Sport Fishing Explorer Trip #3 - Monsters but not me!

3rd SCS trip on Ah Jiang boat. Packed all my gear plus some Gulp plastics to try out.

Met some usual kaki on board and managed to get a spot at the back of the boat. By the time we got to our first spot, it was already night time. The deckies said that they managed to catch a lot of squid on the last trip and we would be using frozen squid initially. Dropped my line down, using size 10 sinker. Couple of guys fishing from the corners managed to hook up a grouper and a snapper pretty quickly. Hmmm.... as usual, looks like I'm not going to get a good catch again. It was only after midnight that I managed my first fish, a table-sized Crimson Snapper, aka Ang Kuey. Phew, finally broke the duck. Then a few minutes later, the angler beside me was hooked onto something. He said its big. So in order not to get the lines entangled, I reeled in my line and waited for him to land his catch. And it was big! A large Kaci, aka Painted Sweetlips.

The boat tried to catch some fresh, live squid but there wasn't any at our location. The boat shifted a few times during the night but I didn't managed to hook up anything. Time for some shut eye.....

Hoping to fish the golden hours of sunrise, I woke up at 6am and dropped my line in. Was a bit disappointed when there was no action, for me at least. Other anglers were pulling in a few fish in between. Damn, why always me not catching fish....

The boat shifted spot so I managed to catch some shut eye in between. At the next spot, I decided to try out my slow-fall jigs. After 10-15 casts and retrieves, my arms ached and I could see that the other anglers were hooking up. Not wanting to be left out, I ditched my jigs and went for bottom-fishing gear. Rigged up a sliced squid and a Squid Vicious Gulp plastic on the top hook of my Apollo rig. Sent it down and just as the sinker hit the bottom, I felt a instant bite! Fish ON! Reeled it up and the fish was putting up a decent fight. After a few more cranks, I managed to land the fish. Turned out to be large Crimson Snapper which inhaled my Squid Vicious plastic lure. Woo hoo! As it was a feeding frenzy, I just unhooked and sent down the rig again. Couple of minutes later, I hooked up again! Up came another Crimson Snapper on squid bait. Next drop took a while longer but the fish on the end of the line was a bit smaller. Up came a Spanish Flag Snapper. I still managed to land small Painted Sweetlips before the action quieten down 30mins later.

As soon as the boat anchored up at the next spot, I dropped my line. Straight away, I was hooked up again. Crimson Snapper! Other anglers on the right side of the boat all hooked up as well. Sent down the bait and hooked up another Crimson Snapper. As the wind was pushing the the boat, I think we got pushed away from the sweet spot as the action totally went dead after that!

Come night time again, the boat proceeded towards Hosburgh Lighthouse to catch squid. This time, each time the squid net came up, there was about 2kg worth of squid in it. So much so that all the bait tanks were full of squid and some died due to oxygen deprivation. While the boat was catching squid, I decided to do some bottom fishing at the front of the boat using the fresh squid. Caught a Spanish Flag Snapper after a few missed hookups.

At the last spot, the current was super strong. Was using a size 20 sinker and it just barely made the bottom. Somehow, this must have been Stingray Alley as there were 4 subsequent hookups. The first stingray showed itself after a 15min fight by an angler at the corner. Upon surfacing and seeing the boat, it made a dash out to sea again. Meanwhile, the angler next to me hooked up and the line on the reel was just peeling out. After about 10mins, the line snapped... The first angler hooked up now was 30mins in and no progress being made to bring the stingray in. Then the inevitable happened. Line snapped....it turns out that it gave way at the hook. The 3rd hookup was on a smaller stingray but same scenario, the ray saw the boat, powered away and never seen again.

The angler on my right, Shawn is a real fisho. Can see his gear is top-notch and he has the experience to back it up. The next stingray was on his line and as soon as the ray was hooked, he started pumping! I think you have to bully stingrays to bring them on deck! I reeled in my line and watched the show. He pumped but the stingray was giving him a good fight. After about 10mins of battle, he handed the rod to another angler, Alvin to perform the coup de grace on the stingray. Mind you, the stingray still had some oomph in it! Finally subdued after 15mins or so, the stingray was landed. A Leopard Stingray and we guessed it must've weighed at least 30kg! High fives all around!

When it came to fish cleaning time, I must say I was a bit disappointed with my catch rate. Most of the anglers recorded more than 10 pcs of fish each. I only managed to equal my catch from my last trip in March, 7pcs.

4 Crimson Snappers
2 Spanish Flag Snappers
1 Painted Sweetlips

Shawn was kind enough to share his stingray fillets and I brought home quite a bit of squid. All in all, a relaxing trip but not fruitful. Need to tap the guys knowledge on tips to catch more fish!

Gear used:
Rod - Expert Graphite JigForce PE3-6
Reel - Accurate DPX500N
Line - Sufix 832 50lb
Bait - live prawn / live squid / Berkely Gulp Squid Vicious yellow/black 
Rig - Apollo style (day), Ranggong style (night)

Fish ID - Tee Boon aka Spanish Flag (Lutjanus carponotatus)
             - Kaci aka Painted Sweetlips (Diagramma pictum)
             - Ang Kuey aka Crimson Snapper ( Lutjanus erythropterus)