Being a mad keen fisherman, of course I packed some fishing gear in my trunk before heading off to East Timor. In fact I nearly filled it with fishing gear, I packed 2 telescopic rods, a tackle box chock full of all the good gear, a live bait pump, and even my deep sea cast net. After a couple of weeks in Timor I started to get the itch, so planning of the first fishing trip was underway.

Reports of pelagics swimming around the fuel pier were too hard to resist, so off we trundled one fine sunny afternoon, dressed in cams, webbing, slung rifle, and carrying all my fishing gear. I was drenched in sweat before even wetting a line. Once we started to get our gear ready, all the locals gathered around, just putting a lure on was an effort, as they tried to get as close as possible to all of our gear. I attached a chrome slice and started working the area, I worked through most of my lures and every time I opened my tackle box the locals would all stick their heads in and go OOGH, and AAAH, as they have probably never seen lures before. The water is crystal clear and the fish are easy to see in the water, I had a couple of follow ups, however, no strikes. It was really becoming an effort to even cast, as the locals all tried to get closer and closer, so after only about half an hour we decided to call it quits. As we were leaving we could see some barracouta, and trevally swimming around the pier, if only there were a few less locals hanging around, things could of turned out a lot better, however, we are the visitors. As we were driving back to the compound, the next trip was in the planning stage.

The next trip was to a rocky outcrop below a huge cliff, on top of the cliff sits an amazing statue of Jesus. The East Timorese are very religious people, and the statue represents their faith as Catholics. I was just going to flick lures around the area, however, on the drive there I found a small fish on the side of the road and decided to use it as bait, as you do. On arrival at the hot spot no locals were in sight, peace at last I thought. The area I was fishing was very rocky, and about 15 metres out it looked very deep. I rigged up one rod with a lure and the other with bait. Off I climbed down to the waters edge, cast out the bait in the deep water and started to work the area with a lure. After a couple of casts bang, my rod with the bait gets a good hit, I dropped the rod in my hand and started to retrieve the other one, only to find that I had been bitten off. I rigged another hook and threw it back out, another hit, this time the bugger put me into a snag. I lost the lot, rigged up again only to have the same thing happen, three times in a row. (Oh, only if I had my boat!) I then ran out of bait, tossed the lure around for about an hour with no success, and decided to call it a day. On the way home I was trying to work out how I was going to hook whatever was out there, without it putting me in the snags.

A couple of weeks later we had the chance again, so equipped with a fair supply of bait, we ventured again, to the base of the Jesus statue. The excitement was building as I rigged up and made my way down the cliff, confident that at long last I would catch my first fish in Timor. Casting to my favourite spot I waited in anticipation for the bite, after a couple of minutes I had a few nibbles, however, nothing like the last time. I decided to work a lure for a while to no avail. For some reason the fish were not as active as last time. Luke Cain who was also fishing with me tried another spot around the corner while I continued bottom bouncing. After a couple of hours the sun was getting the better of us and we decided to call it a day. The bait we had was no good to us so I started to throw it into the ocean, Luke said that I should see how far out I could throw it, anyway we started to throw pillie after pillie, watching them sink in the clear blue water. Out of the blue Luke screams out "Did you see that", as we both watched a huge Barracouta devour one of our pillies. We both started scrambling to get a bit of wire on to our lines when I realised that we only had one pillie left, as Luke had a spinning reel, and would be able to cast it out further than I would, he baited up our last pillie. In anticipation we watched as Luke wound up and let rip with the cast of the century, trying for that little extra distance. The next thing I hear swoosh, and feel a pain in my right leg. The pillie dropped over the cliff about 3 meters out, and the line wrapped around Anita on my left, and the hook ended up attached to my right leg, well at least we caught something. We packed up and drove back, dreaming about what could have been once again.

Time was running out for us in Timor, and I was still to catch a fish. Every time I ventured away from our compound I was on the prowl for a new fishing spot. Talking with one of my mates, he described an area just out of town that appealed to me, so we went for a look. It looked perfect, and we decided to give it a try at the next possible opportunity. Again loaded with a heap of bait we ventured out on a fine Sunday morning. As we approached the area the water was dead calm, and to my surprise the tide was nearly full. Things looked promising, especially as we could see fish in the coral about 10 metres out. I berleyed up and threw the line in, bang, bang, bang, bites straight away. The only problem was that the small fish would steal the pillies off the hook, before the bigger fish could get a look in. After feeding the fish for half an hour I decided to use a float. The tide had just turned when bang, down goes my float, I took up the slack, however, I didn't hook whatever it was. I rebaited and tried again, this time I was ready, the float went down and I struck, at last, I had a fish on. I carefully played the fish in and to my surprise it was a beautiful Coral Trout. I posed for a photo and released it to fight another day. We continued fishing for a while to no avail. As we drove home we dreamed about fishing Timor from a boat.

My mind boggles at the fishing opportunities that are in and around this beautiful place, one day I may be able to come back and fully explore the many islands and reefs that are abundant here (In a boat though of course).

I will now leave this place with one goal achieved, to at least catch one fish.

Going Fishing is an Adventure - Catching a Fish is a Bonus