Changi Ah Long - Trip #1

An opportunity came up to join some kakis on Changi Ah Long's boat. The boat is quite spacious and comfortably can take 8 anglers.

After getting our live prawn bait, Ah Long told us that we will be fishing in the waters in front of Changi Naval Base. So we took the 45min journey to the spot. 

First few spots only yielded a small trevally. Ah Long was quite quick in changing spots when there was no bite. He also motored the boat to keep it on the spot, instead of drifting over the spots like other boatman do. Soon the other anglers were getting some hookups. Ang Chor was the first few fish to come up, pretty good sized ones as well. I was using my faithful Shimano Lucanus jig, this time in Pink/White. Soon, I was hooked up as well and up came a small Kaci. Hooks nicely pinned in the mouth. Couple of pics and into the chilly bin it went. 

Then one angler hit the motherload when he hooked up big time! This fish was taking some line and staying deep. The fish somehow managed to tangled up with my line and I had to reel/release in accordance to what the angler did. Shortly thereafter, the fish managed to come up to the surface and it was a pretty big Cobia! Before it could be gaffed, it darted back down to the depths. Somehow, my line became untangled and I quickly reeled in my line. After another 10mins of fighting the fish, the anglers' main line broke! What a waste! Consolation was that we saw what fish it was.

Another angler battled it out with a 2.5kg Orange-Spotted Grouper and won. One thing about Groupers is that once you get them out from the bottom half of the water, you're pretty safe. Their swim bladder expands and they'll just float up without much fight. Ang Chor on the other hand, do fight all the way to the top, depending on their size. The fish were biting off and on as we moved a few spots around the area. 

As the current increased, I had to change tactic and switched to Apollo rigs. Dropped the live prawn over and waited. 10mins later I had a big tug and I dropped my rod tip down to let the fish take the prawn as I was using circle hooks. When I felt the tension again, I quickly started reeling and the fish was ON! The next thing I know, the line went slack..... Damn! Reeled back to check and my circle hook was gone! 60lb mono line cut at near the hook end so I don't know whether my knot gave way or the fish bit through the mono line. Re-tied another circle hook and baited up. After lunch, felt some slight nibbles. Waited and the nibbles carried on. I was thinking must be some small fish. Then came the more pronounced bites so I started reeling slowly. When I felt the weight of the fish, then started reeling in normally. Up came a Grouper of 800g. Hooked at the top of the mouth. 

As we continued to fish, the winds were really picking up. The angler that missed the Cobia, made amends when he hooked up a monster Grouper! Grouper weighed in at close to 4kg. He was a happy man! 

The boat was rocking pretty hard now and even though I had taken my seasick pills, I was feeling a bit queasy. A lady angler had enough and requested that we go back. So we cut short our fishing time by 45mins and made our journey back to the ferry terminal. Once we were back in the straits, the water was much calmer than outside at Changi Naval Base. 

Total catch for the day was pretty good! A variety of big fishes and I didn't see a Arumugum fish at all this trip!

Gear used:

Rod - Berkley Nomadic Travel Trigger PE0.8-1.4

Reel - Shimano Curado 201HG

Line - Generic 20lb braid

Bait - live prawn

Rig - Apollo rig

Jig - Shimano Lucanus Pink/White 100g

Fish ID - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
             - Ang Chor aka John's Snapper (Lutjanus johnii)
              - Kaci aka Painted Sweetlips (Diagramma pictus)