Met up with 6 other anglers at RSYC West Coast. Brought my Shimano T-Curve Revolution Overhead Travel Rod to try out with the Talica II reel. Reached the pier but we had to wait another 30mins for the live prawn to be delivered.
Finally it arrived and off we went. First spot we were drifting somewhere between the Southern Islands. I started out using my ranggong rig with the live prawn. Made sure my sinker wasn't at the bottom as we were drifting. After 15mins or so, boatman said no need to use ranggong as the current wasn't that strong. So I decided to change to madai.
First time trying out madai so I tied my NZ-purchased Shimano Lucanus 100g madai and dropped it over. Touched the bottom and gave a 2 cranks on the reel. Then I slowly jigged it, just like what the video instruction says. Then the boatman said madai must jig faster, to imitate the action of squid/octopus. Ok.... I tried his method. Still nothing. Another angler was lucky to bring up a Coral Trout.
At the next spot, I tossed the madai over and let it sink to the bottom. Ok, decided to try timing. 4 jigs up, then lower the rod tip. 2 jigs up, then down. On the 3rd jig up, I hooked up solid! I could feel that the fish was taking a bit of drag, trying to get back to its hidey hole so I lifted the rod up. I continued to lift and reel, lift and reel and finally the monster fish surfaced. It was a big Orange-Spotted Grouper! Boatman lip-gripped it and hauled it onboard. Woo hoo! A solid 4kg specimen! My biggest fish to date!
Took a few pictures and went back fishing. After another 10mins, as I was letting the madai drop down, I felt some tension on the line. So I lifted the rod up and started reeling a bit. It felt like there was a fish on but I just couldn't tell. After a few lift and reels, I felt the weight gone. Reeled back the madai and had a look. Darn it, there was a fish on. One of the madai hooks actually opened up! And the boatman said I should NOT lift and reel. This is because when you lower the rod down to reel, the madai would drop down a bit and therefore giving some slack line to the fish. Which in my case caused it to 'unhook' itself. So I should just hold the rod and reel. No lifting or pumping the rod required.
One angler managed to hook up a Grouper that weighed in at around 8kg. It took him about 10mins to bring the fish up. That was the biggest fish of the trip! I would say this was a good trip even though I only caught 1 fish only as most other fishes landed were XL size fish.
Thumbs UP for Sure Heng!
Gear used:
Rod - Shimano TCurve Revolution Overhead Travel PE2.2-3.3 (10-15kg)
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Fireline Tracer 40lb
Bait - Shimano Lucanus 100g Orange
Rig - Leader to jig.
Fish ID - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
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