1999 July Ubin Snapper Schools

From left to right: That's Robert with a nice kilo plus Snapper; an 'artistic' arrangement of a decent haul of Snapper, Garoupa and a Barra; that's me putting some serious bend in my rod to keep my line from touching the propeller while Desmond stands by with the landing net.

Silence is Golden...

... Snapper. Here's an important point to note if you're keen on catching more than one Snapper per trip... bring the fish in quickly, absolutely DO NOT let the fish thrash around the boat, and stay as quiet as possible.

  These fish normally feed in schools and experienced fishermen will stay extremely silent when they chance upon a school of Snapper. This gives them a chance to pull in a good number of Snapper before the bites 'turn off'.

Inexperienced fishermen, on the other hand, would not be able to handle a fish properly, letting it flop around the boat, or they would talk very loudly, turn on a radio (or even a portable TV), do a victory dance, and do everything to prevent anyone else, including themselves, from catching any more fish. (I have to admit that I too, have been guilty of some of the above crimes... heehee... but numerous hard lessons have taught me well.)

As we all know, Snapper are highly sensitive to sound and even the smallest lead weight dropped carelessly in a boat might ruin a whole day's fishing as these fish are only 'turned on' for brief moments in a day. Thus, turning them off the moment they start biting could be disastrous, not only for you, but also for everyone else on the boat.

From left to right: Kelly plays tug of war, nearly cutting his hand because of the speed of the fish, while an Aussie couple observes the battle; well what do you know?... a frisky 2 kg Kurau; Henry with an Octopus ... we had great fun with it, throwing it at each other's face and letting it stick; Howie with a White Spotted Ray off Tekong.