Giant Trevally
Look for rocks and you'll find the GT. They are only rarely taken in open water and even more rarely on trolled surface lures. Rapalas work well if you can get close enough to where they live, but generally casting lures right into their rocky lairs works the best. Beware, the GT's here grow to 50kg's and more. On inadequate gear, close to the rocks, the fight is very brief. Tactics for a change If you want a change and like casting, try the popper casting to the deep rocky marks that yield the brutal Giant Trevally, often in XXL size. Use BIG poppers and heavy drags. Be warned that strikes are violent and instantaneous if the fish are there. If not, move on. Use the same gear and heavy metal jigs over structure where clouds of bait can be seen on your sounder. Crippled Herring style jigs work well when allowed to sink and jigged down deep where the fish are. So too do the new soft plastics. You know the ones; they look like worms with a wiggle tail and feel like soft chewing gum. They come in all shapes and sizes and now have fish imitations, double and triple tails, shrimp bodies and so on. Let them down deep where the bigger predators hang under the bait.You'll be surprised at the results. We've had Tenggiri, Yellowfin Tuna, Barracuda, Dogtooth Tuna and even Sharks, together with a wide assortment of the Jack Family. Specialised deep jigging gear, high speed reels, ultra thin braided lines and heavy jigs will give access to unknown denizens in deep water. Species of fish that are normally never seen are available using this method. I'm just starting this exciting new form of fishing and I'll keep you posted. Roving spinning tactics work well from the beach with Barracuda, Jacks and Needlefish being common captures. Move around until you find a good concentration of fish. Try the river mouths, shallow flats and the mangroves for variety. Use fly gear if you are so inclined and want a challenge. There's always things to do and fish to catch in Ujung Kulon. Hot Lures These are lures that I use, that work for me. You'll see them in use every time we fish. Give them a try. Top Gun "Nightmare" 10" in Green/Gold A difficult lure to get running correctly but with two 10/0 7732'srigged stiff, it works just fine. We run it on the short corner and I've had several of these. They have all been good. We just lost our latest one which was well into double figures on billfish. The first we lost after it had taken 7 Billfish. We have had our biggest Yellowfin Tuna of 77lb on a nightmare so it's not just a billfish lure. I wouldn't be without one! Pakula "Cockroach" 7 1/2" in Lumo, Red/Black, Blue/Silver and Blue/Red. A great little lure which is easy to rig and run in any position and just about any colour works. I think they work well because they are the same size as the flying fish which are a common food item in Ujung Kulon.Works on all Billfish, Wahoo, Tuna and Giant Trevally. We've had Black Marlin up to 400lb on these, so they're not just good for small fish. Pakula "Micro Cockroach" 6" in Lumo, Burgscale. A new addition to the Cockroach range with the same virtues. They work well on Yellowfin Tuna, which can be very fussy in Ujung Kulon. We have also had Sailfish take them and Black Marlin up to 275lb on these, so they're not just good for small fish. Pakula "Mouse" 9" in Blue/Silver Bigger brother to the Cockroach with the same virtues of easy to run and wide appeal. We've had Marlin and our biggest Wahoo of 70lb on these lures. Pakula "Mosquito" 6" in pale green/yellow and pale blue/green A great little small billfish lure. I rig mine with single hooks because they are small and the action easily killed with heavy rigging. A great lure for light tackle, this lure won the 1996 Ujung Kulon tag and release tournament for Arimbi with an estimated 25 kg Black Marlin on 30lb gear for 1000 points. Pakula "Uzi" 4" in just about any colour you like. A great stinger lure when run long behind the spread. I rig mine with a single hook so as not to weigh them down too much. Just about everything likes these! I've caught all the tunas on them and Mahi Mahi love them too. A great light tackle lure for some surprisingly big fish action. Moldcraft "Super Chugger" 9" in Blue/White A great lure for Sailfish trolled at slower speed where it keeps working and throwing those bubbles. I rig mine with a single 7732 in 8/0 or 10/0 and if a Sailfish comes up on it, drop it back a short distance just like a bait. Williamson's "Hex Heads" 4" in Red/White A little metal headed jig with dyed feathers instead of a skirt. Best in the smaller sizes and very effective for Wahoo and Tuna. They can be fished quite fast. Sabre Stroker's "Cherry Jet" 4" in Red A Singaporean copy of the Melton Jet in a very small size. Absolutely deadly on Tuna, Rainbow Runners, smaller bait species and Wahoo and Tenggiri up to 40lb! Williamson's "Australian Runner" 6", 8" and 10" in Red/White A bibless swimming lure that can be trolled at 8+ knots and is deadly on Wahoo. The faster speeds that these can be trolled get more strikes from the speedy Wahoo and subsurface lures are very effective on most days, easily outfishing surface baits on Wahoo. There are many colours and sizes and red/white is always my preference. I've also got some that used to be blue but have been so chewed that they're pretty white now. They still catch fish too. Tuna also take the smaller sizes and we've had a Sailfish double on these lures. Rapala CD18 in Red/White People think I have something against Rapala's, but in fact they're a great lure. We use them on Tuna and they are good fished on the downrigger where we've scored with big Dogtooth Tuna and even Sharks! They can't be worked very fast so they work best close to structure where you're marking fish. They'll take a variety of other fish too and I'm almost embarrassed to admit I've caught both Marlin and Sailfish on these. The plastic Squid in White or Yellow/Green The most under rated lure of all. We use the 6" size in front of strip baits and the tiny 2" size with a little lead bullet in the head for trolling up the small bait fish species. I once caught a Sailfish on a tiny 2" baitjig and Wahoo bite them off on light nylon traces with annoying regularity. Pakula Softhead Lures I've been using softhead lures from Pakula for a while. I'm currently trying the micro range which are an intermediate size between the Mosquito and the Cockroach. These look like good lures for Ujung Kulon and small Black Marlin. I'm trying the micro Cockroach, the micro Sprocket, the microZipper and the micro Fox. They work really well on Yellowfin Tuna. We recently released an estimated 275lb Black Marlin on a lumo micro Cockroach. I use the Mosquito, the Cockroach and the mini Sprocket quite regularly. These are all in the 6" to 8" size range that suits the small to medium sized Black Marlin we get in Ujung Kulon. I like the mini sprocket. The hard sprocket doesn't come in that small size. This size of lure is a real winner in Ujung Kulon. The heads are not super soft, but rather firm. The clever part is they are clear plastic, just like their hard counterparts. They troll well (like all Pakulas) and are easy to rig. They are more expensive than the hard headed Pakulas and if we're honest, don't work any better than the hard headed ones. I'll use either. They both work. Check out the whole Pakula range on the Pakula website: <http://www.pakula.com.au/>http://www.pakula.com.au/ The third dimension A useful tip when fishing Ujung Kulon is to remember that water temperatureshere are very warm, at least on the surface. Cooler temperatures can be found deeper and many varieties of fish can be caught by using techniques that exploit this third dimension. Techniques such as vertical jigging with metal or bucktail jigs or trolling with a downrigger can often save the day when nothing is moving on the surface. Keep those hooks sharp Here's a tip for those who don't use stainless steel hooks. When you have sharpened your forged hooks, paint the sharp end with an indelible marker pen and they will stay sharp and rust free for much longer.
