It didn’t rain last night here in the Borneo rainforest therefore we were able to fish a few hours today before starting our long journey home. Unfortunately, despite not raining, the Jeromai River was still flowing huge and the color red. Though we’ve pulled a few Hail Mary’s out of such water this week, you don’t fish it with a ton of confidence.
I opted out of fishing a massive dry fly for the red kaloi. Austin has let me have the front of the boat a ton this week to fish for them. Instead, I let him have that duty and I strung up my 6-weight with my fast Scientific Anglers Sonar and tied on a very flashy streamer. Something that often gets attention in the mud. I hucked it from the back of the boat when I wasn’t hindering Austin.
I started landing a quick tinfoil barb and felt success brewing. But I landed only one more over the remaining few hours of the trip. Austin fished his giant 3/0 Chernobyl the entire time and never raised a fish. We called it a day shortly after noon and returned to camp to hit the road.
Packing up camp wasn’t much fun. First of all, it’s always a bummer when trips come to an end. And the bees, which were terrible yesterday, were maddening today. They didn’t like the movement of packing and we all got stung a bunch more times. Made leaving a little easier!
Regardless of many hardships this week, it’s a thrill to be this far off the grid fly fishing. This has been an amazing adventure and a successful trip with a great group of dudes. I caught my red kaloi and in addition added the tinfoil barb and my miraculous catch of the Sultan barb. All new species for my list. They should put me at a total of about 455 now. 500 is definitely obtainable within a few years.
Now begins the long journey home. As far as US time goes, my last cast was at 11 pm Saturday WI time. I get home around 1 am Thursday. I guess I have a passion for exotic fish!
A special thanks goes out to Austin Kane and Fajar Setywan for inviting me!
Be sure to keep tabs on my Instagram for more pics – @jeffcurrier65
In the meantime, please visit my webstore for “Christmas Gifts for the Angler that has Everything” and stuff those stockings with my fish decals from “Pescador on the Fly”.
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