Wave Dancer Auckland Trip #2 - Finally Back!

After a cancelled trip last year, I had an opportunity again to fish on Wave Dancer. The weather the day before was kinda iffy so I wasn't really expecting to go out and fish with them. But the boat captain gave me the good news and I was ready! I brought my trusty Shimano TCurve travel rod paired with Shimano Stradic Ci4 3000 reel.

Set off from Pier 21 with another 5 anglers in the chilly morning. Overcast skies and a light breeze greeted us as we set off to our fishing spots. I overhead the boat captain, Cam, say that we'll be fishing in the waters near Coromandel.

The first 2 spots we stopped on the way to Coromandel showed some signs of fish on the fish finder but we didn't have any takers. So we proceeded straight to Coromandel.

When we arrived, we could see lots of birds circling an area and dive-bombing the waters! It was an awesome sight!! We saw whales and dolphins around and Cam said that they were herding the baitfish and feeding on them.

Cam tied a Catch Beta Bug on my leader and I dropped it over. From what I understand, I'm supposed to make short lifts with the rod to imitate a fish that has nabbed a squid. This in turn, attracts the bigger fish to the inchiku.

A few minutes later, I had a hit. Hooked up and I slowly reeled the fish in. It was a Pink Snapper but below the legal size. So it was released and I continued fishing. The other anglers were beginning to catch snappers and soon enough, my lure was hit again. Reeled it up and this time the fish was a keeper. Everyone was bringing fish up, the smaller ones were released and those of legal size, went into the chilly bin. Just as I was reeling up my lure, something hard hit the lure in mid-water. It was giving quite a fight and began to come up to the surface. It was a Kahawai and did some jumps. This fella was feisty. Finally boated it and Cam said this was one of the bigger ones!

Dropped my inchiku back down and did a few jigs. Then quite suddenly, a fish grabbed the lure and powered off! This guy was tough and fights deep. Every wind I make, it will pull out the same amount of line. Left my drag as it is and continued to fight the fish. I had a feeling it was the fish that I longed to hook up. A few minutes later, the fish surfaced and it was the fish I wanted, the Yellowtail Kingfish! This was a small version but it sure put up an awesome fight! The legal size is 75cm and this guy was only probably 50cm. After some pics, I speared it back into the water to grow bigger!

The birds moved so we began chasing them. When we reached the baitfish, we just drifted next to the diving birds and dropped our lures over. This time, I had changed my lure to the Shimano Lucanus jig Chartreuse Shrimp. The action for this jig is to touch bottom and slowly make gentle lifts while winding. A few times, I could feel the fish nibbling. The trick is to let it nibble and 'chase' the skirts until it grabs the hooks hiding in amongst the skirts. Soon enough I had hooked up a few more keeper Pink Snapper. When the Snappers are hooked, I can feel them doing some 'head-shakes' as I reel them in. At this time, we had hooked up a total of 25 Snappers. Our bag limit was 7 per angler.

We continued to search for the baitfish school by following the birds. Hooked up a few more as the baitfish school dispersed. By lunch time, the action had quietened down. After our lunch, Cam continued to search for the birds and we zoomed to the birds location. Dropped our jigs over and caught a few more Snappers. I was holding my rod and just when I started to reel, I felt a heavy weight on it. I thought I had snagged the bottom but a quick lift of the rod told me I had hooked up! I didn't feel any nibbles so I just continued to reel up. This time, I didn't feel any head-shakes like Snappers do so Cam said maybe I had foul-hooked the fish. I thought that it was possible, as it felt like reeling up dead weight. When the fish surfaced, it was not a Pink Snapper but a John Dory! I've never caught this fish before and just as it reached the surface, it began flapping about. The first net scoop was unsuccessful and just as the net was placed below the fish a second time, the fish flapped hard and threw the jig out! Phew..luckily the net was below to catch the fish!!

It has a humongous mouth!

We moved out from Coromandel and continued to look for the birds. We spotted another baitfish school but the fish below weren't interested in our jigs. So around 3:30pm, we began our journey back to the pier. In total, we caught 31 Pink Snappers, 5 Kahawai and my John Dory. So I took home my John Dory and 5 Pink Snappers. What a great day fishing, even though it was freaking cold!!

Gear used:
Rod - Shimano TCurve Tropical PE1-2
Reel - Shimano Stradic Ci4 3000
Line - YGK G-Soul Super Jigman X8 35lb
Rig - Shimano Lucanus Chartreuse Shrimp 100g
       - Catch Beta bug 80g

Fish ID - Pink Snapper (Pagrus auratus)
             - Kahawai aka Australian Salmon (Arripis trutta)
             - Yellowtail Kingfish (Seriola Ialandi)
             - John Dory (Zeus faber)

Tokyo Tackle Shop

Was in Tokyo and decided to check out their tackle shops. After some online research, found one that was at Shibuya Metro station.

Johshuya Tackle shop seems to have quite a number of outlets all around Tokyo. This was the nearest one to my hotel and I totally forgot to print the directions. All I remember is that it's near the Shibuya Station.

So I alighted at the station and somehow I ended up at Tokyu Departmental Store exit. Looking around for some landmarks but couldn't recognize anything. So asked a kind policeman and he directed me in the correct direction.

If you make your way to the JR Rail exit, you'll see an outdoor bus interchange. Look left and you'll see a pedestrian bridge going across a busy intersection.

Go up and look left and you'll see the tackle shop signs.

The tackle shop occupies the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors.

It is a well-stocked shop with everything an angler would need (and don't need but still buy!). They carry all sort of brands of lures/jigs but I'm not sure whether they are any cheaper than Sg. Reels also displayed and will make one lau nuah!

Just for comparison, I noted down the price of a few reels:

Ocea Jigger 1501 - 39,520 yen

Stella 2014 3000HG - 63,200yen

Stella C3000 - 62,400 yen

I don't know the prices for these reels in Sg so you can make your own conclusion.

And as all anglers do, I came away with my own personal stash of stuff! Here they are:

Finally found my equipment for iki jime. Ice picks and the metal wire to 'destroy' the spinal cord.

Daiwa Tenya's. I don't know if they are cheap as compared to Sg.

My squidding set. Let's see how these babies perform on my next squidding trip.

Sports Fishing Explorer Trip #8 - Wind & Rain = No Fish?

Was asked to join this trip at the last minute. Weather the past few days wasn't that great and I was pretty much expecting rocking seas and windy conditions.

Boarded the boat and found out that there was going to be only 8 anglers for this trip. I thought at least we will have a LOT of space to fish. Left the dock and proceeded to the first fishing spot. On the way there, I could feel the rocking starting. Hunkered down in the bunk till near Hosburgh Lighthouse. When we reached the spot, we started fishing. Was pretty quiet and the skies were getting dark. Then the rain moved in. In a few short minutes, it became a heavy downpour! The rain lasted for about 45mins but we still managed to catch some small fish. Most of the fish were from the Trevally family like Bumpnose Trevally aka Sagai and Skipjack Trevally. They did give a good fight on light gear.

As darkness approached, the bite died down and the boat captain decided to go catch some squid to use as bait for the night fishing session. So went back to bed while the crew began catching squid.

Woke up around midnight to 4 live bait tanks filled with squid. Most of them were rather small with a few palm-sized versions in there. We moved to the fishing spot and began sending the live squids down as baits. The bites were few and far between. Only 1 angler got a hookup at the first spot. It was a decent sized Ang Chor. So we moved to the next spot. Nada! Zilch for about 1hr so we moved again. Current was pretty light and we weren't catching anything on the next 2-3 spots.

Around 4am, the current picked up a bit and the bites began to come. First up was an Ang Kuey around 2kg plus. Everybody became excited, thinking that the bites would come thick and fast. But it was actually rather slow. One hookup every 10-15mins.

My turn came around 5am. I was slowly nodding off when someone alerted me to my bending rod! Jumped up and began reeling in. Can feel the fish on and switched to low gear on my Accurate reel. Fast reel and the fish was up. It was an Ang Chor around 2kg as well. Woo hoo!! Unhooked the fish and decided to iki jime the fish. Took out my ice pick and spiked the brain. Made a deep cut at the gill area to bleed the fish out. Re-baited and continued fishing.

Alvin had a nice hookup and he was reeling the fish nicely up. Then suddenly, the line went slack. He continued reeling up to find the leader had been cleanly cut. He suspected it might have been a Barracuda which might have taken the easy prey off the hook.

10mins later, as I was taking my Ang Chor to put into my icebox, my rod had a take. The deckie quickly set the hook and began reeling. I dropped my fish and rushed over to take over the rod. Good weight on this fish as I continued to reel. I thought this time, maybe I'll leave it on high gear to reel the fish in. The fish was strong and I wasn't gaining much line. Just before I could change to low gear, I felt the line snapped........*$&(@)$&! Darn it! Reeled back to see that my leader was also severed cleanly! Damn those Barracuda!

Sunrise came and the bite stopped. Overnight, we only caught around 7-8 pieces of Ang Chor, which isn't very good. We moved to another spot to catch Sagai and Chermins. The skies were dark again and it began to rain. Boat was rocking real hard and I doubled my dosage of sea-sick medications! We decided to use the 1inch live squid as bait to catch the Sagai. Some of us were using 2-hook Apollo rigs, with one hook baited with squid and another with live prawn. Somehow, the Sagais took a liking to the squids. We caught quite a few of them at the spot.

Bumpnose Trevally aka Sagai

Skipjack Trevally

Alvin managed to hook up a nice Chermin around 2kg soon after. Unusual because the Chermin ate the squid instead of the prawn. Normally, live prawn is the preferred bait for Chermin. A few minutes later, I saw my rod tip tapping. I took the rod out of the holder and waited.A few more taps and I strike. FISH ON! This fish felt like a big Sagai as it darted around in the deep. This fish was powerful enough to take out some line from my Shimano Talica 8II. I was being brought around the boat and when it finally neared the surface, it jumped! Sagai's don't jump so I'm guessing it might be a Queenfish. True enough, a large Queenfish surfaced. Let it tire itself out before finally netting it. It was a nice fish!

The rest of the day was spent moving around a few spots but the bites did not materialize. Wind was blowing and the boat was swaying away from the spots. At every new spot, I would come out to fish for about 30mins and if there was no bite, I would head back to bed. Everybody also didn't have much luck. By evening, we had resorted to using sabiki to catch Sagai. But even then, we were getting more "rubbish" fish than table fish.

Night time came and was another round of squid catching. Come midnight, we started fishing for Ang Chor again. And only 2 were landed the whole night. The last fish caught was a nice 2kg Grouper. After that, we decided to head back to Singapore. I was so tired, I didn't even wake up to see the haul for this trip when the deckies cleaned the fish. Nothing much to shout about actually. Pretty poor catch rate.

I personally caught 1 Ang Chor, 1 Queenfish, 1 small Grouper and 9 Sagai. So that's a pretty poor for a 3D2N trip to SCS. This trip also had the least variety of fish caught. I guess the weather did play a part. Well....that's fishing!

Gear used:
Rod - Expert Graphite JigForce PE3-6 //  Eupro Salty Fighter PE0.8-2.0
Reel - Accurate DPX500N //  Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Sufix 832 50lb //  Fireline Tracer 40lb
Bait - live prawn / live squid
Rig - Apollo style (day), Ranggong style (night

Fish ID - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
             - Sagai aka Bumpnose Trevally (Carangoides Hedlandensis)
             - Queenfish (Scomberoides commerson)