2006 Jul to Sep Grunters with Norm and John

July to September 2006 Fishing Stories... Grunters save the day

23 Sep 2006 – Usual Saturday Trip. 

Marshall Norman and his brother-in-law retired Navy guy (the late) John came along for a relaxing fishing trip… but the fish did not give us time to relax.

Since the wind was stronger than expected, I did not go for the Snappers and Garoupas I originally wanted to hunt, because I did not know how Norman and John would take to the choppy waters. (Only later when John started talking about his years of experience in the Navy since the time of the British in Singapore did I feel it was OK to go into choppy water… he was a NAVY guy man!!! Able to tahan any type of water conditions.) But the initial choice to go to sheltered waters was a blessing in disguise.

I had a Good Feeling the fish were gonna bite (and Ahmad, whom I bumped into at Raffles Country Club a week or two ago, was talking about the Ubin Barras, coincidentally)… so I tried for Barramundi, and caught two of them. Here’s what happened.

After anchoring nicely over the spot, I proceeded to set my lines around the snag, and I hardly had to wait before I noticed my line swimming against the current, so I picked up the rod, wound in the slack, and STRUCK into what I was expecting, a Barra, and then ZAMMMM! My rod was strained into a full U and the drag was screaming nice and loud. Norman and John were surprised at the strength of the fish… and it took line, I took line, the battle was hard, and the fish was intent on forcing its way back into the snag. I knew there was a brute Saltwater Barra on the other end, and fully enjoyed the tough fight, trying to turn the head of the fish. Eventually, after some anxious moments, we caught a glimmer of silvery gold in the emerald water and Norman started commenting about the size of the fish. It was a nice big wild Saltwater Barramundi. John kindly netted the fish and we let it swim about in the bait well.

Anyway, after the commotion, I settled down to feed the fatboys again, but soon landed another barra around a kilo. I guess the barras miss me. Haha. 

How's this for another exciting Barra episode? Ubin Barras still active! 

OK, enough of barra, time to let everyone catch fish, so I moved to PRIME location and anchored the boat very nicely into the strong wind. Then all the action began!!! Silver Croakers (Gelamas), Eel-tailed Catfish (Toh Sat), Stingrays and Fork-tailed catfish (Ah Sengs) kept everybody busy. A rather interesting Yellow Croaker appeared on my line in the midst of all the action. After catching more than 60 of these, Norman and John were very happy campers indeed! So I told them it was time to go for Grunters (Tepal Pipi). They had no idea how strong a Big Grunter could be, and they were going to find out. 

A beautiful Yellow Croaker appeared, often called Japanese Sea Bass

In strong current, we anchored at the final spot for an hour of Grunter Fishing. Almost immediately after setting the lines, my first rod took a bend and the fight was on. It gave a guhood strong fight in the current, and the sound of drag was like music to the ears, and the first 2 kilo grunter came in. It was an average sized one. I wanted them to see a full-sized one around 3-4 kilos.

There was good action again and several more grunters came in, and finally John’s super long 12 foot rod started bending till breaking point, and I knew a big one was on. John took the rod, tried to pump the fish, and the old reel made loud noises as the fish tried to make several good runs. He couldn’t turn the handle and then quickly tried to put the rod into my hands. Haha… but I had caught my fair share of fish so I passed the rod to Norman who then had a solid tug of war session with the fish.

After a good fight and several exclamations of surprise whenever the fish made a run, a big Yellow Grunter made its way into the waiting landing net. This one was only slightly above average, around 3 kilos. Norman was so happy, he opened up another Tiger. Really, that man deserved a Tiger. John also started telling us about his 18 ft long Shark he caught using a whole chicken when he was in the Navy. And he caught the shark IN SINGAPORE WATERS, just 100m from the SHORE!!!! So what they say about big sharks in Singapore is true! 

Here's how the 3 kilo grunter compares to the Big Wild Barramundi 

Anyway, we caught a few more smaller grunters and rays, and finally decided to call it a day. Everyone was happy, so many varieties of fish were landed, and we gave the catfish away to the boatyard workers who were quite happy too. Fishing in Singapore should be like this, right? Everyone was all smiles at the end of the day. And I was happy with my big Barramundi. 

Two Happy Anglers... no need to buy fish for a month! 

8 Sep 2006 - short trip with the perfect What

- Went to watch the Singapore Open Golf Tournament at Sentosa, and followed Els and Mardan Mamat around the course. I must say Els made a 65 on Serapong look easy man, and his swing is just so fluid. And Mamat has to work on his putting a little, an unnecessary three-putt on the penultimate hole almost ruined his day if not for a beautiful approach to the last hole to set up a birdie.

Anyway, the moment Adam Scott finished his bogey putt at the last, I went to meet Kings, who was confident of getting some What What (See previous story), and we were going on a short afternoon trip to get some HARD FIGHTERS.

Armed with 2 packets of What and 100g of live prawns, we wasted no time and headed straight to the Grunter Zone, and caught a few stuff. Landed some small to mid sized Stingrays which reminded us of poor Steve Irwin, who unfortunately got stung by a Ray in the Chest. So no more 'Crikey!' for us anymore, and I must admit I was a fan.

So of course I respected these rays and kept one for Kings to BBQ AFTER plucking off its serrated stings.

We did land a few Grunters and Kings even managed an oversized Sickle Fish which fought quite well in the current. Well, it was a fun short trip, and we landed our fair share of fish.
Here's Kings scrutinizing one of the Grunters. 

2 Sep 2006 - A Tale of Three Worms

An old friend appeared, back from Malaysia, and we decided to go fishing. But due to the windy conditions, we decided on Grunter again. So Kuanwai (you can see him with his 4 kilo barra caught on fresh sashimi Tuna in one of my old galleries) asked me, 'What type of worms are good?' I said,'What.' He said,'What?' I said,'Yes.'

'Huh?'

'Yes, we should use what.'

You see, there are regular sand worms, Sarong worms (Pun Pun), and Giant Ragworms, also known as 'What What' worms. Sadly, that day, no What was available, so we settled for the Pun. (Seriously, no pun intended.)

But for insurance, we got some live prawns. Kings helped with some sandworms (which are commonly mistaken for the What.) Well anyway, we headed out with no proper Grunter bait but still managed a few good fish.

Around Coney Island, I opened accounts with a good Grunter, then Kings got an interesting Sickle Fish (Chao Xi). And we got plenty from the Grunter Brotherhood (Friends of Grunter... aka Catfish, Stingrays, etc).

So we kept ourselves entertained, and when I moved to a huge rock spot, Kuanwai fought up a good Golden Snapper. And when I had enough of Sangkot, we moved to the Grunter Zone to catch a couple more Grunters and the Grunter Brotherhood.

Sadly, the bait was not right, but we still managed a decent catch despite bad wind conditions outside. It was fun catching up with Kuanwai though.

Here's the catch, notice Kingsley's big Blue Swimmer Crab (Flower Crab). 

26 Aug 2006 - Looks like the grunters are IN!!!

- Brendon smsed me on Fri morning...'Hey! You free for fishing this afternoon?', and the next thing I knew, I was driving to the boatel straight after work ended at 1pm on Fri afternoon.

Brendon had already gotten bait and re-fuelled the boat by the time I arrived, so we launched and headed for Grunter land. The rationale was simple, the wind was simply too strong (as it had been the whole week) to head into open water, so we headed to sheltered waters. And the only fish readily available in sheltered waters, and which I was certain of catching before the session ended at 5pm, was the ever faithful low grade fish, the GRUNTER!!!

Yes, I have to admit that the Grunter is normally a last resort, if you're comparing it to Barra, Snapper and Garoupa, but if you're pulling in Ah Sengs and Eels, a Grunter definitely brightens the day... plus they're quite easy to catch.

Hitting the first spot, we landed some Friends of the Grunter (FOGs)... namely, various forms of catfish, but ... no Grunter. SO we moved to my old Coco-Spot for Grunter. AND THEY WERE THERE! After landing some FOGs, Brendon opened his Grunter accounts with a nice hard-pulling Grunter, then I struck into a real drag-puller. My fish fought hard and deep, but the pressure paid off, and a big Grunter made its way into the net... plenty of FOGs followed, and the trip had to end early cos of time constraints.

So on Saturday 26th, Kings smsed me in the late morning (I originally cancelled my fishing trip so that I could visit my Sister's newborn baby), and so after lunch (around 2.30pm), Kings, Uncle Frank and me were skimming over the waves heading for Friday's spot, but only FOGs appeared. We shifted around a little, and only FOGs obliged, until finally at the Ketamic Kelongs, the Grunters arrived amidst the FOGs.

And of course, just before having to return to the boatel in the evening, the BIG Grunter arrived. The way it fought was fabulous! Wonderful feeling when the rod dipped and the drag screamed... I'll take a big Grunter any day, thank you.

So here's the Big One caught on Fri and the Big One caught on Saturday. Both caught during short 3 hr trips. Both were great fighters! 

Bren holds up his nice Grunter
 

Can you spot the difference? The one I'm holding is the Saturday Champ, while the one Brendon is holding is Friday's Champ.

Well, as long as the wind keeps blowing, I guess Grunters are the name of the game at Ubin!

12 Aug 2006 - AFTER A LONG BREAK FROM FISHING...

I finally got a chance to soak a line. Every Saturday for the past month or so had been filled with some activity like golf or work, and when I realised I had this Saturday free, I jumped at the chance to fish, despite the bad tide conditions.

Sam brought his gang along, David, Clayton, Peter and Suru, and we started the day with high hopes. Unfortunately, many things went wrong. First, I was told that my Garoupa spot was now out of bounds when an MPA boat came and asked me to move away, but they were nice and polite about it and I appreciate their efforts. Then I moved to a deep wreck off Changi, but the current was too strong and I saw that the anglers were struggling with the current, so I decided to go to a shallow spot, but strangely, there was zero current there.

We ended up shifting all over the place, catching lots of nonsense fish like Ah Sengs, Eel-tailed Catfish, Stargazers, Eels, Stingrays and Croakers... just no quality fish. Something seemed wrong with the water, and at my sure-catch spots, there were nets and stuff, which made it unfishable there too... so we ended up at the Snagpile and vicinity, where FINALLY, some Snappers and Garoupas were landed amidst the Croakers and Ah Sengs.

And as the tide turned, the action picked up a little, but all the fish that mattered were lost when either the line snapped, or the hook pulled. But there were some really strong bites!
Finally, we kind of had enough so we called it a day just after five. 

  A quiet day of fishing, but at least we got these

Anyway, it was nice to be at sea again after almost a month on dry land. The feeling was good, and you can bet I'll be out again next week for revenge! I know next week's catch will be better.

1 July 2006 - There are more important things in life...

Catching fish is not always the most important thing on a fishing trip, having fun is. And when the important elements in life come together and go fishing, fun is the inevitable by-product.

The family came along for a short trip to see how my girls would handle rough water. Des came along with Luke and we headed out to some rough water, and the kids didn't even seem bothered, playing with the water, kicking the water with their feet, playing with the 200 grams of prawns I bought from Gina and eating nonsense.

This trip almost didn't materialize, cos I saw dark clouds in the morning and thought a storm was brewing. So we headed to Changi Village and enjoyed a hearty breakfast there. Soon, the sky cleared and by 11am, we were at the boat and the kids were clambering up the ladder and marking their territory on the boat.

At the rough water spot, Des and me settled down to fish while the kids, the maids and the mum busied themselves with getting sunburn and playing with the toys they brought along. They also colonised the flybridge and ate lots of nonsense while watching the dads fish.

Had several bites from small fish, but lost a good pull early on. So I rebaited and let down the line in the same place, and got another smaller pull. Everyone got excited as a small but fat-looking Lao Hu Ban (Tiger Garoupa) surfaced and was promptly put into the live-well for the children to admire. 

A small Tiger Garoupa for the kids' dinner 

Well, the kids didn't get seasick but one of the maids did, so I had to go to calm water, spent 10 minutes there, and headed back to the boatel. I guess an hour of sun was enough for the kids, and I had a golf game later anyway. 

Here's the gang