks so enticing and it behaves differently to the existing Bobara in that respect.  It still has the darting motion of the existing Bobara. Absolute pleasure to use even in today's incredibly challenging conditions, and one to look out for when it reaches the production stage.

As always thanks goes to Adhek Amertha for setting up the day so well, and to his knowledgeable crew for doing all the right things yet again.

Some pictures.  Not great pics by any means but good record shots and not a wide angle lens in sight :).

124 fork length with 101 girth, about 40 kgs:


About 32 kgs:


And about 30 kgs:


A small one:


The pain beginning to show:


Prototype fast sinking Bobara which did all the damage:


Loaded up Ep 82/38:
Last Edit: March 24, 2012, 10:00:25 PM by Mark Harris

John Cahill

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Mark well done to you and to Adhek, spectacular days fishing and wow that current!  Bring on Wednesday with Eddi!
ebbtidetackle.com

Mark Harris

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Yes mate - see you Wednesday! It was insane out there today.

Geoff Volter

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Mark - great report! The sea looks heavin' in those pics.

What's your opinion on the original Bobara?

Mark Harris

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Thanks Geoff. It was truly heaving and stupidly I did not take any specific pictures. But you can get a feeling of it in the background of the fish shots.

I am a fan of the original Bobara and own a lot of them in all sizes, but I think I like the new prototype fast sinker even more. I probably should not describe the differences in proportions in any detail as they may well change before it hits production, but I can say there are differences. It is not just a heavier version of the original Bobara.

Jeen Raj

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Nice GT Mark. And good insight into a sinking stick bait in rough seas.



cheers,

Jeen

Rob Langridge

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A little ripper of a report Mark.

That fish in the second picture look very healthy. It a beautiful looking fish.
Cheers Rob.
Cheers,
Rob

Mark Harris

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Thanks Rob.

We often find the fish at this site look very healthy. I think they are extremely well-conditioned by the monster currents.

Simon Bomholt

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Big Congratulations, mate.
That looks really cool. Hope we will get into some like that in some  weeks :-)
Greetings
Simon

Jay Burgess

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Come on Mark, where's a smile  ;D


Andrew Susani

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Ha ha ha yeah, doesn't look like you are loving the sport there Mark!  ;)

Just the act of casting, working lures and then fighting fish in the heat of the day and the power of those currents... it's like doing a gym workout in a sauna here in summer  :P  Our max tide movement is something like a 6.7m high and a 0.5m low, usually about this time of year.  Do you have any idea what tidal difference these photos are?

Do you think the GTs prefer the big current?  When the current is macking like this do you find they sit in lower speed currents rather than the full spin cycles?
Focus on the pop

Mark Harris

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Yeah, yeah Jay  8).  I never smile much :).

Andrew, yes sapping conditions here as well.  It was 38 degrees in the sun yesterday but there was at least some breeze.

As far as I know the tide movements are not as big as those you quote...... more like 3 metres. It is more to do with the geography I think. Batu Abah is the very westernmost point of the narrowest point of the Lombok Strait - notable as a deep water channel and as one of the main passages for the Indonesian Throughflow that exchanges water between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Many people will have heard of this stretch of water as The Wallace Line runs straight down the middle - it is effectively the dividing point between Asian and Australasian flora and fauna. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Line , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombok_Strait .

At Batu Abah the Strait is at its narrowest, only 18 km wide and the sheer mass of water that rushes through there creates some remarkable currents.  Yesterday we had the after effect of a 10 day storm and the new moon thrown in as well, so it was especially dramatic.

My strongly held opinion is that the bigger GTs there are far more likely to be feeding at the surface when the current is running hard, and at other times they stay much deeper on the adjacent reefs.  The most productive waters at Batu Abah are 5 metres to 25 metres deep, then the drop off shoots down to 100 and then 200 metres very quickly. 

I have caught GTs when it is dead calm out there but it is very hard work and they tend be smaller sub-20 kg  fish.

So to answer your question, I am 100% sure that bigger GTs prefer the strong current at this site.

As for where they tend to sit, I always try to concentrate on the edges of eddys and other obvious small changes in the water. I would say that improves your chances a bit but it is not the full story for sure. Yesterday for example the the 2 biggest fish were both hooked up right in the middle of foaming wash on casts aimed at nothing in particular.

That's quite a long answer, but as you might imagine I have spent a lot of time thinking about the dynamics of this site - often on the numerous occasions when I have fished there all day without a sign of fish and wondering why!

Lenny Lim

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Spot on, Mark ! Great catch on a location so near to home  ;)

We have just signed on a trip to Acheh for gt popping and doggie jigging. Wonder if the spot would be productive...

Cheers.

Mark Harris

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I guess that is the spot in Aceh that everyone goes to as I think it is the only one?

They have had a good year up there for sure.

Jay Burgess

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Yeah, yeah Jay  8).  I never smile much :).

Trademark pose  :P