tugger

What a trip!
Not exactly the one I wanted but there are stories none the less. To explain briefly without going into to much personal detail 1.5 days into the triup and my dad got extrmely sick forcing me to leave and take him back to Kimbe for care. Gutted. I was happy to write it off as I have enjoyed the experience before. I was devastated for him as he was having such a good time. He managed one small black bass for his efforts. Thus I am left with not a lot to report except images. I am sure @John would be happy to fill in many details.
Points of interest were the bass were challenging to target due to an early arrival of white bait but some creative use of soft plastics enticed many to bite.
As far as hard bodies go trends moved back to my first trip experience with FCL Labo lures killing.
I do not have heaps of time to write paragraphs so will add some pictures now and more text later or reply to questions as they come.
Visit to the village:

Black  Bass (Have so many more but how many can you see?):


 
Other Lutjanus species for the trip:

Trevally:



 
Questions? I have so many more pictures of bass, cod, randoms, jacks... just trying to choose highlights.

Yeah but I am winning the lotto tonight so I'll have plenty of money

Good day at the boat show just need to win lotto now as I know what I want beers were nice and cold to

Yeah but I am winning the lotto tonight so I'll have plenty of money

Yeah but I am winning the lotto tonight so I'll have plenty of money

Good day at the boat show just need to win lotto now as I know what I want beers were nice and cold to

If you go Saturday I will head in with you Julian

If you go Saturday I will head in with you Julian

I'll call you after work mate. Got some pressies for you too as a thanks for cleaning my boat after last trip.

If you go Saturday I will head in with you Julian

No sure what sort of fish they were....some sort of white bait. As for the smoked jacks....well that was a bit of a strange one.....lol.....the boatman was smoking them to take back to his family. Once smoked he would just stack them away in his stuff never to be seen again.....lol....but we didn't care, he was a really good boat operator and a really funny guy. It's always a lot of fun living with guys you can't understand and they can't understand you. Every night they offered us beetle nut, mustard beans and lime and it was great to be with such humble people. All the others would eat our dehydrated meals but Niko the boatman was really into his clean pure food. One afternoon we caught some tarpon and kept one and as soon as we got back to camp he had a fire built and a stick in it's gob cooking it. (Pic attached) By the way....Tarpon are extremely bony.

Definitely wild country the scenery would have been enough for most punters then throw in bass that want to pull you out of the boat for the whole experience

Great trip Stu moments you will never forget

Just epic the scenery the rivers the waterfalls the journey the huts the fishing the adventure 

Great trip Stu moments you will never forget

Great report Lance and there are so many more things that happened that I pop into my head each day and i have a little chuckle to myself.
One of the most memorable was one afternoon when Lance and I were fishing a particular area that was holding plenty of Bass and we were slowly motoring up to a really good looking snag and I looked at Lance then looked down at his rod and Said.  "Jeez...give me a look at your rod".....well gullible Lance went to hand me his rod and I quickly fired a cast off to land it right beside this big vertical log sticking out of the water. Well that backfired on me and because I was laughing and trying to get the cast off so quick I put the lure straight over a branch above the log and it didn't hit the water. Well Lance was quick on the uptake and fired a cast straight at the log also and didn't do much better and went straight over the top of the log and tea bagged his lure right beside the log. Well a cranky bass came flying up and grabbed his lure that was barely touching the water and took off. There was a few frantic moments getting it off from around the log and the fish was boated. Lots of laughs and it was released to happily swim another day. That was just one of the many moments that will stick in my head for a very long time. 
I feel very lucky to have done what we did and it was awesome to do it with a good mate. I think it's best if we add to this report as we remember things and clearly we probably should have written a diary every day. Anyway good job Lance and bring on the next trip.
Here's a picture of the hut from the river and some mangrove jacks that were smoked traditianally over the fire in the hut.

This was our crew for the week.
Nicko, he was the boatman and owner of the boat.
He would have to be one of the best boat operators that I have ever fished with.

Ono, he was our deckhand for the week.They both really enjoyed their Beetlenut.

Eko was our cook and general hand who did all of the running around to arrange, pay and pick up anything we needed both before and after the trip.

Then we have Teddy. He is our fishing mate over in West Papua and we have fished with him twice now.
I am hoping that he will come over here in the near future as his bucket list fish are of all things a Kingfish and Murray Cod and we will return the favour by hosting him here in Australia and taking him out fishing to experience some of what we have to offer here.

Just epic the scenery the rivers the waterfalls the journey the huts the fishing the adventure 

Just epic the scenery the rivers the waterfalls the journey the huts the fishing the adventure 

On the 25th March, Stu and myself set out on a trip deep into the jungles of West Papua in search of the mighty Black Bass in some river systems that have never really been fished except for the local villagers in the area.
This was a trip of epic proportions with months of planning and 3 days of travel to reach our destination.
Our journey seen us fly to Bali and then Makassar where we spent the night in a motel and then we boarded another plane at 2am to fly across to Biak where we met up with our local mate Teddy.
We were supposed to jump on another plane the next morning for Serui on the island of Pulau Japen but bad weather seen all planes and ferries cancelled so we sat this out for 2 days.
This gave us a chance to have a look around Biak so we could  visit the local fish market and check out the different sights around the city.

 

 
On the
On the second day we got to hike deep into the most beautiful valley that you could ever wish to see to catch a Spot Tail Bass but unfortunately the fishing was very quiet.
The scenery and the waterfalls were just spectacular to see and not catching any fish here really did not matter.





Some local villagers that lived downstream paddled their way up river in their dugout canoes and picked us up and took us downstream through a series of rapids and log jams to where they had a long boat waiting to ferry us out of this insane prehistoric looking valley.
The scenery was absolutely spectacular with heavy rainforest reaching right to the water.
As dark fell, the fire flies came out which was just amazing to see.
On the third day, we decided to jump on a fast passenger ferry to Serui  instead of flying over due to the excess luggage and camping gear that we had to take with us.
This was a 5 hour boat trip and it gave us a chance to see some of the local islands and coastline which was a very enjoyable part of the trip.

We finally arrived in Serui  where we arranged a driver with a small truck to run us around to find a motel for the night and to do the necessary food shopping and fuel purchases that we needed to arrange.
After purchasing  1200 liters of fuel and enough 2 stroke oil for the trip and a ute load of food and water, we had dinner and then headed back to the motel  where we settled in for a hard earned rest before the huge trip into the jungle the next day.
Life in Serui is vastly different to other parts of Indonesia that we have travelled through.
The rubbish and filth around the city is unimaginable and really has to be seen to be believed.
No one uses a rubbish bin or takes their rubbish home, they just drop it where they have finished with it and the water’s  edge around the small harbour was a tip site on its own.
It is one place that I would be very happy to never see again.



The following morning we struck our first major hurdle when the guy supplying one of the boats went missing  so we were left with only one  boatman with his 6.5m long boat to take us fishing for the week.
We loaded this poor boat up with all the camping gear, food, water,  fuel and 6 people and  I estimated that we had over  a 2 ton payload all up but she went like a rocket ship with the twin tiller steer 40hp Yamahas.
Our  boat trip was around 150km to where we wanted to camp but our plans changed when our  boatman grew up in a small village on an adjacent waterway.
It just happened that they also owned the river system that we wanted to fish in so on our way into the jungle we stopped at the village where he grew up so he could introduce us to the chief and also so he could catch up with his family and friends.
After meeting the chief and the other village elders over a coffee, the chief invited us to stay the night in his house with his family.
As it was getting late in the day and with no chance of reaching our campsite before dark, we kindly accepted his offer and we spent an amazing night with some of the nicest people you could ever  wish to meet.



Up bright and early the next morning, we headed off through this long and narrow waterway where we eventually popped out into the river system that we wanted to search for the elusive Black Bass.


Spread throughout the river system were these  little fishing shanties on stilts over the water that the villagers have built for their fishing trips and we were offered the opportunity to use any of these that we wanted.
We checked one out down near the river mouth but it was a bit small for us all so we ventured further back up river where we found this amazing little shack sitting proudly over the river with its own little jetty at the front door.
This was now going to be our campsite for the week so we unloaded the boat and then ventured off to have a look around and to have an arvo fish.





We ventured upstream into a small lake system that was 3.5km long and it had 5 separate entrances from the main river.
These creek entrances all held Black Bass, Mangrove Jacks,  Trevally and Tarpon and then inside this lake was hundreds of small palm islands, trees and stumps,  which many had good numbers of fish around them.
This was an amazing little waterway to begin our week of Black Bass fishing.



The next 2 days were spent down around the river mouth in the pure salt water looking for the bigger Black Bass.
We fished many miles of creeks and anabranches and even the adjacent river system but sadly we couldn’t find any fish down in this area.
They would have to be there as the water looked good but they were either shut down or maybe there at another time of the year.
The next few days we decided to stay well up river in the lake area where we caught our fish on the first day.
This proved to be a bonanza with many fish being hooked, landed and lost.
Most of the fish caught this trip were on the topwater  using mullet poppers and just a few were caught on deep divers.
Tarpon were everywhere this trip and were fun to catch when the bass fishing was quite.
You could see the schools of Tarpon finning on the surface and their bubble trails in the water everywhere.
A quick cast over their heads soon stirred multiple strikes at the popper.




















 
The last day we had some bad weather coming in so we decided to get out of the jungle and start the journey back to Serui.
We spent the night in a boatmans hut at the village again as the spring tides had made the creek too shallow to navigate in the dark.
After a good nights sleep, we headed off at 4.30am to beat the falling tide.
This time we hit many stumps and also had to drive the boat over whole trees to reach the deeper section of the creek.
Once out it was full stick down the river and across the bar to the open water where it was quite choppy for the first 50km.
About half way back to Serui we pulled into a small village where our boatmans wife lived so we managed to get a nice jug of hot coffee and buy an extra drum of fuel to complete the trip.


 
Hugging the coastline to avoid the choppy waters, the  trip back was beautiful as we navigated through a series of tropical islands and over some shallow coral reefs.





Once back to Serui, we found a motel for the night and we all enjoyed a good feed and a few cold Bintangs.
The next morning we boarded the ferry for another 5 hour journey back to Biak
Here we stayed another night at Teddy’s house before the final 2 day journey back home.
Overall it was an amazing trip and venturing so deep into the jungle with no support and no idea of what to expect added to the thrill of this adventure.
The people we met and the places we got to experience will be something that all of us will never forget.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I am a living example of the chances of getting ciga poisoning i have eaten more large spanish over 40 years or more than most people. I have never had any touches of ciga over the years but that does not rule out the chance of getting it all together if you're worried try a small amount the night before anyone else in the family has sone the next day 

I am a living example of the chances of getting ciga poisoning i have eaten more large spanish over 40 years or more than most people. I have never had any touches of ciga over the years but that does not rule out the chance of getting it all together if you're worried try a small amount the night before anyone else in the family has sone the next day 

I am a living example of the chances of getting ciga poisoning i have eaten more large spanish over 40 years or more than most people. I have never had any touches of ciga over the years but that does not rule out the chance of getting it all together if you're worried try a small amount the night before anyone else in the family has sone the next day 

I have a original black queen and a black knight both i have owned for just over 40years  and look similar to yours. Your rod has had the eyes replaced and a new coat of resin over the rod as my queen has got done by a mate recently but my knigjt is original with very dirfent looking eyes on the rod.

Bugger I will miss this unfortunately will be setting up camp on the gold coast