Indonesia, Riau - Fishing in the seas around Mapur Island

Mapur Island is administratively considered part of the Bintan group of islands which are in turn part of the Indonesian province of Riau. Mapur is located in the South China Sea just east of the main island of Bintan.

This trip in late July/early August of 1999 was my first fishing trip to Indonesia. A 45-minute ride onboard a fast Catamaran ferry brought us from Singapore's Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Bintan. From here, we transferred to a speedboat before boarding the fishing boat, a fine 50-ft fibre-glass sports fisher. 

On the way out to sea, we encountered extremely strong waves and had to "take cover" near a small island. At around 6.00pm local time, we moved out again and soon reached the designated fishing grounds for this trip. Strong waves continued to hit the boat causing everybody to slip time and again as the boat pitch and roll to the wishes of the sea. We had to grab hold of rails as we move around the boat. Falling into the sea in such conditions would have brought with it unthinkable and probably disastrous consequences! 

Anyway, we soon settled down to fish but the strong waves made life difficult. As night fell, the waves subsided a bit and the current also slowed down. But by now, almost everybody on the boat had been knocked out due to sea-sickness. The only people who were still fishing were the boatman, Kenneth (one of my fishing buddies) and myself. The boatman managed to land quite a number of table-sized Sweetlips or Kachi (Diagramma pictum), Black-spot Snappers (Lutjanus fulviflamma) and a single round-faced Batfish (Platax teira). 

Using a freshly-scooped squid as bait, I lowered my line into the sea. After feeling that my sinkers had hit the sea-bed, I started to retrieve my line slowly. Almost immediately, I felt a strong tug. This was followed by a pull as whatever it was that had fell for my fresh squid, realised its mistake and started its bid to escape. But it was no match for my Penn multiplier reel and Abu Garcia Commodore rod. Soon, the huge Fingermark Snapper (Lutjanus Johnii) was on the boat. It weigh in at slightly under 4kg.

Also using a fresh live squid, Kenneth's bait was taken as soon as it hit the waters. The strong run of the fish gave Kenneth a good fight but like my Fingermark Snapper, the fish was soon on the boat. It was a beautiful 2.5kg (about 5lb 8oz) Golden Trevally (Gnathanodon speciosus).

Soon the strong waves returned to haunt us and since it was not productive to continue fishing in such sea condition, we decided to call it a night.

The sea was calm the next morning. Several more Kachis and a small Coral Trout (Plectropomus pessuliferus) were added to the catch but the night's Fingermark remained as my only catch of the trip.

The Author, Timothy, posing with his rod-caught Fingermark Snapper (Lutjanus johnii), Mapur Island, Indonesia (1999)

Some of the trip's haul, Mapur Island, Indonesia (1999)

Note from the Author: This article is an excerpt from an original article that was written for and published in a regional magazine on recreational angling. The lack of photographs in this article is because most of the photographs taken during the trip were copyrighted by the said magazine who had acquired the publishing rights to those photographs.