Cheap spooling mechanism

I've been looking for ways to easily de-spool and re-spool my fishing lines. I must admit I don't de-spool my lines for cleaning since Day 1! After each fishing session, I just run warm water over the reels and give them a good wipe down. That's it!

I also have a few reels where the braid line had snapped off while fishing and I don't know how much line I have left on the reel. So I decided a good way is to find a spooling mechanism and also a line counter.

Searching ebay, I found what I was looking for. As usual, these items were made in China and were cheap. So I didn't mind getting them, even if they turned out to be duds.

Spooling mechanism

Line counter

So I went about de-spooling my reels with the help of a hand drill. Re-spooled some reels with new line as a few had only like 50m of braid line left!

Brand new lines, ready to go!

I also re-spooled my overhead reels that I use mainly for deep sea fishing. Since I put the braid line on, I've been using only about the first 100m of the line. So I decided to "reverse" the line and use the 'bottom' half of the line. With the drill and spooling mechanism, it makes this process so much easier!

I'm so glad I got the spooling mechanism. But I think I'll be making a DIY version as this version is rather small. 

Check back when I've completed my DIY version!

Visiting a tackle shop in Yokohama

Was in Yokohama so I decided to check out a tackle shop there. It was a bit hard to find because everything there is in Japanese. So with the help of Google Map, I tried to make my way to Joshuya Tackle shop in Yokohama. Managed to finally find the shop, which is located at the basement of a building.

The only inkling I had was the 'Fishing' sign at the side of the building. Made my way to the basement and found it. This place is packed to the brim with all sorts of stuff! Now I get to see first hand how passionate the Japanese are with their fishing! As no photography was allowed inside, I respected the shop's wishes and only took a picture of the outside.

There all sorts of tackle and in my opinion, they were not cheap. Some gear, I don't even know what they are used for! Some familiar items like Ocea Jigger HG were also available. After conversion, it's about S$450. Cheaper? I don't know.......

But the egi section was the one that blew me away! There were so many equipment, gear, tackle just to tackle the humble squid! Although they have the standard prawn-shaped lure for squid, they also carry a smaller tube-like lures, which comes in a myriad of colours. These tube-like lures were supposed to be fished sabiki-style for squids. And a sabiki-style string of these lures were selling at about S$14!! Was very tempted to buy it, but I got no trips to Rompin for squids.

Browsed around for an hour and bought a few things that I've not seen in Singapore. Here's the 'loot'!

A few micro jigs and circle hook sabikis. I've not seen circle hooks sabikis in Singapore, have you? 

Hope to try out a few of these on my next fishing trip.

Crazii Express Joe Trip #1

I joined this trip at the last minute. Made contact with the organizer and told to expect bottom fishing with madai and prawns...... ma-prawn. I think Singapore fish are quite smart, need an 'incentive' for them to go after the madai jigs.

This was my first time on the boat charter and I was gladly surprised at how spacious the boat was. There were 7 of us fishing today and we had ample space to fish. Boatman Joe told us that we will be fishing off Sister's and St John's islands today. The day was bright and sunny but the wind was really blowing!

Low tide of 0.9m was around 1015 while high tide of 2.1m was at 1630.

The first 2 spots were super quiet with nobody getting any bites. Then we proceeded to the next spot. One of the anglers was using the slow fall jigs and was hit hard. Soon the fish showed itself by jumping out of the water. It turned out to be a large Queenfish. A few minutes later, he had the fish at the surface and was netted. It was indeed a large specimen! Around 5kg mark, we estimated.

Then I got my first bite. I was using my Shimano Lucanus orange/white 100g jig without any prawn when I felt some slight bumps. I lifted the jig slowly and let it drop again. Then the fish pulled hard on the jig as the jig was falling. Fish ON! I quickly lifted the rod and started reeling in, without pumping the rod. From past experience, pumping the rod may cause the fish to escape. I just kept the reeling constant until the fish surfaced. It was a nice Orange-Spotted Grouper weighing 1.3kg.

Another angler also caught a Grouper just before me, also about the same size. A picture of the 'twins'!

Things quieten down just around lunch time as the current became slack. The angler who was using the slow fall jig struck again, this time bringing up a decent sized Giant Trevally. Put up a good fight and was released.

After lunch, on one of the drifts, I decided to put on a prawn on my Lucanus jig as things were rather slow going. Then I had a small take. Feeling it wasn't a large fish, I just reeled in as per normal. Finally the fished surfaced and it was another Orange-Spotted Grouper. Brought it into the boat and saw how the hooks had penetrated the fish. The hook had managed to hook onto the lip but tore the lip out partially. So the hook was just dangling on torn lip with a big hole. If I had pumped and wind the rod, for sure I would have lost this fish. By doing a constant reel, I managed to maintain constant pulling pressure all the way to the boat. Phew! This reinforces the correct technique for madai fishing!

One of the anglers had an unusual catch. This octopus decided to try the ma-prawn and he managed to bring it onboard. Crawling all around the deck before he released it.!

Later in the day, I caught a few more undersized fish, a small Grouper and Arumugum which were duly released.

We called it a day and was quite happy with the catch. All Groupers were in the 1 - 1.5kg range with the standout Queenfish.

Gear used:
Rod - Eupro Salty Fighter PE0.8-2.0
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Fireline Tracer 40lb
Jig - Shimano Lucanus Orange/White 100g jig

Fish ID - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)

Sinker weights

Sinkers are an integral part of fishing. It's required to put your bait at where the fish are moving/hiding. If the bait is not at where the fish are, chances are you're not going to catch any fish.

Sinkers are usually measured in ounces(oz). There's a marking on each sinker to identify the size. There is some variation to the weights, depending on manufacturer but in general they are about +/- 15g from the marked weight.

In Singapore, different fishing grounds will require different sinker sizes. On top of that, the current of the day will also play a significant part in choosing what sinker size to use. The optimum sinker size would be one that is just heavy enough to hold the bottom. Too heavy and it'll be a pain to reel up, too light and it will just drift off the bottom. So how do you choose?

Location
Changi/Tekong - the currents here aren't usually very strong. The heaviest I've used so far is up to size 14 but in general I would bring a range of size from size 4 to size 12.

Southern Islands - waters here are much deeper and currents stronger. Depending on current, I would bring between size 8 to size 20.

South China Sea/Horsburgh - a wide range of underwater terrain with varying currents. For this area, I would bring between size 6 to size 20. There have been occasions where a size 20 sinker still wasn't enough to hold the bottom. A size 20 sinker is actually 560g, almost half a kilo! Imagine cranking up that weight each time!

Current
On your particular fishing day, check the height of the high tides and low tides. If the difference is a lot, ie low 0.3m/high 2.9m, expect the current to be stronger and therefore, require heavier sinkers.
If the difference is less, ie low 1.5m/high 2.3m, then the current isn't that strong and you can use smaller sinkers.

After fishing a few sessions, you may find that the markings on the sinker tend to get faded and soon, you may not make out the markings anymore. I normally would use 'Liquid paper' correction fluid to outline the size marking prior to use. And when that fails, I would just use a normal screwdriver and hammer to make new markings.

Losing sinkers is part and parcel of fishing. The technique to reduce the loss is outlined in my previous post in 'tips and techniques'.

Thanks for reading.