Somewhere in Indo!

[Andre van Wyk]

Thought I'd share this with you guys...

One of my best mates, Groj, ( his name is Jorg, we call him Groj, Jorg backwards ) who I've known since I was 6 months old, we been mates since before we could walk, recently quit his job here in Cape Town as head engineer of a roof tile factory, because after making 27 million roof tiles over the last couple years, he reckonned it was time to do something fun with his life...

He's a pretty genius mechanic ( youngest qualified Land Rover mechanic in Land Rover history before he started running rooftile factories! ) so he thought about doing a conversion to Marine Mechanics and engineering, and maybe heading to the Med or Caribbean possibly to work on the boats....

Now I must tell you Groj is not a super "Boat" guy... he's never fished in his life, despite being one of my best mates, he doesn't fish, at all.... he's a surfer and a dirt biker....

Anyway, one drunken evening we were chatting about what he is gonna do with himself, and I jokingly said to him " Why don't you get hold of the Indies Trader Surf Charters, and see if you can work on one of their boats!? "... I said it jokingly, becuse getting a job on one of their boats, would be almost akin for someone who has never fished in the ocean before, getting hold of Nomad Sportfishing and asking them for a guiding job.....

Anyway, in our drunken state we laughed about it, and that evening he dropped Indies Trader an e-mail, just for fun pretty much,..... 3:00am in the morning he got a call from the owners saying send us your passport details, we'll fly you out next week... Boom, just like that.... So he flew off to Jakarta, spent a month in dry dock with the Indies Trader and they left on their first charter about a week ago....

I of course said to him he's gotta try fish while he's there, I'm sure he'll see some amazing areas with epic fishing...

Got these pics from him today... first fish ever... on a popper too!!!





He said it kicked his ass!!!

He reckons the fish were lose... every cast the guys were hooking up...

Gotta say I felt like a proud father when I got this mail!!!

Super stoked for him, and we just might have a new GTpopping addict in our midst!!

[Ryan Theyer]

Thats awesome Andre.......

The release picture is something I have never seen before. I can guarentee he will be back for more after an experience like that.

Well done to your freind 

[Gary Prerost]

Outstanding subject in the 2nd shot and go the Groj may he never make another roof tile again this maybe his calling in life ,love the clarity of the water just awesome.

[Jay Burgess]

Thanks for sharing Dre, awesome story 

That underwater shot of with the GT is epic!!

[Mark Harris]

Love the story Dre and thanks very much for sharing.  Superb photos as well.

Amongst Indonesia's remote surfing locales I was wondering where this might be.  I see that Indies Trader visit the Mentawai Islands and that would make a lot of sense as there are undoubtedly lots of GTs there and it is not at all heavily fished so  the GTs would go for every cast!

[Jon Li]

Hi Mark ,

You are right , Indies Trader boats are operating the stretch of Nias and Mentawai islands in the western coast of Sumatra for years . I met some of they guys who are operating the blue hulled Indies Trader motherboat occasionally at the dry dock around December - March each year when I slip my boat for anti-fouling n other repairs .

Some anglers from Jakarta have gone to those areas but they don't seem to get as spectacular catches like those in the eastern part of Indonesia .

Nice underwater images , Dre .

Jon .

[Rob Langridge]

Great little story there Dre i guess the picture with Groj and the GT underwater is a picture he will have fond memories and cherish for the rest of his life.

Cheers Rob.

[Andre van Wyk]

Thanks for the comments guys.... just spoke to Groj on SKype, the bugger got another 2 GT's the same size in 4 casts this morning!!!

Reckons the skipper says the fishing is better than they've ever seen... 70% hit ratio.... reckons he's hooked!!! SO stoked!!

Gotta say as jealous as I am, I cannot even begin to tell you guys how stoked I am that this has happened for my bro Groj.... he's had a tough couple years with some really tragic incidents, and having life turn around entirely for him like this is truly magical....

[Andy Rowe]

Great stuff Andre, the water is incredibly clear there.

I've heard mixed reports about the mentawai's but you have to take a lot of info you get here on GT spots with a large grain of salt.

[Mark Harris]

It may not even be the Mentawai Islands.

[Andre van Wyk]

Cheers Andy.... not actually sure where Groj is at the moment in Indo.... the Tader boat he's on ( they have 4 ) has the longest range of any of the surf charter boats operating in Indo..... Which is pretty awesome because they can get to areas no one else can, which means they are probably in pretty untouched waters.... judging by his descriptions of the action, it sounds like the fish where he is see VERY little angling pressure....

I reckon I might need to pull a "Mates Rates" trip out there... 2 week charter is $70,000.00 USD for the boat, so don't think I'll be able to afford that!!!

[Mark Harris]

Great stuff Andre. What he now needs is a dose of reality fishing in a "land of 1,000 casts" location

Some surf charters are amazingly expensive, so not surprised to hear that number.

[Nathan Cefai]

great pic of that GT underwater mate,thanks for sharing yew