Oct to Dec 2005 Log - Girls' day out

31 Dec 2005 - Guest Blogger's Contribution 

I had to wind up 2005 with a fishing trip despite the monsoon. I haven't been updating my website for a while in December simply cos I haven't been to work... and I only update my site from my work cubicle. Well I guess I'm back to work now in 2006. Too much golf and badminton lately... all muscles and joints aching! Work seems almost like a relief. OK, so what's been happening on the fishing scene? I'm not sure, except that I haven't really been fishing much and even then my trips have been half-trips cos of festive celebrations and a wedding to attend. But the weather's been horrible so FULL CREDIT must go to all those who braved the weather to get the fishy-tasting Chermins (but they're fun fighters) out in the windy conditions.

  One of the guests on the 31st Dec decided he wanted to write for me, so here is his contribution.
Hi, my name is Mo (not my real name), and I've been following Conrad's adventures for quite a while. I thought it would be nice to make a contribution. Along with Kings, Tom, Don, Jason and Con, we made a quick New Year's Eve trip out to Ubin for some fishing.

We were anchored near Tekong for the first part but there was hardly a bite, so Conrad suggested we head to sheltered waters since a storm was brewing anyway.

So, hidden from the winds in a sheltered cove, we let down our lines, and the action began! Jason's rod took the biggest bend I've ever seen and he was into a fish that everyone thought was a giant Barramundi. It was a magnificent fight and everyone had reeled in their lines to cheer him on with his 12 pound outfit.

After several agonizingly exciting minutes, with the drag set almost to the max (yet going when the fish made a powerful run over and over again), a flash of silver swept under the boat and everyone's jaws dropped! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT FISH??? That's not a Barra, Con said... but it's HUGE!!!
Kings was swift with the new net (which he gave to Conrad as a Christmas gift) and soon the fish was up on deck and everyone just stared in amazement as Con kept saying that his record was broken!!!
I could hardly recognize the fish if Con didn't say that this was the largest Grunter he had ever seen, breaking his 4kg Grunter record easily.

So Jason tried lifting the bugger and it proved to be extremely difficult to lift and we put it on the scales and Kings exclaimed "WHAT IN THE WORLD???? EIGHT KILOS???" (I'm sure Kings wanted to say eighteen kilos, but he controlled his nerves.)

And so Jason goes into the record books as the guy who landed the largest monster Grunter Con and I have ever seen. Here's a look at Jason straining to lift the fish for a picture while Tom looks on aghast!! All Eight Kilos of Gleaming Grunter! 

Jason strains his arms just to lift this baby off the ground... 8 kilo Grunter! Can you beat that?

The fish may not have been very long but it sure was fat! Anyway, we caught other small stuff (compared to the grunter) after that and Con said he had to rush back for a wedding. So Kings was satisfied with a large Flathead for himself, Con had a Garoupa, and Tom hooked another MONSTER FISH which pulled drag, fought, and finally snapped his leader... he'll be back for revenge one day.
While Con thanked us for helping him clean his boat and pack up the stuff (he ran to his car the moment we hit the shore), we took our time, packed the stuff, washed Con's boat for him, and I kept a GIANT SCALE left behind in the fish well which I found while washing it... it belonged to the largest Grunter I've ever seen... wonder if anyone has ever caught a Grunter that big in Singapore before?
Well, thanks Con for a great end to 2005, and wishing you a great fishing year in 2006!!!

REMEMBER to SMS me if you need kaki or an anchorman!

Well, that was a nice contribution by Mo (that's what he wants to call himself) and I too want to wish everyone reading this, and all my fishing kakis, and all who have strained at my anchor rope BEST WISHES FOR 2006 and may all your piscatorial dreams come true!

My 2006 fishing resolution would be to get a Barra exceeding 6 kilos, a Garoupa exceeding 5 kilos, a Threadfin Salmon (black variety) exceeding 2 kilos, a Snapper exceeding 3 kilos and maybe some exotic fish. What's yours?

12 Dec 2005 - had to assemble a team of anglers at the last minute...

when Mel managed to get leave to fish. So along came Alvin, Wei Khong and Malik the badminton pro... and we had a relaxing time out at sea.

The weather was fine, the spot was nice, but the fish were not very co-operative. I was supposed to fish the Johor Shoal area with my friend the YellowBoatMan but when I went there to look for him, he had already left for sheltered waters (he told me this later at the boat shed), and his handphone's batteries had gone dead at the wrong time!

Well the current at our spot was not right at all! And we didn't have the proper gear for that spot so we headed back to Hyundai to get some Snappers... but the Snappers were silent.

By then, we only had enough petrol for a few more spots and we moved around the same general area but the tide only turned at 3 plus pm, and even after that, we managed only a handful of fish.

 
Wei Khong holds up a respectable Star Snapper he landed earlier
and I enjoyed my Malabar Snapper of course! 

Malabar Snapper fried with Black Bean Paste... AMAZING TASTE!!!

It was Malik's maiden voyage in Singapore and he thoroughly enjoyed himself , though he landed only one fish.

Overall, the catch could have been better if things had turned out according to plan. I guess we can't have a good catch every trip out yah? But like Mel says, it still beats sitting in the office on a Monday!!!

10 Dec 2005 - Foul Weather Karen strikes again!!!

Because of the previous week's good catch, we thought we could repeat the result or get even more quality fish this time around.

But alas, we waited at the spot, landed a nice Star Snapper, then had to drop Kings off cos he had an urgent meeting at the office, but not before we hit 2K and Karen landed a Golden Snapper.

Then we headed back to the SK, and just as the tide was about to turn, and the action started picking up, guess what? I should have prepared for it, and I did, I brought my new raincoat along... the sky started turning BLACK!!!

It seems that Foul Weather Karen always brings the storm clouds... and now it's confirmed! It was nice and sunny just an hour before and all of a sudden, the wind starts picking up and the sky turns black! 

Foul Weather Karen sheepishly holds up a fat Star Snapper as the SKY prepares to explode

Off course, what else could we do? I put on my raincoat and pulled up anchor and made a quick dash to the boatel before the storm hit. When we brought the boat up into the boat shed, all hell broke loose outside and heavy sheet rain started slamming down on the roof of the boat shed! How lucky we were to have just escaped a storm! And we did end up with a few Snapper...

Next time Karen comes along, we'll be even more prepared!!!! I'll bring a raincoat and some card games. Still I heard the best news today that the Old Fishing Pro has started talking again and is well on the road to recovery!

5 Dec 2005 Brief morning sightseeing cum picnic trip with the gals

Just came back from a pleasant morning trip with my colleagues. So since I'm back in the office, I thought I'd write a brief report so that the Office Worker Mr Desmond T won't get too bored at his desk.

We met up at the office at 9am, while most Singaporeans our age would be arriving at their offices all over Singapore... but this time, it was to pile them all into my car for a short boat trip cum picnic.
Of course, before heading straight to the boat, we went to Changi Village for breakfast... nice Wan Ton Mee and Chwee Kueh there, though the lady could have added a little more char siew to the noodles.

After buying $2 worth of tackle, we headed to the boat, fueled up, and were soon on our way to the first destination, Aunty's Fish Farm.

We spent quite a lot of time on the farm itself, admiring all the nice Red Snappers, Garoupas and Barramundi in the nets. I even spied a Tripletail in one net... beautiful! Everyone took photos there. 

Here're the gals - Ling, Mag, Sum and Angel, ready to go fishing?

Then, after getting our inspiration from the nets, it was time for us to catch the real stuff out there, so we said our thanks and goodbyes to the Aunty and I took the boat to a sunken kelong. The water was relatively calm and the weather was cool and great!

Almost immediately upon dropping anchor, I let down 2 rods rigged with live prawns. After a brief moment, while we enjoyed wonderful home-fried Chicken marinated with spices, the tiny red rod took a violent bend, I reached out, struck, and the fight was on! It's amazing how the Star Snapper can really put the bend in the rod... using 8 lb line was just right! A good fight ensued and slowly, a beautiful Star Snapper surfaced and was netted by Mag. 

Mag and me pose with the Star of the day - a Star Snapper

As soon as the excitement died down, I decided that one fish was enough, and we went cruising around Ubin for a little. We probably spent all of 20 minutes fishing... but everyone was already satisfied with the fish.

Since Ling already had a powerboat licence (I remember bringing her onto the boat for practice sessions just before her boat test last year), I decided to let her cruise while I sat at the bow of the boat, enjoying the breeze. 

Captain Ling and her merry crew

The gals then wanted to Sun Tan so since the sun was up for a while, I anchored in a sheltered cove, turned on the radio to Class 95FM and opened the sun roof of the cabin. The gals applied lotion and soon all four were sprawled on the deck, lazily talking about everything and anything. That's the high life I guess. Chips were brought out and soft drinks too, (I fished a little at the back of the boat and caught some small fish like Tandas and a nice Emperor, but threw them all back into the water) and we relaxed there for about an hour... till Angel needed to go back for an appointment with the printers.

This time, since we were only in 7 ft of water, I let the anchorgals do the job. What tough gals they are!!! 

Ready to pull gals???

We lifted anchor, reached shore, washed the boat together, and had a fine lunch at Changi Village before going our separate ways. It was a pleasant trip. I'm glad I can use my boat not only for fishing. The gals enjoyed themselves, and so did I. Now I'm off to the Golf Course!!!

3 Dec 2005 - Saturday Trip with Colin's grp, Kings, and Dave's grp.

 It's fishing day (Saturday) again and this time Dave, Chee Beng and the good Doctor Chou Ning came over from the South to join me on my boat. Colin, Kings and Jackson came along too.

The morning was spectacular, with constant hookups on nice Star Snappers. After an hour of fishing, we already had about 10 Snappers swimming in the baitwell, with multiple losses and escapes.

Then we zoomed back to the boatel to pick Dave's Gang at noon... but the bites were slower cos the tide turned. Anyway, there was some action and over a couple more hours we landed enough Snapper to start heading back to the boatel.

Even had time to do some Tamban jigging for fun before bringing the boat up. 

The Goalie scores a goal with a beautiful Malabar Red
and here's Chun Pin with another Snapper while the Doc looks on. 

and here's the fish we kept for the day. Looks like Snappers are the in thing!!! 

The company was really fun! Well it's back to golf for the week and then another trip perhaps next Saturday.

26 Nov Sat - 12 noon till evening fishing

Joined my friend the fishing expert Dave for a short half day trip (and not forgetting the nice dinner at the club in the evening).

For variety, I called the pro Dave and joined him for some light reef fishing as well as heavy fishing. It was a relaxing trip cos I watched Harry Potter the night before and was stoned out, but the fish did not really let us relax much.

The first spot was for reef fish, and I struck first with a Spanish Flag Snapper (timun). And then Dave and Alex started too, with Parrotfish, Garoupas, a Spangled Emperor and and beautiful big Snapper by Dave appearing. 

 
Dave poses with a really beautiful Goldie Snapper

After a brief moment of fun, it was time for Alex to begin jigging for Selar... which he caught by the bagful while Dave ate lunch and I took a nap. After all, we already had some decent fish in the ice box. 

A nice assortment of reef fish after a brief moment of fishing

Then it was time to move to the real thing! And the heavy gear was brought out. Tiagras and big lever drag reels emerged and soon we were in deep water going for big ones.
Of course, plenty of by-catch obliged... which we didn't really want. 

We only intended to keep one of these for Alex's friend at the boatel...
but Alex brought up one which had been attacked and died too fast... look at the gash on the head!!! 

We tried to release the bugger as we normally do with Queenies... but it was bleeding too badly from the head wound

So Alex had another fish for his friend. 

Alex with another Queen
Dave was into a big one too... 

Fish on!!!
On the whole, we had good fun and a great dinner that night!

25 Nov Fri short afternoon trip with family - Uncle Frank and Brendon came along for a half day trip and had some kick fighting and pulling in extremely cooperative Star Snapper. Some were really good-sized.

Ah Bee saw us catching and he anchored right above my anchor rope, but we didn't mind cos there were lots of fish to go around. The little boy on his boat really had a good kick fighting fish after fish.
Uncle Frank also got a nice one here. 

Fish for Dinner!!!

We had quite a number of those and the bait ran out pretty quick so we went back to the boatel early too. 

Here are a few of them in the pail while packing. 

Star Snappers are in season I guess

Bren got a garoupa for variety too... and I was in time for my wedding anniversary dinner and movie.

24 Nov Family Fun with Kids

 brought the two kids fishing for a while and got 3 Malabar Red Snappers and a barra for my efforts.

 
Nice reds

19 Nov 2005 Saturday trip with King's Gang - The BBQ gang came along , this time Rob was replaced by King's Dad Sherman. They wanted Grunter so we went out and got some.

The first part of the morning was a little dull as we waited for the tide to turn, although King's first good Grunter got us all excited... but the school didn't appear yet.

But just as expected, the fish came when the tide turned, and I opened accounts with a nice Grunter too, then another one, then, after I letting my line down a third time expecting a big pull, a HUGE PULL came and my rod was in FULL U!!! But after about 10 seconds of fighting, the leader gave way! What a waste!

What compounded it was the next fish was HUGE too! Taking drag and pulling real hard. I even fought it almost to boatside, when the hooks pulled, and my line went limp again. Lost 2 good fish there, could have been anything man! Maybe even a big Snapper!

But the others had action too, with Alvin going on a roll, pulling in good Grunters and Kings too, pulling in a few grunters and a Javelin. In between, some other fish were caught, like a Snapper and a small Garoupa. Then Sherman finally got in on the action with a SOLE FISH... a yummy fish, I must say. Good sized too!

I lost track of who caught what, and of course we could have landed more, but we have to save some for the next trip right? 

Seasoned angler Sherman with a Javelin (do you know the difference between a Javelin and a Grunter?) 

Back at the boatel early again cos we ran out of live prawns

Then Kings kindly invited us over for BBQ again and this time I could make it. Went home, showered and brought the whole family along. And instead of a BBQ, we got a pleasant surprise! 

Nicely steamed Grunters and Javelins, Grilled Solefish, Crispy Fried Tamban, Grilled Cuttlefish (all caught during the trip)... + chicken, vegetables, some brinjal looking dish which I didn't touch (hope nobody noticed) and flavoured rice with Chardonnay and Orchard Hotel Durian Puffs + Pastries for dessert

I really didn't mind that the bbq turned into a nice roundtable dinner. Here's a closer look at some of the fish we caught. Thanks for dinner Kings!!! Next week we'll go for Snappers ya? 

Spot the Javelins among the Grunters... clue... take a look at the gill plate (cheek)

12 Nov 2005 - Southern Islands and East Coast Wreck Fishing on board the Reuben

 we spent more time cruising around and being blown by the wind, anchoring and re-anchoring than fishing... rough seas today. The wind was too strong to anchor properly... but the Reuben does provide a nice ride in rough seas. Great boat. The fish will have to wait for the next trip to make an appointment with us.

I did catch a barra on Monday though, and my whole family tagged along for my one hour fishing experiment... had that fish immediately for dinner. Yum Yum. 

Crispy Fried Barramundi with Dark Soy Sauce, Garlic, Chilli Padi and Spring Onion... I only remembered to take a pic halfway through dinner.

5 Nov 2005 - Day Fishing - Revenge of the Anglers
Ish Bin Gunther??? 

Mein ish Gunther

Velkommen, mein frommen Deutscheland wiv fronnds joinnen Konrad Boaten Fisken et Poolau Uubin! Katchem ver menny menny Gunthe fiske zen wiv Kingsley ve gommen BBQ grillen... AHHHH! Ze isht DELICATESSAN!!! DELIZIOUS... ESBEZIALLY ze Vlatheadden Fiske. 

HAha... please don't bother trying to decipher my poor attempt at writing German. And that guy ain't even German... he's English, and his name's Rob. It's just that the most common fish for the trip sounded German... Gunthe ooops, sorry, Grunter.

Kings, Rob, Royston, Alvin and Don came along and simply told me they wanted to catch fish... any fish. So I said what the heck, let's go for the easiest of them all .... Grunter!

So we anchored in the shipping channel region and the Grunters started coming in fast. And after a while, we thought enough, and tried to get some variety. We could easily land dozens of them if we wanted to cos the spot was firing up and King's magic tackle was working for everyone. So everyone contributed to the catch, not just a few people.

We did get a little variety, with a Russel's Snapper and a Flathead showing up, but we ran out of bait and had to head back a little earlier cos I had a wedding dinner that night. Kings and the gang had a huge BBQ dinner that night and it seems the large Flathead was the nicest eating fish, not surprisingly... that's why they're so highly sought after in Australian Fishing circles as a food fish.

It seems day fishing still RULEZZZZ!!!! (nicky, i think we gotta stick to day trips)

2 Nov FIRST NIGHT TRIP ON THE TREVA BERKLEY

with Nick, Chermin (can you believe it, there's actually a guy named Chermin??), Glen, Phil and the Horizontal Angler Clarence.

I used to do quite a bit of night fishing on my old 17 foot boat in the past but ironically, since I got this boat with a comfy cabin, I've never gone night fishing since. NOW I REMEMBER WHY!!!

When Nick suggested nightfishing, I thought OK, and soon we were launching the boat in the evening. But the weather wasn't on our side and a strong wind was blowing from the North. So we hid in Ketam and I pulled in a Stargazer and someone pulled in a Grunter. 

My stargazer eyeballs a dying Grunter

After a long while, the wind died down, and we moved to a few other spots, where Nick produced this weird electronic fish repellant... oops, attractant. (Somehow it is supposed to have some effect on Koi ... what effect Nick wasn't specific... and what the hell has Koi got to do with what we were trying to catch?)

So, while trying to catch something, out of the corner of my eye, I kept noticing this blinking red light and wondering if it was attracting fishes to the boat, (which means attracting them away from our baits, which were 40 FEET AWAY FROM THE BOAT). And we had no bites.

Shifted around quite a bit until Nick finally gave up on his gizmo, and the bites came. Phil landed a bigger Grunter, everyone was excited, and we landed every possible member of the coldwater brigade. Catfish, Dogfish, Eeels, Stingrays, Stargazers and even a Hai Larn (translate that from Hokkien to English) which Chermin manhandled.

So we called for reinforcements and the Horizontal Angler Clarence obliged, turning up at the boatel with nice warm food and drinks. Then he went to sleep... I think he woke up next morning. (Now you know why he's the horizontal angler.) ... no lah.. he did try a feeble attempt at fishing when Glen pulled in a wild Barra at the Cliff. 

Glen joins the wild barra gang with this beauty

Glen's wild Barra got everyone excited, but then Nick lost a fish, then I lost a fish, then the Stargazers appeared, then the Wind changed direction and started picking up.. and we headed back into Ketam Channel to compete in the LOUDEST SNORE competition with the Horizontal Angler Clarence, but he won hands down.

Slept till dawn, found our baits gone, our prawns in the baitwell dead, and we tried a vain attempt to buy more bait and catch some day fish, but there was not enough petrol to reach the good spots, so that was it!

Night fishing is simply too exhausting! And not very comfortable if there's a strong wind blowing every other minute. The elements were against us, and I think I'll stick to day fishing for the time being.

1 Nov Deepavali Tuesday day trip with Guek's gang

Guek's gang came along for a relaxing trip. Had lots of bites... but mostly from the wrong type of fish.
Me and Andrew lost good fish at the first spot which managed to pull drag and reach home into the snags. We had to snap our lines. Probably good Garoupas. But later we redeemed ourselves.

Moved around a lot today. Plenty of boats were out there, esp in front of the naval base, but that spot didn't see much action, so we had to be contented with some very good sized Snappers and a whole ton of rubbish fish like Hinds (Ninjas, we used to call them.... or fake coral trout.) 

Andrew poses with the catch of the day - a mighty fine Snapper
Here's a pic of the nicer fish for that day. 

Healthy Snappers 

30 Oct Sunday family day at the Boardwalk

brought the family out on Sunday and since my kids wanted to go shoot waterguns at the boardwalk, I bought 100g of live prawns to try my luck with the rod that's permanently in my car.

No big fish showed, but spoke to a regular with tales of Barra and Grunter and Unstoppables from the spot. Sounds like a good picnic spot.

The kids had fun... esp with the small fish landed. 

Berkley kept wanting to touch this Stargazer

and Treva wouldn't leave my rod in peace, using it for watergun target practice. 

The kids didn't spare the live prawns too!

29 Oct 05 Saturday Day Trip with Roy, Const, Uncle, Kelvin, Pat and Kings.

After the previous week's success, I was rather hopeful for this trip. However, the fish were not cooperating during the first part of the day, when Roy requested for Kim Buk Lor (Barramundi). Since the tide was right, I said why not? And proceeded to hit the Barra spots.

Kingsley had a Good Feeling when he lost a good pull and the rest were missing a few takes, then finally the ultimate pull came and Kings was rewarded with his first wild barra after experiencing firsthand the raw power of wild gold on light tackle. A good sized fish it was! 

How's this for a first wild barra? Kings joins the wild barra club with his first wild Barramundi

Of course a few other species came to entertain, and Kelvin thought he had a Barra when a had a strong pull, but it turned out to be a nice Grunter instead. 

Later we moved to another Barra spot and saw Ahmad in an Albin (my dream boat... anyone knows of an Albin for sale?), and Constance pulled in a nice Star Snapper, not before it got stuck in something, but Roy managed to extract it.

Soon, because of small fish biting (had too many small fish disturbing that day), we ran out of 1.5 kilo of prawns and went to top up another 0.5 kilos to hit the penultimate spot when the tide turned.

When we reached the spot, Ah Bee was anchored about 100m away and there were only two boats there, mine and his. (Hope his engine's fine... saw him struggling with his outboard for a while.) But soon, out of no where, a few more boats came around. I don't mind if they fish around the same area, but there was this one wooden boat which anchored upwind from us and ended up a little too close for comfort. I do hope these guys respect safety at sea.

Anyway, we had some good fish from that spot, and I lost a super pull which had me hanging onto my rod for dear life. 

 
Here, the deepwater fighter speed-demon takes line and dives under the boat

but I failed to stop him and my leader was bitten through. Must have been the wrong Barra - barracuda... lousy fish!

So we moved on and found a nice peaceful spot to end the day, pulling up small Snapper and other fun stuff. 

 
Kings with a fine Snapper which had somebody else's hook in its mouth - caught on secret bait

Here's some of the other things caught, wanted to show a nice Red Bream and a Star Snapper. 

Of course, we could have done better if the small fish hadn't been out in force today, wiping out our bait too quickly. At least there were a few decent fish. And the company was great!!!

23 Oct Maiden Voyage on Felip's new boat - Reuben (named after my God Son)

Went down to the boatel on Sunday to fix up a few stuff on the boat and realized Felip was out on his maiden voyage aboard the Reuben, a nice fibreglass centre console diesel powered boat. So I called him and he picked me up from the boatel and we fished for 10 minutes. (Just to fish on the new boat.) The boat cuts the waves nicely and best of all, does not drink petrol like my own boat. (Felip's old boat was the Fellowship, a nice 26 foot Wellcraft Half Cabin. That was the boat we used for Ubin exploration in the early 90s.) 

This is a pic of Felip's old boat, Fellowship, and our catch from Ubin in 1991, when I was the anchorman.

Here's his new boat! Snapped this pic just before I jumped on board. 

This boat will soon be at the Western fishing area.

22 Oct Sat Photo Shoot with Steph

My new female deckhand, the garang Steph, came along for a short morning trip, and the pressure was on me to produce the goods. After buying half a kilo of prawns, we zoomed to the spot, and I set up two rods.

The action didn't start immediately, and we enjoyed some pleasant conversation, with Steph even singing her own version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, when the fish couldn't take it anymore and decided to start biting. From then on, I was a busy man, snapping photos of Steph as she pulled in fish after fish. Instead of taking pics of dead fish lying around (I'm a bit tired of that), I was eager to get some action shots, and indeed, my new deckhand Steph was an excellent model, so were the fish. I'll let the pictures do the talking. 

Steph puts the pressure on the fish from the start

The bite rate was pretty good, and besides lost fish, we landed quite a number of good fish. In fact, Steph seems to have perfected this pose. 

Here was the common catch of the day! Star Snapper... got a good number of these fish!

Then before I could even rest, Steph was into another fish. And this time, the fish took quite a bit of drag. 

Steph tries to handle the drag pulling of the fish

While I was taking this pic, I noticed my other rod taking a full bend and immediately grabbed that rod. Double Hookup!!! Managed to land both fish after some strategising, and lucky I have a long landing net. 

Here's Steph and the reason her drag was going! It was a decent Barramundi.

And then she kindly took my pic of a Red Star Snapper... a mutant of the usual Greenish Star Snapper. The result of a double hookup and a moment of anxiety. 

Here's my rather fat Red Star Snapper... It must have interbred with the Red Snapper. I mistook it for a Red Snapper at first, but the white spot (which gives the fish its name) was distinctive.

After the commotion, we landed a number of fish, some Garoupas and more Snappers...
So I snapped another fight and another fish for fun. 

She's becoming quite an expert at this, I must say. Can pull anchor, fight fish, clean fish, cook fish... impressive! 

And here she lands a Golden Snapper

On the whole, it was a good trip and great company! 13 fish were landed, (only one barra but many snappers and a few garoupas)... reached back to the boatel very early too! Just after lunchtime.

15 Oct and 17 Oct 2005

For a change, I played badminton with a few Fishingkaki guys at Tampines on Saturday. Brought my daughter and wife there... and we all had fun. Met some really nice guys from the forum too, thanks to Gary for organising the event. VinTan, Nick, Bluestream, Edmund and many other friendly fellas were there. It was a nice change from my usual Saturday fishing routine, hope to fish together someday.

But on Monday, the withdrawal symptoms appeared and I just had to do some fishing, but since there was so little time available after work that day (had to pick my wife from work) I went to Punggol (or Pond-go pond, as the sign there says) to do one hour of pond fishing (where I met the Fat Fisherman and a few other chaps). Met a guy called Nick there too, who was kind enough to share a little of his bait with me.

Not my day at the pond I guess, lost almost all my bites (quite a no of bites) cos I used old hooks from the tackle box permanently in my car... and the aunty was nice as ever, allowing me free extra time fishing till I landed one Star Snapper (or White-Spot Snapper... Peck Tiam).

Here's how I lost one fish. I had a bite and was trying to snap a pic of the fight with my hp camera, but I now realize I can't really snap a photo of myself when fighting a fish... lost that particular fish in the end. 

Here's my hand going to the rod to strike the fish. Lost the fish in the end. See my tiny reel with 6 pound line? I think there's less than 40m of line in that reel... moral of the story, never try to take a pic of yourself fighting a fish? No... I'll still try again next time.

8 Oct 2005 - WRITTEN BY DIAMOND (named changed to protect his true identity... scared his bosses find out what he's doing during office hours), THE VERY FREE GUY SITTING IN HIS OFFICE SURFING THE NET, TAKING HALF-DAY LEAVE FOR GOLF...

Haha... so Diamond wants to try his hand at writing the fishing report, and here it is, what kind of job does he have man??? Can write this during office hours... haha. Just kidding. Here it is.

9am and off we went to Ah Lee's "confirm catch" spot! But with foul-weather Karen on-board, we were all prepared for the perfect storm. But thankfully, she summoned all her persuasive powers on the weather and we were let off only with a slight drizzle… but extremely strong winds, and that didn't quite help the fishing.

Ah Lee then suggested that since "Confirm Catch" was not performing to its name, we should head down to "one minute one snapper" spot. After travelling for what seemed like a tour around Singapore, we finally arrived. But alas, the winds and waves were too strong for the anchor to hold. The spot had changed it's name to "one minute, drift one metre." So, after trying for a while, we head off to a couple more spots, catching Small snappers and other small fish before finally settling back at "confirm catch".

Well, it's one of those days... The lack of good size fish must have gotten into Ah Lee's head. His constant babble was driving us nuts.(HEY I WAS TRYING TO GIVE YOU HOPE!!) "Confirm catch!" "This one(prawn) sure catch one!" "Going to bite, going to bite" But still no good fish... Finally, Guek's rod took a pull and up came a decent sized snapper. Next Ah Lee had some REAL action and a grunter came on board. Well, that's the end of the action for me cos of baby duty but not for the rest.

After dropping me off at the boatel, the rest anchored off the boatel and try their last bit of luck. And they were rewarded! Not one, not ten, not fifty, but hundreds of fish!! It looked like it was raining fish on the deck of Treva Berkley as they constantly had multiple hook ups! Here Guek was pulling up a Pelagic fighter, and Karen was struggling with her own rod, and Con was in a tangle with his line and fish on the other end. So many Kurau (as Guek calls it) and Shads and Hardtails... (actually Ikan Bilis, Tamban and Kembong respectively.) But I guess it was still fun! 

See Karen with a GIANT PELAGIC SPECIES 

The red tub with enough berley to last a year... and a nice Snapper
Thanks Diamond, for the short contribution.

1 Oct 2005 - Saturday trip with the babies

Went for a short one hour family trip on Saturday (the wife's idea) so I couldn't bring any regular kaki along except desmond and his family. So the kids came along, played with water and a few live prawns (brought most back for maggi mee, really sweet!). The boat seems like a playground to them, climbing up and down the flybridge, treating the baitwell like a mini swimming pool.

Then of course Des and me had to soak a line, and I caught a small Garoupa (released at the end of the trip) at the first spot which proved really entertaining for the kids. Got to do some really serious fishing next week. Changed my hp too. Got a 1.3megapix camera, here's a test photo. Maybe next week we'll get a big one. 

Baby Garoupa set for release

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