July-Sep 2005 log - 25kg Garoupa and Discovery

Jul to Sep 2005 Trip Reports and Pics

24 Sept 2005 - A trip with the GUYS!!! 

Nick, Glen, Chermin, Udon and Guek came along for a Snapper hunt and we had a few, though the bites were a bit slow. Glen was the champ with 2 Snappers and 1 Parrotfish, while I pulled in a nice Snapper too.

  These guys are fun to hang out with. Too bad there were quite a number of losses on pulled hooks and a snapped line. Still can't forget the HUGE U shaped bend in my rod and the screaming drag from the last spot of the day... what a waste !!! Nevermind, I'll be back next week! 

Here's Glen the champ with a Snapper 

And here's how we keep the Snappers fresh - alive or on ice

17 Sep 2005 Saturday Family Outing and Pond Fishing 

So the wife's like,'You're always going fishing!' And I say,'Only Saturdays what!' And then I think, since most of my kakis are busy today, I announce,'Let's go Sentosa.' (My daughter had been bugging me to bring her to the Butterfly Park the last few days.) And everyone shouts,'YAY!!!'

And we're driving along, with the morning sun burning brightly, when I decided that it's too early for Sentosa, so we take a detour to see the Pet Farms along Pasir Ris Farmway near my reservist camp. Playing with the animals there sure beats buying a dog or some other pet home for the kids.

Driving along the farmway, a small sign 'FISHING' catches my eye and I JAM BRAKE!! Made a U turn and turned into this particular farm that sounded so promising. After parking the car, the family was immediately caught up with the wide array of marine life on display, while I went in search of the FISHING that the signboard promised. Then I saw it. A pond. $5 per hour, minimum 2 hours. So that's $10, I tell myself, equipment provided. Good deal.

That's how I spent the morning, catching lots of freshwater fish for the kids to play with. Pink Tilapias, black Tilapias, Tilapias in all shapes and sizes... both kids had fun trying to catch them and playing with the caught fish.

At the end of 2 hours, we threw back all the fish alive. Didn't intend to eat freshwater fish anyway. Then, with my weekly fishing trip done, we drove to Sentosa to experience the new LUGE ride attraction (QUITE FUN) and the insect park. Then hung around the beach for a further tan. Gotta go out on the boat next week then.

9 Sep 2005 (Friday day trip with my friend, the pro Dave), and 10 Sep 2005 (Saturday day trip with Colin, Choon Kin, Theodore, Kings and Guek)- FUN TRIPS ALL THE WAY!

On Friday I went with a fishing expert Dave and caught a few fish. The weather was fine, Dave had just caught and released a Giant Catfish (Jahan), and I had just caught and released a large Queenfish when another rod took a good bend. After a brief fight, the fish that surfaced gave both of us a HUGE shock!!! When we looked into the water, a HUGE object was moving towards the boat. GAFF!

'GAFF!' cried Dave and when a monster mouth surfaced (large enough to swallow my head), I slid the oversized GAFF nicely into its thick lower jaw. Then I realized I could hardly lift the fish into the boat. But, with adrenaline flowing, and using my bodyweight, I leaned in and the fish slid over the side of the boat and plonked onto the floorboard of the boat.

'WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!!' Never seen such a huge Garoupa before! Easily in excess of 20kg, Dave and me took multiple photos of the fish before heading to the Snapper grounds for a few food fish before returning to shore. Here's me trying to lift the fish. 

GAROUPA MAMA!! 

Delicious Malabar Red Snappers and a Goldie

Kings discovers the MAGIC RIG

Saturday's trip is not too bad too. Almost everyone catches good stuff, with Kings turning out CHAMP with the largest Snapper and a few Grunters. He caught them all on a magic rig he bought at Changi Village. Total good fish: 4 Snappers, 4 Grunters, 2 Garoupas. Lots of nonsense fish chewed up the rest of the $70bucks worth of bait, haha! But there was good action today! Dropped a few fish, including a possible Barra by Colin, what a waste! 

A decent haul from Ubin waters

7 Sep 2005 - Beach Road and Arab Street - A trip down memory lane.

After spending the day with my kids at the shopping centre and at a favourite Koi pond feeding fish, I finally found some time to go to the driving range in the evening. So I was driving along Bukit Timah, on my way to Marina South Driving Range, and was about to go up the Sheares Bridge when I changed my mind. The reasons were simple, there was a slight ache in the biceps from some heavy lifting the day before (which could affect the golf swing), and I needed some weights for the next few trips, and the Beach Rd tackle shops were just on my left after the traffic lights. So instead of going straight up the expressway, I turned off into Beach Rd, found some free parking (it was after 5pm) and started on my trip down memory lane.

I remember I started coming here as a schoolboy in Primary School. That's more than 20 years ago. My favourite shops then were Siow Chiang, where I used to buy Silstar products (the only ones I could afford then), Hock Ann (where I would buy my Berkley Trilene line, and stare at the expensive Fenwicks while enjoying the aircon, and of course the old Hock Heng, where a young Raymond would entertain me and my classmates (all fishing buddies) with his funny jokes.

This time, in 2005, some things have changed. The first shop I came across was the new Hock Heng, (which was sold off by Raymond and family several years ago). What struck me was the array of lures! Now I really know what it means when they say lures are meant to catch anglers, not fish. Even though I wasn't looking for a lure, and wanted to get weights only, I really felt tempted to buy a few of those life-like soft rubber lures. The store didn't carry the weights I was looking for, so I reluctantly pulled myself out of the shop, and walked down the road to the next few shops.

What amazed me next was the number of 'new' shops that had emerged in the area. I say 'new' only because these shops had been existing for a long time, but only recently (less than 5-10 years ago) moved to beach road. A few of these are Hong Guan (moved from the Lavender area, and before that, another older place further up Beach Rd.) Looks like Seng Choy's marketing ideas and his Pioneer brand is starting to attain results. Wish him luck! I remember buying a few rods, Sufix line and maybe a reel or two from his dad about 10 years ago...

Then I saw another familiar face, Joshua of Deepsea, and Janice was seated way back in the shop. I used to buy my live prawns from him when he was still at Changi Village, sometimes even waking them up in the middle of the night to buy bait for last minute late night fishing trips. His shop held the weights I was looking for, but I moved on.

There were so many other new shops I popped in and out of, until finally I came to my old friend's shop, Born2Fish. Raymond was at the back of the shop and immediately came up to greet me when I stepped into the shop. He has mellowed down greatly since his younger joking days, and opened this shop to occupy himself after selling Hock Heng away. Unlike his brothers, Ricky and co, who have happily retired, Raymond stays in touch with the tackle business and we do some catching up. His shop is a modest setup, displaying some interesting old Abu reels as collectors' items. Couldn't find my weights there though, cos his stock of weights looked totally depleted. He explained that there was a lead shortage cos of China... interesting fact. Maybe I should stock up on more lead weights.

It was nice to see Raymond again. We talked about our families and the past, and even about the rising brand of Siow Chiang (SureCatch) - SC, about how affordable they were. I myself buy Surecatch rods in huge numbers nowadays and keep them in my storeroom just in case they stop making such practical, affordable rods. I use the 5 ft Exceed rod and really like it.

Soon, I had to go fetch my wife from work and bid farewell to Raymond, promising another visit in the future. Walked down to Siow Chiang to get the weights, but the shop was closed, so it was back to Deepsea for the weights.

Noticed many new shops, even in the small sideroads. But couldn't spend much time in those shops cos the wife was waiting. This trip down Beach Rd really showed me how time has passed so quickly. Some things have changed greatly, but some things never change! Like friendly shopowners you'll remember for a long time.

3 Sep 2005 - Saturday full day with Samuel, Isaac, Vil and Jac. WET AND WILD DAY!!!

Stormy weather was the treat of the day. Had good company on board though. The day started off fine, with a sunken kelong producing a nice sea bream, but things were quiet at the usual spots until we reached Tekong and Isaac struck a Golden Snapper, then almost immediately Sam pulled in a Garoupa.

So I rigged up and again pulled in a bigger Garoupa and then another Golden Snapper came up. Then, when we were all fired up, Mr Storm came blowing from the South... and we RAN!!! At 25 knots to a sheltered region around Ubin.

Strong wind and rain lashed us, so we hid in the cabin, turned on the radio and the fan, and listened to music while the bilge kept pumping out water. Visibility was down to a few metres for a while.

The rain never fully stopped after that, coming off and on, and we played around the sheltered waters off Changi before I landed a nice-sized Grunter. Sadly, our special bait had all died in the rain, so, out of bait, drenched and dried and drenched and dried again a few times over, we headed home.
Here's the decent catch. We threw back the nonsense fish but kept some for the boatel staff of course. Loved the Garoupa!!! 

1 Sep 2005 (Thursday short trip)- Brothers' trip - a Stroke of bad luck, in more ways than one.

Due to some sad circumstance surrounding dad, my brother had to fly in from Australia for a short while. So after some days of watching and waiting, we decided that life has to go on, so we went fishing to clear our thoughts.

During a leisurely breakfast at Changi Village over some famous Nasi Lemak and Prata, I was telling Jason (my brother) that the Barras should be appearing since it's the last quarter. So we decided to target Barramundi.

After buying some hooks and leader line from Gina, we drove to the boat, topped up the fuel, and zoomed to the aunty for $20 of prawns. Then it was straight to Good Feeling. And I struck gold almost immediately after letting down my line, with a nice Barra, and Jason got a larger one. Then the fatboy gang moved in as expected and we spent some time running from a few small storm systems, with me landing a nice Golden Snapper, dad's favourite fish, in between.

Brought the boat up early after realizing I had hit the target of 3 good fish and with the weather turning bad, there was no need to be too gung ho today.

Below is Jason with two of the Barramundi. 

22 Aug 2005 - After work Freshwater Escapade - Toman culling exercise

A good fishing friend had a lobang for fishing in a lake in Jurong, and we rounded up a few half-day workers, packed a few lures, bought some chicken liver, and went Toman Hunting!

Felt really great fishing on a Monday afternoon. Really great way to start the week. Straight after knocking off around 1 pm, all of us zoomed from various parts around the island and converged on a placid lake in Jurong that was supposedly teeming with Toman.

The action started almost immediately, with a nice big Toman whacking my  Hydro Tiger Popper on a modified fly-rod transformed into a spinning rod. A huge U on the soft rod was the result! And soon we eased the Toman into the landing net and Des had some problems lifting the bugger with the net.

Happy problems, happy problems!

Here's the fish. 

Des took this pic as the fish tired itself out with some hard pulling 

Handsome Toman! How's a nice freshwater fish for a change? Tremendous thrill when it whacked the surface popper!

Of course Desmond and Karen caught plenty of Toman too... lots of small ones on lures. Here are some of their pics. 

Des with a nice pot-sized (according to Karen) Toman 

Karen tries lifting a Toman

On the whole, it just felt great that we could soak a line on a Monday afternoon! The fish were, of course, the added bonus. No real monster fish that day, so we'll have to come back another time with monster bait ya? This place reminds me a little of one of my old Toman hotspots (it was a legal fishing spot in the past), see one of the luring pics from the early nineties.

20 Aug Saturday Trip with Foul Weather Karen

Guek and Karen came along to target Chermin, but a Dugong came to entertain and it spooked away the fish.

It was a sad day of losses for me. Dumb new hooks I bought just won't keep the fish on during a fight. The hooks pulled on at least 4 good fish today, with one fish dropped at the side of the boat and another one lost after a run from right to left, making the line cut through the water...

Tekong was ok with a Parrot and some bites, but Karen landed a nice Grunter before a storm hit and the trip ended prematurely.

Here's the pre-storm Grunter. 

6 Aug 2005, 9 Aug 2005, 13 Aug 2005

Made a trip on the 6th (Sat) with the family. Stayed in calm waters cos the kids came along. Got 2 small Garoupas for our efforts and went back early cos can't let the kids get sunburn.

National Day was celebrated at Tekong. Showed Roland (who just bought Ng's Freedom) and his friends a few spots there and left him there when the wind got a bit too strong for us to handle. He must have landed a lot of fish. Well, Ubin wasn't firing up so the catch wasn't very good. Sam's gang and Jeeves came along.

Jeeves was the champ with a fat Grunter. But the day could have been better. Spoilt by the weather and some netters...

Here's the catch. 

But Saturday 13th was going to be slightly better. The Tekong spot didn't produce the expected Grunters but lots of action took place for Roy and the gang. The bite rate was about one fish every 10 to 15 minutes.

In terms of quality fish, 2 Golden Snappers were landed. And at Ubin, Aaron was applying sun tan lotion when his drag started screaming and he got all excited. BIG FISH!

A beautiful Trevally was landed (Chermin) and soon two more Trevally came along to join the party. Of course, some nice fat cuttlefish were boated along the way, causing some laughter with their black ink antics. Here are the pics of the fish we kept. Gave a whole bagful of other small fish and rubbish fish like Sharks, etc away. This time the catch beat National Day's catch. 

Aaron with his Chermin (Diamond Trevally) 

Fish in the Red Tub - see the tail sticking out? A sign that fishing is going to improve in the next few weeks...

30 July 2005

Went out a few times during the weekdays but the wind seems extremely strong this season. Finding it very difficult to anchor precisely over the fishing spots. Even then, we managed to raise a few nice garoupas.

Of course the most interesting thing happened on Saturday. Karen and Uncle Tan came along and we were hoping for a good catch of Garoupa. I did not intend to take the boat into open water because I knew the wind was going to be strong that day, but what happened was really beyond what anybody expected.

My buddy Lee was also launching his little yellow boat at the same time as me and he was willing to take the risk to head into open water. I wished him luck and zoomed off to the fish farm to get bait.
Strangely, all was quiet at the first few spots. It was as though the fish knew something was going to happen later in the day. Around 11am, we spotted the dark clouds forming over the southeast and started moving back to the spots just in from of the boatel to play safe. As the boat was being buffeted by the increasingly strong winds, Karen had a good pull on her rod but shortly after the strike, and a good bend on her rod(that's all I saw), her mainline snapped. Oh Man!!! Lost a 30kg Kurau... hahaha... that's what we all say when we lose a fish right?

That was also a signal that all hell was going to break lose in the sky above us. The water quickly turned white and frothy as we upped anchor and tried to take cover in Ketam, but I couldn't even reach there as we were heading straight into the storm system, so we made a quick consensus to head back to shore. Right call it was!!!

The moment the boat was safe on dry land in the boat shed, the wind and rain showed full fury and we were counting our lucky stars that we had a nice roof over our heads.

Of course many Singaporeans know the rest of the story. The next day in the papers we all read about the tanker that was blown off its anchorage point at Sentosa.

Closer to our context, though we did launch the boat after the storm passed for a feeble attempt at landing something (caught a few small buggers that are not worth mentioning), I felt more relieved than anything else that we were safe and nothing bad happened. At least I can get my revenge on the fish another day.

When Lee came backin his yellow boat, he and his wife looked totally bedraggled. He said it was really miserable and cold out in the storm and though he made it into a sheltered bay, that was one helluva storm. Heard over in the West Coast area that some boats got into trouble too. My friend Dave was out in his boat and he had to cut off his anchor rope when the storm hit because his boat was about to be capsized. Freezing cold and scary... that's what he said.

Apparently this was one of the largest storms in recent years.

Well, the weather should be fine again in the later part of August, where the big Snappers rear their golden heads. That's when I'll be heading into open water to try my luck.

7 July 2005 Short afternoon trip after work ...

I just needed to soak a line last Thursday afternoon and Brendon smsed me in the morning. Why not go on the boat for a try at a recently productive spot, I asked myself.

So we met at the boat at 2pm, me in my work clothes and Brendon all geared up and ready. Bought 10 bucks of prawns and $60 of fuel and zoomed to the main spot of the day. What a great feeling! Out at sea at a time when most Singaporeans my age are busy in some office clearing email and doing some boring stuff, shifting paper all day long..... I'm glad I took this break.

The wind was quite strong that day and anchoring was a little tricky, but we soon got over the spot, a sunken kelong, and started to soak our lines. Had a few small bites when I decided to relax on the front deck of my boat while Brendon busied himself at the back. I was in switch-off mode and didn't even bother to tie a proper rig for myself or bait up when I knew my bait had been stolen. Just sitting out there rocking in the waves gave pure pleasure.

Of course, it was to be a short trip and I was observing a storm passing to the North, wondering if it would hit us (probably not, I thought, cos the wind in July normally comes from the South)...

Then some brute fish decided to yank Brendon's rod into a U while he was busy with another sangkot rod. Cool, I thought, a big fish. Bren did not hesitate as he lifted the rod from the holder and gave it a good strike, FISH ON!!! Quite a heavy fish started playing tug of war and soon a really nice garoupa made its way into the landing net.

We then moved to monster fish land and tried our luck for 15 minutes to see if we could get spooled out... lost a few tentative takes, and had to go back to the boatel just in time for a boat wash.
How I just love being able to do this kind of weekday fishing!!! Hope my work schedule does not change after this year. 

Here's Brendon cradling a nice table-sized Garoupa... YUMMY

Early 2005 - Family trip with the Seasick Gang

Jan to Jun 2005 Fishing Reports and Pics

June 2005 update Went fishing quite a bit in June. Caught fish on every trip. Samuel did well with a range of snappers on one trip. A few big barras turned up too. Not much internet access these days so got to just dump a few handphone pics. Enjoy!




 
A nice barra among Snappers





Star Snappers galore! Plus Two Golden Snappers and a thrilling Ray on hongkong hook


4 June 2005 - Johor Shoal and surrounds A bunch of NTU undergrads came along, Samuel, Cindy, Isaac and Huishan... with Guek and me, for a trip to Johor Shoal.


At the first stop, a wreck off changi, we stopped to see if the gals could take the waves. They could, so we started moving off toward Johor Shoal.

Stopped at some old spots along the way with nothing much to show except a few small fish. Then the sea lice moved in (KUTU), and we made a wise decision to head back to Ubin, where, at the Snagpile, a whole pile of decent fish turned up. Grunters were the dish of the day and so were Flathead and a nice Garoupa by Sam. Here are a few pics. Looks like Ubin still fires up when necessary. 





Isaac shows how a 2.5 kilo Grunter can glisten in the evening sun





Cindy and Sam show some table-sized grunters


28 and 29 May 2005 Family fun day again!!! 


The whole family came along these two days of fishing. Plenty of small fish for fun, but a few serious fish like golden snapper turned up to add class to the catch. 





Karen makes her debut and demonstrates good skills with a delicious small garoupa


23 May 2005 Vesak Day 


The boats were out in force. Saw so many of them grouped around the usual fish release area that I went to a quieter spot. Des, JJ, Karen, Felip, Reuben and me were out for some serious fish. And we got some. Snappers, grunters and a Garoupa obliged. Even big ones that got away by bursting our lines. A rather slow day overall, fortunately the company was great and some fish showed up. 





Here's Des with a Grunter and a Snapper





Karen's first trip with me, and these are her fish.


21 May 2005 Saturday 


Just read about the terrible accident off Tekong. Poor anglers, hope they recover quickly.

Went fishing on Saturday with Uncle Ed and Guek. A few fish turned up to entertain, like a White Threadfin (can't grow as big as a Black Threadfin)- Kurau, a Queenie and small stuff like Grunters and Gelamas. Found a pic Jan sent me of the time she came and fished too and decided to post it. 





Here's uncle ed who refuses to touch a small grunter... Amis la!





A nice Threadfin Salmon for the babies to eat.





Guek with a hard-fighting Queenie.





Janice with a baby ray set for release.


15 May 2005 Family trip 


Went on a short family trip with Wayne's family too. The three kids had fun. Some fish like snapper even turned up to add excitement.


22 Apr 2005 two-hour trip and 23 Apr 2005 Southern Island link-up trip 


 ALRIGHT!!! Brendon and me fished a short while after work on Friday and the usual guest turned up when the feeling was good. 



 

Bren with a kilo barra caught while holding the fort


BUT... Saturday was going to be totally different. After a long absence from the Southern Islands, a fishing buddy with a boat at Keppel Marina called and asked if I would be keen to go hunting for Kurau. How could I refuse???

So we met at Keppel on Sat morning, me with my trusty Surecatch $17 rod and a Shimano Ultegra 5000. Dave, my friend, was looking at my gear and saying that I was going to watch him catch all the fish this time. (Just like what happens on my own boat, I thought.) I didn't mind if he caught fish, as long as somebody catches fish, it would be great. Anyway, I had volunteered to be anchorman for the day.

So at the first Sentosa spot, we rigged up and, like pros, started pulling fish in almost immediately. Plenty of big Snapper up to 2 kilos, kaci, Star Snapper (what many call peck-tiam)... and then the Conrad show began again. I was chatting with Dave with my line straight down when the rod was almost yanked into the water by a powerful fish. Steadying myself, with cheers from Dave and Al, a nice Chermin surfaced after a good fight. Then, upon dropping my line into the water, I hooked another bigger Chermin. This continued until I had 5 nice chermin on ice in less than 10 minutes and a Sagai from Dave. Then we had to shift spot to get the Kurau.

Not a bad start indeed. Of course the Kurau were not cooperating as expected, but we all went back pretty happy. Here are some photos. Didn't lay out the fish but the ice box was heavy indeed from the snappers and chermins. 








I Might join Dave as his anchorman again soon. This time we'll specifically target Kurau.


April Fool's Day 2005 Half-day off gang... CONGRATS TO FRANCIS ON HIS FIRST WILD BARRA 


It's amazing how some people have got their priorities right. Between fishing and work, these guys chose fishing, the natural choice. I sent out an sms on Thursday saying I was gonna fish on Friday from 1pm to 5pm. And out of the woodwork came Weeboon and Francis, Des and Tomo... all on half day leave or time-off. Alright!!! We anglers do have our priorities right!

So by 1.30pm we launched the boat and bought bait from the aunty. The first spot was around Tekong, where I'd discovered something like a reef a few weeks back. The terrain was good. Corals were aplenty, but there were hardly any takers till Tomo pulled in a Barramundi. Then all went quiet again till we moved to GF.

Aha... that's when I noticed the water was dirty and mentioned that this was good for Barra. True enough, the moment I let my bait down, the rod took a good bend and I knew it was a barra. After a good fight, one kilo of golden muscle was eased into the landing net.

Then Francis was on to something and he really struggled with that one, till another properly hooked barra was brought into the boat. The moment I put the landing net down with the fish, Francis gave a yell and I realized it was his first wild barra.

Then the fatboy syndicate moved in to remove whatever optimism the rest of us had.
Returned to the boatel at 5pm sharp. Not too bad, 3 barra in 3 hours of fishing. Here's a beaming Francis holding up two of the barra. 

25 Mar 2005 - Family Trip with the Seasick Gang 

Ok, so it's Good Friday and suddenly the family wants to go fishing. I have to admit I haven't been out on the boat in a while, preferring to be out on the golf course swinging a driver. And the times I tried to go fishing turned out to be non-trips because everytime I pack my stuff for fishing, the weather turns really ugly so I have to tell everyone (who's on their way to the boat) to turn back and head home. And two weeks back I had a bad case of flu... to cut a long story short, the last trip was on 12 Feb... more than a month ago. WOW!!!

  I admit I did a little lure fishing in the freshwater regions on a few occasions, but that's another story.
So on Thursday, before Good Friday, I decided to take the boat for a spin to make sure everything was OK and also to check out the wind and water conditions. The idling speed on my V6 engine seemed a little off so the mechanic came and found a piece of foam stuck in the throttle. Once that problem was settled, me and Nathan were zooming to Tekong against a rather choppy sea. Marked out a few new potential spots to try out, and headed back to shore to give the boat a rinse. Topped up the petrol and the boat was ready for the Seasick Gang.

Number one in the Seasick Gang was my mother, yes my mother, who never failed to impress with her loud arguments with the sea the moment the engine was turned off. Then there was Ii Chik, my mum's sister, who was rumoured to take to a rocking boat like a snail to salt... and the rest of the family (about 8 in total) with various histories of vertigo and seasickness.

I had to find calm water, but where? Thankfully, after getting the prawns from the aunty, the first spot we went to was extremely calm... and on the first bait up (I was the deckhand as usual), mum hooked up a fish and got everyone excited. But out popped a semilang, which was kept for scientific research. (Yes, a cousin who came along is a Marine Biologist who finds all manner of weird unwanted fish interesting.)

The coldwater gang moved in and a sting ray, an eel and a stargazer showed up. Then the tide turned and after some berleying (with partly digested Mi Zhang Kueh) courtesy of Ii Chik, two Garoupas turned up.

Then we shifted to another location at the Cliff, and mum brought in a Snapper and some small Grunters, so did one of my uncles. They all seemed happy, then we ran out of bait and sadly, we had to head home though the fish were biting.

Altogether, we landed a couple of fish, but the most amazing thing was that my mother DID NOT PUKE!!! In fact, she did not even feel seasick at all! She's been boasting about this ever since, and is insisting that I bring her on another trip... well, she was lucky, the sea was very calm that day. Maybe I'll go again this coming Saturday to try the Tekong spots off the old Malang Tiga.

12 Feb 2005 Sat Day Trip 0830hrs to 1600 hrs 

Fishing pro Junio came along with sidekick Kings and old Uncle Eddie for an experiment. Since I'm normally the one getting fish, I was supposed to tie all rigs, bait up, and cast the line for everyone.
So... at the first spot, I gave Uncle Eddie the option of going for a single hook rig or a double hook rig. He chose the single hook rig. I rigged up for him, baited up, let down the line for him, passed him the rod, and before anyone else could start fishing, his rod took a violent tug and a big fish was on!! Uncle Ed became so excited that he passed me the rod and started using his hand to pull in the line. I was afraid his hands might get cut, but years of construction work gave his hands the texture of extra rough grade sandpaper... and a Big Barra was eased into the landing net. What a start!!!

Soon, Fishing Pro Junio (you can see more of her photos in My Other Fishing Adventures section of my webpage) and Kings got their lines wet. And I started tying my own rigs.

After a short wait, the show really began... first with a table-sized Barra, then with a Bigger Barra almost matching Uncle Eddie's. And then the Fatboy Syndicate moved in so we shifted to another spot, a good one at that, but the fish were not cooperative. We then moved to 2K and the show continued.

Sensing a change in tide and weather, I expectantly let down my line, telling Pro Junio that the fish were going to bite. I guess she did not really believe me at first, but the moment I put the rod in the holder, the fish tugged and in came Garoupa number one. Then, when I baited up, cast, and immediately brought in Garoupa number two which was even bigger, she got the hint, but it was too late, her rod was not ready for action. So I baited up and cast my line again, knowing that a fish was going to pull the line in under a minute, and I passed the rod to her. As soon as I turned my back, she was fighting a whopper!!! The fish pulled the drag even though it was set really tight, but it finally surfaced... a big fat 2 kilo Grunter.

Sadly, we soon ran out of bait and had to return to the boatel early. Some rubbish fish gave us some action as well...

so here's the catch we kept! 

Some nice barras, garoupas and a grunter... the rest were thrown back 

Fishing pro Junio posing with the catch

6 Feb 2005 Sunday Morning Trip 9am to 12pm - Dad and me went in search of some fresh fish for Chinese New Year... and we got some. The wind and current were not cooperative during the first hour, but the fish were. Just when I let down my line, I had a good pull but failed to hook up. Then dad pulled in a nice Snapper on his handline. I baited up again and landed a beautifully coloured Garoupa for my efforts. But the next bait up had something bigger in store. Just when I placed my rod into the rod holder, the rod bent into a full U and I even had trouble lifting the rod from the holder. With my drag set at max load, I played tug of war with the fish which was pulling real hard, trying to reach home, but I managed to bring it slowly to the boat. Just one pump away, the hooks pulled! Shucks! When I checked the hooks, I realized that the hook had straightened because my drag was too tight and the fish was too strong.

Not giving up hope, I re-rigged and dropped my line straight down. And even before I managed to put the rod into the holder, the drag was going and the rod was almost wrenched from my hands... something even bigger than the one I had just lost was on the other end. This time, I couldn't even stop it. It headed home, and I felt my line rubbing against the structures, and the mainline snapped. MONSTER FISH!!!!

Fortunately, I was rewarded with another garoupa and a strong pulling Grunter before we had to head back to shore so that I could be in time for my badminton game. Anyway, the target was met.... fresh fish for the New Year!!! Yummy!

Here's the Grunter, in the boat shed. 

29 Jan 2005 Saturday Trip - First Barra of 2005

Alright!!! The wind is dying down with Chinese New Year around the corner. This gave me an opportunity to target barra, and I was rewarded with 2005's first barra on my second outing for the year. Nice healthy barra took my bait and was jumping about even before I picked up my rod. Good drag-pulling too!

Some nice garoupas showed up together with a cuttlefish and a grunter. Will probably go again this Saturday to get some fish for Chinese New Year. 

here's 2 of the fish that pengsanned in the baitwell before I put them on ice. Can you identify the species? 

24 Jan 2005 - First trip in 2005

Finally made a trip since December. Weather hasn't been good the past weeks. Only cleared up the last few days. Past experience has taught me to stay at home in bad weather... I remember asking myself (while freezing in the pouring rain and howling wind) what the hell am I doing out here when I could be watching TV at home, or maybe catching a movie at some cinema.

Well, anyway, the weather looked ok so Uncle Sunny Ong and gang (total 6 anglers) came on board for another WATCH CONRAD CATCH THE FISH session. HAHAHAaaa... Don't know why, but the fishing was good... for me. Started with a decent garoupa, then a snapper, then a garoupa, then a Grunter, then a Snapper, then another Snapper... all nice table-sized fish today... all landed by the one with membership card that the fish recognize, hahaha....

I think if I keep this up, nobody will want to go fishing with me anymore. At the end of the day, I think they still had fun pulling up other species of fish like gelama and duri, and semilang.

Well Tiger Woods won the Buick by 3 strokes to open 2005, and I opened 2005 with 6 great fish! Let's see what the rest of the year has in store.

10 Kilo Barramundi!!! Hooray! Bryan's debut.King's debut too!

Oct to Dec 2004 Fishing Reports and Pics

18 Dec 2004 - Nice Diamond Trevally to brighten a quiet fishing day. 

The last trip of 2004 was rather quiet, with Felip and Reuben. Good thing a strong Trevally showed up together with a few Garoupas for the dinner table. Let's see how 2005 goes. 

4 Dec 2004 - the barras look so small nowadays... 

- after catching the monster on 11 Nov 2004, even my 3 kilo barra looked small. Good feeling was firing up again with 2 barras, one by Sunny and one by me. Huge stargazer came too, together with a new friend Mohd Taha...

Moved to a few other places but at the penultimate spot, some Garoupas showed up to entice the stomach at the Cliff, and then good ol Ahmad, Raju and a boat called Chiku came and dropped anchor around my boat... so I zoomed to the Snagpile for a little peace and quiet, actually the radio was on so we were more into relax mode than serious fishing already... 

5 more prawns? finished fifty bucks of live prawns just like that? OK back to the boatel for a wash and a magnificent dinner at Orchard hotel (friend's wedding with great food!!! Soon Hock too! Previous night was Coral Trout... worth the ang bao) So here are some pics, including Guek with one of his garoupas. 

Cold Water fish on 12th Nov 2004 

After the previous day's success, Brendon, Raphael and Bryan came on board to experience cold water fishing. Sharks, Rays and Catfish were caught!!! And there was heavy, cold rain too... sigh, can't have a perfect trip everytime. But Raphael's 5 kilo white-spotted ray did give us some kick, and my gaff was put to use after a long rest. 

Sambal BBQ Ray anyone? In the end Raphael steamed it and it was wonderful.

MONSTER BARRA TODAY 11 Nov 2004 

My favourite photo, even though it's taken with a camera phone and is rather blurry with 2004 technology

This photo stirred up some controversy on internet forums because somebody took the photo from my site without permission (but forgiven) and posted it in a fishing forum. Immediately, two camps appeared: there were stirrers and immature internet users who accused me of photoshopping (while I don't even have that program and have never used it), while in the other camp there were other mature, sensible netizens who were defending me to the bitter end (thank you all).

I didn't even know there was a debate going on surrounding the pic until a friend called me on the phone to tell me about it. I observed the debate for a while, and recognized the 'flamers' to be little kids who had yet to understand internet behaviour, so I just ignored the whole thing and it  faded away in a few weeks, as with all controversies on the net. It did make for quite interesting reading and I did have a good laugh when I found out a good buddy of mine was one of the 'trouble stirrers' who was saying it was photoshopped in order to see who was silly enough to jump on the bandwagon. 

In fact, another friend of mine who ran the forum at the time also called me up and asked if I wanted anything done with the threads, but I said it was OK to leave them be. Such things were interesting to observe anyway. I was interested in the evolving social media behaviour at the time and noticed that by 2004, there were less 'flamers' and 'kids' than when such forums experienced a boom in 1998. I wonder what the online social media scene would be like in 2010?

Here is an important pic with my dad and my godson Reuben. This was the final active year when we really got closer as I took the chance to bring dad fishing whenever I could. I'm glad I did that. 
(Editor's note: a stroke immobilized him in 2005 and he was never able to fish again)



WHAT A TRIP!!! Dad, Reuben and I posing with my Barramundi.


Went around Ubin today with Dad, Jo, Felip, Kings and Reuben. The queenfish plains over the sunken kelong was packed this morning, with all the usual faces, Ah Bee, Raju, Ah Chai, Rockin Angels, It's Great... and many more. At least 8 boats were anchored over a small area at the plains where an old kelong once stood... so we moved away to find a less crowded area, but not after landing and releasing a Queenfish.

Moved to GOOD FEELING and a monster showed up. It was really good AGAIN!!! I was at the front of my boat with a Rangong Rig when a my Surecatch rod bent into a U shape. The drag on my reel started screaming as the fish headed into deeper water and I knew I had a good fish on.

After a good first run, I managed to slow the fish down with steady drag pressure and got the fish to start circling the boat. As usual with big Barramundi on light line, steady pressure and patient smooth rod pumping action would get the fish tired tired and disoriented, so the circles it swam around the boat would get smaller and smaller.

We all knew it was a huge fish, but when the fish suddenly decided to head towards the surface for a jump, I almost let go of my rod in shock! I saw the line moving towards the water surface and the great fish made a half-hearted leap which only allowed its head to appear above the water. What we all saw was a monstrous Barramundi head the size of legends emerging from the water in a violent shake. Fortunately the small hook stayed deeply embedded in a corner of its mouth.

Finally, after about a half hour, the fish came near enough to attempt a landing. But, like a 15kg GT (see 1994 story) I caught many years back, this one simply tore right through the landing net and I had to fight the fish through the loop of the net. We eventually got the fish tired and dad used his experience to stick his hand into the gill of the fish to lift it in. He got a little help from Kings to lift the fish. And high fives went all around!

Screaming drags and all! The fish broke the landing net too!

Weighed it with my brass scale -almost couldn't lift this bugger at 22 pounds on 12 pound line.

With a monster Barramundi, the other landed fish like Snapper and Garoupas were so small in the baitwell. I have to say, this broke my 8 kilo Barra record. Now Kingsley, who has only just started fishing with me, is certain there are big fish in Singapore. Going again tomorrow. 

Here's the winning shot again!  My biggest Barramundi at just over 10kg to date.

6 Nov 2004 

Not satisfied with Treva Berkley's first Snapper, Jeeves gets the boat's first Javelin... on a rather quiet fishing day. Fortunately everybody landed something decent. Everybody (Jeeves, Guek Fah, Kings and me) was wondering what happened to the waters as the bites were slow. Garoupas always save the day I guess.

Anyway, people often mistake the Javelin for a Grunter (or Guhud). If you take a look at the Javelin, the whole fish is silvery while the Guhud has a yellowy tinge, especially noticeable on half its tail (take a look at earlier pictures in the gallery). And of course, the Javelin fights like a mad horse, as Jeeves can testify. So despite a slow day, some garoupas and a Javelin are still fun, and of course, you know what they say about a bad day of fishing... IT DEFINITELY beats a good day at work!

Looks like the fish are saving their energy for me this upcoming holiday.

30 Oct 2004 - Day trip with Francis, Jeeves, Kings and Sherman. 

Almost couldn't launch the boat with a relay problem. But the good ol mechanic solved it on the spot and we soon moved into position over the spot. As soon as we settled, I had a good pull on my rod, opening accounts with a small but strong grunter. Then things went quiet, with some small garoupas showing up on Jeevan's rod and mine. So we moved ... and soon after letting down the lines, Jeevan pointed out that my rod was into a full U (I was staring at Kingsley's rod at the time)! I sprung into action and landed a nice barra (seen here in the pic). 

A healthy barra while Francis looks on 

Then, Francis got a good pull, while Kings took a strong pull, and my handline went rolling... triple hookup on Barra? Sadly, no. Triple miss. Francis lost his fish, so did I, and Kings lost his fish to a snag.

Then all went quiet as the fish were spooked. And after a while, just when bites were coming in again and Jeeves pulled in a Garoupa, the storm came. So, on the advice of Sherman, we zoomed back to the boatel very early... and the storm didn't really hit. But, according to Sherman, it always pays to respect the sea. The fish will be there ... another day.

23 Oct 2004 - Morning trip with Sengkang Sam. 

So many boats were out today, all fishing the same spots, so we moved to some quieter spots, but they were either taken up too or there were nets all over the spot. The morning started slowly, but just when we thought it was going to be a bad day, several good fish turned up at our last spot to brighten the day. Went back to shore early with a mixed bag. 

Strong pulling Harry Hotlips (a type of Sweetlip) turned up with 2 Snappers and 5 Garoupas! Steamed fish for dinner!!! 

Just snapped a pic of the boat for fun while waiting for the rain to stop.

4 Oct 2004 and 6 Oct 2004 - Practiced lots of golf lately to emulate Vijay Singh. Found some extra distance and consistency. Now back to fishing ... Went out on the boat for about an hour and a half on the fourth. Got a Snapper, a Garoupa and a Grunter before a friend had to go back to shore on urgent business. Quite relaxing though. But today (6 Oct) was interesting. For a refreshing change, we (me and daughter) joined Sunny and Tim at a special freshwater location and landed some nice stuff. Song He, Patin, Common Carp and Rohu were landed and released. Here are some pics. 

Here's a Patin ready for release. 

And Common Carp like this were ... common. Released too! Thanks Sunny and Tim! 

2004 July to Sep - Last few trips on Ranger, first trips on New Boat

Jul to Sep 2004 Fishing Reports and Pics

9 Sep 2004 and 11 Sep 2004 - Went on Thurs and Sat, where the new boat saw its first Garoupa and first Snapper.

  Thurs was a relaxing trip with Pat, Clarence and Jes. A fish was landed at every spot we went to. But the most notable were the boat's first Grunter, first Red Emperor, and first Garoupa (really good-sized) ... all landed by me. 

HOT ACTION! Putting the pressure on a deepwater fighter while it takes drag in powerful bursts 

Landed! Table sized garoupa... You know what they say... behind every successful angler, is an understanding lady 

Check out what years of anchor pulling have done to the biceps! My wife pointed it out to me. GROSS! With a baby Red Emperor here about to be released (burp. oops)

On Saturday, Felip, Reuben, Jeevan, Ling, Wee Boon and Francis came along. We actually landed a good mix of fish. I opened accounts with a nice Barra at Good Feeling on the first bait. Reuben opened with a garoupa. Then the Balloon Gang turned up and we moved to a spot near the boatel to wait for Wee Boon and Francis, and Jeevan caught the first Golden Snapper of the boat. 

Then we moved to the Snagpile where Wee Boon, Jeevan and me added to the baitwell with more Snappers and Garoupas. Ended with a tally of 1 Barra, 3 Snaps and 4 or 5 Garoupas (not counting other rubbish fish).
Barra Tally for new boat = 5

6 Sep 2004 

- Went on a full day trip with Wee Boon, Francis and Sengkang Sam today. Lost at least 3 good fish, probably barra.

First, I lost a fish immediately after letting down my line. A big one, going by the sound of the drag. The hooks pulled. Shucks. I was just not prepared because the fish struck hard when I was trying to put the rod into the rod holder and I had no angle to strike in time.

Then Francis lost a good fish he had pumped up to the surface. And on the final pump, his rangong flew out of the water. Hooks pulled too.

Then I landed a Barra around a kilo, and everyone was encouraged again. After a while, I landed another barra on handline and Wee Boon got a huge pull. Double hookup. 

But when Wee Boon got the Barra to the surface, they all saw the fish. It was quite big. But the fish pulled its way to the anchor rope, which snagged the hook and the fish pulled free before I could get to the anchor rope.

Then the storm hit, and we spent the rest of the day running from the storm, going to the leeward side of Ubin when the wind came from the northeast, and then going into Ketam when the wind blew from the Southeast. Basically, the storm cloud seemed as though it had a homing device, and we just couldn't escape it to get to the good fishing grounds.

Talk about Murphy's Law, just when we had to go back to the boatel, the weather cleared. But two barras are still better than none. Still the same number of fish as yesterday.

Barra tally for Treva Berkley stands at 4.

5 Sep 2004 - Today was the first fishing trip on Treva Berkley. It was also family day. The aim was to set off at 9am, see who could land the first good fish on the boat, and reach back to shore by 12 noon so that I could prepare for my badminton game.

After some delays at home, we finally reached the boatel about 9.30am. I had to fetch my dad, and I brought my wife and one of my daughters along. It was going to be Treva's first boat fishing trip.
After launching the boat at 10am, we went to the Aunty to get bait and bumped into Ah Bee, he was getting bait too. I had a few spots in mind but all were taken up by a few boats. First there was centro, a boat was parked directly over the structure, then there was the Queenie Plains, but there were 3 boats already there, and I went to the Outer Reef, but Ah Bee was there too, though he was over a different structure, so we tried for 10 minutes, but did not get any bites and my daughter was getting a bit restless. So I had to go to Good Feeling, and the feeling was good indeed.

After anchoring nicely over Good Feeling, we let down our lines and I said something about even a stargazer would be good, then my dad pulled in the first fish on the Treva Berkley... a stargazer. Then my wife got a good pull, but did not strike and the drag went for a while before the hooks pulled. Definitely a good fish.

Then my dad struck gold! The first Barra from the boat came, as expected, and put up a good struggle plus acrobatics, before I scooped it up with the landing net. The leader was all frayed and the line snapped just as the fish came into the boat.

Then it was my turn, with a handsome Barra, that fought all the way up and found itself in my baitwell. We all lost a few more fish, but my then I was already satisfied. The target was met, and I took out my precious iced lemon tea and slowly savoured it while watching the two Barras in the baitwell swimming around. Treva also enjoyed watching the fish in the baitwell and constantly gazed at them.
Soon, the sky turned dark with rain clouds, and since it was almost time, we also headed back to give the boat a good scrub. Two Barras for the boat's first trip. Not a bad start indeed! Tomorrow's trip will be a full day trip with Sengkang Sam, WeeBoon and Francis, let's see how that turns out.

3 Sep 2004 - Brought the new boat out yesterday for a spin after work. Didn't bring any fishing equipment, wasted, cos I found a really promising deepwater structure. 

 

Tried to get a hang of the new boat. Took 90 bucks of petrol and 20 bucks of oil to get this baby going. Zoomed around to the fishfarms and old spots, and tried the anchor in 70 ft of water. That was a mistake I only realized when I wanted to lift the anchor.

Anyway, at anchor, I tried out the baitwell... a rather interesting concept, and played around with the fish finder and all the other electronic gadgets. Then, I tried lifting the anchor. At first, with the help of the winch, the anchor budged. Then I turned off the winch and tried to use raw muscle power... and by the time the anchor lay on the boat, I was totally exhausted and even slightly seasick from the strain. Almost fainted man!!! 70 ft with a heavy anchor is no joke. This isn't my small boat anymore, and I'm not getting any younger.

Zoomed the boat around a little more. Brought it to 5200 rpm for a while and this baby cuts across the water surface like a hot knife through butter. Didn't push her too hard cos gotta break in the engine first. Bringing up the boat was ok. Felt good driving from a flybridge, but I think it'll take many more trips for me to get a real hang of the boat. I think I might try night fishing this coming saturday or sunday with the family. But next monday's got a few friends coming along for a first proper fishing trip.
On the whole, minus the slight nausea from the strain of working the anchor in a choppy sea, I guess the maiden trip of Treva Berkley was a success. Now let's go get the fish!

20 Aug 2004 - FINALLY GOT A CHANCE TO UPDATE - GOODBYE RANGER 17 HELLO TREVA BERKLEY

This month I've been really busy doing lots of things like brushing up on my badminton and golf, and spending time with family. I also have to wave a sad goodbye to my faithful boat Ranger, having served me well for almost 8 years now. I've decided to focus on family outings so I changed my boat to a rather comfortable Bertram style cabin cruiser with a spacious cabin, toilet and flybridge so that there can be more space to relax.

Goodbye Ranger 17, you have served me well.

and HELLO TREVA BERKLEY, my new Flybridge Cruiser

Last few fish on the Ranger

I managed to upload a few poor quality pics of good quality fish caught during the times when I managed to wet a line since the last update. 

Here's my dad with a decent Snapper. 

Dad was the one who introduced me to boat fishing. He had a boat kept under the Penjuru Rd bridge in the 1980s and he brought me out fishing almost every other Saturday night at the Southern Islands. That is where I met Razali, learnt the basics of boat fishing, and learnt to pull the old crowbar anchors. We had a great time during that period (1983-1990). Now, with my own boat, it was time to return full circle, and bring dad fishing.


Here's me with some fish like the usual Barra, Snapper and Garoupa. (Check out the biggie garoupa on the bottom left) 

and here are some garoupas, snappers, grunters and GT 

Typical catches of Garoupas, Snappers and Grunters. 

BUT I'VE GOT TO HAND THE TROPHY FOR THIS SEASON TO SENGKANG SAM! for this magnificent 6 kilo Barra! 

Well that's all for this update. Got more pics of other fish in the cam, but that will have to wait till the next update. Will be busy trying my new boat out, finding relaxing fishing spots to just anchor and sip some iced lemon tea or have some Tiger with buddies.