2006 Jan to Mar Garoupas and Reds, with Toman

Jan to Mar 2006 Trip Reports and Pics

25 March 2006- The Revenge of Kings, starring Captain Con and Foul Weather Karen ... PLUS a Winner at the Freshwater Fishing COmpetition

 Kings wanted revenge for last week's fishing, where, for the most part, he was reduced to supporting cast. And revenge he got.

This week, me and Karen were the supporting cast as Kings was on a roll, catching good quality fish. I did open accounts with two SHARKS, but then at good feeling, Kings got the Ubin treasure... wild Barramundi.

Kings and Karen with the Barra (notice Karen's friend creeping up behind...) 


And then we moved to 3561394 where Kings landed an interesting Remora. 
These critters normally hang around huge fish... hmmm.

Of course there was the usual food fish, like Karen's Golden Snapper and some Red Snappers. 

Kings holds up a beautiful red Snapper. 

But, with Foul Weather Karen on board, we all knew what was to happen next!!! All of a sudden, a bright and sunny day became dark and menacing. We knew... Karen's faithful friend was here. 

Karen holds up another beautiful Red Snapper ... but look what's behind her!!! STORM BREWING! Now you know why we call her Foul Weather Karen?

So we headed back to the boatel early for two reasons, bad weather and I had a fishing competition in the evening at the club. Thanks, Kings and Karen for helping with the wash up of the boat! Next week again?

Fortunately, the weather had cleared a little by the time we reached the club at 5.30pm. The whole family came along and there was a Children's art competition before the fishing competition at the golf pond.

Sunny and Tim helped out with providing some bait as they were fishing at a nearby pond. (Thanks guys!) And after my daughter claimed 3rd prize for her crayon masterpiece, with fish that floated above the water, and coconut trees planted in water, we settled down to a BBQ and fishing.

And guess what, there were so few fish caught (and mostly by guys who used a string of 5 to 6 hooks, when the regulations allowed only one hook per rod, but I didn't bother to complain... as long as everyone had fun), that when my daughter caught a small 20g Tilapia, she won a prize too!!! 

The winner of the Special Prize!!! 4 year old girl with 20g Tilapia! 

So that was a good day of fishing after all!

18 March Boat Fishing - Couldn't miss my weekly boat trip, but it had to be a short trip this time cos had to send my daughter to music class in the morning. Started off around 11am, and I was really excited about this trip. Why? My wife have me a new Biomaster 5000 for my birthday and I had just spooled it with 14 lb fireline from Gina's place. With 600g of prawns from Changi Village, Kings and me headed out to 7243625 and immediately knew the tide was good. And guess which reel got the first fish??? Yes, the Biomaster 5000, which proved itself worthy as a big Star Snapper tried to enter the snags, I jammed the drag and yanked the fish into open water before loosening the drag to fight the fish properly. 

Applying steady pressure is the key to a successful fight... my Biomaster lands its first fish!!! 

How's this for a big Star? See the new reel? 

After that, the fish started biting on a very regular basis, about one bite every 10 to 15 minutes. Whether we landed the fish or not was another matter.

We did manage several more high quality fish, but the catch of the day turned out to be a Lao Hu Ban (Tiger Garoupa) of slightly under a kilo. This must have been from the batch of 200 000 released last year at loyang. What a yummy fish! 

Notice the pattern on this Tiger Garoupa ... beautiful fish! 

And then we moved to a deepwater spot for fun, and landed more good stuff. Kings even landed a hard fighting and jumping Queenie, while I landed a good-sized Garoupa. 

Garoupas like this one always make my day!!! 

We headed back to the boatel early again cos of a family dinner. And the next week we headed out again (on the 25th March... and Kings got lucky at Good Feeling again, will update that story later in the week.). Stay tuned for The Revenge of Kings, starring Captain Con and Foul Weather Karen. 

Not bad for a short trip, I guess 

17 March Freshwater expedition again!!! Friday afterwork fishing at Jurong. AN AMAZING CATCH!!!

Once again, had a lobang to fish in a lake in Jurong legally, so I packed my poppers and headed down to meet Des and Karen in Jurong where the guard was already waiting for me to check my credentials.

I was the first to arrive and tied a Hydrotiger that was so successful on the last trip here. And guess what happened on the first cast? BIG TOMAN strike!!!! and landed with some trouble cos I was alone and the other two had not arrived yet.

Well, happy problems, happy problems, fireline cut my finger a little, but the thrill and joy was worth it! Then the gang came and plenty more Tomans in all sizes appeared. 

Des landed this beautifully patterned Toman on a popper too 

Well, Karen (thanks for arranging the trip!) had plenty of fun cos she landed over a dozen Toman, but something totally unexpected happened. Because of some previous experience with SUPERMAGICBAIT, I hooked one predator up and almost immediately had a good pull but lost one giant. Then Des followed by hooking a predator as bait and had a shock of his life.

Within minutes, something took the SUPERMAGICBAIT and the fight was on. When the fish jumped, it wasn't a Toman, it was silver. So I said... you got piranha or Arapaima huh?
Des was seriously fighting the fish and the next jump confirmed... BIG BARRAMUNDI!!! in freshwater? we were shocked, but still happy. Landed the fish and took the pic. Below are some pics. 

Freshwater Barra in Singapore from Jurong

Des and I pose with some of the fish. 



Karen and me pose with Desmond's AMAZING freshwater catch. 

We gotta do this again!!! (caught some fish the next day, which was a Saturday, on the boat... good catch too! Stay tuned for the pics!!!)

4 March 2006 - Last trip with my brother Jason before he flies off to Sulawesi to live in a fishing village there and fish with the local fishermen there, hand lining for yellow fin tuna and giant Mahi Mahi.
Jason and Daniel came along, we had some Red Snappers at 5263123 and then had a good feeling, and Jason landed a NICE BARRAMUNDI... the perfect going away present. 

Jason holds up the PRIZE CATCH of Pulau Ubin, a wild Barramundi. Have you ever caught a wild Barra? Shiok right? 

Of course we caught some other stuff and threw back plenty of junk fish. Overall, it was a pleasant trip as usual, with co-operative fish... who's complaining? 

Back at the boatel. 

25 Feb 2006- Didn't fish today cos of my first monthly medal golf game. 
Will fish next Saturday though... some friends have contacted me early already, so a few spaces are left.

18 Feb 2006 Sat day trip with Frank, Kings and Jason... and then the feast later for dinner

Kings suggested a bbq at his place after the fishing trip but at the last minute, his group couldn't make it, but still, Frank, Jason and him came along for a GOOD TIDE DAY. I expected the fishing to be good, and the aim for the day was to get some good variety of fish for dinner... yes, we were still going ahead with the makan tonight and the makan gang had already been mobilised. Now, they were just waiting for our catch to come in.

So was it a good day of fishing? You bet!!! Everyone landed good fish. Here's a brief account of what happened. After buying $50 of live prawns from the aunty, we headed for the MARKETPLACE spot cos the tide was not bad for that spot. When we arrived, the familiar faces were already there, Ah Bee, Raju and the Rockin Angels boat (dunno the skipper's name, can someone email to tell me?). Almost immediately after dropping anchor, Kings opened accounts with a Red Emperor (Ang Kueh) and then I followed soon after. With two nice fish in the well, I settled down to have my bee hoon before moving to the next spot.

Meanwhile, the other three boats went off to their different favourite spots. Let me guess, Raju probably went to Johor Shoal, Ah Bee at the channel between Tekong and Ubin and Rockin Angels towards Tekong (we bumped into a few of them later during the day of course).

After breakfast, I had a GOOD FEELING there was gonna be good stuff, and we moved there. Kings was the first lucky chap at GOOD FEELING and struck into a beautiful strong saltwater barra around the 2 kilo mark. What a beautiful fish it was! And everyone was inspired by the silver and gold muscular fish. 

Here's what Ubin fishing is really all about! A nice big wild Barra! 

Of course my good feeling didn't let me down and on my next cast, I felt a firm pull and was into a healthy barra too! A strong fighter, it came up and was also put into the baitwell. Then Kings bucked the trend with a nice healthy Golden Snapper.

OK, enough of Good Feeling, I thought as the tide began to slow down, time for SK98243, so we moved there, and landed more good stuff like Red Emperors. (Of course, we wasted some bait on plenty of rubbish fish too!!!)Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Frank had a huge pull earlier and drag was going when his leader line parted. Now THAT was a huge fish ... the one that got away for this trip. And Jason had several good bites, only to lose most of them but land one Red.

And by 1pm, we had run out of $50 of prawns just like that, so we made a decision to top up the bait and went to the aunty's farm before heading to the MOUTH. It was the right decision, of course, and this time Kings had a huge pull and strong run, before slowly pumping in a good-sized Malabar Blood Snapper. (This is slightly different from the Ang Kueh) 

Malabar Blood Snapper and Red Emperor (same family)

OK, now after catching the Malabar, Kings then had something strong and fast on the line, and it turned out to be a healthy Diamond Trevally (Chermin), which has a rather fishy smell and taste, sometimes.

OK, then it was time to go to the SNAGPILE, which had been quiet for a while, and here's where Frank got lucky with a nice Golden Snapper. The fish was just lightly hooked on the fibre of the skin near the mouth, luckily the fish came into the net the way it did! 

Frank and Jason observe the moving rod tip which led to Frank's Golden Snapper

The Snagpile never let me down too and I added another beautiful Golden Snapper to the fish well. Seeing the fish swimming in the well is just a wonderful experience. So many colours today! Good size and variety too!

OK, so we moved around a little more but the bait ran out again and we headed back at 4pm to wash the boat and prepare for the FEAST that night! What an amazing meal we had, esp the giant live Tiger Prawns cooked drunk in Cordon Bleu! And the Big Barra was nicely steamed, and the Snappers deep fried like the restaurant style, and the squid, and the amazing array of desserts. We just gotta do this again! 

At the boatel early once again, with some nice fish

11 Feb Sat day trip - 9am till 1pm - couldn't fish the whole day cos of I had to bring the family to Sentosa for the rest of the afternoon. Sat the luge and ate at Coastes and Sakae... but now for the fishing.

Kings, Jason and me were up for a short trip so we zoomed to a sunken kelong and caught some fish. The wind was not as strong as the previous week's and we were hoping for some good catch before going back. We also wanted to explore some old spots which I hadn't been to in a while.
ANYWAY... I've decided to make this update a little educational.

First, let's see some action. (Cos action pics are nicer than dead fish pics anytime...) . Kings was obviously into a good fish this time and his tiny whippy rod was giving a good account of itself. In fact, the fish ran into a hole and was stuck for a while before Kings managed to persuade the Snapper out. 

Check out that tiny rod!!! Even without a fish it looked like there was a fish on the other end. But now there was a real puller on the other end!

After a pretty good fight, Kings landed a beautiful Star Snapper, apparently a pretty good-eating fish that people are only now beginning to appreciate. 

Star Snapper ... so named because of the white spot on its side which resembles a STAR

OK, so there was some action on the boat that morning, but Kings asked a good question when a Tanda was caught... What's the diff between a Tanda and an Onga? 

As you can see, the fish above is a Snapper, but it's actually a Russell's Snapper, identified because of its more uniform scale pattern. Russell's Snappers in Singapore rarely grow very large, normally around 200 grams to 500 grams, although I have landed some up to 1 kilo in Malaysian waters.

The One in the middle is the Golden Snapper = John's Snapper. This fish has a tiny black spot on each of its scales on the body. And also, around the Black imprint on its body is an easily distinguishable white halo (or ring). This Golden Snapper can grow really big, but the 1 kilo specimen is ideal for the dinner table. 

The (Golden) John's Snapper is normally called the Onga in Malay. The Russell's Snapper is called Tanda... and this is where the confusion arises, cos the Golden Snapper's full Malay Name is actually and Onga Tanda (Tanda means fingerprint... see the body of both fish?). So, to simplify matters, experienced anglers have taken to calling the Russell's Snapper a Tanda, while they call the John's Snapper an Onga... when actually the names can be interchanged.

In fact, fish names all over the world have different names in different places. So this is a common problem... I wouldn't really call it a problem but a phenomenom common with language and the process of naming. For example, The Sea Bass in the US is very different from the Sea Bass in Singapore while Australians would have no idea what a Sea Bass is ... but if you tell the Aussies about the Barramundi, they'd nod their heads readily. Tell an African Barramundi and they would look puzzled, but they would easily identify a Perch such as the Nile Perch to you. And If you say Perch to someone from England, he would show you a fish with green and dark green bands with some reddish fins... which would look nothing like our Kim Buk Lor, often called Seabass in NTUC. Confusing enough?

OK, enough of that, the main idea is that we can call a fish any name we want, as long as we stay consistent with those in our geographical location. Take the bottom fish in the photo above for example. To many people, it's a small Garoupa, but the more knowledgeable would tell you that it's a Hind, which is true. But since young, I've been told by the old Pawangs that it's a Ninja. So I simply call it NINJA.

Ok, I'll end with this Snapper shot. 

 

Quiz time: Which Snapper is this?

Russell's Snapper? Fingermark Bream? Golden Snapper? Onga Tanda? Onga? Tanda? Ang   Chor? Ang Chor Kee?

5 Feb 2006 - Sunday morning half day trip - THE REVENGE OF THE CON

- unhappy with my personal catch results on the last few trips, I had to go fishing again! So this time I called the perpetually lucky Jason and Guek, and we did a brief half day trip. (In time for me to get back to shore at 1pm, for my badminton match.)
Aha... the weather was much better today, and we hit 06783zone for our first spot, and it appeared as though we hit the JACKPOT!

I had carefully tied one rig for myself that morning and when I let it down with a live prawn, I really expected action. AND I GOT IT! Once my weight hit bottom, I felt some tapping on my bait and realized my prawn was in a panic, the next thing I knew, there was tremendous weight on the other end of the line as everybody turned and saw, no, heard the line being forced out of my reel even with a tight drag setting.

Till now I still remember the sound of that screaming drag. Three times... ZZZZagg, ZZZZZZagg, ZZZZZZZaggg. And the fight was on less than 2 minutes after anchoring. It was a really tough fish and I had trouble keeping it under control, but soon the fish tired itself out, and as Jason was about to go and get the landing net, he too had a good bite and his fight was on. DOUBLE HOOKUP in under 5 minutes!

So Guek was left manning the landing net. Jason's fish came first, it was a decent Snapper, but my fish was still fighting, and finally it surfaced. What a SWEET thing it was!!! A Sweetlip (Ikan Kaci) this size from this location was a rare catch indeed. And though the eating qualities may be third rate, I fully enjoyed the fight. 

Here am I, posing with a big, ugly looking but Strong-Fighting Sweetlip... my revenge on the fish is complete. Revenge is sweet... lip.

Well everyone caught fine stuff, with Jason and Guek having good fights and landing one nice big Garoupa each. And we decided to try some old spots. After anchoring, another boat with an old man came by and started trying to anchor next to us, but he was really struggling with the wind. Then another big white wooden boat came along , then It's greattt came along, then we decided enough was enough, so we headed home, happy with our pretty good catch. QUALITY FISH MAN!!!!! 

Guek turns on the pressure as the fish tries to head home. In the end, he lands a handsome Garoupa.

Now it's Jason's turn to fight his fish, and he lands a Garoupa too.

4 Feb 2006 - Sat trip to get more garoupas

- Anyway, to cut a long story short, my plans for this trip backfired cos of super strong winds and heavy rain around 2pm.

So we actually managed to fish only from 9.30am to about 1.30pm when I called it quits as I saw a storm approaching.

Moved to many spots, and even ventured to SK01 where Daniel managed to land two nice Malabar Blood Snappers and Jason struck into a nice Star Snapper

But when the winds picked up, we had to hide in Ketam channel for a while, catching nonsense fish like croakers and stargazers... and then we tried going to some other spots but simply couldn't anchor properly cos the wind was too strong. We called it an early day. 

Well, at least we caught these 

28 Jan 2006 - Sat half day trip on New Year's Eve 

- New Year's Eve and we need fresh fish (although the fridge still has what remains of the previous trip's catch), cos fresh fish is always nice for the dinner right? So what to do? Go fishing lah!
It wasn't difficult to round up some eager fishos who also wanted fish for today's dinner, and by around 9.30am, Frank, Jason, Simon, Daniel and Guek were with me on the TrevaBerkley, zooming straight to the spot.

We went to a SK01 first and were immediately rewarded when Jason struck into a good fish, which turned out to be a really fat Garoupa around 2 kg. Then Simon got in on the action and caught a good Garoupa for himself after a mighty good fight.

And everything seemed to be going Jason's way as another big fish took his bait and gave him a good fight. Another garoupa!!!

Here's Daniel holding on to two of Jason's lovely Garoupas ... tonight's dinner

After a while, the tide turned, so we moved to the shallows to target Barramundi. Even before I could let my line down, Jason was tapping the seabed with his weight when a MONSTER fish just SMASHED into his live prawn and took off like a speedboat! All he could do was hold on to his rod as everyone saw a huge U bend in the Surecatch rod he was using. Unfortunately, his drag setting was still for Garoupas and the fish was too fast and powerful, snapping his 35 pound leader before he could release the drag. What a fish!!!! My guess is that it was a Barramundi in excess of 5 kilos. Well, that's the big one that got away...

All went quiet, like it normally does after a big fish escapes, and so we moved to our final location where Frank landed a decent Grunter which he was delighted with. 

  Here's Frank with the Grunter that was going to join him for dinner

Me and Guek caught small lousy fish too, though I had a few losses. Daniel did not too bad with a nice Snapper but burst on a good fish too. Anyway, I think I have to start tying my own rigs instead of digging up old ones from my tackle box.... cos I dropped quite a number of fish due to blunt hooks. We had to go back early to prepare for the Reunion dinner, so I guess I have to get my revenge next week. 

Simon poses with his Garoupa 

10 Jan 2006 – Family trip: Raining the whole day! But managed to stock up on good fish for Chinese New Year. 

Went out with Uncle Frank, Jason, Karen, Marcus and KC on Hari Raya even though it was raining cats and dogs. According to Marcus’ Satellite imaging weather forecast, he said the weather would be ok to fish till about 2pm, when there would be some gusts of strong wind. Of course I trust his weather report! He’s an SIA pilot, he should know.

So despite the rain, drizzle, rain, drizzle, I got out of bed, drove to the boatel, and by 10.30 we were heading towards the aunty’s fishfarm for $50 of live prawns. (Uncle Frank said we better get more prawns, and how right he was!)

At first I thought the Snagpile would be happening, but all was quiet there except some light nibbles and strange bait disappearances, so I moved to Chanel No 5, where Jason landed 2 Golden Snappers in quick succession while the rest of us on the boat looked on. Then another small boat moved in and anchored behind us, and they landed a nice fish, probably a Kim Buk Lor, and then one of them hooked something big, fought the fish for a while, and SNAPPED his rod, losing the fish in the process. We all felt sorry for him too, and then all went quiet at the spot. Any experienced angler would know that sometimes, losing a fish amidst the biting period might mean spooking all the fish in the area. And it happened this time. All the bites just stopped for our boat as well as the other boat.
So we moved on to Tekong despite the overcast weather, but I sensed a short break in the weather so I decided to brave the open water despite the rain. And we were all greatly rewarded!

Surprisingly, during the heavy downpour, some FAT GAROUPAS turned up, and they sent drags screaming and us scrambling for our rods and the landing net. Nobody seemed to care about the rain once the action began! Jason struck first with a FAT GAroupa which bent his rod into a good U, but of course, since Jason was using one of my Surecatch rods, the rod took all the pressure the fish was giving him, and the Biomaster reel performed well. Though the fish fought all the way up, the gear stood the test in the rain and soon a huge brown fish surfaced! GAROUPA!! 

This fish fought all the way up! Jason holds up his fat Garoupa while Karen looks on... yummy yummy!

When we slipped the Garoupa into the net, all of us were excited at the prospect of landing more great fish like that! And we did! I landed one more fat Garoupa, then Karen got in on the action, landing a big Star Snapper which Uncle Frank was very happy with! (It seems the Star Snapper, also known as Hoi Toi Gai in Cantonese, is indeed a delicacy in Cantonese circles, with a 7 star rating, no wonder the fish farmers took the trouble to import the fish from Hong Kong! And the escapees are thriving in our waters now!) 

Karen proudly handles her Star Snapper caught on an old ABU rod and Mitchell reel that's more than 30 years old!

I can’t really recall the order now, but we landed two more good-sized Garoupas, two beautiful Malabar Blood Snappers, and some other stuff. Then at 2pm the gust of wind came as predicted and we had to run back to cover, and in a sheltered cove, Uncle Frank pulled in a Threadfin Salmon (Kurau) while Jason closed accounts with a good Grunter. KC topped it off with a long Pike Conger (Malong) which we cut off at boatside cos it was too troublesome to handle (since we had enough good fish). 

  Check out these beauties swimming around in my fish well!!! Nice Stuff! Quality fish!

Then, after about 5 hours of fishing in the wet weather, we headed to shore early, cos I had to prepare for my younger kid’s 2nd birthday party. At least now our fridges are stocked with good sized fish for Chinese New Year! A great trip despite the weather! 

  Nice catch for 5 hours of fishing? This is what I call quality! The secret to happiness is contentment.

Here's the happy group back at the boatel.