We left home ten days ago and today was our first full day of fishing.  Hard to believe but true.  There’s been a few hiccups to say the least on this journey so far.  Most caused by horrific rains.  But last night there was no rain and for the first time the river cleared and dropped significantly.  Austin Kane and I got moving early on a 90 minute boat ride up the Jeromai.  It was a picturesque drive through canopies of rainforest with monkeys, gibbons and birds peering from the vegetation.

 

It was time for me to obtain my goal for this trip to Borneo – add the red kaloi to my species list.  If we got one last night in the high muddy water conditions in a mere two hour session, surely today would be easy.  But in fishing, when you’re literally relying on the cooperation of a wild animal, there are no guarantees.

 

We ended our long jaunt upstream gliding onto a gravel bar.  We don’t start our drift downstream from the boat immediately.  No doubt our loud motor and waves spook the fish.  Instead we rest things for about 15 minutes.  While the boatmen smoked and Austin relaxed, I hopped out and made some casts with the black popper.

 

While the river is in its best condition all week, according the guides its still very high.  In low water this place must be wade fishing paradise.  I can only hope we don’t get another rain drop all week in which case perhaps our last two days could be prime.  I came close to adding a new species to my list but it flopped off just before I got my hands on it.  The fish was what the locals here call a beliho.

 

Austin laughed when I asked him if he wanted to fish first.  He wants me to catch my first red kaloi as bad as me.  He kept relaxing and I took the bow of our narrow boat with the utmost of confidence as we pushed off.

 

The river looked amazing.  Visibility into the water was at least 3 feet.  Considering we fished with one inch visibility two eves ago this was like being on a crystal clear trout stream in Wyoming.  Each and every cast I expected to see a kaloi rise to my fly.  But in the first hour of relentless casting to all the nooks and crannies, not a kaloi was to be found.

 

At that point I tried to get Austin to takeover.  He said go a little longer.  I went another 30 minutes thoroughly covering the water, we still didn’t see a fish.

 

It was time for a pinch of nuts and some water.  Today was a hot one and I insisted that Austin take over.  He was reluctant, but finally got up in the bow.

 

I was literally on my second sip from my Yeti and chewing my first handful of almonds when the forehead of a kaloi bulged through the surface of the Jeromai and devoured Austins fly.  His fly was a little behind the boat when he set and perhaps that’s a good technique to guarantee hook ups.  This fish was on and wasn’t happy!

 

I won’t dwell on the fight because I did yesterday, but red kaloi, one of the largest members of the gouramis, can pull.  Austin’s stout rod was doubled over and his fly line was crackling for about three minutes.  These fish dive for every log of the river trying to entangle you to free themselves.  You can’t let them take much line or its over.  Getting pulled against the gunnels of a tipsy boat can be an adventure.

 

Eventually I slid the net under the feisty kaloi and to our delight Austin had his second kaloi in less than 24 hours.  I don’t have a lot of photos because we recorded video but it was another nice one.  After making the kaloi a screen star we released him and it was my turn again.

 

If you look at Austins catch last night and this morning, both kaloi came in less than 15 minutes of bow time.  Me, I fished two hours last night and 90 minutes this morning and nothing.  I’ve matched up against menacing species before so I know the process – keep casting – maintain your concentration – and do not give up.

 

Another hour went by.  I hinted to Austin that it was his turn and he was quick to snap out a, “Not a chance”.  Then another hour passed and another.  Before we knew it Austin was napping as was one of our boatmen.  The red kaloi was proving to have my number.

 

Eventually everyone needed to get out of the boat for a stretch and some lunch.  We were dumbfounded to notice it was 2 pm.  We’d been fishing for five hours and seen one kaloi.  It was hard for me to stomach the lack of kaloi activity.  After lunch I insisted Austin take over again.

 

I wanted to see Austin catch another.  If anything to re-prove they’re real.  And if he did catch another quick one, I would have dissected his every move to figure out what I was doing wrong.  But his kaloi juju wore off.  Austin packed in an hour full of perfect presentations with the oversized Chernobyl that worked for him this morning.  But to no avail.

 

From there on Austin and I took turns sharing bow through the late afternoon.  It was tortuous for me because I want a kaloi so bad.  But the kaloi would have none of our efforts.  I did finally have the pleasure of a refusal near the end.  It wasn’t a big one but he showed up.  As aggravating as not catching him was, it was also good to see they still exist.

 

If you follow this blog you’ve seen my head-ons with menacing species over the years.  Yellow permit once were.  Milkfish.  And we won’t even talk about striped marlin.  But all these species eventually subdued and the yellow permit even got easy for me.  So there’s hope for a kaloi over the next few days as long as the rains don’t return in the force of earlier this week.

 

We returned to camp around 6.  Fortunately Fajar was back safe and sound.  Fajar indeed couldn’t make it back upstream to camp last night.  He and our boatmen tried and they didn’t make it by nightfall.  The high river was far to dangerous to navigate after dark with all the floating debris so they tied off on the bank and slept in the boat.  Brutal.

 

Fajar also reported that the entire Dayak Village where we stayed Sunday night was underwater.  Yesterdays highwater delivered the worst flooding they’ve had since 2012.  Blame it on “Monsoon Currier”.  If only they knew.

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing