Sometimes while on overseas working visits I get the chance to go fishing although I don’t take any equipment with me so it’s a case of borrowing it when the chance happens and its very unlikely I get the opportunity . But one such visit deserves a mention, fishing the River Mahakham a river like one I have never seen before, 980 km long, depth 49 to 196ft and 413 to 960ft wide it’s in Kalimantan it’s one of three similar main rivers which cover the Borneo Island.
A monster of a river always a dirty a soiled colour, In my many visits there I have travelled up it, tried to fish with a local with a net (Blanked) seen a young boy fall in just get washed away human life is not worth a lot in these 3rd world countries and this river is always flowing very fast.
It actually holds quite a selection 68/120 different spices beautiful colours fish, eels ,shrimps and some strange looking creatures .The locals fish it for the daily food and mostly they catch a type of Bass/Bream fished which is fished about 24inch from the surface fished with a long pole twin a hook and sand worms as bait.
The rivers are like our trunk roads being used to transport goods, livestock and people in constant use as the only way to travel between towns and villages and then there are the feeder tributes they have so many accidents barges colliding with tree trunks being floated down the river boats colliding with tree trunks and results with total loss of life and goods because it’s so deep and 30 years ago there was no navigation lights used. Locals are paid to fall trees and mark them and put them in the river to float down to the mill completely unattended once the trunks are in the current they stop at the mill lock gate and are lifted out and stacked.
Most of the locals who fish the river live on stilt houses, including schools, meeting rooms and shops all on stilts with platform walk ways between them all stretching into the river giving them ample area to fish from,
On this trip I have a Canadian fly fisher Jerry from BC off Vancouver Island, a New Zealander Tom also a fly man from Rotoreu, now living in KL Malaysia two engineers from Ayrshire who fish the Scottish Lochs who all enjoy the sport and have been friends of mine for many years and Anton who is Indonesian and is the Houchin Engineer for Asia I have known for 25 years ideal person to have in a country where communication can be a problem and life can be very difficult and dangerous if your seen as a westerner. he meets me at Jakarta Airport and sticks with me until I leave.
What follows is the tales and snippets of one particular trip towards the end of my contract in the wilds of East Kalimantan.
