Ah Fong said there are some Selars around and we stopped to use sabiki for them. I tied on my 1 and only sabiki rig and tossed it near the channel buoys. A few jigs but nothing. Then as I was reeling the rig up, felt the tugs of the Selar. Reeled up and had like 5 of them on the sabiki. Small sized fellas and into the bucket it went. Alan dropped his Apollo rig and was rewarded with a nice Ang Chor on the first drop! Talk about lucky! I then dropped my rig over again and brought up another 4 fishes. I was slow in reeling it up which caused the sabiki rig to get horribly entangled. Not wanting to spend the next 10mins untangling, I cut and tossed the sabiki.
+++ TIPS +++
Once you feel the fish hooked up on sabiki, reel it up. If you leave it in the sea, hoping to catch more fish, the fish that are on the hooks already will tend to swim around and tangle up the whole sabiki rig. Untangling a sabiki jig is a real HEADACHE!!
+++ TIPS +++
The other guys were still catching the Selars so I changed to my usual Apollo rig. Decided to rig a small Selar onto the hook, hoping to tempt a predator lurking around the buoy. Because Ah Fong was manoeuvring the boat close to the buoy, I was careless when I did not notice my line had gone under the boat. I suddenly felt a big tug, thinking I had hooked up but it turned out my line had snagged the propeller under the boat. I had no choice but to snap my line. Got a telling off from Ah Fong!
Eric was still catching Selar when his fishing rod took a heavy bend! As he reeled up, the rod sprang back and his sabiki rig was gone.... Looks like a predator took a liking to the fishes that were hooked on his sabiki rig. After a while more, we left the Selars to find the big fish.
We moved around quite a few spots before Ah Fong decided that we will go into shallow water to fish after lunch. Shallow water means fishing inside the reclaimed areas near Tekong. I switched my rig into a running sinker rig as the waters in there were only 4-5m deep. A few anglers began catching some juvenile Ang Chor, which was a good sign that the fish were biting. Then a few table-sized fish were being caught. Then finally, I felt a light nibble and I free-spooled my reel. I let the fish take out some line before engaging the drag and strike. Turned out to be small juvenile Ang Chor. Feisty fella.
Re-baited and continued fishing. Changed to the next nearby spot. At this spot, a few other varieties of fish were caught, ie Parrotfish and a Orange-Spotted Grouper. Then it was quiet for a while. When Ah Fong signalled to reel in to change to another spot, I suddenly had a vicious take on my live prawn! Fish ON! I shouted that I had hooked up and began fighting the fish. This fish was taking out some line on my reel and I could feel its quite big. Played with it for a short while until it was tired. As Eric was about to net the fish, it sped off again taking some more line. Slowly worked it back towards the boat and successfully netted the fella! Woo hoo....a 1kg Ang Chor!
After some pictures, I iki jime the fish in the fish cooler box as Ah Fong doesn't want the deck to be dirty. Successfully inserted the wire to "close" the fish too. Looks like I'm getting the hang of it.
We continued to fish around the shallow waters with a few other fish being caught. But after 4pm, the bite shut down and the dark clouds were forming. We decided to head back to the jetty early.
Total catch for the day - not spectacular but still enjoyable.
Even though I caught only ONE fish, it did help cure the fishing itch for the time being..........
PS - One of the fishes caught in our local waters - Toadfish
Gear used:
Rod - Eupro Salty Fighter PE0.8-2.0
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Fireline Tracer 40lb
Bait - Live prawn,
Rig - Running sinker
Fish ID - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
- Ang Chor aka John's Snapper (Lutjanus johnii)
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