Metal Jig Success - GTs and Ubin with the Kids



Went out with the kids on 13 Nov at Ubin, landed a few nice Kims and a big garoupa that didn't have a chance to get a proper pic before we ate it at the floating restaurant, haha.

The Kids waiting at the front of the boat

Waiting for the bites at the back of the boat

Hong Kong Steamed Garoupa

On the 12th we had a trip to the Southern Islands for some light jigging. Bryan contributed the pics and short write-up.

Nadine with her first ever GT. On a metal jig too.



Bryan with a 10 lb Giant Trevally - GT for short

Here's what Bryan wrote:

Today's fishing started slow. Couple of groupers over what seemed ages while drifting. Then when we decided that the bite was too slow we shifted to some reefs and were all rewarded with specimens that were delivered on metal jigs. I was the first to score on a 10lber GT which delivered a blistering run which turned my spool hot, followed a double hook up of smaller about 5lber GT with Nadine. Totally stoked for her as it was her very first fish on jig. Kingsley too was not left out as he delivered a solid ebek on jig and finally to round off the day con took an ebek just over the kilo mark. 

Bryan shows that it's all about the shorts

Kings makes the Hunter Stick Gang proud with a decent Ebek

Madai and Jigging fun

Went Southern today armed with lures and caught a nice Garoupa on Madai. Sagai were not very cooperative and we only landed a couple of them.

Landed this to make up for a bust off just before this fish.

We lost some good takes but managed to make up for it with a few decent fish.

Right at the end Ian had a positive take on his popping gear and landed a nice Longfin Trevally

Shark Fever

Went out for a short trip with Kingsley. Intended to catch some Longfin Trevally (Sagai) but since Kings brought some balloons along, we ended up using most of our catch as bait for sharks. Had four solid hookups on 50 pound tackle, lost one possible Giant Garoupa which made it to the rocks, lost a monster that bit right through the 80 lb wire leader, lost another 5 footer which took the biggest Sagai bait, and landed the final 4 footer which we released after some pics. It was an enjoyable trip indeed, especially when the shark fever ended and we headed to the Best Spot.

Here's the Sagai we used as bait to hook up a five footer lost at boatside.

Here's what's left of it.

Here's a video of the fight with the smaller 4 footer we caught and released. Enjoy!!!

We're gonna bring more balloons next time.

Here's the Blacktip we released to fight another  day.

Priceless moments - Family trip, starring 3 barras 1 garoupa and a guest appearance by Mr Croaker.

We brought the kids out for a short trip to Ubin. Bought 300g of live prawns and headed to Good Feeling. The moment I let a line down and tried to set up a second rod, the rod was bending and we landed a Barramundi.

I caught a nice Barramundi on my new Okuma reel too.

In short, the fish were cooperative. Had several good bites, missed two, but landed 3 Barramundi and 1 Garoupa. Then, after only an hour plus of fishing, we headed to the fish farm for lunch. A delightful lunch it was, with one of our Barra prepared HongKong style and plenty of fresh Mussels.

Here we are just about to leave for lunch. Enough fish for the day. Fun for everyone.

Ubin trip with Uncle Frank, Isaac and Matthew

Uncle Frank, Isaac and Matthew joined me for a comfortable trip to Ubin to target the Three Kings - Barra, Snapper and Garoupa.

After Matt lost a few fish he was unable to handle because of the sheer brute strength of the fish, I lost a nice Barramundi at boatside after I tried to land the fish without the landing net - my mistake.

Caught plenty of small, useless fish until the first of the Three Kings showed up - a nice fat Garoupa (see pic above, with Matthew).

The Golden Snapper arrived shortly after, with the sky starting to turn black. (See pic above, with Isaac.)

Finally, to complete the collection of the Three Kings, a gleaming Barramundi came along. Matt was all smiles about this fish. It was his first wild Barramundi.

Soon, the sky turned black and menacing, and we decided to head back to shore early to avoid the bad weather. What a good choice it was! Shortly after washing the boat at Punggol, it started raining cats and dogs.

Goodbye website hello blog

Sadly, Pacnet is shutting down its webhosting service, so my website and archives have to look for a new home. Looks like Blogger is the next step. I'll be doing the migration these few days.

Wall of Fame- memorable catches and good friends

Bryan's 6 kilo Golden Trevally video

Early 2012- Madai madness and Timun Schools

27 May 2012 update Managed to get some pics from facebook onto my pc, so I decided to do a quick upload just for fun. Been fishing a lot lately, found new and interesting techniques too, and bigger, better fish around our waters have been appearing.  

My Favourite fish, Ubin Snapper, are still around

  Just went on a short Ubin trip yesterday to see how far my new engine can take me, and landed a few nice fish for dinner along the way. Guess Ubin is still productive. Landed Barra, Snapper and Garoupa.  

This Garoupa almost got away, but my Spheros muscled him out of the snags.    

Kings madaied  this 5 kilo beauty on 25 May 2012. Solid fish and solid fight.  

Bryan landed an interesting Sagai on madai.  

My catch of that day was a 2 kilo Parrot. I'm not complaining.  

My new Optimax 250 just for fun.   Ok, rather busy lately, so I'm just going to plonk in some selected pictures by the month.   First, it's 2012 April.   April 2012 was an interesting month. Learnt how to madai effectively and landed many good fish. Big Garoupas around the 2-3kg mark were normal.  

A healthy Golden Snapper with a Bryan Photobomb

A happy girl with her beautiful catch. Can you spot me?

 Big Garoupa day... very fun

Ian caught this while almost falling asleep. Bryan is still hopeful.

Back at the boatel early.

Her first fish on Madai

My $13 Young Angler's Rod does it again with a 3kg Parrot.

Been landing very nice fish on my Young Angler's rod, specially designed for the kind of fishing I'm doing these days. Who needs an expensive rod when a solid fibre rod can do a better job?  

My retro-blue solid fibre rod delivers the goods time after time.

Even this 5kg Garoupa was no match for my new Young Angler's Rod

Bryan hits a beauty in 10m of water.

Ok now for the pics in 2012 Jan, Feb and March... just a few random pics. There was a brief run of BIG Spanish Flag Snapper (Timun).  

Scarlet Breasted Maori Wrasse are still around

A sneak peek into my ice box. I bought a chest freezer for my house just because of this Snapper run.  

Found a nice spot for BIG Spanish Flag Snapper

When these fish start coming in, prepare lots of bait, and many ice boxes.

Ubin is still productive. Tahlia seems happy.

Pat and Ray with a small Flathead.

February had some relaxing Ubin trips with friends and Garoupas too, while a catfish sting left a scar on my left hand.

Typical Southern Islands Catch. Looks like the Spanish Flag Snapper are growing bigger.

Kings fights a 5kg Snapper video

2011 Log - Gao Tun!!! Conrad's Fishing Facebook Group

Not many blog posts for 2011 because I send most of my pics direct by phone to Facebook. Check out Conrad's Fishing Group if you're interested.   During the Dec hols, the kids came along for some fishing fun at Ubin, where the waters are calmer.  

Isaac with his first wild Barramundi. Nice size too. So easy to catch at Ubin.

The ever reliable Ubin Barramundi will always be fun for the kids.

In the cabin the kids take shelter from a brief downpour.

A nice Golden Snapper came to thrill the kids. Being a strong fighter, everyone was amazed by its power.

 They had fun in wet weather conditions.

This beautiful Mangrove Jack came to join in the fun.

She fought this Grunter which put up a really good fight.

 

Of course the Northeast Monsoon brought in the Trevally schools. Too many disgusting Chermin, but at least they put up a good fight. The Sagais were the real target. Erwin, Chng and Hokkien Pro joined me at the Southern Islands   2011 Septemper, October and November were excellent too.  

The big Sagai like these started coming in around November.  

We got a few, when conditions were right.  

But this has got to be my best fish of 2011, a muscle bound Giant Garoupa that showed up in Ubin amidst a Garoupa festival. A true fighter, it put my light gear to the test and almost straightened my hook. I had to jam my drag on the Spheros in order to pull this one out of the snags.  

  Ubin Lao Di Fang keeps producing these wonderful Garoupas. Everyone enjoys catching fish like these, right?   2011 April - Predicting the end of personal websites    Looks like the end of websites like this is near. In 1999, I formed this website. Then around 2004, personal websites started giving way to blogs and this ended up more like a blog. Now of course, there's facebook, which makes it so easy for me to upload pics and even videos, even when I'm not even home after a fishing trip yet.   So that's where my fishing pics have disappeared to, if that's what you're wondering... FACEBOOK. So until the next big thing on the Internet happens, facebook is where u'll see my fishing updates from now on.   Thanks for following this site for so long, I have received lots of email over the 12 years of this sites existence. It will probably exist as an archive until dear old Pacific Internet folds, cos that's where this site has been hosted ever since 1999.   Take care everyone, it's been a fun 12 years, but I guess age catches up with everyone, and I have to move along with technology. See you on my facebook group (which I'm actually still trying to figure out, haha!) Some recent pics on my fb Conrad's Fishing Group   Erwyn's last trip before he flies off to the US of A. 13 Aug 2011 landed 7 nice garoupas and 8 Snappers.   Here's one I caught, and below that the Anchor with the Angchor.  

Another Lao Di Fang Garoupa

Biggies like these are still around

Caught some nice little Anchor like these.. oops, I meant Angchor. Oh well, both are good.

  Good Feeling is still producing the Barramundi.

Last week everyone on board landed at least one nice Barra, and I topped it off with a biggie Barramundi.

 

Whenever I need to relax, I go to Ubin, park at my Barra spot, and catch beauties like these.

 Landed plenty of good fish in 2011, together with some Mangrove Jacks, Snappers and Kurau, and of course - the mighty Barramundi! Here are twins I landed when everyone was busy catching their own Barramundi.