Simple Ubin trip with Ray and Berk

Before flying off to Oz, Ray and I decided to go on a simple lunch-hunting fishing trip around Ubin. We just needed to land a decent fish for lunch at the floating restaurant. We wanted to eat wild-caught live fish (something that you can't always get with money, especially if the fish are not cooperating).

Lau Di Fang Garoupas of this size can put up quite a good fight.

What a challenge! With a late morning start, we headed to Good Feeling, but lost a couple of good bites, then everything went silent. Fortunately just before shifting to another spot, a decent Barramundi showed up, and lunch was settled. Hah!

Lunch at the floating restaurant. Nothing tastes better than the fish we catch ourselves. Yumm.

After a yummy lunch (I have to recommend the long beans with salted egg yolk), we decided to go to Lau Di Fang nearby for some big Garoupas. Sure enough, a big Garoupa came along and I managed to fight him up to the boat after a good struggle.

Today's Barramundi were not big, but they were still fun to catch.

Finally, we decided to end things at Good Feeling again where a few more Barra turned up to entertain us before we headed back. Not a bad day. Targets met. Happy.

Ubin and Southern Islands are firing up! Kids go fishing again!

Here's a quick update on the trips I made on 10th and 13th May 2014.

Trev managed to land the largest Barramundi of the trip, a real jumper weighing in at 4kg.

On 13th May, I brought Des, Janice and 6 kids onto the Ubin boat for a really fun trip. With so many kids around, I thought it was going to be a tough day for fishing because, knowing kids, they are often impatient and keep reeling in to check their bait. And of course, if they hooked a big one, how in the world would they be able to land it? But ah, was I wrong!

The moment we hit the first spot, I was just demonstrating how to bait up, cast the line and reel in the line when I landed two barramundi in quick succession. The kids were amazed at how easy it seemed. And it was really easy.

Soon, everyone had a line soaked and the fish were in a very eager biting mood. I think Janice landed a Barra next, then Luke found the secret technique and caught a small Barra, and then a bigger 3kg barra, which really gave him a good fight.

Fisherman in the making, Luke, posing with his catch.

Later, Treva had a huge pull on the long thin rod and we saw the line racing for the surface and I told them to watch for the jump.

'Wow!' Everyone was shouting as a big Barramundi leapt clear out of the water. Then it took drag at alarming speed, and Treva thought she couldn't handle the fish anymore. Yet, she held on, and after more jumps and drag pulling, the big fish was eased into the net for a nice pic.

Later Luke was telling me how much he hoped he could get a Garoupa so I considered going to Lau Di Fang, but before we could raise the anchor, he had a good tug and up came the Garoupa he had ordered. After that, I received several more orders, haha.

We moved around to the deep undersea cliff, where a Golden Snapper was landed, and then it was off to the floating restaurant for some ice cream. Unfortunately, they no longer sold ice cream and the kids were happy with their soft drinks and coconut juice.

Back at the boatel with our catch. Isabel and Janelle seem to be looking the wrong way, gee.

We tried a few spots near the marina as the sky was turning dark, and managed another nice Golden Snapper before heading back to the boatel to wash the boat, and yes of course they had fun spraying water at each other. We're looking forward to the day Luke or Treva brings us fishing, right Des? Looks like our days of anchor pulling are numbered. How're your lats?

Guess you can tell from this million dollar smile just how much Bryan loves parrots.

Yeah, and on the 10th, which was a Saturday, Bryan, the King, and I (heh heh), headed to the Southern Islands for some food fish. Easily, we landed nice Garoupas, Parrots and Snappers - the usual stuff. Gotta go try for something different soon. That's all for my quick update, stay tuned for my cooking update, heh heh.

Garoupas, Parrots and Snappers... the usual stuff. 

Madai trip with the Hokkien Pro and his Bro

Saturday was here again, and this time, Hokkien Pro (who suddenly found himself with no golf game on a Saturday) decided to have a fun time fishing with me at the Southern Islands.

The best way to spend a Saturday is with a bent rod and a big fish at the other end. Here is the Hokkien Pro fighting yet another decent fish while his son waits with the landing net.

Having not submitted his golf scorecard for a number of games, the club called to inform him that he could no longer play golf on Saturdays, and so he decided that fishing was the next best thing. So while the golf clubs were given a break from the Pro, the Garoupas, Snappers and Sweetlips of the Southern Islands had a tough time, especially with the Pro around.

Here is yet another victim of my old worn out $6 Asari Madai... almost out of tentacles. 

Of course, we finished up our 1.5 kg of prawns catching a whole lot of Spanish Flag Snappers and Garoupas, and the whole ice box was full of good fish, enough to last me till the next Saturday, at least.

Back at the Marina, to pose with a few fish, including an imaginary one.

Dinner back at the Yacht Club was a wonderfully steamed large Garoupa and the Yaps came along to join us. Now I have to wait for the next Saturday.

Bert and the Bees

Albertus brought his colleagues and friends along for what was supposed to be a simple day out hunting for a nice catch for dinner, but some bees decided to re-write the script. Here's what happened.

After getting food and drinks from the Punggol Sheng Siong, we trooped down to the marina. There were two Andres, Merwyn, Bert, Rachel and me. Seeing that the boat was already in the water, we proceeded to load up the stuff, and that was when I noticed one or two bees buzzing around me and I saw one landing on the seat and crawling underneath it. I found it very strange, so I lifted the seat cushion up and got the shock of my life! There was a bees' hive on my boat, just under my seat, and there must have been thousands of bees!

BZZZZZZZZ!!!!

The aftermath of the fogging and spraying down with water - a pile of bees.

Sounding the alert, I told everyone to quickly head back to the shelter while I tried to solve the problem. It took some time before the proper equipment came along, but with the help of Ong and a fogging machine, the boat was brought back onto land, fogged and sprayed down with water. It actually took about three hours before the boat was cleared of bees.

The patient anglers waiting on shore were still glad to be able to go fishing, though it was already lunch time. While clearing the honeycomb from under my seat, I got stung by two remaining guards, but fortunately, they were just honeybees. With only half a day left, I was just hoping to get a decent fish to cook for dinner at Great Atlantis.

Fortunately, the fish were in a cooperative mood and Rachel was the first to land a nice Golden Snapper. Even before we managed to settle down after taking some pictures, Andre landed a Barramundi. Dinner was settled.

A Tiger Garoupa like this always makes a nice dinner dish. Yum!

In fact, the fish kept on coming and we landed another bigger Golden Snapper, a few more Barramundi and I landed a nice fat Tiger Garoupa. I think we had more than enough for dinner, yeah!

Two of the Golden Snappers went for Teochew Steamed while a Barramundi was Hong Kong Steamed. Good food and new friends always go well together!

Though we only had a half day to fish after the misadventure with the bees, we had a nice catch and I had made some new friends. The dinner at Great Atlantis, as expected, was wonderful!

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!!!