Still Bleaming

Oh shit, it comes the time again when addiction becomes obsession.. Supposedly this is the period I should be like half-way through with my thesis amendments and there I was again, at sure-fire spot instead of my workstation. After that hip hop curry pok bleaming day, I went on the 4th consecutive time. Reached there even later and was fruitless at sure-fire spot. Was casting the $3 eBay lure but somehow the lure sank?! Removed the split shot and it was ok. To my surprise, when I was tuning the lure in water, I could see droplets trickling out from the lure bottom. Wah lao eh! Cheap lure leaking siah! No wonder! Got home and superglue that leak and hopefully works now, but sure got water inside lure, sianz.. Changed to sp but still zero bites. Suddenly looked adjacently down the bank, the surface commotion had happened elsewhere! Like an idiotic asian angler, I ran down towards that direction. With a change in jighead to the nitro brand, I made the first cast with wriggler near the fringe of the commotion. One twitch was needed and this thing went like rocket. Now, I know it couldn't be a bream as there were plenty of headshakes and stubborn resistance. Trevally came into mind and sure enough, my 1st trev from this waterway!

After the release, only manage 2 small breams and it was getting really dark. Had to leave early to bait shop and get fresh pack of pillies for our Saturday boat trip. Tamade... overslept Saturday and caused Chen to miss the trip, sorry bro! But we went out on Sunday eventually. Didn't fish saturday as we were having hot-pot with Phil's dad in college.

Sunday me and Chen went out to harbour for bait session after a super long absence in doing this since my last session with JM. We gave up the idea for squidding and launched later than usual. To our dismay, the bloody motor play up again, and this time it was serious. It didn't have power at most of the times when we were revving it. Then, it almost made matters worst when it just died near Chinaman Beach (tamade.. is it because the sand's colour?!). Out of sudden, there were heaps of boils around our stationery boat. I quickly rigged up blackhole with metals and cast. At first I was reeling damn fast like a mad dog and there wasn't any takes. So, thought of doing a super slow wind and straightaway, hookup. The fish felt small and didn't take any line. Life's full of surprises when we saw it was slimey's chasing baitballs. Really weird to encounter them in winter. Anyway, we had a ball connecting to them, as they were quite easy to hookup. At one point Chen even tried jigging for them with a Halco twisty on his 'kiddy' ugly-stik. But the fun was just for few minutes, as when the light began to appear more, they left as well. We were disappointed that it wasn't salmons instead. Kept about 7 in the live tank to use as baits (too big size actually).

The motor really farked us up and Chen wasn't pleased at all. We had no choice but to make a call and fish nearby. Motored like a snail over to Balmoral and fished near some drums. This was new spot but completely dead spot. The wind wasn't helping and we were even more pissed! Made a call to pull anchor and tried for a last effort at spot JM. D.E.A.D. was the spelling for spot JM. Slimey fillets, live slimey (too big, a joke), pillies, heaps of berley and even me casting metals till my arms almost fell off for nada, nil, zilch kaput! Packed up in disgust for our delight towards Maccas brekkie. Delight my ass... reached there a bit late and all McMuffins were sold out. Only manage to grab probably the last hotcakes. And to make it worse, it should be named 'coldcakes' instead! The whipped butter couldn't melt a single drop at all! KNNBCCB!!!

Not satisfied with lousy slimey macks, Chen and I went for a really really last light lure at sure-fire spot. To prove I never BS surface feeding over there, the buggers did co-operate and put up a show for Chen. No time wasting as it was almost dark. Tried the trev spot 1st and on my first cast, hooookkk up... Chen said: "what? just like that?". Well, it was just an undersize bream on the wriggler. Then, it got snagged on the subsequent casts, shit..

A move was made when we saw the surface commotion towards sure-fire. Used the nitro and a berkley pseed grub near the snag. Bang, on again. Also another small bream at almost relatively dark condition.

Unfortunately, Chen faced wind knots and had to untangle the mess. At the spot where I got that 42, had an unusual take quite near my feet and I thought it was a snag. But as I wind in more, there were headshakes and before I could think more, the grub flew up over my head like a rocket! Shit! I told Chen that it certainly felt heavy! Most likely a big flattie, spewing man! After that, further disappointment sets in when I snag a $1.20 nitro jighead, KNNBCCB!!! Got sick of losing sps and so took the plunge towards my night-time confidence lure, yup, LC Tango. Cast cast cast and probably about 10+ casts later, Zzzzzzzzz..... Song Ah! Zzzzzz... many times in complete darkness till I also can't see where I'm supposed to steer the rod, hahahahahaha...

Not bad for a 35cm breambo. Thanks to Chen for photo. Released the bugger and since Chen couldn't fish with the tangles, we left for dinner at Dai Ka Lok to go hardout on their free-flow chicken rice again. Song Ah!

Ronald

"Hip Hop Curry Pok" Bleaming

I said Tues and Wed got go fishing right? Then what am I doing on Thurs? No life equals what? No choice, go bleaming again... pathetic... Ok, last time I claim to say never buy lures again, backside itchy I still kept lurking around eBay. Told ya.. backside itchy.. Don't worry.. 3 dollars only (ONLY?!)

Mod the lure after coming back from lunch with Phil's dad at Newtown Thai. After a small nap, I went to sure-fire spot again. Water was pretty low even though I opted to get there a bit later, but still, can try lah. Gave the new lure it's first test swim, not bad, action quite sexy for a Fat Boy Jr Crankbait. This lure actually looked like those $2 Daiso lures I got in Singapore, but better finishing. 3rd casts rolling the lure vertically next to the snag, Bang... I'm ON! Zzzzzzzzzz..... then.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.... then... Zzzzzzzzz.. Zzz.. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.... Fwah, really a not?! Drag tightened more, skull drag away and I knew it should be safe by now. On closer look by now, shite! Quite longish-shape bream near the bank. Luckily nearby got steps, but took quite awhile to body-lift this bugger.

SONG AH!!! 42cm (tamade, equals my previous pb on lure, but this one on hb, the other one on sp) on a $3 eBay lure which I just mod it the very same day. This one confirm Kilo plus bream (say so much for fark.. no prize money for u also.. kaoz!).

Not everyday sunday you can catch biggies, so, more pictures.. hehe..

Seemed that everyone has 'release' fish videos, I also want! Again.. not everyday sunday you get to release a 42cm bream, right?

(Can you hear this irritating vibration thingy sound in the background? It's the camera lenses which are damn loose)

After mucking around so long with this bream, it's time to resume fishing. Continued with this Fat Boy Jr for nothing else. It was starting to get dark, time for sp'ing. The surface commotion had started. I thought about doing the "BLAIRWITCH" thing again but should see if there's any hookup before making a fool of myself. Soon, a small bream climbed onto the bloodworm wriggler, though small but good sign, THEY ARE FEEDING LIKE MAD!

Ok, set my camera on the bag, made sure got a good angle of meself and then, it's time to hang on! (well, for me lah, of course!) Actually the hookup only occurred after 1 minute and 49 seconds..

(erm... actually camera no more batt to take release video)

Was really surprised to get such a good size bream on my personal action vid shot by yourself truly (actually credit goes to my lure bag, hehe). No time wasting, quickly get a few still shots..


There you go, 35cm bream taken on yet again, the bloodworm wriggler on a modded jighead with plenty of pock marks. SONG AH!!! I said I wanted to take the release video but tamade, camera no more battery liao! Wah lao eh.. No more hollywood for me, my little celebrity world has collapsed. By then, it was really dark. I did manage one more small bream on the wriggler before I switched to my... you guessed it... my night-time confidence lure! Whacked on the LuckyCraft Tango and proceeded to give it some swim in the dark. There were still plenty of hits, suggesting the breams are feeding well truly onto the dark. Got 3 more smallie breams (1 looked almost just legal) on the Tango. Since no camera, no pictures needed. It was kinda getting a bit cold and so I thought enough fun is enough. 7 breams in this session is quite ok in my books. Definitely a SONG SONG GAU JURONG session at sure-fire spot.

Ronald

Finally Drought Is Over

Based on the last captures or basically the last blog I had, that was how long I've been on a fishing drought! Last week was the most devastating drought with super clear water and hardly any baitfish activities, I knew I would be in for donuts. But the donuts were continuous, with hardly any bites at all! Looked through the pressure readings and true enough, super high pressure with little fluctuations made sure that theory was right. I was then basically waiting for the pressure to either drop drastically or wait till two weeks later and go back to my sure-fire spot. Ok, the tides were in favour of 'sure-fire' spot this week and I knew I had to break this bloody drought!

Went on Tues and the tide wasn't fantastic. High was a mere 1.44m at around 4pm. Nonetheless, began hammering the exact spot with the Stradic. The stradic was out last week for the drought and I thought maybe it's jinxed? Anyway, thought it would reverse the fortune on Tues. This was not to be, as I'm really pissed with the 3lb fireline! Kept getting wind knots non stop and I swear this was gonna be its last outing (new toy coming, hehe). With so much time wasted on untangling that shitty line, it was soon outgoing tide and quickly changed to this new rig which was the bloodworm wriggler with a 1/32 size 6 jighead squeezed into the sp to imitate a 'hidden weight system'. Frankly, it was a failed visualisation. The hidden weight was snugged in nicely but the swimming action was crapola. No takers so a change in weight was made. Used the modded berkley head and casted very near to the snag. Just as the lure was coming back next to the structure, there was a take and zzzzzz.... to the structure. Oh no, not again! This time round, it snagged me but I could still feel that it was struggling in the water. But I could feel the line rubbing non stop and within seconds, PIAK! Fish ran away with my painstakingly modded jighead.. TAMADE! I GOT SMOKED AGAIN! That was it, no more bream bites. All I could manage on Stradic once again was a winter flathead.

Finally got a chance to use my 'hao-lian' ruler (brag is haolian right?). The flattie was freezing cold man, I wonder how these fishes can survive!

Wed I went back again. Tide is increasing and a little better going at 1.5m. Roughly reached there earlier than Tues and the pressure was fluctuating, hopefully was a good sign. This time, I brought kix out. Was damn quiet in the beginning, and I was trying out some Squidgys I bought at BigW for $2 (haha). After about an hour, I knew I had to try the snag now seeing that the water was quite high. Then, as I was nearer to it, the baitfish seemed to come on alive, good sign! Tried again with the 'hidden weight' squidgy and jig it vertically along the structure back to myself. Finally, the bream drought was over. Kix was on tight drag and basically did the same ol' skull dragging. Not much struggle from this 'tournament undersize' bream (shit, bought this ruler just to make me get irritated on 'fork' lengths).

Hmm.. hidden weight not bad actually.. Seemed very well hooked leh. After the release, it was chaos time. The mini shrimps were jumping and it was feeding time! I knew I had to get a bit further out and so changed the jighead. 1st cast with the mod head and had a funny bite, striked lah! Ok, connected liao.. No fight leh! This thing was heavy but came in easy. Within seconds I could see shape and it was a big whiting. Seeing that their mouth is hard to lip grip, I had no choice but to harrowingly lift it up. It was my pb whiting...

... with a lousy 0.5cm better! Yup, 38.5cm is my current pb, up from the previous 38. Sianz.. well, a pb is still a pb. Damn it, I kept wasting time taking photos nowadays, and bloody hell the camera took another fall from the bag and got more scratches! Wah lao eh.. I think the camera will not be able to make it in future when I keep abusing it like that. The feeding frenzy was still on and I made a few more casts. This time round no more bite, just a take and go attitude, I LIKE! Good size bream don't usually muck around, especially when they want to feed. This one went off on a short run and that was it, probably because of my tight drag. Didn't lip grip as well and this one came in as 'tournament legal'. Hao-lian ruler.. u beauty!

All the fishes are icy cold man, just makes you feel like in winter to still catch fish is truly unbelievable! I've been meaning to take videos of myself while in action and so thought maybe still can get them while they are in the frenzy? Basket.. waste time trying to balance the camera on the bag and by the time I can cast, the surface commotion had disappeared!

This is the first "BLAIRWITCH" video I took, muahahahahahaha!!!!

(Actually the vid was damn long, but no point kept showing same casts, but one cast actually flew the lure onto tree branch, kekeke...)

It was getting really dark now, and I thought just give it a few more go. Changed to hardbodies and tried using my night-time confidence lure, the LuckyCraft Tango. Few casts at the same spot and suddenly there was a take and next thing is zzzzzzz..... GONE! Wah.. spewing man! Brought up and check, treble was bent! 4th time Owner trebles had let me down! They count themselves lucky I had no choice cos' there's no other brands that make size 12 trebles.. SIANZ!!! Whichever that bastard that crushed the treble must have been a monster.

Persist for a while more with no takers on the Rapid. Changed to my night-time confidence sp which was a used Gulp grub that got the flattie the day before. Bashed till almost the end of the waterway and saw some surface commotion which was surprising for an almost low water level. Cast cast cast and soon got a take with a super lousy fight. Up came a just legal whiting at 28.

Then, bream number 3 climbed on board. This fish did one run during mid-fight and suddenly came in like a 'heavy' weight. I thought I've scored big but it was fin wrapped around my leader, no wonder it was plastic-bag feeling.

Noticed this bream had dorsal fin damage, but still, another 'tournament legal'. I missed the competitive spirit I've had with GTK, when we were going hard-out on flatties on our past landbase escapades. Now no one to do this shit with me. Maybe in future when we fished for peacocks, loser has to treat Geylang frog porridge... yum... lol.

Ronald

Seemed To Found A Sure-Fire Spot

But seriously, I don't wanna 100% confidently say this kind of things as sometimes later on, it may get disappointing. After that successful trip on Wednesday, I thought of giving it another try the next day. Thing was, I did see a lot of bait activities at that spot on Wednesday, and when I went back to check a theory I got told on a forum, the bloody baro pressure was increasing and quite high, around the 1020+ hPa range (don't asked me what is that pressure for!). Seemed quite true leh.. Plus, that day was quite overcast, and the water level was quite high, good covering of the snag structures I was fishing at. So on Thursday, the desired water level was gonna come one hour later. Wind though was a little blowy but I thought what the heck, maybe the trees behind me will shield me a little. Cannot think so much, time was precious for the tide and off I went.

Reached there a little later than Wednesday but the water level was not as high. Oh well, tried with a used 1/32 watermelon bm at the drain. 1st cast on halfway retrieve, got bites! Thought it might be toad so didn't bother to slow down. Upon near my feet, I saw a good size bream following the bm! Immediately stop the bm and give small twitch, the bream tried to eat it but hook not in mouth! Fwah, damn visual man! Let it sink and stop for some time and another twitch, the fish took it and I waited till my slack line moved before I gently strike. Argh!!!! Hook never set! Fish swam off liao... Spewing man!!! KNNBCCB!!! Me no skills man! Sianz...

Cast down towards the snag and then the inevitable happened, SANGKUT! (snagged) KNNBCCB!!!! I knew it's gonna be a shitty session for sure liao. Ok, time to try some HBs that hasn't gotten me bream yet. Put on the MegaBass Live-X Smolt and the casting of this lure is crap! To achieve far cast, have to get angle right and swing like hercules! On the first furthest cast, only a few cranks I got a take. Lousy fight ensued and this undersize bream was the first fish.

Well, at least this lure meant for bream has achieved objective. Few casts later, have yet another harrowing experience when it was lightly snagged but soon came out after few flicks.. phew.. (not so lucky for another lure, later on will say). Sick of the lure's casting and swimming action, I changed back to my newly-acquired-confidence lure, faded-bloodworm Squidgy wriggler! Yes, the water level by now is quite ideal and time to use the 'almost-destroyed' one from Wednesday! So bloody cheapskate! That's me lah! Applied more pizza smell on the 'chwee' plastic and cast lightly to the nearby structure. Registered some hits but no solid take leh. Put on more megastrike and then finally it works (think so). 1st bream at 28cm caught almost at 5pm which was quite dark already..

Put up quite a good fight, now I don't know why I seemed to like skull-dragging them with tight drag on 5lb leader, quite fun actually! Haha.. Chop chop curry pok take picture and continued hammering the same spot. Approximately 6 minutes later, bang! ON AGAIN.. This one fought slightly better, coming in at 29cm, what the?!

Not everyday sunday I guess.. Fwah, by the time I released that fish, it was quite dark, and the bites seemed to go off. Sianz... Stayed for another 30 minutes for missed strikes and only this hookup from an infant bream, which I'm surprised to catch it on the same wriggler!

I thought since it's so dark, they probably can't see this 'almost transparent' plastic. Well, maybe is the 'vibration' those 'pros' talked about when lures moved in the water for the fish to sense it? Hahahaha...

Everything must come in threes right? Yeah right, excuse! Yes, went for round 3 on Friday! But this unlucky day proved to be the work of Friday the 13th!!! Did the same ol' and arrived a bit more later than the previous day. Seemed to be left with less than an hour of daylight. Water was considerably low, but this time I tried the wriggler (new one this round, last one too destroyed, cannot stay on jighead anymore) at the drain 1st. Nothing. Then, the decision I regrettably made out of stupidity. I put on a Bassday Sugar Deep which I thought haven't caught a bream yet. But being a deep diver, it "shouldn't" be suitable for such low water. Never had this came across my mind, cast and cast and cast till SANGKUT!!! Thought it'll come out easy but NO! Whacked it too hard and 5lb leader broke at lure! Fwah... heart damn pain, totally no mood... I roughly remember where it got snagged and thought of coming back at low tide to retrieve. Anyway, since there already, fish lah, cannot let that unhappiness affect me. Proved correct, as I managed to land 5 breams and drop one.. Haha! But then, 4 were undersized except one which was 29cm. Wanted to take photo but camera played me up on this Friday the 13th! Sianz... really an unlucky day... But, but.. my lure-retrieving partner-in-crime (Chen) came with me at 2.15am low tide (0.26m) to try my luck at getting back the lure. Thank god, lure could be seen stuck on a protruding tree branch!!! Wore my waders and went out to get it. Shit, by the time I reached the tree branch, the mud was too soft and I sank till knee deep! I thought I was in trouble but slowly and surely I kick one leg at a time to get out. Scary shit! And the mud stinks like hell!!! Hope we don't get this kind of stupid thing happen again man!

Ronald

Best Session So Far

It has been quite awhile since I've done those last light luring and seeing that the high tide was around the 4 to 5pm timing (those are the times when it get dark in winter nowadays), I knew I had to get out! Well, provided the wind's cooperative too! On a side note, Phil told me recently that he admires how motivated I am when it comes fishing, as in, I can do it so regularly, like an undying hobby. Fair enough, I never knew this 'hobby' can stick with me so long, I liked to call it more as a "passion". But it struck me hard when it comes to more serious stuffs like maybe I'm doing it too obsessive?! That's probably how my thesis can be in crisis... However, I reckon it's the only thing to keep me occupied as well as the best stress-reliever in life for me. Fishing is not everything in my dictionary for sure. Ok, enough of babbling...

Got back to my room around 3pm and was taking some time to ponder which spot to go to! Have been disappointed a lot of times before at Hen and Chicken bay and wasn't that confident about going there on winter. Then, quick look at the winds and seemed that the only go-to-spot is the one I'm afraid to be at! Think here think there think everywhere and finally, argh.... Go HC bay lah! Stupid me, think so much think until the time already quite late by the time I drive there and bash to the spot, the water was already quite high. Use soft plastic first and don't know why I feel I wanted bloodworm bm instead of my usual watermelon when using 1/32oz jighead. Cast cast cast nothing leh! The cb puffers are still quite prolific in winter, got give a few chomps on the bm tails and body but luckily the plastic still intact. Saw a step nearby and cast my way till there. While standing on the steps near the water surface, finally scored one on a pretty far cast! Line peeling from the kix and the usual orgasm was felt. Measured at 33cm to tip, and 30cm to fork (why so tournament minded?!) KNS!

After recently re-watching the AFC dvds rocky had returned me, I knew I had to try back those bloodworm squidgy wrigglers. Still remember my 1st lure-caught fish was a bream on those wrigglers. But the second pack I have is the faded bloodworm colours, not as red as the last pack I owned. I was near a sunken tree and there were millions of small tiny baits around the banks and snags. I rigged the wriggler on a modded Berkley jighead which I managed to make the weight 1.09gram... hehe... I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO RIGHT?! ARGH!!! So, copycat those 'pro' AFC guys by bouncing the wriggler. Fwah, 1st cast and I'm on liao! Tamade... drag too loose! Zzzzzzz and by the time I tightened and walk away from the sunken tree, SANGKUT?!! Sianz... this time, my mind tell me (ok ronald, free spool liao). So I did that and then close bail arm again, play some guitar and kept the line tensionless... moments later, fish came out! Zzzzz again for a shortwhile and then... SANGKUT AGAIN!!! Cannot be lah! No choice, keep calm and did the same ol'. Fwah, luckily the fish gods smiled on me and that bream cooperated. This time make no mistake, drag tightened and basically walk away from the snag and skull drag that farker. Still got some guts left but never give chance, I hurriedly pull out the lip grip and dare-devilish stand on the slope banks and lipped that bugger up. Hmm... another 33cm...

Walked down to the nearby steps and released. Wah lan, I did mention earlier why I was scared to bash into this spot right? Cos' got golf balls flying around! Out of nowhere one came shoot into the tree and ploop into the water! Scary man! Always watching my back! Ok, cannot waste anytime, I feel the breams are all around the snag! Fwah, really true man! Following casts have some near miss and lost hookups! Apply more and more megastrike pizza scent and then score liao! This time make no more mistake, drag already quite tight and this farker wanted to go back hidey tree log. Skull drag and the Zzzzz was even more song... orgase... Land that bugger same fashion and what do you know... 33cm again! Deja Vu??!!

Man... now really is challenge to da max liao. Can't believe can get three times thirty three! Sky getting quite dark liao, cannot waste time. But then, to take all those shots with me in the picture, I have to crudely improvised by placing the camera on the top of my bag. Knn, one mistake and the camera fell while trying to snap a 10sec delay pic! Fwah, heart pain siah! Luckily still can turn on amid some really bad scratches on the camera housing, phew! No.. NO.. NO... cannot waste anymore time mucking around camera. Chop chop curry pok and make more casts. The wriggler was already to the point of cannot stay well on the jighead. Being cheapskate, I rig it on the other side.. haha! No problems whatsoever, another Zzzzzz from Kix. Same spot, same technique of landing it and this bream measured better, 36cm, song ah!

After her release, it was really dark. Seemed like the wriggler had no more customers. Changed to LuckyCraft Tango for a hit and a lost hookup, sianz... Stomach hungry liao and so called Phil out for dinner at Taiwanese.

Before this session, I did go down to Iron Cove for a look see. Brought out Stradic and got a 40cm flathead to take picture with. Actually I did christen the reel on the 1st outing with JM but only had flatties so never took picture.

Then, whilst at the drain, I had a fight on a gulp grub. This fish took line like nobody business and went out, came back, go left, came back, and go right... NO... it was going to the drain flotation thingy! Next thing I knew before I could tighten anymore drag, PIAK! Heart pain ah!!! What kind of fish swim like that?! KNNBCCB!!! But Shimano's reel the clicker damn loud, zzzzz... hear until damn song!

One more flattie picture I forgot to mention earlier in the same session at HC. Actually the first fish that climbed onto the wriggler was a pesky flathead the same size as the IC one.

After that... it was SONG SONG GAO JURONG! Hahahahaha...

Ronald

Our First Bream Competition

Yup, me and chen participated in a bream competition on sunday and it'll be mentioned later but first some previous photos I've forgotten to put up.

Caught a few winter flatties on 2 separate occasions at Hen and Chicken Bay which seemed to be the only producing spot for me to still get legal size. Was actually trying out lightly weighted flickbaits for bream but instead, a 47cm flattie took it right under my feet, not a bad fight too.


At the same spot, was practically trying exclusively for breams but instead, a 40cm flathead decided that a sexy swimming SX40 is too irresistable! Another breamless outing too.


Just before picking snow up from the airport, I went for a quick flick in the early morning. Tide was kinda low but did managed a tiny flathead. Then, when the water started coming in, I scored a 34cm bream on a lure which I've bought in Singapore long time ago but never really used it. After modding the Duel Seafox (48mm instead of the advertised 50mm, 2.5g), the lure became a confident thing. Nice fight in this quick session.


Those pics were uploaded in imageshack and seemed to produce some thumbnails which doesn't somehow make the post looked big.. hehe..

Took JM and Rocky out once to have a try around Georges River luring from the boat. It was also meant to test out a live bait tank that Chen had installed and also his newly acquired Jarvis Walker Watersnake 54lb electric motor. We launched at Oatley boat ramp since that was gonna be the staging area for the bream comp. But, it was practically a fishless day! Well, for some reasons we had no clue where to fish at all! But the trial day for this bream boat was nonetheless a good experience. Took some pics and decided to experiment with the Photobucket's slideshow capability. Quite nice!

The day after Jiaming and Rocky left for our beloved Lion City, I went for a lunchtime session down at Rocky's playground again. Spent about 1 hour plus to only get a measly 26cm bream on a 1/32 watermelon bm. Seemed like my temporary gong tao had left too, damn it! Did however have a miss strike while I casted almost near to the bridge pylon.

On Saturday, saw Rocky online and chatted with him for awhile. Bloody hell, he's having a rolling-good-time at beach road's tackle shops! JM bought a roll of 10lb Fins PRT braid for S$20!!! Asked Rocky to get me a Cultiva Mira Shad as well as some owner trebles. Since cannot 'jio' them for breaming, I went out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to try out a new spot in Cabarita. Tamade! Dead as stone! That place is so fenced off and trying around the rock wall stretch to only encounter very snaggy terrain! Left there disgusted to a fall back spot in Hen and Chicken bay. Also dead, except a strong take from this silver biddy. Man.. I really love this tiny 'no-fight' fish who simply hit the lures really hard on. Orgase....

Ok, time to report on our first ever bream comp. It was actually organised by a forum where me and Chen had joined as members. We had missed the 1st round which was held in the Hawkesbury River. This 2nd round was gonna be at Georges River and me plus Chen had absolutely zero idea as to where are the breams. Not free though, still had to pay $20 per entry! Reached the Oatley boat ramp and it was damn chilly morning. Saw the other members there and only 6 boats participated. Cut the long story short, we sort of came in the second as the only boat to have bring 2 breams back. Only got it at the very last 2 hours of the comp at this place they called "THE MOONS". It was a bay with mangrove and rock formations and quite a fair bit of mud and sandflats with deep water access as well. Simply speaking, looks 'fishy' lah! Chen got the 1st bream on a camo sandworm. I switched and also had one. Woohoo, 1st time trying out the livie tank and it was amazing! However, the Watersnake drank too much battery juice and towards the end, that small battery was dead. These two breams seemed to be happy swimming in Chen's DIY livie tank!

Out of the two, only 1 bream could be measured as legal since they used the 'fork' length for tournaments. Ah well, who cares. All we care was the experience to lure from a boat and also casting to tight structures and those 'fishy' shorelines sure is a totally different experience than just chucking baits into a burley trail. Can't wait to do it again either socially or be it in the next round which is sort of our homeground, the Parramatta River!!!

The report from that round can be found here

Ronald