Usually by mid Feb onwards, the monsoon would have eased up a bit but not this season. It was still at its peak and howling winds! With trepidation and a full pack of Stugeron sea-sick pills, I boarded the boat as we headed out to our usual fishing grounds.
Reached the first spot about 5hrs later and the boat was a-rocking! Swells were ranging from 1.5-2.5m and it was hard to walk in a straight line on deck. Started fishing but the bites were few and far between. After about an hour, I threw in the towel and headed below deck to sleep. I even missed dinner!
Woke up around 10pm and it was even worse! Tried fishing for about 30mins and then I started feeling queasy. Parked the rod and headed below deck again! I'm not that desperate to catch a fish at the expense of throwing up! Slept the whole night till early next morning.
After breakfast, the seas were slightly calmer and I began fishing using Apollo rigs. Had a few bites and the first decent fish was caught. A small Spanish Flag snapper. After a while, hooked up another fish. Never seen this fish before but was about the same size as the Spanish Flag.
In the afternoon, we headed to an unjam to gather baitfish for tonight's target, Ang Chor. Out came the sabikis and we started hooking up Selar, Kembung and Cencaru. My first drop yielded a Full House of Cencaru. (Full House means a fish on each sabiki hook) Even though the boat was anchored, it was still pushed back and forth by the wind. So only when we were pushed near the unjams, then we would get the hookups. As we were only going to use Selar, Kembung and Tamban as baits, all the Cencaru caught were placed inside our own ice-boxes. We managed to fill up the bait tanks but some selfish anglers were not doing any bait-catching. They were trying to catch other bottom fish for themselves when an angler managed to catch a table-sized Triggerfish. And these anglers would be the ones happily using the baits for tonight's target fish. Sigh.....
After we had enough baitfish, we moved to another spot for Chermin. Only 2-3 were caught. I somehow managed to catch a small Areolate Grouper as I was using a running sinker rig.
After dinner, we headed to the Ang Chor spot. The seas were calmer now and was manageable. Rigged up my ranggong rig with a 4/0 hook and pinned a large live Selar on the back and sent it down. A few anglers managed to hook up some nice 4-5kg Ang Chor. A few hours passed when my rod tip began to twitch and bent straight down. I jumped out of my seat and began reeling. Felt quite a bit of weight on it and continued reeling. Somewhere as the line was coming back, I felt the weight gone! Darn, lost the fish. When I reeled back all the way and checked the rig, the bait was still there but the hook point was buried in the bait. Damn! No wonder I lost the fish, the hook didn't penetrate the fish because I didn't really strike. The hook was also too small for the large bait that I used. The fish must've mouthed the bait and then let go when it felt the line. What a rookie mistake!!
Replaced the hook with a 6/0 hook and chose a slightly smaller Selar. Down went the bait and waited. 30mins later, my rod started to bend slowly. Picked up the rod and waited. Felt the fish pulling and this time I striked. Twice! Just to make sure! Fish ON! Switched to low gear on the reel and began reeling the fish up. Felt heavy but had to take into account that I was using a size 16 sinker. Finally the fish surfaced and it was a 3kg Ang Chor. Woo hoo! First good catch of the trip.
Over the night, other anglers caught a few Cobias and the icing on the cake was a Shovel-nose Ray. Not that big, around 4ft in length. We fished till about 5am when we had to head back to the marina. I headed back to the bunk to sleep all the way home. When I woke up, the fish had already been cleaned and iced. So no pic of the Ang Chor.
Not a great trip as the waves and winds were really horrible on the first night. Oh well, some good days, some bad days.....
Gear used:
Rod - Expert Graphite JigForce PE3-6
Reel - Accurate DPX500N
Line - Sufix 832 50lb
Bait - live prawn, Selar
Rig - Apollo style (day), Ranggong style (night)
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