Back at Ubin for some Barramundi action

After some hectic fishing at the Southern Islands last week, I sorta missed my Ubin Barramundis. So I rounded up the posse which included Bryan, Nadine (it was her birthday trip - Happy Birthday), Fau and Ismail.

The Birthday Girl caught a nice Golden Snapper. That's your gift from the sea!

Of course, to catch Barramundi, I had to go to Good Feeling. But even before reaching the spot, we landed some good stuff during the pit stops when we saw some birds diving down for baitfish. Always a good sign, Fau was the first to open accounts with a beautiful Red Snapper. Then Bryan added a surprise catch with a Mackerel on metal jig. That's rather rare in Ubin waters.

Bryan must be wondering why he wasted time jigging in Rompin the previous week when you can get them locally.

Anyway, we finally reached Good Feeling and the Barramundi were all around. After catching four of them, plus a few Snappers, I decided to move to another spot. Anyway, we had more than enough fish to eat already. So I headed to the undersea cliff where Bryan managed to Madai up a fat garoupa. When the bait was finished after a few more fish, we headed back to the boatel, happy with our catch. I love these relaxing boat trips with friends.

Ubin always obliges us with these goodies, and an Orange Haired Tigerfish was thrown in as a bonus.

The humble Madai produces the goods

Went for a half day Madai trip with Balya to the Southern Islands simply with the intention to catch a few Spanish Flag Snappers, but it turned out we caught more than we bargained for, in a good way.

Here's my all-time favourite fish, the Golden Snapper, landed on a $6 old bashed up Asari Madai Jig that I've been using for several trips already.

On the way out from the Marina, the weather didn't look too good, so I started heading towards sheltered waters when along the way I had a hunch there were fish below us (we were passing an old Spanish Flag Snapper spot). I stopped the engine and we let down our lines. True enough, there was a nice Golden Snapper waiting for me which initially grabbed my Madai, fought for a second or two, dropped, and came back to attack the same lure. What an aggressive fish!

Having caught some other nice fish like small Spanish Flag Snappers, we decided to move on to calmer waters for lunch, and fortunately, the weather cleared.

Here's Balya with our simple half-day trip catch. Sweetlips, Garoupas and Snappers.

After catching a few small fish, we decided to head towards the Garoupa Zone to land some big garoupas. We landed two decent garoupas in quick succession but the biggies were not around, it seemed.

The ever reliable Asari Madai produces yet another table fish.

As luck would have it, after landing so many assorted fish, including a large Sweetlip, on the Madai, I noticed that my 100lb kevlar leader for the assist hook was rather frayed. Thinking we were about to head back anyway, I let my line back down for one last try, and that was when the big one decided to bite. Sigh... you can guess what happened.

The fish pulled, I pulled back, it dragged out my 40lb line, I thumbed the spool to stop the massive fish from reaching the rocks, and the fish slowly but surely turned. I even managed to reel about 5 metres of line in, with a massive tugging weight on the other end. Thinking I was in the clear, I began my simple pumping motion, and that was when the fish took off on a slow but powerful run, and my kevlar leader's last surviving fibre decided to call it a day.

The moment I felt the fish escape, I knew what had gone wrong. I was staring at that frayed leader just a moment before... well, looks like another hard lesson learnt! And the big one got away!

Well, going back to the boatel with a large Golden Snapper and some other good stuff isn't that bad anyway, but why are there tears in my eyes? Sob Sob... haha.

Jigging trip with Bryan and Kings

Catch of the day - a beautiful Coral Trout

The weather was not good in the morning, so we waited on shore for a while, and finally headed out in the afternoon. Still not keen to use bait, we decided to use metal jigs this time. Armed with our $4 cast fighters, we hit the spot with anticipation.

It didn't take long before we started landing reef fish like big Parrots and Spanish Flag Snappers before a nice Coral Trout appeared. That made my day.

Then Bryan and Kings got in on the action with a school of Giant Trevally below the boat. All GTs and Queens were released to fight another day. Hassan managed to get Hazlan to join us for a while, but all was fine and in the evening when the current slowed down, we cruised back to the boatyard with aching arms and a pretty decent overall catch.

Light game action on metal jigs - our local GTs sure give a good fight!

Fun with Lures

Getting a little bored with the usual bait fishing, over the last few weeks I decided to switch back to using artificial baits just for the challenge.

First, I took out my trusty Rapala CD-14 from the old Pulau Aur days and started trolling around the Southern Islands with Kings. Was fun just imagining something like a Mackerel or Barracuda striking our lures but it was relatively quiet most of the day. Finally, just as we were about to give up, I had a strike! ON!

It didn't take me long to bring in the catch of the day, a beautiful Garoupa which was promptly steamed and eaten fresh that very night. The trip may not have produced many fish, but it sure was good for a laugh!

The only catch of the day, but getting it on lure made it doubly fun!

2014 Chinese New Year Fishing Period - Amazing Ubin!

Fishing around Pulau Ubin has been wonderful lately, with several extraordinary catches I never really expected, especially a Panther Garoupa (Barramundi Cod/ Lou Shi Ban) which turned up during the Chinese New Year Period to become the main dish of our New Year gathering.

My first ever Panther Garoupa or Barramundi Cod was caught during the CNY period in early Feb 2014. Didn't know we had them around Pulau Ubi. The first time I saw one caught was more than 20 years ago at Horsburg Lighthouse. Finally I've caught one myself.

During the 2014 Chinese New Year period, I went on three trips around Pulau Ubin, and all three were great! First was a short New Year's Eve trip after work with Kings and Bryan to catch at least one respectable fish each for that night's Reunion dinner. Nothing beats super fresh wild caught fish on Chinese New Year's Eve right? How many families get such a privilege? Well, we got some nice Garoupas for dinner... perfect sizes! And the families loved the dish.

Here's what we caught on Chinese New Year's Eve itself. Fresh Garoupas for dinner. Yay!

Then a few days after Chinese New Year itself, since there was a public holiday, we decided to go for another short fishing trip. This time, more interesting fish showed up, like Red Snappers, Golden Snappers, Stunning Greasy Tiger Garoupa crossbreeds and a Mackerel, can you believe it? All from around Pulau Ubin.

This is Kingsley's magnificently coloured Garoupa.

Bryan surprised all of us when he used a Metal Jig at Ubin and jigged up a Mackerel. That's a first too!

Looks like Chinese New Year 2014 brought many firsts for us. Let's hope for great catches all the way!

2013 September to December Catches

Well, here's a quick update of my catches around local waters. The Southern Islands saw a nice Trevally run, with some trips producing non-stop action. The big Garoupas were in as usual in December, with one of them bagging my boat the Third Position in a Punggol boat fishing competition. Caught a nice Patin at 16.6 kilos in a fishing competition and came in First Position. Some other nice catches. The wind has been rather strong lately... maybe that's why the fish are biting. Let the pics do the talking.

December 2013

Caught a nice fat Tiger Garoupa during the Punggol boat fishing competition.

Hokkien Pro landed a fat Garoupa too. This clinched 3rd Place in the Punggol Competition.

First garoupa caught during the Punggol boat fishing competition almost immediately.

The Southern Islands were not to be outdone. Sagai season brought in nice Trevally and Selar. Ridwan looks victorious.

Brought my nephews out to the south too, during the hols, and they both landed nice fish on their new rods.

2013 November - nice holiday season fishing

This 16 kilo Patin put up a great fight and won me the First Position in a Freshwater fishing competition.

Brought the kids out for some sea air. Here's a small stingray which we released.

The kids love coming on the boat. Here's a small Snapper for ya.

Joey came on board at the Southern boat and we landed some nice fish like parrots and Garoupas.

Garoupas galore during the November period in our Southern waters. So many of them around this time.

In our Southern waters, November's a great time for fishing. Didn't want to go back cos the fish were biting till sunset.

Haha, my first Cambodian fish caught at a fishing pond in Phnom Penh.

October 2013 was also wonderful. Made some new friends and caught some great fish!

Ran into a school of Reddies. Erwin holds one up for the camera.

Albertus caught this for dinner. Yum Yum.

Ubin seems to be full of Kims. Here's another one for dinner.

Typical simple Ubin catch where we were just aiming to hit a few fish for dinner.

The highlight of an October Ubin fishing trip... dinner at Great Atlantis with several of our self-caught fish.

September 2013 had great weather, great friends and great fish too!

Southern Islands in September is Big Parrot season. They seem to be everywhere!!!

Caught this big Pink Tilapia from my own pond, haha. Great harvest time!

Ubin Barramundi are always willing to entertain my friends.

Here's another Ubin Kim for dinner.

You know an Ubin trip would not be complete without dinner at Great Atlantis using some of our catch.

Well that's all for this update. 2014 is here. Wishing everyone a Great New Year! And Gong Xi Fa Cai Nian Nian You Yu!!! 

Finally, an update on fishing around Ubin and the Southern Islands

Somehow, the problem with Facebook hanging on my laptop stopped, and so I can transfer some of my Facebook photos to this blog. Made several trips from June to August, and the catches are still not too sloppy. Let's let the photos speak for themselves.

The latest trip on 31st August produced some reef fish, with Eudon landing the catch of the day... a nice Coral Trout.

After a few years' absence, the Horizontal Angler strikes again.

On 24th August, the usual Ubin trip produced the usual Ubin fish... Garoupas and Kims. Hamzah, Hafeq, Balya and Kings came along.

17 August was fun, with Berkley landing the catch of the day, a nice big Barramundi, on her little pink Ugly Stik.

17 August. Dexter landed his own Barra and Sindy caught a tasty Flathead which we used for BBQ that night.

17 August. We had a yummy BBQ dinner that night, featuring succulent Barramundi and Flathead.

10 August was another great day, with plenty of reef fish, and Erwyn landing the catch of the day, a big Coral Trout which we had for dinner that night.

10 August Catch. Erwyn couldn't wait to taste the fish.

Erwyn's Abu rod shows that it can really take the pressure, but I think his fish swam into a snag.

3 August was the day I landed this 3kg Parrotfish, which was cooked in 3 ways. Head was braised, one side was Hong Kong steamed, and the other side was used to make soup, all at Great Atlantis.

June and July 2013 produced good fish, with Bryan landing this beautiful Tiger-Giant Garoupa Crossbreed on metal jig.

Kings landed this nice Coral Trout and Erwyn fell in love with it immediately. Fortunately, he managed to land one of his own a few trips later.

Back for Summer Vacation, someone decided to go for a swim.

Quite a number of nice Barramundi showing up in Ubin during the June to July period.

Alan, Dexter and Erwyn enjoying the catch of the day in a Macho manner.

OK, looks like this update is over, and the fish are still biting. As long as Facebook doesn't cause my laptop to hang, I should be able to update this blog regularly.