Southern Island fishing with Uncle Lim #1 - Eng Ko galore!

Arranged a trip to Southern Islands with 3 kakis, Shawn, Alvin and Brandon on a friend's boat. Bought 2kg of live prawn and off we went. Reached the 1st spot around 9am. We started using our madais. We got sangkut many times and one time, I pulled so hard on my rod that the butt joint piece came off with a loud crack! I thought my rod had broke and watched as the centre piece drifted down into the sea......... Somehow, after some effort, the boatman managed to dislodge the madai and slowly brought the rest of the rod up. Luckily my centre piece was still attached and after a quick check, it wasn't broken. Phew!! We drifted around the area for 2hrs but nothing was interested in our madais. Strange.... as this spot is usually rather productive.

Moved on to the next spot and we changed to Apollo rigs now. I tied on a Apollo rig courtesy of Shawn and it had two size 1/0 hooks. I hooked 1 hook on the head and the other on the tail. This made the live prawn 'spread out' more enticingly. This spot was touted as the spot for Spanish Flags. And true enough, we were finally bringing in a few fish. Alvin rigged up a sabiki and brought up a few Spanish Flags straight away. They weren't too big but still something for the ice box. Soon we were getting bites from other types of fish. I caught my first fish,  a Arumugam, which was promptly returned to the sea. Next bite was a little harder and up came a nice Kaci aka Painted Sweetlips. Shawn scored a couple of small Eng Ko aka Blackspot Tuskfish and a few more Spanish Flags were brought up. Then Shawn hooked up a darkish fish and was told that it was a Black Kaci aka Brown Sweetlips. It did give quite a little fight on the light tackle.

         

We had our lunch and then moved to the next spot. The next spot was productive straight away! I dropped my live prawn over and as soon as it hit bottom, I could feel the live prawn 'flicking' away. Shortly, there was a few taps. I let it go on for a few more taps before setting the hook. Fish ON! Nice little fight and brought up another table-sized Eng Ko. Re-baited and sent the live prawn back down. 15mins later, felt another few taps and striked. Fish ON! Up came another Kaci. The other guys were also catching some other variety of tuskfish. Re-baited and dropped it over. 10mins passed and was hooked up again. This time it felt heavier so I was hoping for a bigger fish. It turned out that I had hooked up 2 fish! On each hook was a Leng Chiam aka Red Spot Emperor. They were just palm-sized fish but I wanted to see how they taste like. I hooked on a bigger live prawn and sent it down quickly. Less than 10mins, I felt a few strong taps. I counted to 5 and striked. Fish ON. This time my rod was bent quite a bit but I managed to pump the fella up. Felt heavy and when it surfaced, it was a large Eng Ko! It weighed in at 1.1kg, not very big by Southern Island standards but still the biggest fish of the day so far! Shawn's Apollo rig was really working wonders!

  

Eng Ko

Kaci

Leng Chiam

Bigger Eng Ko

Boatman said that we should now go and target the Trevallys, specifically the Sagais. The seas were getting a bit rough now as there was a huge thunderstorm over central Singapore. A rogue wave hit the bow of the boat and sent buckets of seawater onto me, drenching me in the process! First thing I checked was my iPhone. Luckily it was tucked away nicely in my waistpouch and didn't get wet. Maybe next time, I'll put it in a waterproof casing just to be sure. As I was wearing Columbia's Performance Fishing Gear top and bottoms, I was dry in less than 15mins. Awesome!

We changed to sabiki for the Sagai and after 30mins or so, I felt the familiar tap-tapping on the line indicating that something has taken the hooks. Started reeling up and then saw my line rising up to the surface rather quickly! Out jumped a small Queenfish and it began to do some acrobatics, trying to throw the hook. Quickly brought it in and into the ice box! We jigged the sabiki for the next hour or so but nothing was biting. I changed my rig to a weighted jighead and slipped on a Berkley Gulp Nemesis soft plastic. Tried to jig and suddenly I felt like I was dragging dead weight. Reeled it in and it turns out I foul-hooked a Fan-Bellied Leatherjacket. Released the fella unharmed. As the rain storm was approaching, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the jetty.

Fan-Bellied Leatherjacket

The action wasn't fantastic today but we had a lot of fun on the boat.

Gear used:
Rod - Eupro Giant King Jigging rod PE0.8-2.0
Reel - Shimano Stradic Ci4 3000FA
Line - Sufix 832 30lb
Bait - live prawn, Berkely Gulp Nemesis 6inch
Rig - Apollo rig, weighted jighead

Fish ID - Eng Ko aka Blackspot Tuskfish (Choerodon schoenleinii)
             - Tee Boon aka Spanish Flag (Lutjanus carponotatus)
             - Black Kaci aka Brown Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus gibbosus)
             - Kaci aka Painted Sweetlips (Diagramma pictum)
             - Leng Chiam aka Red Spot Emperor (Lethrinus lentjan)
             - Queenfish (Scomberoides commerson)