First Overseas Trip

Fwah, another slacking effort in blogging! It was already a month ago since my last blog! Sianz... actually, in between these blogs, hadn't really fished at all except for another session on Uncle Tan's boat but was with the privilege of JM's invitation instead. Then came May 23 when the long awaited Bernard's organised fishing trip was finally here. He had messaged us a month ago about an impending trip that his friend had organised to fish in Malaysia. Destination is Rompin, somewhere just past the Johor border in Pahang state. The target specie was for the famously renowned Sailfish in the east coast of Malaysia. It has been a long time since we've seen Bernard, a dentist whom we met in Sydney. Checked with him regarding the gears stuff and come one weekend just before the trip, I rucked up with the brothers for a gear shopping trip at Changi Village. Jialiang had already gotten his jigging stick which was a Shimano Jigwrex coupled with a Daiwa Cy. Jiaming had eye'ed on a Daiwa Monster Mesh of PE2 power which will be coupled with a Daiwa Caldia Kix 3500. As for me, I got myself an al'chealpo Eupro Hammer jigging stick of PE2-4 at only $60! But bought myself a jigging reel as well, a Daiwa Freams 4500J spooled with YGK Jigman 4X PE 40lb line. Whole setup was around 200 odd plus the other terminal tackles... fwah... let's not talk about the money... ouch!

Eupro Hammer 5'8" PE2-4, Daiwa Freams 4500J

Came Friday night, after my work, had to rush home and get ready as we are leaving for Rompin by driving up there. Met up at the brother's house and we got all our gears stashed nicely in a CX-7 which was an absolute cool ride. Upon clearing customs in Singapore and Malaysia, we made a short drive to a Petronas petrol station to meet up with the rest and also to get ciggies and some small snacks and drinks. Next stop was Kota Tinggi, where we met up with another group of anglers to make up the final tally of 10 anglers. Got our supper sorted and then we were on the road again. This time round, a country style road trip which so much reminded me of the Australian road trips. Made our final rest stop at Mersing before we proceeded to our final destination, Rompin. It was about a 3.5 hours drive and by then, most of us were buggered. The boat guide came out to greet us and brought us to his chalet. Not your 5 star style of accomodation but it does it's job nicely. We all passed out to be woken up for the 7am start.

We woke up and without much further a-do, washed up and had our breakfast. Brekkie was a simple chicken noodle which wasn't that bad at all. Took some pics of the surrounding chalet area which was just next to the water. Beautiful morning indeed...

Our boats being prepped

The crudely-made jetty

Mr GTK looks pumped!

Having our brekkie, the milo is goooodddd!!!

After filling our stomach, we quickly put our gears onto the respective boats. 2 boats of 5 anglers each was intended for this day's trip. As we had not gotten sails before as compared to Bernard and some other guys, our boat had that sailfish mission whilst the other boat went for their bottom bashing. Then came the sorting out of baits and carrying onboard our icebox of drinks and also lunch. The live prawns were ridiculously priced at RM$1 each! We only had a few just in case. Also had live small crabs which were meant for targetting the big Tuskfish aka parrots or locally known as "Eng Kor". The 27 footers (fibreglass) made its way out from the jetty. The one I was on had 2X Mariners on it each with a 60HP grunt. The other bottom bashing boat of similar built was rigged with a 175HP Suzuki 4-stroke, no 2-stroke fumes and very quiet, Doh!

Our "Japanese-Look-Alike" jigging masters, lol..

The 'other' bottom bashing boat crew members.

Our dentist getting his terminal tackles sorted.

The twin Mariner working hard to plough through the 'coffee milk' water.

The water way that we were on before hitting the blue ocean was some form of an estuary system. It's made up of mainly mangroves with heaps of rubbish lining the shores. Wooden houses that had collapse for reasons unknown or simply heaps of old fishing trawlers were looked to be abandoned there. Seems like the Malaysian government don't really give a hoot about their environmental protection. The water throughout the journey before we hit the ocean was simply muddy in colour. If you would to ask me if there's any fish in it, I'm not confident to say if there is any.

Our weapons of mass destruction.

The other boat (captain by Ah Liang), ours is captained by Ah Pui.

That's Boris, Bernard's army friend whom is very into overseas fishing.

Boatman on the helm, we're out of the inlet system!

It was gonna be quite a long ride out as literally we couldn't see the land horizon. We were practically fishing in waters of between 40 to 70 feet throughout every spots. The first stop was a FAD (Unjams) which they had made it out of coconut or banana leaves with ropes and rattan poles in any imaginable way you can think of. But, they are working indeed, where it was the place we were getting our baitfish and finding the predators chasing them. Couple of spots we went to and finally we were onto this big Unjam where we had most of the action for the morning.

That's my blackhole junior rod used for the Sabiki rigs.

We did some trolling as well as Ah Pui suggested surface actions.

The Unjams that was our playground for the morning, no one else was there!

The live bait tank onboard.

Close-up of the Unjam, poles and plastic drums attract fishes?!

Whilst Ah Pui was busy helping us rigging up our balloon live baits at the stern of the boat, there was some hot action happening at the bow. Jiaming was having a ball with this Bassterra stick using lures most of the times. There was some hot surface action happening around our spot, as heaps of small fishes were frantically being chased by something. Oh well, we finally knew what that 'something' was and turns out to be a freakingly huge Todak (long-tom)!!!

The Todak finally subdued, JM had a good fight from it.

The most hardworking angler for this trip, fruit of his labour!

After mucking around to see JM's todak fight and how Ah Pui hated the todak that much that he literally flung the poor bugger out, there was a FreamsJ screaming in protest back at the transom of the boat! Aiyayaya... It was my Hammer being bent! Ah Pui picked up the rod and within a few moments, he had successfully strucked the fish! Ok, the acrobats happened and it was my first Malaysian Sail! Being short and small in frame, I can tell you it wasn't my cup of tea when it comes to heavy gears fishing, lol.. Heaps of time I was in dead-lock with the sail, impossible to crank the handle at all. Or, at times it'll come charging towards the boat direction that I had to crank like mad to keep the tension. Had a crash course training from JM on the way of how I should correctly pump-and-wind the fish, lol..

The inexperienced angler in action.

The jumps were really captivating and it made it such a worthwhile trip to come for. The motive in this battle was simply between man and beast, who would eventually be tired first? I was feeling the strain as it was approximately a 20 minutes battle. Well, how I know? Cos' the rest of the crew were waiting for me to complete this ardous task, lol.. But... but... the fuck-up thing had to happen, as I finally lost the fish due to lose hook, argh!!!! KNNBCCB!!! Oh well, spewing I can't get a pic but the fight was almost enough to make up for my anguish.

As it was gonna be a rotating experience, the next in line were the brothers. Ah Pui rigged up the Tambans and ballooned them out. However, it turns out that the Monster Mesh was favoured. We quickly shouted out to JM for him to take on position. The following videos taken by yours truly shows how a sail is being fought, with brute force of course!

JM's Sailfish Fight Part 1.

JM's Sailfish Fight Part 2.

Hopefully you'll understand the thrill of sails. Though in terms of long runs and stamina, the sail seemed to not excel in these department.

The spoils of battle, beautiful Malaysian Sailfish.

That was about it in terms of the sailfish conquest. Next in line for the arvo was bottom bashing, where Ah Pui brought us to various suspected coral reefs. No one seemed to be successful in getting the parrot Tuskfish except for our boatman, who was so skilled in catching these brutes using only handlines! However, Boris saved the day for us as he managed one on this multiplier gear. These fishes are estimated 3-4kg and they are renowned in Rompin for the fact that on the first initial take, you must be quick enough to drag the fish out before it cuts you off clean in the first burst. Once you succeeded in the first part, the rest is practically wet sock. Anyway, the day ended with all of us super buggered. Had a good meal at the chalet where they cooked the parrot fish ala steam style. Bernard took us out to the Rompin small town to get some sinkers and sabikis for next day assault. We had some beer and talk cock session before calling it quits pretty early to face the next day.

Long story short for the next day. It was pretty shit! The morning began with the usual Sails ritual but we could not hook up even though there were takes. At one point Ah Pui signalled a school of Calamaries were lurking around and luckily we managed around 7-8 pieces in total for us to take something home. Highlight of the surface bashing was when Boris hook up to a rather big Dolphin fish (Dorado, Mahi Mahi). Took some footage as well.

Boris keeping his dorado in the water to act as teaser.

That was about it as we began the bottom bash in the arvo for a big fat zero. Bernard suggested we leave early so as not to waste too much time in the long journey back to Singapore. Had a dramatic situation when I had to pee on the way to Kota Tinggi for dinner, lol.. Everyone had a good feed at a chinese restaurant, not forgetting the steamed Calamari as the last dish, yummo! Everyone bid farewell and it was back to Singapura, where the next day was our dreaded working week!

Ronald

Don't Worry, Still Fishing...

After my mediocre fishing results for 19 days in Sydney, I thought I was gonna hang up my rod. But, even though with lacklustre enthusiam, I still manage to rekindle the fire and did ask Jiaming out for a fishing session just before I started work. The Sunday before my new job, we went to Pasir Ris Farmway 3 yet again in the hope of playing with those CnR fishes. It was Qing Ming that day as well, so after paying respects to my grandparents, JM ruck up and we were off to the east.

This time round, nothing fanciful in techniques, with the usual bread and we did however get some frozen chicken heart and kembong (looks like yellowtail but stinks like hell!) from the pond owner. It didn't take quite long for JM to hook up 1st on bread. That fish gave him some serious curry and the dreaded shit happened, the line broke for no apparent reason. Indeed I'll say that fish was some crazy shit. Whilst seeing him in action, I was in the midst of rigging up the kembong on my aussie blackfish float to try for the barramundi ala floater style. But it was a failed experiment anyway, with the float inpossible to stay afloat properly.

JM did hook up yet again but this time round the fish gave a big disappointment in the fighting department. Took a short video on my lousy Nokia 6300 (kept forgetting to bring my camera out nowadays). It's a patin by the way.

Since this time round I brought back my 6 inch camo sandworm from Sydney, I thought I'll give it a try here. Rigged up on a 2 gram squidgy head and simply just slow roll in the pond. Frankly, this worm is hip hop as what Rocky always likes to say. Had about 3 short bursts on the worm at the various parts I've casted. As I was using the whole 6 inch, that's why the hookup was not successful. Went to the opposite end from where we were and continued using the worm. Towards about reaching a corner to where I was standing, I felt a heavy tug and the line suddenly went out slowly. I knew I had a fish on the other end and this thing went berserk. Ok, long story short, after a tumultous battle, it was revealed to be a Kim Bak Lor (barramundi). The pond helper came and upon witnessing the tag that was on the body, he lamented it to be a 6 kilo specimen which they had weighed it couple of weeks ago. As I wanted to take a photo with it, he told me to guide the fish over to a wooden platform for easy lip gripping. Went over and the fish was actually tired and cooperating. But this bugger was putting on a show, as soon as it was near the wooden platform, it dived once more and my line was stucked underneath it! KNNBCCB!!! Passed my rod to the helper who was standing on top of it to ask him help me flick the fish out. But guess due to his inexperience, instead of dunking my rod into the water to free the line, he simply just whacked it. Ping it goes and the 8lb leader broke in matter of seconds. I was gutted, but dare not show the face as there were heaps of uncles and aunties crowding around me. One uncle even asked me what line poundage I used, told him and got a sarcastic reply. What the fuck..

The session ended with me scoring a patin on surface bread and JM hit a big white colour tilapia on the chicken heart bait.

Last weekend then saw me being invited by Jialiang to go on board his dad's boat for the 1st time. We headed out from the marina and went straight to the bait grounds just below the Tuas-to-Malaysia bridge link. Using the sabiki rigs, it was so easy to collect heaps of small little bait fishes which I had absolutely no idea what they were. Once the livie tank was full, it was time to soak them. Didn't need to travel far from the bait grounds to the spots. Jialiang had a good fight on a tamban bait which turned out to be a huge Threadfin Salmon (or what we called here, Taiwan Ngors). The fight was damn good, makes me think: Singapore got fish wat! After a lull period, GTK was on again with a big Diamond Trevally (chermin). I had the privilege to handle the fight of the 2nd chermin. I did manage one small little Threadie before we pulled the plug. Also had some cheap thrills with the local small catfish population on peeled prawns, lol.

Quite a good haul in my opinion. Wanted to wash "Uncle Tan's" boat but the marina had no water flow. It was really an enjoyable day to fish the west side of Singapore. At least I feel that the passion still hasn't died in me.

Ronald

Sydney Remaining Time

WTF man... can't believe I'm so bloody lazy to blog anymore. But seriously, ever since being back to Singapore, it's like my life has changed or something. The reason I'm saying this is that I've officially went into the working life. I really miss the times in Sydney when I can go fishing whenever I feel like, no fish, got fish, also never mind. It's the thought about how I can go relax myself whenever I feel bored or the urge to catch some fish to feel satisfied... Sigh... now thinking about this, it's really really damn sad. Anyway, here to blog the remaining stuffs I had went through whilst I was in Sydney for the 3 weeks holiday.

Technically, the fishing had been pretty shit whilst I was going hardout during my 1st week there. That's why I haven't been that keen to fish the remaining 2 weeks there. Or simply I was quite lazy to do that too, whilst I was more keen to spend time with my college friends and also helping them move house. And as usual, went to do the usual fishing such as luring at my usual joints, niggering at greenwich and even did a morning of clifton gardens fishing with Chen. We also did our weekend boat trip with Brooker at Sydney Harbour once, botany bay too.





Had a morning session at Glebe with Chen bro as well, the highlight was scoring a snapper on soft plastics over at polluted Rozelle bay. I remembered GTK did score a pinkie there before on a hardbody so it wasn't that rare but still an achievement.





Then, during the easter long weekend, me and Chen decided we need to head to Botany Bay at least once as we didn't fish there before. Launched at Cooks River ramp and it's gotta be the best ramp I've launched so far. They made new pontoons over there which was good to see. Had absolutely no idea how to fish the bay except some spots that we heard of from the net. Tried this spot they called the 3rd runway and after spending a considerable amount of time, only managed 2 breams, though of decent sizes. Next up was more interesting as we pulled up at Moulinex point. It was here that we witness one of the most jealous moments in fishing. Right so close to us was an asian boat and they easily bagged out on 4 to 5 big kings. I managed to jig up jelly bean sized yakkas to be use as live baits but to no avail. Luckily Chen saved the day when he hook up to a Aussie salmon and the fight on his small Ultegra and Majorcraft Slicer rod was truly amazing. Well done to bro for his 1st Australian Salmon capture using peeled prawn! Lol..

The last week was mostly spent mucking around and helping my friends shift their stuffs. Had a few fishing here and there though. Can't remember much but based on the photos, the luring was shit. Guess my biggest flathead this trip was only 47cm and bream 30cm. Very mediocre results IMO.





Seemed liked my last session turned out to be blackfishing. At least the blackfishing wasn't considered that disastrous, with some real quality blackfish landed. Had one most memorable fight that I know took heaps of line but decided to throw hook, KNNBCCB.. So that was about it for me fishing in Sydney. Actually, no complaints though, I would love the chance to go back there again for these. After all, it's my passion. As I know whatever you do in life, it's always good to have a passion, where you know you truly live for it.

Ronald

Sydney Week One

As many would have know, I went back Sydney in a jiffy just before starting my new job in Singapore and also to visit my hostel the last time before it'll be demolished soon. The 19 day trip was a so-so trip probably due to the fact that the fishing front was pretty shit. As I had forgotten to bring my camera cable, couldn't blog as well as the difficulty of obtaining a computer there. I shall break the 3 week holiday into a 3 part fishing report as I'm really getting lazier in blogging.

Arrived on a Monday night and my bros, Chen and Jeff came to the most shittiest airport in the world to pick me up. Met my gang in Chinatown for tea as well as join in their discussion about looking for housing. Got back to Hostel and met father, gave him a bottle of JW Black Label to corrupt him. Came the next day, I went down to Rocky's Mulleting Spot in Cooks river for my 1st session. Brought a loaf of bread with the intention to get the mullets Chen was telling me about. It was unsuccessful though. Tried a new weedless Owner jighead I got in Singapore and only tailors seemed interested.

The BMs were shredded and then I went to baiting under a tree as the sun was too unbearable. At 1st there were only babies but had a few good runs from sub-tourny legals on unweighted bread which was quite fun.

At night, Chen called for a night ops after his work and so we rucked up to one of our favourite night haunt at Iron Cove. My expectations were high as during the same time last year, the night ops were very successful at this area. But then, everything had to go against us this season. As I didn't bring any GULPS this time round due to irritating Quarantine shit, had no choice but to buy my 2 GO-TO gulps, the 6inch camo worm and 2" pseed grub. They were freaking costly from the tackle shops, especially when you know you can get GULPS in Singapore for like $5 a pack before discount! Sing dollar somemore! Anyway, finally landed a small bream to be my 1st lure-caught fish in Sydney for this return.

Subsequently, managed to land what seemed to be the only biggest bream I could muster out in this trip. It didn't turn out to be the best fight either. Oh bummer, don't know if skill is shit or simply put it, Sydney's fishing is really pathetic.

Measured 30.5cm to tip so that's why got a self pic too! Got a few more smallies before we called it quits as Chen had to work the next day. As this trip was purely a holiday relaxation, I had nothing to do but fish hardout. The next session saw me went to my another favourite form of fishing, niggering.. Went to Greenwich and managed to score 2 ok size. Forgot about my sony cam and so did took a shot from my lousy LG phone. Came night, Chen wanted a night jewie trip down at Greeny and so off we went with big rods and Rocky came with us too. We reached that place only to be greeted by heaps of fishos and hardly anywhere to cast. So basically chilled out and chatted whilst jigging for squids. Chen only managed a cuttle but unfortunately it dropped while being lifted out. The next day saw me and Rocky went back to Greeny to try and get him a luderick, which he finally managed to get one after spending quite awhile there.

Although a smallie but still an accomplishment for his 1st weed-caught luderick. Then, as he wanted to take the fish home, that joker tried to smash the fish to death but in doing so, the plastic bag broke and it came flying out into the drink. One fish wasted..

As I was still itching to try my luck at night ops, I went by myself again to IC the next day. It was miserable results, though the quantities increase. Finally caught my first flathead on lure which I hadn't seen for quite sometime.

This time round, the GULP grub proved to be the winner. The night continued with more flatties caught but all within the just-40 range. Guess the mama has retreated to began their winter hibernation. That's about it for the 1st week being there. We did went for a weekend trip out on boat to the harbour but it was an absolute shit outing. Sianzzz...

Ronald

Last Burst Fishing Before Sydney

During this week, Jialiang called me on a Monday to go for a pond fishing session and obviously I went for it even though I was supposed to go fix up my Asus wireless access point thingy, lol. The last pond session I had was during my last holiday back so it's been like almost 2 years ago. Anyway, it's basically paid fishing! They ( and his brother JM) went to our popular tackle shop paradise down at Beach Road to get JL a new spin gear. Rucked up to their shop (Sabre) and saw his new Majorcraft Slicer and a 1500 Caldia Kix. After enquiring about the Ryobi Applause, we finally headed towards Pasir Ris Farmway 3.

It was my first time there and you'll be surprised at how small Singapore pay-ponds are. The 1st pond that'll greet you when you enter is what they call a Thrill fishing pond. It's like $50 for 3 hours but you get to keep the fishes. After passing that pond, we came across the prawn ponds where you guessed it, prawning with pole rods. Then, we came to where we were supposedly heading to, the catch and release (C & R) pond. As the name suggested, it's basically to test your gear. Why I said that is that the pond holds some crazy big ass fishes that'll punish your gear if you think that they (the fishes inside) can't run! Well, paid $30 and you get to fish for 12 hours, but, the rules are you can't take home the fishes, your hooks have to be debarbed, and you can't use treble hooks, only single. So, me and JM rigged up our plastics and tried around 1st. JM got a few miss takes but eventually his airity screamed. However, turned out that it had caught a broken line and there was a stranded barramundi (local name is Kim Bak Lor). It went loose eventually. That water in the pond is some funny shit, apparently it's brackish and holds both salt and fresh water species. I was also twitching my Gulp Alive 3" minnow in pseed with some pussy takes but no hook up. Then, with luring proving fruitless, we decided to bait. Whilst doing that, Jialiang was already baiting, whilst sitting there relaxing like a true-blue baitfisherman, lol. As time goes by, his newly bought outfit was blooded by a (I don't know what's the english name but the locals called it "pacu") fish that took peeled prawn. Didn't had photos but took a crappy video from my Nokia 6300.

Alas, the line broke whilst JM was trying to help unhook it. Those pacu's had sharp teeths and the shape of it truly resembles a pirahna! Anyway, the time just passes like that and it was soon going to be last light. It was when at one point an indian worker came with bucketloads of bread and dumped them into the water as feed for the fishes. Initially there wasn't any commotions but when the light began to fade more, the fishes started surfacing to slurp in those loose bread! I had a sudden idea to try and use a whole piece of bread and just thread the hook through and cast towards the commotion. Had one serious swipe on one piece but no hook up, until finally, the idea worked and my little Stradic was screaming. It was a good fight but due to my ignorance, I was working the fish on pussy drag according to the pond worker there! He was on standby to help unhook the fish but whilst waiting, he kept on tighten my drag and I was warning him I had only 6lb main and 8lb leader, lol. He didn't care and just made it an almost locked drag. The braid was punished but a catfish (local name "patin") still could be coaxed in. At first I thought I will have a chance to take a photo with the beast but I didn't realise the worker used the plier to unhook rather than to lip grip! Alas, lost the evidence that I did land one! Oh bugger... But a cool fight it was. Anyway, told JM the rigging pattern for the bread and he too was successful and this time round I took a video whilst on standby to help him release the patin.

Soon, it was darkness and JM scored another patin on the same method. Got a bit bored from baiting and decided to give my newly bought Yo-Zuri Mag Minnow whitish lure a swim. On the 2nd cast, I felt hits, wondering what it was and thought it might be just snags (even though in the pond it felt almost unlikely). On the next cast, it's where I almost swear I had a violent take when the lure was almost to my feet. Then, blackhole junior rod was bending dangerously and Stradic was put on almost the locked drag pattern as this one doesn't seemed to feel like a patin run. It was slow but continuously long, if the pond hadn't been that short, I can foresee stradic be spooled. No joke... It swam 90deg forward from me and went into deadlock at the other end. The more I put pressure on the fish, the more I couldn't turn the handle and the fish just take whatever line it can swim to. Spent a bulk of time just in deadlock and thereafter, it began to move towards the prawn pond area which is my 270deg. Ok, this is almost like fighting a huge plastic bag with current. I even passed the rod to JM but there was no way we could steer this crazy thing. Basically I was at the mercy of this thing. I know I don't have a chance with 6lb line but the most important thing on my mind was: I WANT MY LURE BACK!!! But I knew I was also in deep shit, as I had forgotten about the "No trebles" rule and not only that, they weren't debarbed! Sorry... I was too eager to chuck the lure that I had forgotten about it. With that, we couldn't move around the pond much in case not to alert the workers as we were the only 3 fishos at that pond. Anyway, the 6lb yamatoyo gave way at the knot (as usual with this shit line). There goes my first time losing a hardbody lure to a fish (or whatever beast it was). The brothers were asking me how I felt about being 'bullied', obviously not a good feeling for sure!

At the tally end, JL scored 2 pacus and JM 2 patins. Was a good experience fishing this C&R pond knowing that there are some crazy monsters lurking in that murky pool of brackish water.

Then, just before I was gonna come back to Sydney (for short holiday before starting my new work in SG), I went with my good mate Kenny to the same pond. He was bored on a Saturday and suggested fishing. So I told him about that FW3 place and after contemplating awhile, we headed there eventually. Armed with the same stuffs like 2 loaves of bread and I also bought a pack of dead prawns from the pond operator. Ok, long story short, whole freaking day only managed to score a patin, and this time, I made sure I had a pic!

Bloody indian guy said he had to hold the fish to take care of the wellbeing, and so, that's why it seemed like he was the one who caught it, lol. Wellbeing? Please lah, if care about that, how about changing the pond water?! Might be awhile before I'll try the place again, knowing that spending $30 each time for fishing is really a shit feeling. Never heard of paying to fish in Australia except buying the licence... Sigh... that's the sad reality of fishing in Singapore.

Ronald

Singapore Offshore Experience

Went on my first offshore trip since I came back to Singapore and had posted a report on fishingkaki forum so will use the text there instead lah... lazy to retype... hahahahaha

"Got off on a gentleman's start and the crew were already there getting supplies such as livies and some other essential terminal tackles. Pop'ed in for a feed as well and we were pumped and ready to face what's installed for us (well, not sure about the rest but meself for sure!). Rucked up to the boatman and I was shown with a rather interesting watercraft that we're going to fish off in the next few hours or so. More so interestingly was the livebait tank that was made out from a plastic drum but as long as it made our livies comfy, we don't really give a shit. Off to a spot which I have no clue whatsoever where it was but to keep it short, it was pretty much lifeless. The 1st thing that came into my mind was how I wish I had some burley, lol. The next spot at least saved the morning. Almost everyone had a touch or so on those frighty prawns. It didn't take long when all the lines came up with a fish on it. Highlight for that moment had to fall on redtag's gf for pulling in what looked like a 'black bream' as described by my mate. Having been a crazed breamer in Oz I've gotta tell ya that really made me excited, lol. Well, certainly didn't wanna be outdone, I briefly struggled a little when feeling for bites especially using heavy sinkers and thick lines as I'm always used to finesse approach, I finally felt convincing bites and thus confidently set hook. Up came a 'Swa Jiam' (whiting) and I actually flew 7000K's to catch this specie, bloody oath! And on a relatively largish prawn, lol. A few kaci's and ang cho's before we lost the frenzy bites. Due to the suspected dodgy anchor, we began to slowly drift away from the sweet spot. My mate did lament that we were on top of a reef and pretty much close to the shore and probably that's why. As it grew quiet, the boatman pulled up and we were off to the next spot which had quite a fair distance to cover. After mucking around at those featureless spots and losing quite a few rigs to snags, I was beginning to wonder if we would be able to fill up the box. Came the call to switch spot and this time round, good ol' boatman picked a place that had relatively deep water and most importantly, a rocky point adjacent to weed patches and a shallow beach. This in my dictionary only spelt the word, FISHY! It was an outgoing tide and I was pretty sure predators should be lurking around. As the tide wasn't racing much, I opted to downsize my sinker but as I was already using a pre-rigged paternoster, had no choice with the line used. My prawn was getting flighty and all of a sudden, the blackhole junior rod was loaded and my little Stradic 1000 began to sing the tune. As I only had 6lb yamatoyo braid on it, the drag was set accordingly but the fish had the chance to brick me in the rocks, damn! For a brief moment I was heartbroken but it didn't take long for the fish to be coaxed out and I was gaining the upper hand. A little crafty rod work and drag setting, I was absolutely stoked to land my 1st ever Mangrove Jack right here in sg, not oz, woohoo!!!

Boga measured 1.5lb. The MJs here don't look as red as the Aussies counterpart.

Thanks to Andrew for the pics and also redtag's boga. Just minutes away, redtag's gf got absolutely smashed with a bigger specimen as well. 2 MJs in a day and a pretty rare sight according to my mate, how good is that?! The baitfish were jumping for their lives and I quickly told redtag where it had happened. He began peppering the rocky point with his deep divers and sure enough, he brought in his 1st gao for the day. Not one but two minutes apart. He got smoked by what seemed to be a monster gao that took home his Tiemco lure, my mate was gutted but that's fishing mate... Jason then left his baiting duties and began joining dex in luring the adjacent weed patches. He came up triumphant with two gaos and they were the biggest amongst the lot. I too got tempted and rigged up with a crappy halco diver. Nothing came out from it and by now, everyone was buggered and the boatman pulled up stump and headed back to the mainland. Took a few pics of the catches.

That's Dexter with a good size Estuary Cod (grouper is what they call here, very good eating!)

All in all it was a great day, great company and not too bad fishing, can't complain. Will definitely be doing it again. Thanks for putting up with this lengthy report, lol. Happy fishing and tight lines!"

Couple more pictures Andrew took and posted on the forum. So I'll show it here as well.

This spot is where we came 1st and got the bulk of small fishes, including my whiting.

Dexter's girlfriend, Yanni. She was on fire that day. Caught a slightly bigger MJ than mine.

Dexter's other grouper. Caught on his Rapala Fat Rap.

That's another of our kaki, Jason. He caught the 2 biggest groupers on Dex's lures.

Actually get a tinny like Chen's bro to fish in Changi area is quite do-able. The luring is done in not too high current area. With a bow-mount minn-kota sure can handle it... lol... The luring part was quite fun, so many baitfish activity and jumping predators, Singapore do have some fishes around... keke...

Ronald