Indonesia Fishing Trip – Fishing for Giant Trevally and Dogtooth Tuna in the Ring of Fire
The ultimate fishing adventure in the Ring of Fire!
After many years of exploration and numerous test trips, we discovered one of the most exciting fishing grounds in the world: the Ring of Fire. This remote region offers world-class opportunities for fishing in Indonesia, especially for anglers who love popping and jigging for powerful reef predators.
The fishing area stretches across more than 180 nautical miles and includes hundreds of small islands, coral reefs, atolls, and underwater mountains. These structures create perfect conditions for targeting giant trevally, dogtooth tuna, and many other species.
In recent years, the area has been placed under strict protection. As a result, fish stocks and marine life have recovered dramatically. Populations of giant trevally and dogtooth tuna have increased significantly, making this one of the best destinations for fishing in Indonesia.
Itinerary for the Indonesia Fishing Trip
Your Indonesia fishing trip begins with an international flight to Jakarta. From there, you will continue to a small domestic airport on a remote island. After an overnight stay in a hotel, the journey continues to the final destination airport the following morning.
Remote fishing grounds require longer travel times, but the reward is an untouched paradise with exceptional fishing opportunities and breathtaking scenery.
After arriving at the destination airport, you will be transferred directly to the harbour, where the mother ship and centre-console boats are waiting. Following check-in and a short briefing, the expedition begins.
During the overnight crossing to the first fishing grounds, you can prepare your tackle, enjoy dinner, and get ready for the adventure ahead. Around sunrise, the mother ship reaches the first island chain and the fishing begins.
Island Hopping for Giant Trevally and Dogtooth Tuna
This Indonesia fishing trip is designed to cover the best fishing spots in the entire region. To reduce fishing pressure and maximise the chances of catching trophy fish, we move to a different part of the archipelago almost every day.
Most transfers between the island groups take place during the night. This allows you to arrive at the next hotspot just before sunrise and spend maximum time fishing.
When weather conditions allow, the mother ship anchors close to productive reefs and underwater mountains. This gives anglers the opportunity to continue jigging after sunset for dogtooth tuna, ruby snapper, and other deep-water species.
A Typical Day of Popping and Jigging
A typical fishing day starts around 5:00 am. After breakfast, you prepare your gear before heading out in the centre-console boats at approximately 6:00 am.
The daily fishing strategy depends on tides, current strength, and weather conditions. This ensures the best possible conditions for catching giant trevally and dogtooth tuna using popping and jigging techniques.
At midday, you return to the mother ship for lunch and a short break. Because the ship always stays close to the fishing grounds, travel times remain short and efficient.
In the afternoon, the action continues with more popping, jigging, and spin fishing. After sunset, anglers return to the mother ship. Those who still have energy can continue nighttime jigging for snapper and dogtooth tuna.
Fishing Techniques in the Ring of Fire
During this mother ship expedition, you will fish a wide variety of islands, coral reefs and underwater mountains. The main fishing techniques are popping, jigging and spin fishing.
Popping and fishing with stickbaits are particularly successful in areas with strong currents. Giant trevally attack surface lures aggressively, especially at high and low tide.
Jigging, on the other hand, is best suited to areas with weaker currents and the periods around high and low tide. Here, the chances of catching large dogtooth tuna are particularly good.
Underwater Mountains and Topwater Dogtooth Tuna
In addition to the island reefs, there are numerous underwater mountains, some of which rise from depths of 600 metres to just a few metres below the surface. These hotspots offer excellent conditions for fishing for dogtooth tuna using jigs and surface lures.
Some islands also feature large shallow-water areas. There, you can fish from the shore using light tackle for spin fishing or fly fishing. Target species include giant trevally, napoleon wrasse and triggerfish.
The return journey from the fishing trip
The return journey is planned so that you arrive back at the port early in the morning on the day of departure. The transfer to the airport takes place at around 8.30 am.
Depending on your flight connections, you will either spend another night at the hotel or fly home straight away. We are happy to help you plan your flights and tailor the itinerary to suit your specific travel plans.
Accommodation for the fishing trip
The mother ship for your fishing adventure
Ring of Fire!
The Mothership
The 30-metre-long and 6-metre-wide mother ship has been completely refurbished. It is the perfect base for this extraordinary fishing trip.
On board there is a single cabin and a shared room with bunk beds and single beds. In total, there are ten bunk beds and one double bed available.
All cabins are air-conditioned, ensuring comfortable temperatures even at night.
In addition, the vessel features a large dining area, several outdoor seating areas, and two bathrooms with showers and toilets. Rod holders, charging stations and a Starlink internet connection are also available.
Catering
Meals: Full Board
Drinks: Soft Drinks, Water included, Alcoholic drinks can be paid for on the spot after consumption
Your fishing boats in Indonesia
The Boats
During your stay in Indonesia, you will have two centre-console boats at your disposal. The boats can accommodate four anglers and are more than powerful enough!
Fishing for GT & Dogtooth Tuna
Centre Console
The modern centre-console boats are 30 feet long and fitted with two 150 hp engines. Each boat can accommodate four anglers at a time.
Three anglers fish in the bow area on a rotation basis, whilst one angler fishes in the stern.
The boats are fitted with modern fishfinders, chartplotters and plenty of rod holders. In addition, life jackets, radios and even a toilet are available on board. This means the boats offer ideal conditions for comfortable angling, popper fishing, jigging and spin fishing in the Ring of Fire.
You'll need this fishing tackle in Indonesia
Tackle Talk
For fishing in Indonesia, you’ll need three rod setups: a heavy PE8 popper rod, a PE6 popper rod for the flats, and a PE6–8 jigging rod for jigging for doggy and other species. Popper lures and stickbaits are used as bait. In Indonesia, stickbaits often work better than poppers. You should therefore bring a good selection of poppers and stickbaits. As you’ll lose quite a few jigs, you should plan on taking at least 25 jigs!
- Popping Rod: PE6-8
- Popping Reel: 14-18k size, Gear min. 5,7:1
- Jigging Rods: PE 6-8
- Jigging Reels: 14k-20k size, Gear 4,4:1
- Rods for the flats: PE4-6
- Reels for the flats: 8-10k Reels
- Jigs: 100 - 400g, Butterfly, long body
- Jig Colors: pink, silver, blue-green, orange, zebra
- Poppers: 12- 20cm, medium & big cups
- Stickbaits: 12- 20cm, floating & sinking
You'll need these poppers in Indonesia!
Popper / Stickbaits / Topwater
In Indonesia, the choice of lure always depends on the planned fishing method. For fishing in shallow spots, medium-sized poppers are recommended. They should be between 150 and 190 mm in length and weigh 100–120 g.
For deep reef edges and underwater mountains, poppers with large blades, from 200 mm in length and weighing 120–180 g, are recommended. These poppers are mainly used in deep spots for GT and dogtooth tuna.
Stickbaits work very well for GT and dogtooth tuna. Large, floating versions weighing between 120 and 140g, which can be cast a long way, are particularly effective. A must-have lure is the GT Ice Cream for very shallow reef areas and edges.
Sinking stickbaits are good for dogtooth tuna and yellowfin tuna. Weights of around 100g are sufficient.
In terms of colours, shades of blue, natural colours, as well as pink, green and yellow have proven to be effective.
You'll need these jigs in Indonesia!
Jigs
For jigging in Indonesia, you’ll need a good selection of 100–400g jigs. Butterfly-shaped jigs and elongated but not overly narrow designs have proven particularly effective here. Jigs from Major Craft (Jigpara), Sakura Orion Jigs, as well as our Team Deep Sea Pelajig V2 and RockShock have been very successful. But jigs from budget suppliers such as AliExpress or Temu have also caught fish 🙂
Colours that work very well are pink, silver, blue-green, orange and zebra patterns. It is important that all assist leaders are fitted with an octopus rig! This not only increases the attractiveness but also the hook-up rate.
The hook size should be between 8/0 and 12/0. You should adjust the hooks depending on the jig shape and size. For the leader, we recommend at least 1.4mm Kevlar or a minimum breaking strain of 600lbs!
The best lines and leaders
Leader & Main Line
For popper fishing, leaders with a breaking strain of between 200 and 220 lbs are used. It is important to ensure that these are high-quality leaders, such as those from Fishermen, Varivas, Nomad or Climax.
For jigging, you need a leader with a maximum breaking strain of 175lb. The diameter can vary, but we recommend a diameter of less than 1.0mm.
The main lines should be high-performance PE lines. A PE8 (80lb breaking strain) is the minimum. For jigging, we recommend PE6-8 (65-80lb breaking strain)!
Good lines include, for example, Gosen Diver x8, Daiwa J-Braid x8, JB Line One or other high-performance lines!
Terminal Tackle
Hooks, Split- and Solid
There can be no compromises here. Please bring only BKK hooks. You should bring GT-Rex hooks in sizes 3/0–5/0! For popping with smaller poppers, you will need 1/0–4/0 BKK GT-Rex hooks.
For jigging, we recommend VMC hooks (Jigging Assist Hook 7264 BN) in sizes 8/0 – 13/0. For the assist hooks, you should also bring rubber octopus lures!
Snap rings and solid rings for popping should have a minimum breaking strain of 220lbs. Owner Super-Heavy-Duty snap rings and solid rings (solid rings #7.5–#9) (snap rings #10–#11) are a good choice here.
Useful tools for your fishing trip
Other fishing tackle
In general, it’s a good idea to bring a decent pair of snap-ring pliers. We can recommend the hPa Game Plier. With these, you’ll have no trouble opening even the strongest snap rings.
A good, waterproof boat bag is also recommended. Zeck Fishing has a few good bags on offer. We recommend the Tackle Container Pro or the Tackle Container Pro Catfish!
As you’ll often be popping and jigging for several hours at a time, we recommend bringing a pair of good gloves.
As it can get very warm in Indonesia, we recommend UV-protective shirts, a sun hat and SPF50 sun cream! You can order our expedition UV shirts directly from us!
A good pair of polarised sunglasses is essential for fishing. We recommend sunglasses from the Gloryfy brand. The best polarised sunglasses for anglers currently available are also unbreakable!
You can take a closer look at Gloryfy polarised sunglasses for anglers here: Polarised sunglasses for anglers! Polarized Sunglasses for fishermen
How much does a fishing trip to Indonesia cost?
Price
Included
- english speaking tour leader**
- 8 nights on the mother ship, shared sleeping area, full board
- 7 days of guided fishing
- 2 Centre Console Boats (4 Anglers per boat)
- non-alcoholic drinks, water
- Airport and boat transfers
- Fishing licences
- National park entrance fees
- Photo & video documentation**
not included
- 1 night in a hotel, double room, bed and breakfast*
- Tips (approx. €250)
- International flights & visas
- Travel cancellation insurance*
- Excess baggage and oversized baggage charges*
- additional meals/drinks*
- * optional/freigestellt **nur bei Erreichen der min. Teilnehmer
- Mindestteilnehmerzahl: 8
Price per person
4399,-€
Extras
on request
Booking statuses
Indonesia Fishing Trip - Ring of Fire!
2027
Fishing Trip Indonesia
The best catches!
