Hi All,
We did return as promised, (refer to 'Timor Adventure' post Dec08) we had a proper speed boat this time which allowed us to better investigate the potential of the Islands around Alor in the eastern Nusa Tengara Province of the Indonesian Archipelago. Four Days of perfect conditions and the fish came out to play and put everyone to the test. A good assortment of East-Indo GT's from rat sized to 45 kg were released with more than a handful of lurking bigger fish effortlessly burying tackle in the reef on big drags and PE10 line, next time I'm going to take some PE12 and really lock it up. Other species including Dog Tooth Tuna, Bronze whaler shark, blue fin trevally, red bass and green Job fish were taken on poppers.
Our tackle included, Carpenter WV80XH, SP78EXH, Ripple Fisher GT Flex, Kaibatsu SM and dogfight and SW18K reels. With an assortment of poppers including offerings from Heru, Craft, Hammerhead, FCL Labo, Patriot Design and some other locally made lures.
The company was excellent and everyone had first class trip under very down to earth conditions with our excellent guide Verdi and Captain Bacho, this was a return trip for Brad B. and myself. Our third member was Brad L. who had never fished in this manner or caught a GT. After spending the first day figuring out how to cast and retrieve a popper, his first GT ever opened its very large mouth and sucked down a dumb-bell close to the boat, the fish was huge, luckily it took the lure in deeper water chasing scattered bait. Brad's first ever GT weighed in at very respectable 45 kg
...beginners luck...but then he proceeded to land the next 2 biggest GT's over the following 2 days
One of the funnier moments, was Brad B taking a strike and calling red bass, a couple of easy pump and retrieves on the wild violence and I see the carpenter begin to develop a very serious bow as the 'bass' puts its fin down and the reel screams in protest as PE10 starts stripping off the spool, the look on Brads face becomes a lot less nonchalant right about now and the fish turns across the bow with both brad and the rod bent over backwards trying to follow the fish under the bowsprit, Brad B ended up landing a very respectable Doggie, at the same spot as I had landed a 30 KG doggie the previous day. The dog tooth I landed the previous day was also a first for me and I was very impressed by the incredible power of the fish.
Enough talk here are some pictures.
More pictures to follow tomorrow morning.
