26th September – 17th November / 2 – 4 Foot
Collins & Co x Mangalui Ndulu cover over 1000 Nautical Miles leaving no fishing hole unturned to end our 29th consecutive season. Padang to Jakarta and everywhere in between.
Words and pics | Uncle Lip
The Group
Family friends, father and sons, Mangalui virgins and some original Mangalui veterans with fishing as the priority.
Conditions/Forecast
The southerlies continue to blow, the cold murky current continues to run and coming into summer we didn’t see too much swell but it didn’t stop us from making the most of the waves on offer and certainly didn’t stop us from hunting down clear warm water for the Collins & Co big game spear fisherman.
Standout Sessions
With so much playing ground from Padang to Jakarta many standout sessions were had but it was certainly when we found the clear warm water and hours was spent underwater hunting that took the chocolates.
The day we cleaned up on dogtooth tuna at a new fishing hole started the campaign off in fine fashion, we’ll be keeping that mark on the GPS to ourselves…or when we explored the islands between south Sumatra and Jakarta diving the alleys and getting plenty variety of tasty eating fish.
Personal best species were ticked off including mangrove jack, red bass, longnose emperor, bigeye bream, trout, Māori seaperch, dogtooth tuna with a few lads shooting their very first doggys as well.
A few waves in between fishing were also enjoyed along the journey at a few well know Mentawai swell magnets.
Wave of the trip
Young Miki was right back at home enjoying the long Indonesian lefts on offer surfing every chance he had and managed to score some nice barrels in between the fishing mania.
Personalities
The competition each day between the Collins & Co big game spear fisherman on species and size of fish which had the boys going to the tally board each afternoon while enjoying a few beers and one another claiming who was champion for the day that had everyone laughing all evening.
Food
With all the fresh seafood hunted daily the options were endless for Putra and Chef Situ in the kitchen. From cuttlefish marinara, ceviche, sashimi, tuna sushi, BBQ trout and cod, beer battered fish and chips, mangrove jack tacos and much much more. We ate like absolute kings over the last 21 days! When the seafood is that fresh and Situ is working his magic, we found ourselves constantly saying “we could live off seafood the rest of our lives”.
Fish on
Well, the photos speak for themselves!
The official fish count that was tallied up on the 16th. (after the 16th we stopped counting) – 176
Dan on a whopping 71
Mikala on a respectable 37
Everyone got on the board nicely but I think it was most important for all the boys just to get up over Bruiser (the man who has taught them so much diving & spearfishing)
With a long absents from Indonesia it was safe to say young Ty was stoked to be back quoting..
“it’s so good to be back”
as he watched the sun go down from Sumatra’s number one beer garden each afternoon.
"It's so good to be back"
Special Thanks
Always the crew, putting the long miles in on this trip and getting us to Jakarta safely, and for the guest who supplied enough seafood to last everybody in the team for the next few months.
Yours truly Uncle Lip