Our trip
started at 8 am in Tanjung Benoa and we headed to Nusa Penida first. The first
stop made was a couple of bays down from christal bay. The visibility was generally
ok but that didn’t help the fact that there were no big fish around. After
about 1.5 hours of swimming the bay up and down all we have seen was a group of
big Emperor fish and few bigger groupers that where hiding deep in the caves of
the bay. Other than that there were just the standard schools of unicorn fish
and a lot of small reef fish. Nobody knows where but of course Eenk was able to
catch something decent which was a medium sized barracuda. Approx 4-5 kg.
Once back
on the coast of Bali the visibility was a bit murky at the top but once diving
under the layer of warm water the visibility on the bottom was fairly decent.
It was an amazing spot and we all saw a different kind of nice and good eating
fish. There where schools of medium sized dog tooth tunas, loads of different
trevallys, mackerels and of course lots of medium sizes reef sharks.
It was once
more a pleasure to see Eenk becoming one with the ocean and watch him diving 30m
down and resting for minutes on the bottom waiting for the right catch. As you
can see from the picture this tactic was a success and he shot what he calls a decent
sized barracuda. Approx 22-24 kg. Apparently nothing compared to the 38 kg fish
he shot in his home town in Java a few years ago but seeing him holding that
fish (which btw is taller than him) with 4 cm long teeth lets you only imagine
the fight this beast gave him before he could reel him in. This was obviously
the catch of the day!
Other than
that I shot a few trevallys, Pablo once again went for the beauty price as we
can see from the fish on the left side and Rob added his sandal so he would
also be represented on the catch of the day picture.
My last
shot of the day was a fairly decent sized trevally that I had to share with
some more or less uninvited friends. After seeing many small sharks all day I was
aware that this could happen any time but I was shocked by the extend of the
attack on my catch. Apparently I shot the fish just e few meters next to what
seemed like a very well frequented shark cave. After reeling the fish in and
almost holding the spear with my hands I realized that there where about 10-15
sharks following the shot trevaly and where asking for their cut of the catch.
I figured it would be best to leave these boys what they came for as there were
by far too many to battle. Even though we all regularly see some reef sharks
while shooting it was a very frightening experience to be surrounded by a mass
of fully grown grey reef sharks. It made me feel a little bit better when Eenk
told me that he hasn’t seen so many sharks in a cave before. 
Other than
that we had a great day out on the ocean and once we were all back on board we
where waved good bye by a school of dolphins.
As we were
all dead from too much sun and no one had the energy to start the bbq that
night we did it the next day. As an appetizer we cut the bigger trevally into
sashimi and made a Balinese style grill with the rest of the fish.
All in all
a perfect weekend amongst friends and family out on the ocean and back at the
BBQ.
Keep our
oceans clean and hunt with respect for mother nature!
