Anambas Catch Report part 1

[NightAngler]

Duration 28 Apr - 6 May

Trip introduction

This expedition was organized by Raffles Marina upon invitation by the Indonesian marine/fishery authorities. I did not probe further to find out what’s the main reason behind the invitation, perhaps it’s to raise the awareness level of what Anambas can offer & generate some tourism revenue.

Total no. of boats: 16
Est. no. of people: 50

It’s a mixture of sail boats, long range cruiser & fast cruiser/sport fisher. Dive charter boats White Manta & Black Manta were also part of the group. The slower boats departed earlier on 27 Apr, medium speed on 28 Apr & fast boats on 29 Apr.I was on the sport fisher (Blackwatch 40) & supposed to depart with 3 Ferretti (fast cruiser) on 29 Apr. Due to some miscommunication, the 3 Ferretti departed on 28 Apr morning & our boat has to head to en-route meeting island alone (P. Bawah).

Sport fisher had traveled to Nongsa marina (Batam) on 27 Apr but awaiting full crew to arrive via ferry on 28 Apr.

Day 1 (28 Apr Saturday)
1830 hrs – TMFT ferry to Nongsa, Batam

2200 hrs (Indo time) - Instead of sleeping overnight in Nongsa, our boat headed out to Berakit to fish overnight. Bought abt 10+ Kg off “mobile kelong” anchored outside Berakit vicinity. Only few fishes (tanda, ah moi, stingray) landed.

Day 2 (29 Apr Sunday)
0800 hrs – set off to P. Bawah (meeting pt, 113 Nautical miles). It will be 140 nautical miles when setting off from Nongsa, Batam.

1400 hrs – reach P. Bawah. There’s a very well sheltered lagoon at this island but the only available entrance is between 2 high rock peaks. The early group had deployed 2 red buoys at this 2 rock peaks so that other boats can enter safely. Small channel clearance of abt 4-5 ft during low tide & abt 9-10 ft during high tide. Upon anchored inside P. Bawah lagoon, our boat took a rest as well as had our lunch. Others were deploying their tender (small dinghy) to explore the coral reefs, beaches & scaling the small hill.

1600 hrs – headed out of lagoon to try fishing the drop-off near lagoon mouth. Dead current & not a single bite encountered.

1700 hrs - went to eastern side of the island to explore. C&R a cobia (est. 10 lbs). Other fishes were small kaci, leng chiam, see leng cheng & also some catfish.

2300 hrs - headed back to lagoon

Day 3 (30 Apr Monday)
0800 hrs – thunderstorm with strong SW wind. Some boats have dropped anchor in sandy seabed to avoid damaging coral reefs & few boats anchor didn’t hold well (incl. ours which has insufficient scope). Pulled anchor & re-anchor further apart for safety clearance. This storm also held back our departure time to P Siantan (main island of Anambas)

1000 hrs – though storm had passed, 1.5-2 M swell with white caps were still seen outside lagoon mouth.

1100 hrs – took our lunch awaiting sea state to calm down further.

1300 hrs – head towards P. Siantan (44 nautical mile)

1530 hrs – reach Pulau Siantan (tip of main island)

1600 hrs – reach Tanjong Tebu (berthing pier/resort). The pier can hold 3 boats of 40-45 ft length & there are big rubber tyres as pier fenders. 3 rows of resort rooms (6 rooms per row) are built on wooden stilts. Some rooms have sea fronting view. Resort rooms are available at abt SGD 70 per night (rates subjected to seasonal demand). A Singaporean boater who’s been visiting Anambas for the past 12 years owns 1 row of the resort room with sea front view.

1630 hrs - After a quick early dinner, we started sourcing contact of local fisherman who can be our guide for the next few days. Managed to get a commercial fisherman’s contact through resort owner (Pak Tolam). We did our own liaising & had arranged that the prospective guide meet us at berthing pier the next day ard 0600 hrs.

2000 hrs – Top up 600L of diesel fuel. Unlike stories told by earlier batches of boaters encountering poor quality fuel in the 90s, fuel quality had improved. Fuel supplier is now Pertamina, Indonesia & fuel pump operation via resort owner. They are stored in 6 X 50,000L storage tanks. Fuel is pumped via gravity feed to boats berthed at pier. Reasonable flow rate of abt 25-30 L/min despite gravity feed. Took us about 25 mins to top up 600L.

Day 4 ( 1 May Tuesday)
0600 hrs – Woke up early but no sign of the guide.

0800 hrs – Had our breakfast at the resort with mental preparation of things had screwed up. Wife of resort owner start telling us that the guide had been waiting at the pier since 0600 hrs. Unfortunately, we had never met before & the guide was shy to approach a foreign sport fisher. As guide had recommended using selayang (tiao keng) as bait, he has to head back to main town (Terumpah) to get us the bait.

0930 hrs – Upon return of the guide, we headed towards P Pendjahlin (an island with very nice coral reefs recommended by trip organizer). It’s abt 20 nautical miles from Tanjong Tebu. At certain stretch, passage is treacherous with shallow reefs.

1100 hrs – Reach Pulau Pendjahlin. 3 Ferretti were there a day earlier. Surrounding consists of 4 small islands spanning abt 700M. Within these 4 islands, it’s very nice coral reef everywhere.

1200 hrs –Took our lunch. Other boats were deploying tender (small dinghy) to snorkel the extremely beautiful coral reef everywhere. Unfortunately, there isn’t much marine life sighted due to past years of bomb/cyanide fishing. Such unethical fishing had stopped for a few years but remains to be seen how long it will take for marine life to recover.

1300 hrs – Being anglers, we decided to anchor further off from other boats to wet some lines. Boat was anchored at abt 30 ft of water. One of the lucky anglers got a strong take on his hand line. After some mins, to our surprise, it’s a Napoleon Wrasse. As it was the very first decent fish for the angler & he very much want to land it. Nonetheless, all others were kept aware that for subsequent landing, they should be released since it’s a protected species in some countries.

For the next 1 hr, there isn’t any other fish. We decided to head out to deeper waters (100-120 ft) to explore further. There were some local “pon pon” boats trolling for tongkol (1-4 lbs).

1700 hrs – Boat owner’s girlfriend won’t be joining us for our overnight trip so we send her back so she could take a ride from other boats back to Tj Tebu.

1730 hrs – Headed to fishing spot (14 nautical miles from P Pendjahlin)

1815 hrs – Scan with given GPS co-ordinates (last digit wasn’t given), managed to locate spot within 5 mins. It’s a rock of abt 6M structure height in seabed depth of 80M. As the guide uses a Furuno sounder/chart plotter onboard his commercial long lining fishing boat, possibilities of chart datum error is very much reduced since Furuno default chart datum is WGS 84. The Raymarine C120 color chart plotter onboard the Blackwatch has WGS 84 chart datum & the Garmin handheld which I’d brought along also has WGS 84 chart datum.

1830 hrs – Strike rate was sporadic. Landed a mixture of kerisi (ang ko li 2-4 lbs), red grouper (2 lb), potato cod (2-6 lbs), red snapper (1-4 lbs), red emperor (1-6 lbs), 1 pc of red bass, a few ang cho alike but with more pinkish body like the tanda. Total catch for the night is estimated to be abt 80 lbs of fishes. There’s lots of Ah Seng whenever boat drifted beyond 30M of the rock structure. We stayed overnight at this spot. I was the only angler who fished through the night till morning. Radar zone guard alarm (set to 0.45 NM) was switched on upon nightfall. This is a safety feature to send out a loud audible alarm whenever any vessel approaches our boat nearer than 0.45 NM .

[NightAngler]

Day 5 (2 May Wednesday)
0700 hrs – Headed to Udang oil rig. (46 NM). We were told by trip organizer that both rigs have resumed operation for abt a year due to high oil prices.

0930 hrs – Reach Udang oil rig terminal B. Troll a few rounds around rig structure but not even a single take. Not too long later, rig’s logistics supply boat approaches us. We were told via VHF radio that we have to stay 1 NM away from the structure as it’s a restricted area. We then headed towards Udang rig terminal A but upon approaching, were told to stay away too. With much disappointment, we left the oil rig & headed back to Tj Tebu. In any case, we see workers onboard rig structure fishing. Moreover, the local guide told us that commercial long liners are there daily. IMHO, it’s not worth another visit till the rig become abandoned again. Location of these 2 rigs is in the chart plotter.

1000 hrs – Head back to Tj Tebu (50 NM)

1130 hrs – Met a passing thunderstorm & lasted abt 45 mins.

1300 hrs – Upon reaching near Tj Tebu, decided to head to their main town (P. Terumpah) to have a look.

1700 hrs – Head back to Tj Tebu.

1900 hrs – Cultural event& dinner hosted by Indonesia marine/fishery authorities.

Day 6 (3 May Thursday)
0900 hrs – Turtle release by Singaporean owner of one of the resort. It’s local practice that locals can bid for turtle eggs at any island for commercial revenue but they have to nest 10% to release back to the sea. Apparently, control & management isn’t ideal. This Singaporean came to know about it & bid for a small plot with the intention of 100% release. They were fed in enclosure nets below resort rooms till abt 2 years old.

1300 hrs – Top up fresh water from resort. There’s 2 kind of fresh water though they are from the same source. The water hose at the pier is “unfiltered” & algae/sediments can be seen. The water to all resort rooms are “filtered” & good enough for drinking after boiling.

1400 hrs – Top up 800L of fuel & 300L of fresh water (from resort water outlet)

1500 hrs – Head to 2nd fishing spot off P. Pendjahlin (45 NM)

1800 hrs – Pass by a unjam (FAD) & stop for abt an hr. Local were getting some selayang but our feather jigs don’t seem to work. One angler onboard starts jigging with metal jig & got a tongkol.

1900 hrs – Left unjam & head to 2nd spot

2000 hrs – It’s non-stop action upon anchoring.

0000 hrs - By midnight, 2 freezers (200L capacity) & a 96 quart ice box were full. Fishes were kerisi (2-7 lbs), red snapper (1-3 lbs), red emperor (1-9 lbs), Japanese red (2-9 lbs), and small red grouper. Total catch is estimated to be about 250 lbs. We have to C&R lower quality fishes like kachi & Japanese red.

Day 7 (4 May Friday)
0600 hrs – Head back to Tj Tebu (40 NM)

0900 hrs – Reach Tj Tebu

1100 hrs – Top up 800L of fuel & everyone took a good rest to prepare our return trip the next day.

Day 8 (5 May Saturday)
0700 hrs – Head to P Bawah fishing spot which guide gave us. Main target are big grouper up to 100 Kg mark. Biggest he had landed from long lining is 300 Kg. Spot is along our way back to Nongsa with only minor deviation (50 NM from Tebu)

1000 hrs – While whole tongkol/arrow squid baits are down, a tenggiri (9 lbs) was caught on metal jig

1300 hrs – Head towards P. Bawah for a short stop-over & quick lunch (packed from Tebu)

1400 hrs – Head to Nongsa, Batam (140 Nautical miles over open waters)

1500 hrs- Hit by passing thunderstorm. 2 M swells with white caps all over. Had to slow down to 8-9 knots

1630 hrs- Swell subsided slightly & powered up to 18-19 knots

1730 hrs – Hit by constant SW at 20-30 knots.

1930 hrs – SW changed to Southerly at 20-25 knots with 1-1.5 M swells

2100 hrs – Southerly changed to SE approaching Berakit vicinity

2245 hrs – Reach Nongsa, Batam. Finally, a tough return leg of abt 9 hrs was completed

Day 9 (6 May Sunday)
0930 hrs – Check out Nongsa, Batam

1100 hrs (SG time) – Cleared Changi ICA clearance

1130 hrs – Reached SAFYC (end of trip)

[NightAngler]

Summary

• Mainly suitable for bottom fishing. With the 2 oil rigs resuming operation, can forget about trying for the big GT there.
• Water depth up to abt 300 ft without steep drop off.
• Our fishing grounds are in depth of 180 -250 ft. Fishing within 10 NM is carried out daily by the small local boats. Good spots are those at least 20NM away from islands.
• Max sinker weight of only 500g at 250 ft depth despite spring tides
• Total fuel consumption for the Blackwatch 40 is 4000 L Covering about 700 NM & 90% of gen-set running hrs.
• Engines – twin Cummins C450 (450 HP turbocharged)
• Genset – Onan 10 KVA E-QD series

Technical faults encountered

• A Selene 46 encountered engine/gear engagement trouble which is likely due to fuel starvation (dirty filter). As its engine is fully electronics controlled with gear box interlocking, a “low throttle sensor” alarm automatically disables gear engagement control.
• Some sail boats hit the shallow rock patch while entering Nongsa marina.
• The Blackwatch has intermittent fresh water pump operation due to faulty pressure cut-out switch. Pressure switch was electrically bypassed & pump operation was manually controlled via circuit breaker. Under such circumstances, at least one fresh water outlet must be fully opened whenever pump is on to prevent excessive pressure build-up bursting the weakest joint.
• One of the Ferretti prop hit a shallow reef & had to slow down its speed to minimize shaft/prop vibration. The same Ferretti also encountered low engine oil pressure warning on its return leg but managed to reach Nongsa safely.

Navigation points from Nongsa, Batam to Pulau Siantan (Anambas)
Chart datum used: WGS 84

Nongsa
01 12 071N 104 05 758E

Pulau Bawah (Nongsa – Bawah 140 NM 057 deg heading)
02 30 710N 106 02 200E


Pulau Telibang (Bawah – Telibang 30 NM 008 deg heading)
03 00 000N 106 05 600E


Pulau Singka (Telibang – Singka 10 NM 028 deg heading)
03 09 000N 106 10 300E


Pulau Siantan (Singka – Siantan 5 NM 011 deg heading)
03 14 000N 106 11 200E


Tanjong Tebu (berthing pier/resort) (Siantan – Tebu 3 NM 098 deg heading)
03 13 611N 106 14 346E


Total distance from SAFYC – Nongsa - Tebu is 200 NM

There’s many ways to reach the main island (Pulau Siantan) of Anambas. The above route is chosen for deep waters & also provide interim shelter should it be necessary. It’s necessary to process both inbound/outbound port clearance for Anambas. This procedure can be handled by the resort at Tanjong Tebu. Administrative & service charges are applicable. (total abt SGD 200).

Electronic chart plotter (Raymarine C120 with Navionics map cartridge) onboard the Blackwatch is not very accurate for Anambas islands. Encountered offset error of abt 12-15 M to the west. Actual location of ship should be abt –ve 0.008-0.010 E with respect to chart display screen.

[NightAngler]

Some pics for the trip

[edylie]

Bravo Bravo YS!!!

Thank you very much for the catch report. I am very impressed by it
Nobody landed any Dogtooth, Escolar or anything alike?

Thank you.
Best Regards,
Edy

[Daiwa_Siao]

diam diam never go fishing...once go...go to such beautiful place hor

is part 2 coming up?

[MarkR]

Sounds like a real adventure YS! Super write up!

[Nelson]

Yew Seng,

Good detail write out...great efforts.

Thanks,

[DaFrogman]

YS,

A really great write up, you must have kept a very detailed log.

Thanks also for the boating and map datum info. I have more or less ignored many of the coordinates preset in my Furuno Electronic Chart, as they are very very outdated for my waters.

What is your personal opinion of the Raymarine sounders compared to their Furuno counterparts?.

Glad you guys had an uneventful trip with some decent fish action.

Saimee

[belial]

Hi Yew Seng,

thanks for the detailed writeup, maybe we can plan a trip up there sometime. sad to hear the the udang rigs are out of bound, i had many fond memories there.

[layman]

YS,
Thats a great report! definitely makes one itch...

rgds.

[NightAngler]

Glad to know you guys didn't find the long Catch Report boring

Originally Posted by edylie

Nobody landed any Dogtooth, Escolar or anything alike?

Depth of Anambas waters is only up to abt 300 ft. Doubt the species you have mentioned exist though ocassional landings may be reported.

Originally Posted by Daiw Siao

is part 2 coming up?

Full report already in this thread. There's a limit of 10,000 words in initial posting so got to break up into few parts.

Part 2 no more but possibility of trip 2 instead targeting only the big grouper

Originally Posted by Dafrogman

Thanks also for the boating and map datum info. I have more or less ignored many of the coordinates preset in my Furuno Electronic Chart, as they are very very outdated for my waters.

If you had noticed, there's annual variation(longitude) in paper charts.

Some paper charts has annual variations that has to be adjusted after year of publication. This is shown in the compass rose with a long arrow. The small nos. in brackets written along the long arrow is the annual variation (e.g. 2' E). Yet to see W annually variations but may be applicable for other parts of the world

Example : For every year after date of publication, chart has to be adjusted 2'E X no. of yrs after publication

Electronic chart plotter are merely digitized paper charts. Some of these charts are published after survey done at least 20-40 yrs ago.

In any GPS set, system setup menu usually has automatic variations adjustment (probably adjusted via signal source at satellites). The numerical digits that are displayed in our GPS sets (incl handheld) are usually accurate every year through auto adjustments(option). However, graphical display on chart plotter has many charts superimposed onto one another. Since different area may have different variations, manual "offset" has to be carried out in different area to get the most reliable readout(against graphical background).

I'd tried "offset" in the Raymarine chartplotter but it's only available in 01 deg units(instead of seconds). Will find time to meddle with the manual offset. For my Furuno
GP-37 (DGPS & WAAS ready but numerical readout only), they can be manually offset in 0.001 units(longitude).

Generally, for positional accuracy, I only trust numerical digits. For returning back to fishing spots & positioning boat for anchoring, I only trust numerical display.

Originally Posted by Dafrogman

What is your personal opinion of the Raymarine sounders compared to their Furuno counterparts?.

In general, Raymarine screen display graphics resolution is better & more realistic. Operational aspects wise, both brands are reliable but Furuno may score slightly better.

For color chartplotter, Raymarine beats Furuno hands down for display graphics/resolution but the Furuno seem more stable/reliable & also better in accuracy.


Having said so, the more expensive model for both brands may have better display resolutions. The Raymarine sounder on the Blackwatch is at least a 1KW sonar power model. Personally, I'd seen only up to 600W Furuno (FCV 582L) sounder display so may not be fair comments on the Furuno. The equivalent Furuno comparison should be a FCV 1000/1100

[Patudo]

Hi everyone,

Sorry to bring up an old post, but I was reading through the archives recently. Very interesting trip report, thanks YS for taking the trouble to write it up.

As Dafrog and YS will know, my fishing interest is mainly in pelagics - I notice there was mention of Indonesian boats trolling for tongkol and one of YS's crew caught a 9kg tenggiri on jig. Overall, how good would you estimate the potential for pelagics fishing is?

Dafrog, I have a little experience of fishing with the Raymarine C120 integrated display (for pelagics) with a 1kw transducer. The C120 sounder definition is definitely superior to the FCV-582L which I have also used, but note that the 582L has been replaced by the 585 which looks to be very good. If both are running the same power transducers (Furuno 585 and 582L can both run a 1kw transducer) performance should be equal. I find Furuno's gain knobs make their unit more user friendly.

YS is right about GPS plotter charts at times being inaccurate. The info on the chart plotter is only a guide, for exact information you need to rely on your sounder and/or an accurate up to date paper chart. Individual electronic chart providers ie C-Map, Navionics, I believe offer downloadable upgrades to bring their charts up to date, however updates are much more frequent and detailed for major shipping areas.

Best regards

P.

[DaFrogman]

Originally Posted by Patudo

Dafrog, I have a little experience of fishing with the Raymarine C120 integrated display (for pelagics) with a 1kw transducer. The C120 sounder definition is definitely superior to the FCV-582L which I have also used, but note that the 582L has been replaced by the 585 which looks to be very good. If both are running the same power transducers (Furuno 585 and 582L can both run a 1kw transducer) performance should be equal. I find Furuno's gain knobs make their unit more user friendly.

DF,

Thanks for the feed back on the Raymarine. I am pretty confident that the Furuno 585 is better than the 582L, thereis one chap here who remarked to me that he has discovered a bunch of new spots in the same area that he has recced extensively with the older generation CRT screen Furunos and the 582L. The 585 also holds bottom at higher speeds much better than previous models.

Hope you are keeping well.

Regards,

Saimee