Sport Fishing Explorer Trip #9 - INSANE fishing action!

I've been out of action from fishing as I hurt my right hand during a fall. Even for this trip, my hand still hurts, but what to do when the fishing itch is so strong.......

This is the same group of kakis that I fished with the first time in May. Since they had another extended trip, I asked if I could tag along again. It's refreshing to fish as a group with everyone sharing the catch, because this way all the anglers will give way to the person hooked up.

Based on our last fishing trip where squid hunting was my forte, I came prepared for another round of hunting with some new squid jigs. Bought all these from the tackle shop in Tokyo.

I had also purchased a new fishing rod. Met a secondary school mate at a tackle shop who is now manufacturing fishing rods and he recommended me the Black Market jigging rod. I was looking for a PE2-4 overhead rod anyway but this one was quite out of my initial budget. After some demo and persuasion, I caved in and bought it. So this trip was to test the rod.

Haze has enveloped Singapore and was rather glad to be out at sea, although the haze was only slightly better out there. We steamed off in the afternoon and arrived Hosburgh Lighthouse around 6pm. We stopped at the first spot around dusk to drop a line to see if any fish were biting. Was pretty quiet on the first spot as we were using live prawn as bait. Soon there was a shout that someone had hooked up. Rod was bent nicely and line was peeling off. After reeling the fish in, everybody was disappointed when it turned out to be an Ah Seng! Haha... not a very good start.

After dinner, we set off to catch squid to use as bait. When we reached the spot, we were told to rig the squid jigs for bottom. So as I opened my pack of squid jigs, it became horribly entangled. As I was trying to untangle the lines, other anglers were already starting to get in on the action. Some very nice sized Arrowhead squids were being brought up.In my haste to untangle the lines/jigs, the mess got worse! So the deckie suggested I cut the lines and re-tie the rig. So after he re-tied for me, I quickly dropped my 3-jig rig over. As soon as it hit bottom, I could feel the pull of the squid! Quickly reeled it up and there it was, nice big Arrowhead squids! 

Everybody was now pulling in the squids, depending on how many squid jigs they had on! Some had 2 jigs, 4 jigs even 5 jigs! Most if not all jigs had squids hanging off them as they were reeled it. The squids were thick as thieves at that spot! This was the definition of 'lok jiak'!!

When my 3-jig rig reached the surface and only had 2 squids hooked on, I would just release some line back and the surface squids would attack the last remaining jig and get itself hooked up! That is just awesome!! Some of the squid were quite big, some measuring 35cm! 

 Squirting Squids!!

Full House!

Size 12 shoe, squid is about 30cm!

We caught so many squid that all the bait tanks were overflowing and we had to choose the bigger ones to put on ice straight away as they were too big to be used as bait. This non-stop action lasted for about 3 hours. I've never experienced such insane squidding action!

Underwater shot

We left the squid spot even though they were still getting hooked up. It's time for some serious fishing. We proceeded to the next spot and began fishing. Baited up with the smallest big squid we could use and dropped them over. Soon we had some hook-ups. Some Ang Chor were landed and Trevally. 

Then my rod bend over hard! Quickly grabbed my rod and set the hook. Fish ON!! This fish was big as it began stripping line out of my Shimano Talica 8 II. I let it run a bit then began reeling the fish in. Changed to low gear to get more power into the cranking. Soon the fish reached the surface and I saw that it was a HUGE Barracuda! At least 1.5m long! The deckies got ready the net to scoop the fish but realized the fish was too big for the net. So brought the gaff instead. I had moved back a bit for them to grab the leader to control the fish. The fish was at the surface and began flipping and trashing in the water. The deckie tried to gaff the fish but somehow missed and the fish managed to flip and severed the leader. Ow mannnnn!!!!!!! The deckies were rather apologetic but I was kinda ok because Barracuda isn't really a good eating fish. But it would have been awesome to take a picture with it. So my Black Market rod's virginity has been popped by a badass "wham-bam-thank-you-see-you-later" Barracuda!

30mins later, my rod begun to twitch. I quickly grabbed the rod in my hand and waited. Reeled in slowly but couldn't feel any tension. Reeled in a bit faster then suddenly the rod loaded up! Gave it 2 quick strikes to set the hook and fish ON!! This fish felt heavy and took out some line. I thought it was another badass Barracuda but shortly into the fight, I could see my braid line going out into the horizon. It means that the fish has swum up to the surface, and the fish that usually does that is the Queenfish. True enough, as I reeled in closer to the boat, it jumped out once to confirm that it was indeed a Queenfish. This time the deckies gaffed the fish on the first try and swung it on board. It was BIG! According to the scales, it was around the 7kg mark! Woo hoo!!

Later in the night, an angler at the front of the boat began shouting that he was hooked up. We didn't think much about it until he said it was a monster! All of us quickly reeled up our lines and he began fighting the fish. Took him about 20mins to battle the fish until the fish surfaced. It was a White-spotted Wedgefish aka Kemejan. Fish was gaffed and landed. Looks to be about 5ft! This was one of the target fish of some of the anglers. Looks like we are at the right spot. Re-energized, we lowered our rigs down again to fish. Caught a few Ang Chor and I too managed hook up a decent sized Crimson Snapper aka Ang Kuay. 

Bite slowed and so I went to sleep. Woke up in the morning to breakfast and boat captain told us we are going to try for Chermin. We reached a Chermin spot and were told to use Apollo rigs with live prawn. It was a quiet 10-15mins before all hell broke loose! One by one, anglers were getting hooked up and can hear drags screaming away! At one time, we even had 5 multiple hook ups! All scrambling around the boat to prevent line entanglement. When the first fish came up, it was a large Chermin. Heck, all the subsequent fishes were XL size! And when these fishes are of this size, man are they fun on light to medium tackle. I was holding my rod in anticipation when I felt a light tug. I already had my reel on free spool so I let the fish take the bait and counted to 3. Moved the drag lever to strike and lifted the rod up to set the hook. Fish ON! Straight away the fish goes beserk and peels off line. You don't want to put too high drag cos the fish's mouth/lips are rather soft. Just let them run and when they stop, begin reeling them in. They'll 'move' you around the boat so make sure you maneuver to avoid entanglement. That's when angler teamwork comes in. The angler next to me automatically reels up to make way so that there's no entanglement and he gets to fish straight away after I'm out of the way. Fished was gaffed up and rig re-baited and down it went again. As soon as the rig touched bottom, another fish was hooked up. Same fight and another Chermin was landed. We went on like this for the next 2 hours with almost 40 fishes landed! I hooked up 6 fishes and lost 1 when the fish dashed right under the boat and cut me off. 

Chermins came thick n fast, no time to put into ice box!

Repair after being busted off!

We moved off after lunch to another spot for bottom fishing. According to the boatman, this spot also attracts some Tenggiris. I started bottom fishing but was rather quiet for 1hr. 2 anglers were jigging and they managed to hook up a Tenggiri each. So I thought I might as well give it a try as the bottom action was quiet. Tossed out my 40g green jig and began jigging using up/down motion. After 5-6 times, I changed to a 60g blue jig with a treble hook end. This time I cast out and began left/right retrieves. One my 3rd cast, as I was reeling back, the jig got smashed and I was hooked up. Fish ON! I tried to control it but the fish was peeling off line like nobody's business. Then it changed direction, heading towards the boat. I quickly reeled back and when I felt the tension, the fish sped off faster, right under the boat!  Dipped my rod under the boat but was too late, my main braid line got cut off under the boat. Damn!! That was a good fish. Adrenaline pumping action but so disappointed to lose the fish. 

Bait or food? Hmmmm.....

After re-tying my leader, I put on the Halco Twisty 30g Chrome and began casting again. Fast retrieve, slow retrieve, up/down and sideways.... nothing was interested. So I went back to bottom fishing. Baited up with a live squid and dropped it over. About 15mins later, rod bent over and I quickly grabbed the rod and strike. Fish ON! Reeled it up easily and it was another Ang Kuay.

At night we returned to our squid spot and they were still there! Squid after squid were hooked up until the bait tanks were full again. 

Squid haul after 2nd night!

Squid sashimi, thanks to Shaun!

Night fishing was patchy again, with about 6 Ang Chor caught. I had rigged up my 2-hook sliding rig to use for the large live squid. It worked out pretty good. Stuck the rod in the rod holder and waited. A short while later, the rod bent over and I gave it a strike. I could feel the fish hooked and began reeling, then the line went slack...Dammit! Reeled back to check and the 60lb mono line had been severed. Damn Barracudas! Couple of minutes later, the angler beside me suffered the same fate, line cut by Barracuda. As the night wore on, I decided to catch some shut eye. When I woke up in morning, I was told that another 2 anglers managed to hook up the Wedgefish. That makes it a total of 3 Wedgefish caught on this trip so far. These fish were around 5-6ft that they had to put it straight into the ice-maker machine.  

We repeated our pattern again the next morning, catching lots of Chermins and occasional big Kaci. A few Areolate Groupers were also landed. Changed a few spots after that but was quiet. The quiet was punctuated with a few hookups which gave the rods a good bend but turned out to be BIG Ah Seng's! 

The last night was spent catching squid again and we caught enough to use as bait only as our ice boxes were overflowing with squid and we had to leave space for any fish that would be caught during the night. 

We moved to the spot and the current was very strong now. I had to use a size 18 sinker to reach bottom. Things were rather quiet when my rod had a few taps. The boat captain was standing next to my rod and he was watching it also. When the fish finally took the bait, he began reeling and I jumped up to continue. The fish surfaced and it was our first catch of Orange-Spotted Grouper, can you believe it! Wasn't big, just around 1kg. 

Things began to quieten down approaching midnight and the boat captain said he'll move to a spot closer to Hosburgh Lighthouse to do some bottom fishing. When we reached the spot, the current was still very strong and there was a lot of leaf/debris flowing. We dropped our rigs and waited. We caught a few smaller Ang Chors and then a rather big oil slick flowed by. Damn! My fishing lines were all coated with the slick and I just quickly reeled up and tried to clean my line. I decided not to fish in those conditions and went to sleep. 

I was woken up at 4am by my kaki telling me that they are heading back to S'pore already. So all the fish were put out for photo-taking and cleaning. All the ice-boxes were emptied and fish laid out. 

Looks like we caught about 120+ pieces of large fishes among the 14 of us. All the fish were cleaned and the more desirable fishes were bagged and balloted out to each angler. And then whatever fish was left was up for grabs. All our ice boxes were full to the brim and we still had like 15 fishes with no takers. 

Our squid catch was estimated to be about 200+ kgs! We took what we wanted and the rest was left to the boat crew to use as bait.

We reached the marina at 7am, earliest ever! Because we had run out of storage space for fish. This was an insane fishing trip!

Unusual catches

Gear used:
Rod - BlackMarket Slow Jig PE 3-5
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Fireline Tracer 40lb
Bait - Live prawn, live squid
Rig - Apollo, ranggong

Fish ID  - Chermin aka Diamond Trevally (Alectics indicus)
              - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
              - Ang Chor aka John's Snapper (Lutjanus johnii)
              - White-Spotted Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae)
              - Queenfish (Scomberoides commerson)
              - Ang Kuay aka Crimson Snapper (Lutjanus erythropterus)

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)

Southern Island fishing with Uncle Lim #3 - Chermins and a free Airshow

After more than 6 months, I could finally get on Uncle Lim's boat again. Been watching his CR with much interest, especially the big Groupers that were caught the last few months.

We started off early because Uncle Lim said the Sagai were biting only in the early morning. So our first spot was near some reefs. The other anglers were using sabiki while I tried my hand at micro jigging. The current was pretty strong at the spot but I tried using a 30g jig anyway. After a few jigs, I got a hit! I started to pump and reel back only for the fish to drop off. Damn! Dropped the jig again and jigged. Got another hit. Tried reeling back and dropped the fish again! What's happening here?? Uncle Lim advised me to slowly reel the fish back and let it take line. This is because of the strong current and the soft mouth of the Sagai. I also had only 1 hook on the jig so I changed to a dual hook. After changing the hooks, the current was too strong and we had to leave the Sagai. The other anglers managed to hook a few pieces but lost a few as well.

Our next spot was near a ship. I'm really impressed with Uncle Lim with his knowledge of water conditions as well as boat parking. If the boat is not properly parked at the spot, he'll bring up the anchor and re-park. And sure enough, we hit the correct spot. We changed our rigs to ranggong-style with live prawn. No more than 5mins, a Chermin was hooked up! Soon everyone got in on the action! Some Chermin were small, some were big. The big ones were really fun on light gear. I was using my Talica 8II in free spool when one of the big Chermins took the live prawn. I let it free spool for 2 secs before engaging the drag and strike. Fish ON! The fish was taking out some line and I just let it be because the mouth of the Chermin is also quite soft. Don't want the hook to be pulled out of the mouth. Short fight later, the fish was netted. Nice fella!

The hook was deep inside the mouth so there was no fear of hook-pulling actually.

In the midst of the Chermins, we also caught quite a few Chao Xi, (Sickle Fish). Some of these fellas were pretty big and gave a good fight. My next fish was also another big Chermin. I employed the same technique, let the fish take the bait a few seconds before engaging the drag and strike. Close to 90% of the Chermins caught had the hook deep inside the mouth, only 1-2 were hooked on the lips or outside mouth.

I "iki-jime" the fish that I caught and bled them. Let's see how they taste like. Didn't managed to get a wire to destroy the spinal cord though. Probably need more practice to find where/how to insert the wires.

In the midst of catching fish, we could hear the RSAF jets flying around the Southern Islands. Lo and behold, a group of jets came thundering past in formation. I recognized them as the RSAF Black Knights. It seems they were practising their NDP routine in the area. I managed to get some nice pictures of the routines while still catching fish!

Barrel roll manoeuvre

After the Chermin, came the Queenfish. We caught quite a few fish under 1kg and they were quite the acrobat, jumping out of the water. Seems you can tell when you've hooked a Queenfish vs a Chermin. A Queenie will head to the surface to perform acrobatics while the Chermin will stay down deep with repeated head shakes.

After the spot went quiet, we moved to another spot to target bottom fish. Hats off to Uncle Lim and Alvin as they can catch Tee Boon on handline when the rest of us couldn't even get one! I managed to catch a small Parrotfish at the last spot.

The winds were really picking up by 3pm and the boat was a-rocking! Called it a day at 4:15pm as the fish weren't biting as well. Headed back to shore with a good days' fishing!

Total catch

15 x Chao Xi
15 x Chermin
5 x Queenfish
4 x Sagai
Various bottom fish - Tee Boon, Leng Chiam, Eng Ko, Parrotfish

Gear used:
Rod - Shimano TCurve Revolution Overhead Travel PE2.2-3.3 (10-15kg)
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - Fireline Tracer 40lb
Bait - Live prawn
Rig - Ranggong

Fish ID - Chermin aka Diamond Trevally (Alectics indicus)
             - Tee Boon aka Spanish Flag (Lutjanus carponotatus)
             - Queenfish  (Scomberoides commerson)
             - Sagai aka Bumpnose Trevally (Carangoides Hedlandensis)