Comparison of GT Fishing in Oman and Seram Waters

Was checking with fishing charters in Seram Waters and Oman on fishing trip arrangements and got the information tabulated as below.

With the table, it is easier to see the difference between travelling time needed to reach the fishing ground of the two waters. Take Seram waters as an example, the flight route to reach Bandanaira would be KL-Jakarta-Ambon-Bandanaira, with one overnight in Ambon is needed due to flight departure time.

It is worth mentioning that the connecting flight from Ambon to Bandanaira is unscheduled and not fixed. Serve with small plane that can accommodate less than 20 passenger each time, the weight limit of luggage allow by each passenger is 10kg only, yes, 10kg. Additional luggage would be charged IDR 10,000 per kg which is still within reasonable range, I think.

The unsual thing is, there is no information available about this particular flight and one need to be physically presence there to get it booked. Meaning anglers could only book the itinery via the local fishing charter. Speedboats meant for sending tourist between Ambon and Bandanaira are available too, then again, not much information is available for one to plan a trip him or herself.

Bandanaira is located some 230km east of Ambon. While I check through information on the internet about Bandanaira, I got to know Bandanaira is a famous spot for diving too.

	Trip duration (day)	Total Cost in USD	Actual Fishing Day	Price base on Pax No.	Cost per Day Fishing USD	General Catch Rating	Specie	Option of Gear Provided
Oman	5	3,020	3	3	1,000	4/5	GT & YFT	Yes
Seram	7	1,755	3.5	4	500	3/5	GT	No

Dishes of Home Birthday Dinner

A dinner was planned at home couple of weeks back, for celebration of my sister birthday. My wife and sister cooked some awesome food for that dinner and would post it here for my apetide induction.

Steam deboned chicken in chinese wine.

My wife read about this dish from recipe magazine somewhere and opted for it as one of the main dishes that evening. The preparation involves deboning the chicken, tie it up with strings to hold its shape and marinate in Chinese herbs and after that got it steamed, follow by marinate it in Chinese wine for couple of hours before serving it.

This dish was impressive with the combined taste of chicken and chinese wine that blended very well. Though the level of saltiness is a bit insufficient in my liking but the thick aroma came out from a mouthfull chew was really good.

Stew pig-skin in sweet-and-spicy pineapple curry

The process of stewing this crunchy pig skin in the curry made it absorbed with pineapple aroma, and when you chew it they flood your mouth with rich good taste. Very appetizing and made me taking it irresistibly!

My sister favorite; gravy of stew pork and innards.

This dish was cooked as gravy for "mee-sua" (fine dry noodle), and it has been a tradition to add chicken eggs for giving longevity to the birthday person. Dip-fried lard is added to add rich flavor of it. Nice Chinese food but one could not take it much for it is too "riching"!

A steamed sweetlip.

Told my sister that the taste of this specie is rather plain and perhaps she can do something about it. She put oyster sauce on it and kept it aside for sometime before got it steamed. The outcome was not bad; taste better with some MSG from the oyster sauce I believed. A brilliantly fresh fish nevertheless.

Another Pekan Trip

Just realised I got some nice fishing trip photos in my lappy and thought why not get it posted here. The trip was made with skipper recommendation to test one of coral spots that has not been visited for years.

Skipper Ah Boy with his blackspot tusky; the biggest among all and estimated at 4.5kg.

We caught 5 tuskies ranged from 2kg-ish to 4.5, not a bad spot I would say.

I witnessed the brutal pull of this tusky as I was right beside Ah Boy with catch net in my palm. The fellow went into tug war and the situation stayed 50:50 for 30 seconds or so, as each crank Ah Boy successfully made, follow by the line got peeled for few rounds.

Derrick with his tusky.

HP and GO chill out while we were on our way out.

A new nice boat at Pekan jetty, wondering who is the owner.

We did drift bottom fishing at few spots and were awarded with different species of squid and some white tail grouper too.

We brought one of the rather big size tuskies to the usual restaurant we have our dinner, and told the chef to prepare it in "mix servings", and it shall completely up to him on how to cook it. We waited for 30 minutes and this was how the fish turn up as; assam steam and ginger steam, loooove it!