The Monsoon period is here, and heavy rains that last the whole day are the norm. With the influx of freshwater, lots of fish die, so the bottom feeders get big and fat. Normally, this signals Garoupa season (and crab season too)... well, this year is no different. Made a number of short trips in Nov and Dec, and caught plenty of Snapper and Garoupa from my usual spots around Ubin. During a heavy downpour one afternoon, we even landed more than 30 of those tasty buggers, but got drenched in the process. Who says fish don't bite during wet weather?
Usually, among the Garoupas, a sudden strong pull and hard fighter will appear, and we know we have a Golden Snapper on the line.
And then once in a while a larger fish appears to make everyone excited. During this period, we had several bust-offs. For example, Matt learned the importance of tying strong triple joints for apollo rigs... when he lost a fish that bent his rod tip into the water... while his rod was still in the holder! I lost a monster on handline too! Simply unstoppable! But we did manage to bring up some of the manageable ones. Those around 2 to 3 kg were still manageable.
Here's a young angler about to start fishing.
And of course I have to squeeze in this pic of a Cobia I landed from a new pond in Pasir Ris. Sometimes when the weather is really bad, I guess even I have to do some pond fishing. Sheesh...
Well, that's all for the Dec update. Busy doing lots of fishing! But expect the fishing to get better, especially towards Chinese New Year. Early September 2009 updates - Since the Snapper are around, I made a few more trips to our Southern waters and landed more Snapper. These are beautiful fish indeed, and really strong fighters!
Check out the beautiful golden sheen on these Snappers - only from freshly caught fish
Then just yesterday I took a short trip with Matt and his wife, and we landed the usual reef stuff. What was nice was when a small school of Yellowtail Fusiliers came to entertain us. (Hang Tze He - fishball fish) Wanted to try one of them for dinner but my maid misinterpreted me and fried a Timun (Spanish Flag Snapper) instead. Anyway, landed a lively coral trout for family dinner too, and we cooked and ate it immediately upon reaching home. That was wonderful tasting. Even my kids who eat fish every day commented on the quality of the coral trout. Nice tasty soft white flesh... yum yum.
Here's what I had for dinner last night. Check out the metallic blue spots on this coral trout!
OK I will be doing another short trip today to bring my friends out, hope we get some interesting fish! I'll upload the pics if something interesting turns up. If it's the usual fish... we'll wait till next time.
August 2009 updates - managed a few trips when the weather was ok, and some quality fish were landed.
Here's the usual small fish to keep us occupied while we targeted larger fish... take a look at our Kaci with Timun stripes... called Kacimun
Of course, I've started trying new techniques aimed specifically at larger fish, and they've begun producing results. Will probably start catching larger and larger fish in the coming months.
The Richard and a Blue Tiger Fish... ok, just a 3 kilo Cheng Yi
Just yesterday, while waiting for Giant Trevally, this nuisance fish took my light line bait and gave me a fun fight.
This one weighed in at 4.5 kg... nice fight on light gear
But of course, we caught some good stuff.
Here's the Golden Prize - a Snapper weighing in at 4.2kg
ok that's the end of my short update, till next time, tight lines!!!
25 July 2009 - simple day trip
Went for a simple day trip with fishing pro Dave and Handyman Alex... very fun way to spend a Saturday. Caught some nice reef fish then went for big stuff using the fish we caught from the reef.
Alex opened accounts with a big take on a 200 gram piece of bait
We were all disappointed when it turned out to be just a Queenfish... sigh
But towards the end we did hook some big stuff. I had a memorable fight using a 300g bait when a huge Black Tip Reef Shark around 5 ft long took the bait, gave a solid adrenaline filled fight, and broke the metal gaff cos it was just too big and heavy. Of course we went home happy with some of the usual good stuff.
Yummy top grade eating fish like Garoupa and Blackspot Wrasse (which is part of the Parrotfish family)... the usual
July 2009
Looks like the trevally are around, we've really been catching lots of them but I couldn't put up the pics to protect the spot. These are solid fish for steaming, you know? Short 3 hr trips are more than enough.
Here's a quick pic I took of one of the catches... not much left already
May 2009
Did quite a bit of fishing at reefs 40 to 47 around the Southern Waters in the month of May.
On labour day, Matt, Melissa, Kings (sorry for the typo, haha) and me (not forgetting Chewy the dog) came for a half day trip where we mostly hung around 43 to land some nice Spanish Flag Snappers, Waigeu Sea Perch and SBM Wrasse. Plenty of action that day.
Check out this beauty - SMB Wrasse with tender white meat
The 11th of May was not as productive in terms of numbers, because 43 was unavailable, so we stuck with reefs 35 to 39. Yet, we managed to make up for it with quality. I managed to land a nice Coral Trout along the way, as well as a decent Greasy Garoupa.
Can you see Matt salivating in the back when I lift the Coral Trout?
Of course, the SBM Wrasse obliged too
And then on the 23rd of May, Richard and me went on a half day trip. Reefs 43 to 47 were all firing up and we managed plenty of good fish. I even managed to land 3 Coral Trout within a few hours, on top of big SBM Wrasse, plenty of Snappers and some Sea Perch.
Here's a sneak peek into my ice box on the 23rd of May - high quality stuff
In fact, all the Coral Trout were immediately steamed Hong Kong style after each trip and enjoyed with the family members. I even tried a taste test for the Greasy Garoupa, Coral Trout and SBM Wrasse. The Trout and Wrasse were tied for first with tender tasty white flesh while the Garoupa was slightly tougher but still better than most fish you can buy from the market. Well, that's the update for May 2009. Till next time!
David gives this 10 lb Blue Threadfin the thumbs up... Boga grip comes in handy
28 Feb 2009 - BIG KURAU
- What an amazingly strong fish the Blue Threadfin Salmon is! I just went out on a short trip with the golfing gang and had a most satisfying and arm-aching fight with a 10 pound Threadfin Salmon. When the fish took the bait, I immediately knew that this one was different. There was a typical lag period and the weight of a heavy fish before the fish took off on a blistering run. When I managed to get some line back, it would take off on another long run, making me worry if I had enough line in my reel. For the first five minutes, the fish was in control and I gave more line than I took. And this sure wasn't a stingray because of the violent head shakes I felt at the end of my line.
Around the 10 minute mark, the fish started heading towards the surface and I thought I had a huge Queenfish on the line, but the fish did not jump, and suddenly made another blistering dive deep into the 100 foot mark. Obviously this fish did not intend to go gently into the good night. Down deep, the violent headshaking continued, and I began to worry that my hooks might get dislodged from the mouth of the fish because the puncture wound would definitely get larger and the hook would get loosened. So I was extremely careful to ensure that I kept steady pressure on the fish and used a smooth pumping action to retrieve line.
Finally, after brusing my mid-section with the butt end of my rod (I forgot to wear my fighting belt), fifteen minutes into the fight, the fish slowly but surely started tiring out, and I managed to gain line bit by bit, with a few final spurts of energy, and then, just before my right bicep started to cramp, the fish surfaced and Richard promptly netted the bugger. "Wah!!!! Big Kurau!!!" This was really a great fight and the moment the fish was safely into the boat, the muscles in my right arm seized up and I had to do a little stretching before I could start fishing again.
This Blue Threadfin Salmon weighed 10 pounds on my Boga grip. So far, the largest Blue I've landed. It's close cousin the King Threadfin can grow much bigger, and used to be more highly prized. But recently, the Blue Threadfin and King Threadfin are starting to be equally prized for their eating qualities. And of course, the Blue Threadfin fights much harder! And that's what counts!
Of course, there were some garoupas which were fat and healthy, with a couple hitting the one kilo mark, but they look tiny next to the Threadfin that I landed.
Don't these Garoupas look small beside my 10 pound Threadfin?
Could have caught many more of these Garoupas if we didn't have to outrun a storm and head back to shore around 2pm. But I guess there's no complaints, with such an amazing fish putting up a guest appearance.
Here's the group back at the boatel early... at least we managed to stay dry and avoided getting soaked in the rain.
Early 2009 short trip
- Just decided to upload a few more pics from another trip in early 2009. So far the Garoupas are out in force, and so are the Snappers. My good ol spots are really producing nice fish, and Lau Di Fang at Ubin is still coming up with nice Flathead for my BBQ parties.
Compare the size of the fish with my arms... Nice Flathead for BBQ... will try some sambal this time
Richard sure knows how to enjoy the fight with a strong fish
A healthy Snapper like this can put up a really good fight on light gear
Here's a pic of another average catch for a short fishing trip... enough fish for the week! Yay!!!
14 Feb 2009 - Valentine's fishing
Arthur, David, Matt, Melissa and me decided to do some Valentine's day fishing before the night's dinner. So we met at Punggol in the morning, took the boat to the aunty's fish farm, bought 1.5 kilos of prawns and zoomed straight to the spot where I've been landing pretty decent garoupas for the last few months. The idea was to catch some nice fish for the week. The day started slowly, with several lost fish, especially when Arthur's fish (the first hookup for the day) escaped. So we moved around quite a bit, and I was quietly confident that the fish would turn up eventually. I predicted that the fish would start biting at 2.30pm that day, but the fish were early, and started biting at 2pm. The moment the first rod took a fierce bend, the action was fast and furious till our 1.5kg of prawns dwindled to only 5 prawns. We landed several garoupas and threw back the small ones. Landed 4 snappers too and 1 Grunter. But what was surprising were the 2 nice Parrotfish which showed up for Matt and Dave.
Matt with a beautiful parrot which he said sold for $120 per kilo in Chinese restaurants ... in fact he was at Crystal Jade that night and saw the same fish swimming in the tank
Actually Melissa was way in the lead with several good fish caught before the rest of us caught up with her.
What's Valentine's day fishing if you can't bring your wife? Matt and wife
Me and Arthur were happily landing nice Garoupas and double hookups were common.
My new Transitions lenses at work... too much staring at rod tips in bright sunlight can cause cataracts
And the last to start catching fish was David, but he quickly made up for it with a good variety of quality fish like a Parrot, a Garoupa, a Snapper and a Grunter.
David opens accounts with a Snapper and he wants to eat the prawn too!
After the feeding frenzy, we decided to head back to shore early cos we had to meet the wives for dinner and karaoke. Anyway, one shouldn't be too greedy where fishing is concerned. Managed to release many small ones unharmed (burp.. oops).
Here's our modest catch... the usual Ubin suspects
And here's the group back at the boatel... about to start washing the boat
Well, so far the fishing's been good even during the windy period in Dec and Jan. Now that the winds have died down, hope the fish keep biting. Happy Valentine's!!
24 Jan 2009
- Chinese New Year Dinner fish. The catch has been like that almost every weekend lately. In fact, catching about 10 good garoupas per trip seems to be pretty common. Must be a good sign for the year.
- David, Han, Erwyn and Sam came along the day before CNY 2009 to see if we could land some good fish for reunion dinner the next day. Didn't have to fish till evening before everyone caught some good stuff. Gong Xi Fa Xai, Nian Nian You Yu!!!
Guess which one I ate for New Year's Eve Dinner? Nothing beats fresh caught wild fish ya?
All packed and ready to go! Everyone gets to bag some good fresh fish to bring home for Chinese New Year
3 Jan 2009 - Barramundi Hunting Success
Went on a trip with Kings, Sunny and Fingers to celebrate the New Year and show Sunny a few spots. On the way out from shore, I was thinking that since I already had a good supply of Garoupas and Snappers in my fridge, it was time for some sport fishing for Barramundi. So I headed for my Barra spot and not five minutes into the trip, Sunny struck into a 4 kilo Barra which put up a good account of itself before making its way into the landing net.
Then Kings had a good hookup and had a really solid fight with a 4.5 kilo Barra before also landing it. Fingers and me had some bites, but I guess it wasn't my day. I only landed one small Barramundi, one Harry Hotlips and three Snappers in quick succession. Each time a fish bit, I thought it was a big Barra, but I guess you can't catch all the big fish all the time.
Before heading back after a few hours fishing, and several good fish later, Sunny had a good bite and was into what was probably the largest Barra of the day. But I guess we were enjoying ourself and taking too many pics of the fight that after quite a while of fighting, the hooks pulled and the big fish got away. Anyway, it was a great start to the New Year.
Started the new year on a high note... nice big Barramundi!
