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)