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