Visit pretty much any beach on east or north Bali and you’ll see dozens upon dozens of jukungs pulled up onto the sand. The jukung is the Indonesian fisherman’s staple vessel for getting around and you’ll see them all over the archipelago: some use nets, others trolling and others still long-line fishing.

One afternoon while in Amed I struck up a conversation with a fisherman about joining him on his fishing trip the next morning. We agreed on price (200,000 rupiah from memory) and while it required an early start (meet on beach at 04:30) it was far less athletic than climbing Gunung Agung, so I was sold.

Sun rising over Lombok, photo taken from offshore Amed, Bali

It was about 05:00 by the time we were actually out on the water. The seas were as calm as a millpond: so calm in fact that there was no point putting up the sail, so we slowly started motoring out to sea. We weren’t the only one — I counted at least sixty other boats doing the same.

After a while the breeze started up a little and we fed out the long line — a single long fishing line carrying 200 unbaited lures. It took us close to an hour, during which the sun slowly rose over Lombok.

We kept sailing further out then, seemingly in unison, much of the fleet (or rather the gaggle) turned back to shore, and we were sailing in. The morning light across both Amed and the rising straight lines of Gunung Agung made the entire morning worth it.

View back to Amed from offshore Bali

We slowly sailed back in and pulled in the line, getting it back into the boat about 20 minutes before landfall.

The catch? One fish.

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Tags: boat trip