Spearfishing in Indonesia – Lombok

This article is about spearfishing in Indonesia. We spent our annual holiday in Lombok, a beautiful Indonesian island. Of course I couldn’t resist exploring the water with a speargun.

After a few days in our hotel, I was seized by the urge for adventure.

While we were lazily enjoying the sun on the beach in our hotel, my wife pointed out to me that a man was walking along the beach with a speargun. I had taken my Cressi Gara fins with me for the holiday, and my diving goggles were a must-have in my luggage. However, for once I actually didn’t think about going fishing on holiday.

When I saw the well-equipped spearfisher walking along the beach, there was no stopping me. I quickly entered the word spearfishing into the search bar on Google Maps and found what I was looking for straight away. On one of the neighboring Gili Islands, someone was offering spearfishing trips. Contact was made via WhatsApp and a meeting was quickly arranged for the following week.

Spearfishing website of the Indonesians on Gili Air:

https://www.spearfishing-gili.com

Pick up in Lombok – Spearfishing from the Mahogany Boat

The time had come, the day had come, we had arranged to meet at 11 o’clock, unfortunately the weather was bad that day, waves, wind and rain. No matter, you just have to get through it.

A few minutes late, I saw the boat ploughing through the waves around the next coastline. The guys were driving towards the beach in a beautiful, approximately 10 m long mahogany boat. A 30 HP Yamaha engine powered the spearfishing vehicle. The reddish mahogany boat was lined with green corrugated plates, which enabled safe passage. A wooden roof protected from the sun, which was not there that day.

On the boat, four smoking and tanned locals greeted me; the Spearguns and the associated equipment were ready in the middle of the boat. I was amazed at what good Spearguns the guys had brought with them. A roller gun approximately 1.5 m long with countless rubber bands, a 1.3 m long carbon Speargun and two other teak Spearguns. They gave me the freedom to choose and so I decided on the carbon harpoon. If you don’t know the equipment, you should use the simplest, which is why I decided against the roller gun. I brought my own apnea fins and goggles, and the guys provided me with a suit and lead. The 2 mm red suit fit perfectly and the usual equipment such as a knife and buoy was also sophisticated. From the beach, the guys headed for a spot in the open ocean. They used triangulation to find the spot without GPS based on the islands lying in the rain clouds.

The adventure begins – Spearfishing in Indonesia

The boat stopped and everyone got ready to go into the water. Pulses started to rise. Two boys stayed on the boat to watch over the others. However, the communication before jumping into the water was poor. Should I swim with the current or against it? The waves kept getting bigger, up to a height of about 1.5 meters, and it started to rain lightly. The professionalism of the Indonesians calmed me down, however. I jumped into the water and the boys followed as well.

Immediately I was caught in a strong current that pulled me away from the boat. I tried to follow my spearfishing buddies, but after a few minutes of swimming we were far apart. I wasn’t sure if they were trying to swim against the current or glide with it. One of the guys shouted to me to just follow the current, so I let myself drift.

The seabed and the current – Spearfishing Gili Islands

The seabed was visible under water at a depth of around 8 to 10 meters. It was rocky and covered in sea anemones. The strong current meant that you flew over the seabed at an incredible speed. Every now and then a single rock appeared, behind which smaller fish were hiding. Again and again I stuck my head out of the water and was relieved to see that the boat was following me. If I had gotten lost out here, swimming to the next island would have been impossible due to the great distance. This required trust.

I didn’t see any larger fish. The water was quite milky for tropical conditions due to the strong sea, the wind and the rain that was constantly pounding down on us. Nevertheless, it wasn’t cold. In a 2 mm wetsuit it was no problem. I drifted with the current for around a kilometer. At the end I was picked up by the boat again.

Several drifts and an encounter with a turtle

After a short break, I sat on the edge of the boat and we went back to the starting point. This way I was able to complete three or four drifts of around ten minutes. During the second drift I saw a beautiful turtle, about 60 cm long, which was also drifting with the current. When we gathered back on the boat, my Indonesian friends were rather dissatisfied. No big fish, the weather was too bad. They hadn’t shot anything either.

“We’re going to another place,” they said, and when everyone was back on the boat, we headed towards the Gili Islands. We all sat in the rain and in the roaring, foaming surf that was slapping against the boat. Despite their wetsuits, the guys were cold. As a German with several extra kilos on my ribs, however, it was no problem for me. I laughed. The guys offered me Indonesian cigarettes – fresh, very finely cut tobacco that smelled of vanilla. I couldn’t say no and tried one. It tasted good.

Another attempt and the protected reef

We went by boat around the second of the Gili Islands. Here they had a reef in their sights, above which giant trevallies were supposed to be. Here, too, we drifted a few laps in the somewhat calmer water. But visibility was again poor. After a short time, we gave up and went to a protected reef behind the Gili Island. At a depth of around 12 meters, there was a coral reef with a few fish swimming around the individual corals. Overall, however, there were a lot of divers here and there was relatively a lot of boat traffic. This made spearfishing dangerous, and a buoy was essential.

I dived through the relatively murky coral reef and was able to catch a small parrotfish. Even though the weather was bad, I enjoyed harpooning in a coral reef. The fish were shy, as you would expect from hunted areas. Again and again, I stuck my head out of the water and looked for my buddies who were also diving with spearguns in the wider area. I knew that these guys made a living from spearfishing, but they were just good. They had endless air and stayed underwater for several minutes. I wasn’t completely untrained, but I couldn’t keep up with guys like that.

The impressive catch – The Dachshund Sepia

After another hour we went on board. We had hunted for three hours in total. When the boys were collected one by one from the boat, they had attached a few catches to their buoys. I was amazed. They had caught some big reef fish. The most impressive was a cuttlefish that was the size of a dachshund. It weighed four to five kilograms and was about 60 cm long. Black and white stripes adorned its carapace. What a monster! The boys laughed when they saw my big eyes. “This one? It’s still small, they can grow twice as big!” said one of them and pointed to the expert who always caught such big cuttlefish. We laughed.

The boys lit cigarettes again and I was offered some again. Although they were dissatisfied with the catch overall, it had been a wonderful day for me. Challenging spearfishing with locals is always an experience where you always learn something new – be it about the equipment or new techniques.

Back to the Base – Spearfishing Gili Air

Together we drove to the southernmost Gili island, Gili Air. This is where the guys had their diving center. Due to low tide, we had to get out of the boat about 50 meters from the beach and carefully guide it through the coral reefs that surrounded the island. The boat was anchored to a pre-made rope. A cousin of the diving center owner came towards us on an electric bike – cars or gasoline engines were not allowed on the island.

We carried all our equipment and the catch along a muddy path, past palm trees and several houses, to the island. There the guys had a small diving center with a spearfishing business. I was offered a shower. I took off my suit and refreshed myself with a water hose that was hanging in the front garden.

Preparing the fresh catch

The woman of the house came out, snatched the catch from the leader of our group and immediately began processing it. She gutted the fish on a small wooden board and skillfully cut it up. About half of the catch went into the freezer to be sold to locals, while the other half was prepared for grilling.

The boys had an old, large grill in the garden that was already showing some signs of rust. They lit coconut shells on it, which produced excellent embers.

The atmosphere was special, darkness slowly descended over the place, chickens and cats crawled around our legs in unison. The Indonesians, who had taken a quick shower, sat together around a table and smoked. The father of the group also sat down, hardly anyone talked, but there was a peaceful atmosphere, and when the muezzin suddenly sounded through the evening mood, I realized that I was experiencing another special day.

The tobacco smelling of vanilla enveloped the small courtyard. The ground was wet and slightly muddy, everyone was standing around barefoot, nobody seemed to mind, and I also realized in that second that due to the tropical conditions, these boys never had to freeze. In Germany, walking barefoot outside was possible for maybe one or two months a year, here it was the norm. The children of the house were playing with a smartphone and running around. A friend of the family brought a package weighing around 1 kg. It was wrapped in parcel tape. When one of the boys opened it, I saw the fine Indonesian tobacco. They laughed, saying it was fresh from the field and smelled even better than the pre-rolled cigarettes that had been available up until then. “Now we’ll show you how to smoke in Indonesia,” they said and laughed. A small handful of tobacco was rolled into a cigarette paper and rolled into a V shape like a joint. There was no filter. Do you want to try it? I said yes and rolled myself an Indonesian cigarette. Everyone laughed and said: “You’re half Indonesian,” when they saw my comparatively nice cigarette. Even without a filter, the tobacco tasted excellent.

Eating together under a tropical sky

After the grill had reached the right heat, the fish was wrapped in banana leaves and marinated in a spicy red sauce. A magnificent smell rose from the grill and mixed with the aroma of the coconut smoke. I enjoyed this moment to the fullest. I am often asked what is special about spearfishing and hunting – it is precisely these moments: the hunt, the community, preparing the prey and then eating it over an open, warm fire. There was something archaic about it, almost like it must have been in the Stone Age.

When the food was finally ready, everything was served on a large table. I was given my own bottle of water, while the boys drank tap water but recommended that I take bottled water instead to avoid an upset stomach. The food was eaten with the hands, as was traditional in the region. The fresh fish with red sauce, rice and vegetables with peanuts – it tasted excellent. We were all full.

A special atmosphere after dinner

According to Islamic traditions, the women ate separately. After the meal, we sat together for a long time, smoking Indonesian cigarettes and exchanging stories.

At around 9:30 p.m. I started packing my things. The guys got another can of gasoline and together we went to the boat.

Since the tide was not yet completely out, we had to maneuver carefully through the shallow water. But I trusted our boat driver completely. We trudged about 20 meters through the lukewarm water to the boat, which was rocking quietly on the gentle waves. With practiced movements, the boys maneuvered the boat back to the main island of Lombok.

Back to western “civilization”

In front of my hotel there was a coral reef about 300 meters wide. As we shone our flashlights into the water, we saw some fish startled by the light and jumping out of the water. Our boatman carefully navigated through the reef, and we had to make several attempts to find the best route, always in reverse so that we could shoot the boat forward again quickly if necessary. The corals only protruded 30 cm below the water surface in places, making it a tricky trip.

When we finally reached the beach, I jumped out of the boat, thanked the guys warmly and waded through the light surf to my hotel. What a day! When I saw my wife in the hotel restaurant, I realized the contrast between my adventurous experience and the western reality.

What a country, what different people there are in this world – simply beautiful.