Jan to Jun 2005 Fishing Reports and Pics
- June 2005 update Went fishing quite a bit in June. Caught fish on
every trip. Samuel did well with a range of snappers on one trip. A few big
barras turned up too. Not much internet access these days so got to just dump a
few handphone pics. Enjoy!
A nice barra among Snappers
Star Snappers galore! Plus Two Golden Snappers and a thrilling Ray on
hongkong hook
4 June 2005 - Johor Shoal and surrounds A bunch of NTU undergrads came
along, Samuel, Cindy, Isaac and Huishan... with Guek and me, for a trip to Johor
Shoal.
Stopped at some old spots along the way with nothing much to show except a few small fish. Then the sea lice moved in (KUTU), and we made a wise decision to head back to Ubin, where, at the Snagpile, a whole pile of decent fish turned up. Grunters were the dish of the day and so were Flathead and a nice Garoupa by Sam. Here are a few pics. Looks like Ubin still fires up when necessary.
Isaac shows how a 2.5 kilo Grunter can glisten in the evening sun
Cindy and Sam show some table-sized grunters
28 and 29 May 2005 Family fun day again!!!
Karen makes her debut and demonstrates good skills with a delicious small garoupa
23 May 2005 Vesak Day
Here's Des with a Grunter and a Snapper
Karen's first trip with me, and these are her fish.
21 May 2005 Saturday
Went fishing on Saturday with Uncle Ed and Guek. A few fish turned up to entertain, like a White Threadfin (can't grow as big as a Black Threadfin)- Kurau, a Queenie and small stuff like Grunters and Gelamas. Found a pic Jan sent me of the time she came and fished too and decided to post it.
Here's uncle ed who refuses to touch a small grunter... Amis la!
A nice Threadfin Salmon for the babies to eat.
Guek with a hard-fighting Queenie.
Janice with a baby ray set for release.
15 May 2005 Family trip
22 Apr 2005 two-hour trip and 23 Apr 2005 Southern Island link-up trip
Bren with a kilo barra caught while holding the fort
So we met at Keppel on Sat morning, me with my trusty Surecatch $17 rod and a Shimano Ultegra 5000. Dave, my friend, was looking at my gear and saying that I was going to watch him catch all the fish this time. (Just like what happens on my own boat, I thought.) I didn't mind if he caught fish, as long as somebody catches fish, it would be great. Anyway, I had volunteered to be anchorman for the day.
So at the first Sentosa spot, we rigged up and, like pros, started pulling fish in almost immediately. Plenty of big Snapper up to 2 kilos, kaci, Star Snapper (what many call peck-tiam)... and then the Conrad show began again. I was chatting with Dave with my line straight down when the rod was almost yanked into the water by a powerful fish. Steadying myself, with cheers from Dave and Al, a nice Chermin surfaced after a good fight. Then, upon dropping my line into the water, I hooked another bigger Chermin. This continued until I had 5 nice chermin on ice in less than 10 minutes and a Sagai from Dave. Then we had to shift spot to get the Kurau.
Not a bad start indeed. Of course the Kurau were not cooperating as expected, but we all went back pretty happy. Here are some photos. Didn't lay out the fish but the ice box was heavy indeed from the snappers and chermins.
I Might join Dave as his anchorman again soon. This time we'll specifically
target Kurau.
April Fool's Day 2005 Half-day off gang... CONGRATS TO FRANCIS ON HIS
FIRST WILD BARRA
So by 1.30pm we launched the boat and bought bait from the aunty. The first spot was around Tekong, where I'd discovered something like a reef a few weeks back. The terrain was good. Corals were aplenty, but there were hardly any takers till Tomo pulled in a Barramundi. Then all went quiet again till we moved to GF.
Aha... that's when I noticed the water was dirty and mentioned that this was good for Barra. True enough, the moment I let my bait down, the rod took a good bend and I knew it was a barra. After a good fight, one kilo of golden muscle was eased into the landing net.
Then Francis was on to something and he really struggled with that one, till another properly hooked barra was brought into the boat. The moment I put the landing net down with the fish, Francis gave a yell and I realized it was his first wild barra.
Then the fatboy syndicate moved in to remove whatever optimism the rest of us had.
Returned to the boatel at 5pm sharp. Not too bad, 3 barra in 3 hours of fishing. Here's a beaming Francis holding up two of the barra.
- 25 Mar 2005 - Family Trip with the Seasick Gang
- Ok, so it's Good
Friday and suddenly the family wants to go fishing. I have to admit I haven't
been out on the boat in a while, preferring to be out on the golf course
swinging a driver. And the times I tried to go fishing turned out to be
non-trips because everytime I pack my stuff for fishing, the weather turns
really ugly so I have to tell everyone (who's on their way to the boat) to turn
back and head home. And two weeks back I had a bad case of flu... to cut a long
story short, the last trip was on 12 Feb... more than a month ago. WOW!!!
I admit I did a little lure fishing in the freshwater regions on a few occasions, but that's another story.
So on Thursday, before Good Friday, I decided to take the boat for a spin to make sure everything was OK and also to check out the wind and water conditions. The idling speed on my V6 engine seemed a little off so the mechanic came and found a piece of foam stuck in the throttle. Once that problem was settled, me and Nathan were zooming to Tekong against a rather choppy sea. Marked out a few new potential spots to try out, and headed back to shore to give the boat a rinse. Topped up the petrol and the boat was ready for the Seasick Gang.
Number one in the Seasick Gang was my mother, yes my mother, who never failed to impress with her loud arguments with the sea the moment the engine was turned off. Then there was Ii Chik, my mum's sister, who was rumoured to take to a rocking boat like a snail to salt... and the rest of the family (about 8 in total) with various histories of vertigo and seasickness.
I had to find calm water, but where? Thankfully, after getting the prawns from the aunty, the first spot we went to was extremely calm... and on the first bait up (I was the deckhand as usual), mum hooked up a fish and got everyone excited. But out popped a semilang, which was kept for scientific research. (Yes, a cousin who came along is a Marine Biologist who finds all manner of weird unwanted fish interesting.)
The coldwater gang moved in and a sting ray, an eel and a stargazer showed up. Then the tide turned and after some berleying (with partly digested Mi Zhang Kueh) courtesy of Ii Chik, two Garoupas turned up.
Then we shifted to another location at the Cliff, and mum brought in a Snapper and some small Grunters, so did one of my uncles. They all seemed happy, then we ran out of bait and sadly, we had to head home though the fish were biting.
Altogether, we landed a couple of fish, but the most amazing thing was that my mother DID NOT PUKE!!! In fact, she did not even feel seasick at all! She's been boasting about this ever since, and is insisting that I bring her on another trip... well, she was lucky, the sea was very calm that day. Maybe I'll go again this coming Saturday to try the Tekong spots off the old Malang Tiga.
12 Feb 2005 Sat Day Trip 0830hrs to 1600 hrs
Fishing pro Junio came along with sidekick Kings and old Uncle Eddie for an experiment. Since I'm normally the one getting fish, I was supposed to tie all rigs, bait up, and cast the line for everyone.
So... at the first spot, I gave Uncle Eddie the option of going for a single hook rig or a double hook rig. He chose the single hook rig. I rigged up for him, baited up, let down the line for him, passed him the rod, and before anyone else could start fishing, his rod took a violent tug and a big fish was on!! Uncle Ed became so excited that he passed me the rod and started using his hand to pull in the line. I was afraid his hands might get cut, but years of construction work gave his hands the texture of extra rough grade sandpaper... and a Big Barra was eased into the landing net. What a start!!!
Soon, Fishing Pro Junio (you can see more of her photos in My Other Fishing Adventures section of my webpage) and Kings got their lines wet. And I started tying my own rigs.
After a short wait, the show really began... first with a table-sized Barra, then with a Bigger Barra almost matching Uncle Eddie's. And then the Fatboy Syndicate moved in so we shifted to another spot, a good one at that, but the fish were not cooperative. We then moved to 2K and the show continued.
Sensing a change in tide and weather, I expectantly let down my line, telling Pro Junio that the fish were going to bite. I guess she did not really believe me at first, but the moment I put the rod in the holder, the fish tugged and in came Garoupa number one. Then, when I baited up, cast, and immediately brought in Garoupa number two which was even bigger, she got the hint, but it was too late, her rod was not ready for action. So I baited up and cast my line again, knowing that a fish was going to pull the line in under a minute, and I passed the rod to her. As soon as I turned my back, she was fighting a whopper!!! The fish pulled the drag even though it was set really tight, but it finally surfaced... a big fat 2 kilo Grunter.
Sadly, we soon ran out of bait and had to return to the boatel early. Some rubbish fish gave us some action as well...
so here's the catch we kept!
Some nice barras, garoupas and a grunter... the rest were thrown back
- Fishing pro Junio posing with the catch
6 Feb 2005 Sunday Morning Trip 9am to 12pm - Dad and me went in search of some fresh fish for Chinese New Year... and we got some. The wind and current were not cooperative during the first hour, but the fish were. Just when I let down my line, I had a good pull but failed to hook up. Then dad pulled in a nice Snapper on his handline. I baited up again and landed a beautifully coloured Garoupa for my efforts. But the next bait up had something bigger in store. Just when I placed my rod into the rod holder, the rod bent into a full U and I even had trouble lifting the rod from the holder. With my drag set at max load, I played tug of war with the fish which was pulling real hard, trying to reach home, but I managed to bring it slowly to the boat. Just one pump away, the hooks pulled! Shucks! When I checked the hooks, I realized that the hook had straightened because my drag was too tight and the fish was too strong.
Not giving up hope, I re-rigged and dropped my line straight down. And even before I managed to put the rod into the holder, the drag was going and the rod was almost wrenched from my hands... something even bigger than the one I had just lost was on the other end. This time, I couldn't even stop it. It headed home, and I felt my line rubbing against the structures, and the mainline snapped. MONSTER FISH!!!!
Fortunately, I was rewarded with another garoupa and a strong pulling Grunter before we had to head back to shore so that I could be in time for my badminton game. Anyway, the target was met.... fresh fish for the New Year!!! Yummy!
Here's the Grunter, in the boat shed.
29 Jan 2005 Saturday Trip - First Barra of 2005
Alright!!! The wind is dying down with Chinese New Year around the corner. This gave me an opportunity to target barra, and I was rewarded with 2005's first barra on my second outing for the year. Nice healthy barra took my bait and was jumping about even before I picked up my rod. Good drag-pulling too!
Some nice garoupas showed up together with a cuttlefish and a grunter. Will probably go again this Saturday to get some fish for Chinese New Year.
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24 Jan 2005 - First trip in 2005
Finally made a trip since December. Weather hasn't been good the past weeks. Only cleared up the last few days. Past experience has taught me to stay at home in bad weather... I remember asking myself (while freezing in the pouring rain and howling wind) what the hell am I doing out here when I could be watching TV at home, or maybe catching a movie at some cinema.
Well, anyway, the weather looked ok so Uncle Sunny Ong and gang (total 6 anglers) came on board for another WATCH CONRAD CATCH THE FISH session. HAHAHAaaa... Don't know why, but the fishing was good... for me. Started with a decent garoupa, then a snapper, then a garoupa, then a Grunter, then a Snapper, then another Snapper... all nice table-sized fish today... all landed by the one with membership card that the fish recognize, hahaha....
I think if I keep this up, nobody will want to go fishing with me anymore. At the end of the day, I think they still had fun pulling up other species of fish like gelama and duri, and semilang.
Well Tiger Woods won the Buick by 3 strokes to open 2005, and I opened 2005 with 6 great fish! Let's see what the rest of the year has in store.
