Advice needed on what reels I should keep/get Fishing in SE Asia

Started by Hoosier81, November 27, 2021, 09:06:56 PM

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Gfish

Aw man!, "a Ton" of those pesky Zebco Cardinal 4's. I'll help ya get rid of 'em. Ha! Sounds like they might be good for trading/selling stock. Be interesting to know what the availability and popularity of those reels would be there.

A friend of mine took his family back to Jakarta several weeks ago for an extended family visit, and they all got COVID-19 and had to stay an extra 2 weeks😓. We didn't know what happened to 'em as they were pretty sick and didn't call.
Fishing tackle is an art form and all fish caught on the right tackle are"Gfish"!

Brewcrafter

I have not seen it mentioned, but will throw this out there since many probably know the answer:  While having rods, reels, and spare parts is good, how are the local conditions/prices for "consumables"?  Things like line, terminal tackle, etc.  Since you are going to be there for awhile it is inevitable that you will at some point want to change out line, even if you never deal with a break off.  If line is cheap and readily available, no biggie but if it is in limited supply or expensive (hey, those panga captains are ALWAYS happy to get a spool or two of line, and Mexico is nowhere near as far away as Indonesia).... Good luck o your journey; hope to see some cool fish photos and stories in the future! - john

whalebreath

Quote from: jurelometer on November 29, 2021, 08:01:45 PMI think that folks living in western countries and watching fishing videos have a grass is greener view of some of these countries.  In reality, there is intense fishing pressure from locals sourcing protein in high population areas, and an invasion of foreign fishing fleets in remote and offshore fisheries.  In countries with limited resources and/or interest in enforcement, the fisheries can get beaten down pretty badly.    Indonesia has a pretty large population, it's waters are in close proximity to Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and not that far from China, so the pressure is pretty intense in that area.   
^ this-you won't be fishing nearly as much as you think.

As to local politics they are ever present as shown in this video


Gobi King

That video is probably fake?
China rules the south east, every country there looks to us for muscles to stand up to China,
so without going to politics, it is a FREE for all in that region.

I used fish in old Tin/Rock quarries which I was there, I did not have the ching ching to buy gear back then being a poor college student back packing through the Pulaus.

I would not fish with expensive shiny reels out there, there are a LOT of pirates still, take the Straits of Malacca, pirates are rampant here and in South China Sea.

I watched a bunch of videos of guys fishing by the oil rigs.

Op, any clue of the fishing where you are headed out to?

Brew mentioned terminal tackle and supplies, I agree, you will benefit for stashing 3x, 5x hooks, premium lines, etc.
Shibs - aka The Gobi King
Fichigan

Jim Fujitani

Good Luck!!

Something no one else has mentioned, also bring some guides.  Check your rods and take some matching guides (and thread, CP, flex coat).  You may consider gifting your rods when you decide to return, so that would remove a major concern and headache, as well as promote goodwill with in-laws and acquaintances you make.

thorhammer

Sometimes I look at my collection and go, if I had to keep five and do anything, what would it be? I fish freshwater for about everything but salmonids, and salt for everything from sea trout to tuna. For what you have in hand, I'd go in blind anywhere with the 4/0 with 80 braid and 50 topshot; large spinner with maybe a surf rod and 7' rod for it for flexibility, two medium spinners and Abu baitcasters. You might add a smaller spinner like the Card 2/3, and the Squidder does other things besides surfcasting reasonably well, if not ideally- meaning, light trolling, bottom fishing, live bait, jigging. It's just slow; however, it has a quick change spool option so you could load mono for surfcasting and braid on another spool for jigging, etc. That line-up will deal with a whole lot of fish, fresh or salt. Re line as posted above- braid lasts for years if you arent dragging across rocks or reefs, just change out mono leaders on the cheap. What I would do, though, is get everything fully serviced with new carbon drags before you go. A few back-up springs, drag washers, and AR dogs/bearings would cost but a few bucks and fit in the palm of your hand, but that would cover most of your potential failure parts.

As others stated, Indonesia is massive geographically, any further intelligence you can get about where you may actually fish helps immensely.

the rockfish ninja

Quote from: whalebreath on November 30, 2021, 01:30:18 PM
Quote from: jurelometer on November 29, 2021, 08:01:45 PMI think that folks living in western countries and watching fishing videos have a grass is greener view of some of these countries.  In reality, there is intense fishing pressure from locals sourcing protein in high population areas, and an invasion of foreign fishing fleets in remote and offshore fisheries.  In countries with limited resources and/or interest in enforcement, the fisheries can get beaten down pretty badly.    Indonesia has a pretty large population, it's waters are in close proximity to Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and not that far from China, so the pressure is pretty intense in that area.   
^ this-you won't be fishing nearly as much as you think.

As to local politics they are ever present as shown in this video



I like what they're doing in coming down on poachers, should be beneficial for recreational fishing.
Deadly Sebastes assassin.

jurelometer

Yeah, agree that that is sort of propaganda.  But there actually is something similar going on.

Over the last ten years or so, the Indonesian government has been taking a stronger stand and capturing + sinking boats that they claim are illegally fishing in their waters, but most of the boats captured are from Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, but it is fair to say that the greatest concern at this point are the Chinese boats.  

Indonesia is not  doing this to keep the fish in the water.  They are doing this so that Indonesian boats can take the fish instead.  This is an economic battle, not an environmental one, at least for now.

There are lots of papers in fishery journals about what is going on, but in a nutshell, the entire region is being overfished.  The size of the fleets of the various nations kept increasing while individual boat catch rates declined- but the overall catch rate kept increasing (more and more boats going after less and less fish).  Around 2015, the total tonnage of seafood taken in the South China Sea began to decline.  And then the territorial disputes intensified.

Will so many spread-out countries with lots of islands stacked up against each other, there is no shortage of disputes. China has recently made broad claims for much of the South China Sea including into Indonesia Exclusive Economic zone (EEZ - that 200 mile boundary claimed by coastal nations for exclusive economic use).  My point here is that this planet is a lot smaller than we sometimes think it is, and there are not any easy to access fisheries that are not over-exploited, unless they are protected.   To dive in much deeper goes beyond fishing and into (geo)politics, where I assume that our no-politics rule would apply.

But I would like to hear a bit more about Gobi's travels.   The parts of Indonesia that I have seen are pretty cool, and there is no shortage of interesting regional cuisine.

-J

DougK

Quote from: jurelometer on November 30, 2021, 08:16:01 PM
Indonesia is not  doing this to keep the fish in the water.  They are doing this so that Indonesian boats can take the fish instead.  This is an economic battle, not an environmental one, at least for now.

There are lots of papers in fishery journals about what is going on, but in a nutshell, the entire region is being overfished.  

oddly enough the fisheries in Indiana are most likely in better shape than Indonesia.. we have fisheries biologists and Game & Fish departments working on keeping the fishery going. Indonesia, throngs of illegal boats..
Quote from: http://www.seafdec.org/country-trade-indonesia/IUU fishing by foreign vessels in the EEZ of Indonesia – the country lost around US$ 3-20 billion/year because of IUU fishing and other associated activities such as money laundering, human trafficking, tax fraud 

My brother fished Mozambique many years ago and it was terrific. Then there was a hard times, then there was a war, and the shore fisheries were pretty much wiped out by sustenance fishing. It started to recover after the war and they are working hard on stopping illegal fishing, but it's uphill.

Riy2018

I would take only good fishing reel: modern lightweight Shimano spinning and Avet or Abu with Mag control.
There plenty of fishing rods in Asia, good variety of Daiwa and Shimano rods, cheaper than in US. Also locals they know better what is the best surf or boat fishing rods.

scrinch

Hi, sorry I didn't see this earlier. I lived in Indonesia for 9 years and fished a dozen times or so. Jurelometer is right about the fishing pressure there. The fishing isn't great, unless you want small reef fish or can go way out away from the coast. And unless you are going to a large tourist port, it's difficult to find a boat with a knowledgeable captain to take you out for sportfishing. The local boats and captains are mostly subsistence fishermen, and don't really know what a sportfisherman is looking for. That said, I caught dorado, wahoo, small tuna, and sailfish off of Java, nothing much off of Bali, and lots of small dorado, mackerel, and bonito off of North Sulawesi. You wouldn't need anything larger than your 4/0 with 50lb mono for any of these fish, and 20lb would be fine for most of them. I had a couple of local friends that fished occasionally on something like party boats out of the Jakarta area, and they would boast about their big catch if they brought home anything larger than a two pound bottom fish. The largest fish I ever saw them catch was about 5 lbs. 

I never tried or talked to anyone about the freshwater fishing there. Could be big carp or similar fish in some of the big rivers on Borneo or Sumatra.