Sport Fishing Explorer Trip #14 - Chinaman!

Joined my regular kakis on Sport Fishing Explorer trip. This trip we were going a bit further East than normal. Apparently some "new" fishing grounds to explore.

Weather wasn't very good on the way out. Light rain until we reached the first spot at night. Then the heavens opened! Rained so hard that didn't feel like fishing. Fish weren't biting as well.

Woke up next morning to fish. Tied my trusty Shimano Lucanus jig in orange and dropped it over. After a while, felt something tugging the jig. I slowly lowered the jig a bit more and the fish grabbed it! Fish ON! 

Used constant reeling to bring the fish up and it was a beautiful Any Kuey aka Crimson Snapper. This fella weighed in at 2kg. So happy!

A few hours later, I was fishing with bait and we happened to come across a school of this unusual fish. It's a Starry Triggerfish or locally known as Ayam. These fish have small but powerful mouths and very thick skin.

As the fish were biting, I decided to start jigging again. Used my Shimano Butterfly jig in Phantom Squid coloration. This jig flutters down like slow fall jigs and I managed to hook up a Kerisi or Gold-band Snapper. This was the fish we were looking for, travelling further east.

Even the Starry Triggerfish got in on the action with the jig!

After this hot bite session, things slowed down pretty much. We moved from spot to spot without any bites. Spent a lot of time traveling between spots.

At night, we anchored up and I started jigging with my lumo jig. Scored this feisty Trevally.

As we moved from spot to spot, we hooked up a variety of fish. But not a lot.

Then on the last night, while I was sleeping, we heard a loud commotion on the deck. Woke up to see that another angler had caught a huge fish! This is the Chinaman fish! First time I'm seeing it and it was a big fella! Very pretty markings too!

According to Australian sources, this fish tends to have high concentrations of ciguatera toxins. We still kept the fish as it was beyond release.

Overall, we felt that this trip wasn't a good one because we traveled too far and moved spots too much to be actually fishing. The quality of fish caught was also below expectations. But it all made up with good company, drinks and food.

Caught too many of these Catfish!

Gear used:
Rod - Blackmarket Slow Jig PE3-5
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Sufix 832 50lb
Bait - live prawn / live squid /
Rig - Apollo style (day), Ranggong style (night)

Fish ID - Ayam aka Starry Triggerfish (Abalistes stellaris)
            - Ang Kuey aka Crimson Snapper (Lutjanus erythropterus)
            - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
            - Gold Band Snapper aka Angkoli (Pristipomoides multidens)