Off we went to the Southern fishing grounds. After 15mins, boatman slowed to drift and said can try using sabiki as there was some baitfish activity in the water. While we were doing this, I could see the RSAF planes flying overhead us rather low. Hmmm.... I wonder if it's a sign to tell us we are not supposed to be there? Anway, after 10mins or so, we only had like 2-3 fish hooked up on the sabiki. So we changed spot.
I was reviewing the tide times using http://www.tides4fishing.com/as/singapore/singapur and on that day, it did say that the best fishing time was between 1000-1200. I have always wondered about the accuracy of those predictions. At our next spot, which coincided with the best fishing time, strangely the fish were biting. Not aggressively but we were getting hookups. A few anglers managed to bring up a mixed bag of fish but me.... still a zero fighter.
Nearing lunch time, the bites quieten down and we moved off again. All the way till around 1500, no fish were caught. Then as I was reeling in my line to check on the bait, I felt that something heavy on the end of the line. Don't feel like a fish so I just continued to reel in. Then as the hook approached the surface, I saw a cuttlefish attached to it. Slowly I reeled it in and grabbed a net and scooped up the cuttlefish! Quite big and I let it squirt out all its ink before bringing it on board. Yay! Something to bring back!
So boatman said he will bring us go catch Cencaru because bottom fishing will not be good any more. If we insist on bottom fishing, we might go back rather 'empty'. At this point, I'm still without a fish, so I was happy to get anything on the end of the line!
At the spot, we drifted a couple of times and managed to sabiki up some Cencaru. I was actually surprised at the size of the Cencaru in Singapore waters. I didn't expect them to get so big! In between the Cencarus, we also managed to hook up some Sagai or Long-finned Trevally.
With that, we called it a day and headed back to the pier. Catch was shared equally among the anglers, which I thought was very generous. I brought home my cuttlefish too. Even though we fished together for the first time, I thought this bunch of anglers were rather great!
Gear used:
Rod - Eupro Salty Fighter PE0.8-2.0
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Fireline Tracer 40lb
Bait - live prawn
Rig - Apollo style
