Aug to Oct - feasting continues, jigging begins

Albertus and his international friends join us for some Ubin fun. B & N are firm regulars now.

On August 20, 2011, we had a change of crew when Albertus and gang joined us at Ubin. Nadine was the champ with a big Garoupa. We all caught some nice fish. Then the traditional meal at Great Atlantis continued.

Nadine can't wait to tuck into her big Garoupa cooked two styles here. This time  Teochew steamed tail portion and the head portion was done Photophores style. Unbeatable!

The happy girl with the fat Garoupa taken off an old double wreck at Pasir Ris.

29 Aug 2011. We landed good fish again and this time it's Kings who can't wait to try out the Wild Caught Steamed Snapper.

3 Sep 2011 was productive too. Lao Di Fang keeps on producing these 2-4 kg Garoupas. 

3 Sep 2011. Here we are back at the boatel With Erwyn gone, Erwin has come to replace him, haha.

Erwin with his 'FBrother' Hokkien Pro

On 17 Sep 2011, Quasimodo joined in the fun. It bit and burst Karen's line, I told her I'd catch it for her, let down my HK Hook and landed Quasi (furthest right) with Karen's hook still in its mouth. Typical Lao Di Fang action.

2011 Oct. Southern Islands. Something took Bryan's metal jig. He had been jigging the whole day. Now he was going to be rewarded. 

An intro to metal jigging for Bryan. His first Garoupa on metal jig at the Southern Islands. Looks like its gonna be the next big thing.

Goodbye Erwyn - special video

2011 Aug 13, Erwyn's last trip before flying off to the States for studies. We'll miss him, and I know he misses us.

So after a hectic few months of fishing, feasting and having tonnes of fun, Erwyn has to go off to the States for his studies. Good luck buddy, and study hard. Come fish with us again when you come back.

2011 Aug, Dexter helps with the Teochew Steamed Garoupa. Farewell meal.

Log - Bryan, Nadine, Dexter and Alan - fishing and feasting

March 6, 2011. Nadine caught a Kurau on her first trip out. Great Atlantis opened and the tradition of eating the catch of the day immediately upon reaching shore began. Big Tua Tao, fresh fish, good beer and BEST company!

During this period 2011 Mar to Jun, Erwyn and Bryan started fishing with me regularly on most Saturdays. The opening of a great Seafood restaurant at Punggol helped to kickstart the tradition of eating our best catch after reaching shore. Prices started low, but recently got higher and higher... gotta start looking for alternative venues.

This trip in April was like most other trips that season. Plenty of good fish, good food, giant tua tao and GREAT company. Kings and Karen regularly joined in the fishing and feasting too.

Lao Di Fang was always firing up with good Garoupas, Mangrove Jacks and Snappers. Then if we wanted Kims we would head to Good Feeling.  There was not a single trip with a poor catch this season.

We were still having the feasting and fishing fun in May. Erwyn and Dexter  were always up to something.

During this 2011 May trip, when the boss found out we had big Whiting (Sua Chiam or Pasir Pasir), he insisted on deep-frying the fish for us, saying it was a chance we should not miss. Indeed the Whiting were wonderful!!!

By 2011 End May, even Chng and Hokkien Pro joined in the Fishing and Feasting as the big Garoupas and Kims never failed to show up. And Erwyn gives a thumbs up!

Here's a close of of the dishes that day. Live Barramundi HongKong Steam, Live Garoupa HongKong Steam, Mangrove Jack Teochew Steam and soupy Lala Bee Hoon.

In 2011 Jun, Erwyn was so happy with his big Garoupa I think he must have taken more than a dozen photos with it.

The fishing was great and the food was excellent. The company was amazing! No wonder we kept going over and over again.

This is how they prepare big Garoupas. Half the fish is steamed Hong Kong Style and the  Head Portion is made into soup - usually it's the Garoupa Photophores Soup which is a soup that is not commonly found and tastes so good, you keep yearning for it time after time. Once in a while, we eat the wild boar that's caught at Lim Chu Kang too - very tender.

In July 2011, the Southern Island Garoupas and Snappers also started firing up and here Kings shows how nice and fat they are.

Nice glistening Snappers are always a welcome catch. July 2011 Southern Islands.

Altogether, this 2011 Mar to Jul period was a memorable period of fishing and feasting. Here's to more amazing days like these!

2010 fishing log - sharks and mackerels

Sep and Oct 2010 - Somehow got my mobile phone camera working again and managed to take some decent pics. Lost a coupla nice photos due to memory card problems.  

Chng expertly handles a gleaming 1.8kg Wild Barrumundi   The most recent trip on 2 Oct 2010 was a Barra hunting trip with Hokkien Pro (cos he speaks Hokkien like a Pro) and Chng. There were signs that Barras were on the bite since the previous trip's catch included 3 Barramundi.   This time, we moved around the whole of Ubin and landed 5 Golden Beauties for our efforts. Chng landed 2, I landed 2 and Hokkien Pro thought he was going home with zero, started singing some sad Hokkien song about bak sai, and then he pulled up the final Barramundi for the day, a fat one too.  

Here's the crammed ice-box after the trip. Can you count the Barramundi heads? The previous trip on 25 Sep 2010 was a fun trip with Norm and his family, and Hokkien Pro came too. Went to a surecatch spot where everyone landed some fish, and then moved to hunt some biggies. A nice Threadfin turned up on my rod, taking prawn meat as bait. And Hokkien Pro also turned in a Barramundi on prawn meat.  

Here's my Threadfin and HokPro's Kim caught within minutes of each other When we moved to our final spot, we landed another two Kims and then called it a day. Looks like the Barramundi are on the bite all around Ubin.  

Here's the group back at the boatel, with a part of the catch   OK, had to put up this pic of David with an interesting oversized Spanish Flag Snapper.  

And here's a tribute to Emmalin and Hiutsuri, victims of bad weather.  

29 May till 5 Jun 2010 Light Game Fishing - SHARK and SPANISH MACKEREL in local waters    Since the oil spill has affected the Changi area, I was forced to fish more towards the South of Singapore, using my smaller boat. And it turned out that some amazing fish were waiting for us.   On Saturday the 29th of May, Richard, Alex, Dave the Pro and me went off in search of some food fish. The target was Coral Trout, Scarlet Breasted Maori Wrasse, Trevally, Spanish Flag Snapper and Waigeu Sea Perch. When Richard went to get the bait from Ah Kow, it was a hunch that made him buy 1.5kg of prawns (500g more than our usual)... and this hunch paid off big time.   When we reached the fishing grounds around reef 40-47, we were welcomed at every spot with a flurry of action. All our target fish obliged in decent numbers, and we all landed Coral Trout, Trevally, etc etc.... until we ran out of bait.  

A happy Richard holding up two of the Trevally back at the boatel - enough fish for our refrigerators and stomachs   At one of the deeper drop offs, we realized a few of our lines were bitten off at the hook, but we had run out of bait and so we had to call it a day rather early.   Notice that boats which return early are normally the ones with pretty good catches cos they have run out of bait. (But of course there are exceptions when one is armed with plenty of bait and would not stop fishing when the action is hot.)  

Here's a closer look at the mixed catch - if you're wondering why we kept those small chocolate hinds, well it's because Richard found an old lady who specially requested for that particular fish, which she eats for every meal ... so we kindly obliged (Now it's called the grandmother fish cos of that)   Another interesting incident took place, where for the first time (not on lure) I landed two fish on a single hook... how in the world did it happen??  

This Perch and this Hind must have been fighting for the same bait... so they end up with the same fate   Anyway, the next day, Dave the Pro got his revenge on one of the line biters when he landed THIS AMAZING SPANISH MACKEREL!!!  

Why do people travel overseas to catch this fish when we can catch them in our very own Southern Islands?   And of course I had to get in on the action the next Saturday 5th June. I came with my light game outfit, ready for a decent biggie, and well, didn't land a Mack this time, but landed his buddy, a Black Tip Reef Shark, which Dave had been longing to eat. (Yes, he loves eating Sharks, that's why he's Dave the Pro.) Well, since I was using a wire leader, I wasn't worried about any fish biting through the line and when I had a big bite on my big bait, I knew I was going to enjoy the fight. Well, looks like the big fish are around if you know how to look for them and how to fish for them.  

A handsome, powerful fish ... one of our plentiful Blacktips  

I always wanted to do this with a Shark, like on a fishing magazine, and now I got my chance   Wow, once you start catching biggies locally, everything else you catch, like Snappers and Trevally, starts to look like bait. Well, till next time, tightlines!   May 2010 Had some fun relaxing trips with friends recently. Here are a few pics.  

Brought Chris, Wilson and Hayden out for some fishing fun... here is a Grunter  

Just had this for dinner, yum yum... another beautiful coral trout. Looks like their numbers are increasing.  

And of course, I had to target this Scarlet Breasted Maori Wrasse, which is extremely beautiful  

How often do you land these two beauties on the same trip? I think I've done it several times now.  

Hard to go home empty handed when the fish are hungry... here's the ice box. Silver Trevally, Snapper, Sweetlip, a couple of Coral Trout, Maori Wrasse etc  

Here's another small catch for a short trip... at least the Trevally cooperated   Well that's all for now! Will probably fish much more in June. Video Experiment. Fought a nice Queenfish, tryin to embed a video on the page. Let's see if it works.   2010 New Year Update - managed quite a number of fishing trips, but my camera phone's memory card gave some problems, and I had little time to update the site.   What's interesting is that a long time fishing buddy of mine (see 1999 log), who started fishing with me since he was a schoolboy, has opened a freshwater catch and release fishing pond in Yishun. Of course, as soon as I saw Samuel's pic in his website (Fishing Paradise), I couldn't help but visit the pond for a look see and a try out.   Kings joined me there and Samuel was a very good host, showing me where the fish were and what method to use. But before that, I must admit that the Black Pepper Crab Bee Hoon at the bottle tree village was wonderfully washed down with some ice-cold beer.   Ah, back to the fishing. Well, some guy landed an Arapaima on lure just before I arrived, so I eagerly set up my heavy gear. (Remember, for a higher chance of the released fish surviving, the fight must not be prolonged ... so light lines are out of the question here.)   Anyway, most of what I caught were Walking Catfish. Some smallish Patin came to entertain too, and I landed a beautiful Gourami (Kalui).  

The staff were very helpful in landing and releasing fish, and I landed this nice Kalui, among others   Overall, I still wish the Monster Fish had been more cooperative... maybe a Red Tail Catfish on my next trip?? Anyway, keep up the good work Samuel!!   Not forgetting boat fishing - while my bigger boat is undergoing a face lift, I managed some nice trips on the small boat at the Southern Islands.   With Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in mind, I took a short trip out to see if I could land some fresh fish for dinner. I got more than what I bargained for, as usual...   We hit a school of decent sized Trevally (Sagai) and had a ball of a time filling up the ice-box... which we promptly topped off with crushed ice. Had one of them for steamboat reunion dinner that night.... delicious!!  

We caught one ice-box full of these on Chinese New Year's Eve, really good fighters on light tackle... a far cry from the usual 3 boxfuls, haha...   Oh well, that's all the time I have for a quick update. Have a Great 2010!!!

Big Kurau and Big Barras 2009

Dec 2009 UPDATE  Usual Three Kings - Barra, Snapper and Garoupa

The Monsoon period is here, and heavy rains that last the whole day are the norm. With the influx of freshwater, lots of fish die, so the bottom feeders get big and fat. Normally, this signals Garoupa season (and crab season too)... well, this year is no different. Made a number of short trips in Nov and Dec, and caught plenty of Snapper and Garoupa from my usual spots around Ubin. During a heavy downpour one afternoon, we even landed more than 30 of those tasty buggers, but got drenched in the process. Who says fish don't bite during wet weather?

  Here's a typical small Garoupa just right for a small family dinner, my favourite, yummy!

Here's the Jamie, Jeremy, PY and gang that went out for a short morning trip, got caught in a heavy downpour, and landed more than 30 fish! Everyone got drenched, but no one's complaining.

Usually, among the Garoupas, a sudden strong pull and hard fighter will appear, and we know we have a Golden Snapper on the line.

  Small Ubin Snapper like this one usually hang around with the Garoupa. Looks like Ubin produces Snapper, just like the Southern Islands.

And then once in a while a larger fish appears to make everyone excited. During this period, we had several bust-offs. For example, Matt learned the importance of tying strong triple joints for apollo rigs... when he lost a fish that bent his rod tip into the water... while his rod was still in the holder! I lost a monster on handline too! Simply unstoppable! But we did manage to bring up some of the manageable ones. Those around 2 to 3 kg were still manageable.

Slightly bigger brutes like these made it just in time for Christmas dinner, haha. Looks like Ubin still delivers the goods!

Here's a young angler about to start fishing.

And of course I have to squeeze in this pic of a Cobia I landed from a new pond in Pasir Ris. Sometimes when the weather is really bad, I guess even I have to do some pond fishing. Sheesh...

Well, that's all for the Dec update. Busy doing lots of fishing! But expect the fishing to get better, especially towards Chinese New Year. Early September 2009 updates - Since the Snapper are around, I made a few more trips to our Southern waters and landed more Snapper. These are beautiful fish indeed, and really strong fighters!

  Check out the beautiful golden sheen on these Snappers - only from freshly caught fish

Then just yesterday I took a short trip with Matt and his wife, and we landed the usual reef stuff. What was nice was when a small school of Yellowtail Fusiliers came to entertain us. (Hang Tze He - fishball fish) Wanted to try one of them for dinner but my maid misinterpreted me and fried a Timun (Spanish Flag Snapper) instead. Anyway, landed a lively coral trout for family dinner too, and we cooked and ate it immediately upon reaching home. That was wonderful tasting. Even my kids who eat fish every day commented on the quality of the coral trout. Nice tasty soft white flesh... yum yum.

Here's what I had for dinner last night. Check out the metallic blue spots on this coral trout!

OK I will be doing another short trip today to bring my friends out, hope we get some interesting fish! I'll upload the pics if something interesting turns up. If it's the usual fish... we'll wait till next time.

August 2009 updates - managed a few trips when the weather was ok, and some quality fish were landed.

Here's the usual small fish to keep us occupied while we targeted larger fish... take a look at our Kaci with Timun stripes... called Kacimun

Of course, I've started trying new techniques aimed specifically at larger fish, and they've begun producing results. Will probably start catching larger and larger fish in the coming months.

The Richard and a Blue Tiger Fish... ok, just a 3 kilo Cheng Yi

Just yesterday, while waiting for Giant Trevally, this nuisance fish took my light line bait and gave me a fun fight.

  This one weighed in at 4.5 kg... nice fight on light gear

 But of course, we caught some good stuff.

Here's the Golden Prize - a Snapper weighing in at 4.2kg

ok that's the end of my short update, till next time, tight lines!!!

25 July 2009 - simple day trip

Went for a simple day trip with fishing pro Dave and Handyman Alex... very fun way to spend a Saturday. Caught some nice reef fish then went for big stuff using the fish we caught from the reef.

Alex opened accounts with a big take on a 200 gram piece of bait

We were all disappointed when it turned out to be just a Queenfish... sigh

But towards the end we did hook some big stuff. I had a memorable fight using a 300g bait when a huge Black Tip Reef Shark around 5 ft long took the bait, gave a solid adrenaline filled fight, and broke the metal gaff cos it was just too big and heavy. Of course we went home happy with some of the usual good stuff.

Yummy top grade eating fish like Garoupa and Blackspot Wrasse (which is part of the Parrotfish family)... the usual

July 2009

 Looks like the trevally are around, we've really been catching lots of them but I couldn't put up the pics to protect the spot. These are solid fish for steaming, you know? Short 3 hr trips are more than enough.

Here's a quick pic I took of one of the catches... not much left already

May 2009

Did quite a bit of fishing at reefs 40 to 47 around the Southern Waters in the month of May.

On labour day, Matt, Melissa, Kings (sorry for the typo, haha) and me (not forgetting Chewy the dog) came for a half day trip where we mostly hung around 43 to land some nice Spanish Flag Snappers, Waigeu Sea Perch and SBM Wrasse. Plenty of action that day.

  Check out this beauty - SMB Wrasse with tender white meat

 The 11th of May was not as productive in terms of numbers, because 43 was unavailable, so we stuck with reefs 35 to 39. Yet, we managed to make up for it with quality. I managed to land a nice Coral Trout along the way, as well as a decent Greasy Garoupa.

  Can you see Matt salivating in the back when I lift the Coral Trout?

Of course, the SBM Wrasse obliged too

And then on the 23rd of May, Richard and me went on a half day trip. Reefs 43 to 47 were all firing up and we managed plenty of good fish. I even managed to land 3 Coral Trout within a few hours, on top of big SBM Wrasse, plenty of Snappers and some Sea Perch.

Here's a sneak peek into my ice box on the 23rd of May - high quality stuff

In fact, all the Coral Trout were immediately steamed Hong Kong style after each trip and enjoyed with the family members. I even tried a taste test for the Greasy Garoupa, Coral Trout and SBM Wrasse. The Trout and Wrasse were tied for first with tender tasty white flesh while the Garoupa was slightly tougher but still better than most fish you can buy from the market. Well, that's the update for May 2009. Till next time!

David gives this 10 lb Blue Threadfin the thumbs up... Boga grip comes in handy

 28 Feb 2009 - BIG KURAU

 - What an amazingly strong fish the Blue Threadfin Salmon is! I just went out on a short trip with the golfing gang and had a most satisfying and arm-aching fight with a 10 pound Threadfin Salmon. When the fish took the bait, I immediately knew that this one was different. There was a typical lag period and the weight of a heavy fish before the fish took off on a blistering run. When I managed to get some line back, it would take off on another long run, making me worry if I had enough line in my reel. For the first five minutes, the fish was in control and I gave more line than I took. And this sure wasn't a stingray because of the violent head shakes I felt at the end of my line.

Around the 10 minute mark, the fish started heading towards the surface and I thought I had a huge Queenfish on the line, but the fish did not jump, and suddenly made another blistering dive deep into the 100 foot mark. Obviously this fish did not intend to go gently into the good night. Down deep, the violent headshaking continued, and I began to worry that my hooks might get dislodged from the mouth of the fish because the puncture wound would definitely get larger and the hook would get loosened. So I was extremely careful to ensure that I kept steady pressure on the fish and used a smooth pumping action to retrieve line.

Finally, after brusing my mid-section with the butt end of my rod (I forgot to wear my fighting belt), fifteen minutes into the fight, the fish slowly but surely started tiring out, and I managed to gain line bit by bit, with a few final spurts of energy, and then, just before my right bicep started to cramp, the fish surfaced and Richard promptly netted the bugger. "Wah!!!! Big Kurau!!!" This was really a great fight and the moment the fish was safely into the boat, the muscles in my right arm seized up and I had to do a little stretching before I could start fishing again.

 This Blue Threadfin Salmon weighed 10 pounds on my Boga grip. So far, the largest Blue I've landed. It's close cousin the King Threadfin can grow much bigger, and used to be more highly prized. But recently, the Blue Threadfin and King Threadfin are starting to be equally prized for their eating qualities. And of course, the Blue Threadfin fights much harder! And that's what counts!

Of course, there were some garoupas which were fat and healthy, with a couple hitting the one kilo mark, but they look tiny next to the Threadfin that I landed.

  Don't these Garoupas look small beside my 10 pound Threadfin?

Could have caught many more of these Garoupas if we didn't have to outrun a storm and head back to shore around 2pm. But I guess there's no complaints, with such an amazing fish putting up a guest appearance.

  Here's the group back at the boatel early... at least we managed to stay dry and avoided getting soaked in the rain.

 Early 2009 short trip

 - Just decided to upload a few more pics from another trip in early 2009. So far the Garoupas are out in force, and so are the Snappers. My good ol spots are really producing nice fish, and Lau Di Fang at Ubin is still coming up with nice Flathead for my BBQ parties.

  Compare the size of the fish with my arms... Nice Flathead for BBQ... will try some sambal this time

  Richard sure knows how to enjoy the fight with a strong fish

  A healthy Snapper like this can put up a really good fight on light gear

Here's a pic of another average catch for a short fishing trip... enough fish for the week! Yay!!!

14 Feb 2009 - Valentine's fishing

Arthur, David, Matt, Melissa and me decided to do some Valentine's day fishing before the night's dinner. So we met at Punggol in the morning, took the boat to the aunty's fish farm, bought 1.5 kilos of prawns and zoomed straight to the spot where I've been landing pretty decent garoupas for the last few months. The idea was to catch some nice fish for the week. The day started slowly, with several lost fish, especially when Arthur's fish (the first hookup for the day) escaped. So we moved around quite a bit, and I was quietly confident that the fish would turn up eventually. I predicted that the fish would start biting at 2.30pm that day, but the fish were early, and started biting at 2pm. The moment the first rod took a fierce bend, the action was fast and furious till our 1.5kg of prawns dwindled to only 5 prawns. We landed several garoupas and threw back the small ones. Landed 4 snappers too and 1 Grunter. But what was surprising were the 2 nice Parrotfish which showed up for Matt and Dave.

  Matt with a beautiful parrot which he said sold for $120 per kilo in Chinese restaurants ... in fact he was at Crystal Jade that night and saw the same fish swimming in the tank

 Actually Melissa was way in the lead with several good fish caught before the rest of us caught up with her.

What's Valentine's day fishing if you can't bring your wife? Matt and wife

Me and Arthur were happily landing nice Garoupas and double hookups were common.

My new Transitions lenses at work... too much staring at rod tips in bright sunlight can cause cataracts

And the last to start catching fish was David, but he quickly made up for it with a good variety of quality fish like a Parrot, a Garoupa, a Snapper and a Grunter.

  David opens accounts with a Snapper and he wants to eat the prawn too!

After the feeding frenzy, we decided to head back to shore early cos we had to meet the wives for dinner and karaoke. Anyway, one shouldn't be too greedy where fishing is concerned. Managed to release many small ones unharmed (burp.. oops).

  Here's our modest catch... the usual Ubin suspects

  And here's the group back at the boatel... about to start washing the boat

 Well, so far the fishing's been good even during the windy period in Dec and Jan. Now that the winds have died down, hope the fish keep biting. Happy Valentine's!!

24 Jan 2009

- Chinese New Year Dinner fish. The catch has been like that almost every weekend lately. In fact, catching about 10 good garoupas per trip seems to be pretty common. Must be a good sign for the year.

- David, Han, Erwyn and Sam came along the day before CNY 2009 to see if we could land some good fish for reunion dinner the next day. Didn't have to fish till evening before everyone caught some good stuff. Gong Xi Fa Xai, Nian Nian You Yu!!!

  Guess which one I ate for New Year's Eve Dinner? Nothing beats fresh caught wild fish ya?

All packed and ready to go! Everyone gets to bag some good fresh fish to bring home for Chinese New Year

3 Jan 2009 - Barramundi Hunting Success

Went on a trip with Kings, Sunny and Fingers to celebrate the New Year and show Sunny a few spots. On the way out from shore, I was thinking that since I already had a good supply of Garoupas and Snappers in my fridge, it was time for some sport fishing for Barramundi. So I headed for my Barra spot and not five minutes into the trip, Sunny struck into a 4 kilo Barra which put up a good account of itself before making its way into the landing net.

Then Kings had a good hookup and had a really solid fight with a 4.5 kilo Barra before also landing it. Fingers and me had some bites, but I guess it wasn't my day. I only landed one small Barramundi, one Harry Hotlips and three Snappers in quick succession. Each time a fish bit, I thought it was a big Barra, but I guess you can't catch all the big fish all the time.

Before heading back after a few hours fishing, and several good fish later, Sunny had a good bite and was into what was probably the largest Barra of the day. But I guess we were enjoying ourself and taking too many pics of the fight that after quite a while of fighting, the hooks pulled and the big fish got away. Anyway, it was a great start to the New Year.

Started the new year on a high note... nice big Barramundi!