Hi everyone, may I tag along ?

[IyaDiver]

Hi Guys,

Scuba hunting forum, the kind I been looking for. I am new and would like to say Hi to everyone. I may be ur furthest away member, some 20+ hours by flight from my place to Florida.

Looks like this is a very nice & friendly forum. Been reading many post last night and have picked up a lot of info.

I been hunting for about 10 years now and still very active hunting.

I hope I am welcomed here.

Thanks
Iya

[Steel Shootin']

Glad you found Spearboard, Iya. Welcome aboard, and we'll look forward to hearing more from you about spearfishing in Jakarta.

[richhermes]

Pardon my geographic ignorance.

Where the hell is Jakarta??

Wecome to the board, Iya!

[johnhermes]

Indonesia?

[frogman]

Iya,
Welcome to Spearboard. I have read your LOOONG posts on the "other forum". We look forward getting your input here.
BTW, Jakarta is in Java, Indonesia.

[fernandezh]

Iya,
I visited Jakarta back in 1998 and stayed at the Sheraton Media Hotel and Towers, a few streets away from the Presidential palace and the Javan Sea. I was there for just a few days, and because I was there for work I didn't see very much of the capitol or of Java. After my stay there I went for 2 weeks to Bali where I stayed just outside of Kuta.
Although Bali and Java are part of Indonesia I was surprised to see the differences in cultures from Hindi and Muslim on those two islands. I was in Bali when Megawatti was preparing for the election to parliment. I went spearfishing only a couple of times there and didn't shoot anything too big but I am sure it was because I was on the wrong boat for it.
One interesting thing was on my first dive I was chased by a sea snake. I remember it was black and white with a flattened tail at the end. I was about 2 meters off of the bottom when it came out of the sea grass and started swimming for my face. I remember swimming backwards as fast as I could but the snake kept coming at me. Those snakes are about the most poisonious snakes in the world. The boat captain later said that the snake was proboly seeing his reflection in my mask and though it was another snake.
Where did you learn English? Have you ever been to the USA?


Hector Fernandez

[IyaDiver]

Thanks for the warm welcome boys.

YEP, Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia. Indonesia is very long, we are neighbours to Thailand on the west side all the way to Australia on the east side and and the north side we are on the border to Philliphine, Malaysia and Singapore. We have the Indian Ocean to our entire south coast, the Pacific Ocean to our east and so many more seas of our own. Bali is just a small part of our country but a very important tourist gateway, untill those bad ass bomb it. Now it is trying to make a come back.

Unfortunatlely my city Jakarta is located on one of the most unproductive area of the country (spearing wise ) the Java Sea. Garbage dump and polluted water average depth of 140 feet.

Frogman, it took time and by accident finding this nice forum. I thought all forum worldwide would be freedive hunting specific. I'll share as much input as I can at the same time I like what I read here...:D

Fernandezh, Good to hear u been to my city, not the best place in the world but nice if you know it well enough. Bali actually offers one of the best hunting ground, according to my friend based there. I been there a couple of times but not at the sweet spot. If you like hunting dog tooth tuna, it is easy to find it there. 22 pounder and above is easy to get and since Bali get's the Indian Ocean too, it can be real good if one has his own boat to do some survey. That sea snake is common and in fact one of the most poisonous one in the world. They usually surface in the morning. Not known to attack anyone on purpose but they are curious.

I spent a bit of schooling days in Singapore so that's where I picked up English. I been to the US only 4 times, 1997 was my last visit. I mainly visit Miami and Florida area because I sell yachts for a living and it is my hobby. Visit the Miami boat show twice on those visits to accompany my clients, they tab the bill...:D. My little brother lives in the US and just got his US citizenship, now back to school in MIT to do a business degree. He is my opposite, he studies hard while I play hard... ha ha ha.

Anyway, scuba hunting is of a very limited circle here, eversince the 1997 crisis cost of imported goods been un-affordable to us cause the price went up 400%, I mean my currency nosed dived that much.

I have a few groups of hunters, but the core ones consist of about 10 boys. I try to be out every week if possible. My favourite places are the Indian Ocean side of my city. One is 125 miles away by boat and the other is 250 miles away, if I calculate from Jakarta based marina. The 250 miles away location can be done with 4-5 hours car drive and some 30 miles charter boat ride. The 125 miles away location can also be done with a 2.5 hours drive and 50 miles charter boat ride. These two spots are the Indian Ocean.

When my pocket is empty, I hunt the closer area (islands). Renting a 12 meter/38 footer wooden 8 knots traditional slow boat for US$80-100 a day shared by some 6 divers. This area can mean no fish, I mean no worthy fish.

Being based in Jakarta the capital is only good because of the city being the most "modern", spearing wise the eastern Indonesia is much more exotic. We have problems of cynide and bomb fishing, a typical poor 3rd world country problem. The pollution and damage of shore line habitat is also another set of problems. No matter how I put it in words, you guys in the US is by far luckier in terms of catch quality and quantity even with bag limits. Here we have no bag limits but the fishes aren't that many, not where I live.

I also can not hunt the active oil rigs, by law it is not allowed. I dove some 50 dives on a cluster of oil rigs some 50 miles north of Jakarta, in the Java sea, untill they wanted to arrest my group, so we ran off...:D :D That was the last dive we did on the oil rigs in year 2000.

Now I mainly hunt offshore rock pinacles either submerged ones or those that pops out all the way to the surface. This is the Indian Ocean side.

For the poor Java sea, I can only hunt on the wrecks. I have a few big 500+ footer wrecks but viz is almost always in the 15 feet region with current at 2.4 knots when strongest. Here we can only find the Golden Trevaly, Giant Trevaly and red snappers.

Depending where I hunt, I try to narrow the species I hunt to only pelagics, mainly dog tooth tuna, Narrow Barred Mackerel, giant trevalies and still trying to nail Wahoo and yellowfin tuna (never had the chance to pull a trigger on these 2 last species, never even seen a Wahoo in the water ). Amberjack is not available in my area, in Bali they can be found.

Our big sized groupers are not as delicous as those u guys hunt, I have seen a few potato cod ( grouper) but since they are rare here in my place, I don't shoot them. The most prized grouper we have is the red grouper, same species as those found in Australia. Can grow up to 10 kg but the nice eating ones are the 1-3 kg size. This species can be found in many places.

Gee the post is getting long....;)

Once again thanks for the warm welcome.

IYA

[Screen Name]

Welcome to the board! Send us some Jakarta fish pictures!:D