Deepavali kayak gathering

A group of kayak anglers on a forum decided to hold a fishing gathering at Sembawang Park on Deepavali. I decided to join so that I can meet other kayak anglers as well as exploring new fishing grounds.

It was a great outing as everyone was pretty helpful in sharing knowledge and helping others who are new to the kayak fishing scene in Sg. The morning was sunny with calm waters to begin with. The group basically set off and ended up with 1 group fishing inshore and another group further offshore. I was fishing inshore most of the time. Seeing some baitfish activity about 20m from shore, I decided to follow the ripples and cast out a live prawn to near edges of the ripples. Held the rod and waited. "Tap...........tap tap............" , the next thing I know my rod was bending slightly and I slowly allowed the fish to take the bait further before firmly lifting my rod up. "Zzzzzzzzzzzzz........" FISH ON! The circle hook worked and I was on to my first fish. The fish didn't make any spectacular runs to open sea but instead made circles around my kayak. I think I must've made my rod go round the kayak 8-10 times! I didn't show itself until near the end when I finally saw what it was. Red Drum aka 'Taiwan Ngor'! It didn't have the distinct black spots on the tail, unusual. Anyway, I was stoked to have hooked my first fish so early in the morning. Slid a hook from the fish clip keeper onto the fish and continued fishing. Later I found Billy, who was the other only person using Airis, who kindly helped me with a picture.

After a few casts near the shore again, no more bites and moved on to a open channel. Drifted and had another rod on the rod holder. Then heard "Zzzzzzzzzzzzz....." again and turned around to grab the rod. Fought this fish and it felt a little different this time. Up it came and it was a slightly under a kg Orange-Spotted Grouper. So happy!

As the current and wind was picking up now, decided to head back near shore where I met up with Billy again. He was drifting near the shore when his rod bent over! I could see that he had hooked on something solid. He was trying his best to get the fish out of the snags a few times. Pumping hard! Finally when his fish came up, it was another Taiwan Ngor.

At around 12pm, the clouds were getting darker and I had to leave soon anyway. As Billy was still going to fish a while longer, he had to take back his fish and stuck them on his small fish clip attached to 30lb leader line. After the transfer, as I was kayaking back to launch site, I felt my kayak was going slightly faster. Turned around to check my fish clip keeper and to my horror, my Taiwan Ngor was missing! The bloody swivel at the clip broke off! $#@$#%^&**!*#! All the curses were uttered and resigned to the fact that I practiced Catch n Release involuntary. Luckily I had a picture to prove it! Anyway, Billy was nearby and I explained to him the situation which he suggested we put all the fish into my bucket at the back of my kayak. He said he's going back as well.

The picture of my broken swivel. So there is a Red Drum swimming out there with a very big piece of 'jewellery' in its mouth.

Although I lost the Red Drum, I still had the Grouper on the stringer in the bucket and that was the consolation prize for me.

Gear used:
Rod - Shimano Eclipse Telescopic 3-4kg
Reel - Shimano Saros 1000F
Line - generic 20lb braid
Bait - live prawn
Rig - Carolina style

Fish ID - Taiwan Ngor aka Red Drum (Sciaenops occelatus)
             - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)

'Hot' mini Grouper session

After the Rompin trip, I did get some insights from Merv on how to find fish on kayaks. He was explaining that fish can be found in shallow water as well because that's where the fish can find food. The sun can only penetrate to a certain depth and animal and plant life needs the Sun to grow. Algae growth brings micro organisms which feeds the smaller fish which feeds the bigger fish and so on. So on my next kayak fishing outing, I decided to try out some of the theories.

Launched at my usual spot and headed out to the fishing ground. This trip I planned to use only small plastics with weighted jigheads. I brought some Curly Tail Grub, mini prawns and Jerk Shads.

Instead of finding deep water and dropping the lure over, I tried casting towards shallow/rocky areas and then twitching the plastics back towards deep water. On my 3rd cast, I felt a light pull and I striked! Fish ON. It was a small Malabar Grouper so after taking pictures, it was released.

Thinking it was a fluke shot, I continued casting towards the shallow/rocky area. This time another pull and out came another small Malabar Grouper.

It looks like the theory is proven albeit only catching small fish. But I was having some mini rod-bending action on my Shimano Telescopic rod! And the Groupers were not shy in whacking the plastics that were tossed to them. I did not get any big fishes that day but managed about 5-6 mini Groupers which were good fun on UL tackle. This fella is a Orange-Spotted Grouper.

Gear used:
Rod - Shimano Eclipse Telescopic 3-4kg
Reel - Shimano Saros 1000F
Line - generic 20lb braid
Bait - plastic Jerk Shad, Curly Tail Grub, mini prawn
Rig - Carolina style

Fish ID - Malabar Grouper (Epinephelus malabaricus)
             - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)

Upgrading reel

Since I started kayak fishing, I've been using the same Tica reel. I was not fishing for about a month and it seems now my Tica reel is failing on me. The saltwater has done some damage to the internal parts that even the handle won't crank!

Time to upgrade. After much research (again on Shimano Australia website), I decided on a Shimano Saros 1000F reel. This reel was decently-priced and would fit my kayak fishing activities. So I purchased it online and picked it up.

I was surprised to find an extra spool inside the box. Since this was a new reel, I decided to change to braided line as well. As I wasn't too sure about which brand of braided line to use, I popped into a local tackle shop. It so happens that they have a cheaper, generic braided line and suggested I start out with that. So I let them spool the reel with the generic 20lb and 30lb braided line on each spool.

Is it overkill to load 20lb and 30lb braid on size 1000 reel? I don't know.......

But now I'm ready to rock and roll again!

Rompin #1 - Second day Rompin

We set off in the morning around the same time but this time on the way to the fishing grounds, the ride was extra bumpy! The wind was blowing and it was a dark and gloomy sky. Got wet from the sea spray as there was no where to hide from the wind!

Even when we reached the unjam, the boatman was having difficulty tying up boat to the unjam. In the end, we just motored to stay in position while we tried as fast as we could to catch enough live bait for today's fishing.

When we reached the Sailfish grounds, the seas were still very rough. Merv and Ian decided it was not safe to launch in these kind of swells so all of us fished from the boat. We all had our rods out with live baits at different distances and depths. Soon, Ian had a hookup and it was indeed a Sailfish. The Sailfish had him going round the boat in circles a few times but finally it was subdued. A couple of pictures later, the fish was released.

Video of Ian's hookup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T-epCTCGkCM


I also managed to hook up my first Sailfish. It was quite spectacular when they do their acrobatics in the air, trying to dislodge the hook.

Video of my with my Sailfish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6Bk7XzSwHFM

All in all, we managed to land 2 Sailfish and 2 Spanish Mackerel.

It was an enjoyable trip with new friends.


My gear:
Rod - 1pc rod borrowed from Merv
Reel - Shimano Stella 20000
Line- 80lb braid
Hook - 4/0 circle hook
Bait - live Selar

Rompin #1 - First day Rompin

I was messaging Merv just the other day on his weekend kayak fishing plans when he mentioned that he was going on a 3D2N trip to Rompin with Ian to catch Sailfish on kayak. I checked my own calendar and found out that I was free. So asked if I could tag along and he said, "No problem".

Woo hoo! First time going fishing offshore in Malaysia. As a newbie, I told them I don't mind just fishing from the boat while they go on their kayaks. I can be their deckhand too for loading and unloading their kayaks.

Merv picked me up from Tiong Bahru MRT and off we went to fetch Ian from MBS. After a 2hr plus drive, we arrived at Rompin and proceeded to check-in at our accommodation. Had dinner and some shopping for drinks/snacks for the next days trip.

Next morning, we launched from the wooden jetty with boatman Ah Ken. The seas were pretty rough. Luckily, I had taken my seasick pills. We started out at an unjam (Fish Aggregating Device, FAD) looking for baitfish. Used sabiki rigs to catch Selar or Kembung. Managed to fill the live well pretty quickly and off we went to the Sailfish grounds.

The seas calmed down somewhat and both Merv & Ian launched their kayaks. I was pretty happy just to fish from the boat. The boatman set up 2 rods at the back and sent out 2 live baits rigged under balloons to target the Sailfish.

While drifting, I continued to use my sabiki rig to catch baitfish around the area. Just before noon, the drag on one of the rods started to scream! Under the instruction of the boatman, I just held the rod until the line stopped peeling out and just lifted the rod. As soon as the fish felt the hook, it went on another screeching run! When it finally stopped, I went about pumping and reeling. The boatman called it for a Tenggiri (Spanish Mackerel) because there weren't any acrobatic jumps as expected from Sailfish. Soon enough, we got the fish boat-side and it was indeed a Spanish Mackerel. Quite a large one as well! He gaffed it up and its picture time! Woo hoo, my first Spanish Mackerel!

Later, when Ian paddled back to the boat to refill on baitfish and water, he told us he kept getting hooked up on GT. GT?? Giant Todaks!! (Needlefish) Before the live bait can be presented for Sailfish, the Needlefish would get them first.

                                            Ian, fishing from his Advanced Elements kayak.

Merv on the other hand, managed to land a Spanish Mackerel from the kayak and later in the afternoon, he managed to hookup and land a Sailfish. It was quite a spectacle to watch him going toe to toe with the Sailfish. In the end, he managed to bring the Sailfish boat-side to unhook and release after taking some photos.

The Sailfish was handed to the deckhand to revive and finally releasing the fish to fight another day!

We thoroughly enjoyed our first day of fishing. Hoping the next day would be better!

Gear used:
Rod - 1pc rod borrowed from Merv
Reel - Shimano Stella 20000
Line- 80lb braid
Hook - 4/0 circle hook
Bait - live Selar

Fish ID - Spanish Mackeral aka Tenggiri (Scomberomorus commerson)
             - Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus)

Escapee hunting

Decided to go hunt down the escapees today!

Bought $10 worth of live prawns from Gina and launched from Changi Boardwalk. Paddled across to Ubin and began to cast at places that I think might hold some fish. Paddled along the shoreline till I reached a river mouth. Looking around, I saw a large tree that had fallen over near the bank at the river mouth. "Let's try there", I said to myself. Casted a live prawn and landed right under the trunk. I let the prawn sink till the shallow bottom. Straight away I could feel the vibrations as if the prawn is darting around. Next thing, felt a sharp tug and the fish was ON! The fish darted into the snags but I managed to maneouver it out. As it came to the kayak, saw dark red sides and bingo, Mangrove Jack!

Woo hoo! So happy to land my first Mangrove Jack. Put him on my clip stringer and continued fishing. Tried the spot again but nothing turned up. Moved into the river and fished but nobody else seem to be home.

Called it a day and paddled back to the launch point with my dinner in tow!

Gear used:
Rod - Shimano Eclipse Telescopic 3-4kg
Reel - Tica
Line - generic 8lb monofilament
Bait - live prawn
Rig - Carolina style

Fish ID - Mangrove Jack (Lutjanus argentimaculatus)

Fish escapee news!

Read on the forum that there were some fish escapees from fish farms in and around Ubin a few days ago. Specifically, Mangrove Jacks! I've not caught one of these before.