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)

Changi Ah Long - Trip #1

An opportunity came up to join some kakis on Changi Ah Long's boat. The boat is quite spacious and comfortably can take 8 anglers.

After getting our live prawn bait, Ah Long told us that we will be fishing in the waters in front of Changi Naval Base. So we took the 45min journey to the spot. 

First few spots only yielded a small trevally. Ah Long was quite quick in changing spots when there was no bite. He also motored the boat to keep it on the spot, instead of drifting over the spots like other boatman do. Soon the other anglers were getting some hookups. Ang Chor was the first few fish to come up, pretty good sized ones as well. I was using my faithful Shimano Lucanus jig, this time in Pink/White. Soon, I was hooked up as well and up came a small Kaci. Hooks nicely pinned in the mouth. Couple of pics and into the chilly bin it went. 

Then one angler hit the motherload when he hooked up big time! This fish was taking some line and staying deep. The fish somehow managed to tangled up with my line and I had to reel/release in accordance to what the angler did. Shortly thereafter, the fish managed to come up to the surface and it was a pretty big Cobia! Before it could be gaffed, it darted back down to the depths. Somehow, my line became untangled and I quickly reeled in my line. After another 10mins of fighting the fish, the anglers' main line broke! What a waste! Consolation was that we saw what fish it was.

Another angler battled it out with a 2.5kg Orange-Spotted Grouper and won. One thing about Groupers is that once you get them out from the bottom half of the water, you're pretty safe. Their swim bladder expands and they'll just float up without much fight. Ang Chor on the other hand, do fight all the way to the top, depending on their size. The fish were biting off and on as we moved a few spots around the area. 

As the current increased, I had to change tactic and switched to Apollo rigs. Dropped the live prawn over and waited. 10mins later I had a big tug and I dropped my rod tip down to let the fish take the prawn as I was using circle hooks. When I felt the tension again, I quickly started reeling and the fish was ON! The next thing I know, the line went slack..... Damn! Reeled back to check and my circle hook was gone! 60lb mono line cut at near the hook end so I don't know whether my knot gave way or the fish bit through the mono line. Re-tied another circle hook and baited up. After lunch, felt some slight nibbles. Waited and the nibbles carried on. I was thinking must be some small fish. Then came the more pronounced bites so I started reeling slowly. When I felt the weight of the fish, then started reeling in normally. Up came a Grouper of 800g. Hooked at the top of the mouth. 

As we continued to fish, the winds were really picking up. The angler that missed the Cobia, made amends when he hooked up a monster Grouper! Grouper weighed in at close to 4kg. He was a happy man! 

The boat was rocking pretty hard now and even though I had taken my seasick pills, I was feeling a bit queasy. A lady angler had enough and requested that we go back. So we cut short our fishing time by 45mins and made our journey back to the ferry terminal. Once we were back in the straits, the water was much calmer than outside at Changi Naval Base. 

Total catch for the day was pretty good! A variety of big fishes and I didn't see a Arumugum fish at all this trip!

Gear used:

Rod - Berkley Nomadic Travel Trigger PE0.8-1.4

Reel - Shimano Curado 201HG

Line - Generic 20lb braid

Bait - live prawn

Rig - Apollo rig

Jig - Shimano Lucanus Pink/White 100g

Fish ID - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
             - Ang Chor aka John's Snapper (Lutjanus johnii)
              - Kaci aka Painted Sweetlips (Diagramma pictus)

Changi Ah Fong Trip #3 - 100% Conversion rate

This was sort of a last minute boat charter on Ah Fong's boat. Organizer Eric posted up  just last week and since I'm off, I decided to join in. It's been a long time since I fished on Ah Fong's boat, the last 2 times were at least more than 1 year ago. Now fishing on a bigger bumboat!

Set off to buy our live prawns and headed to the fishing grounds. Today the water between Changi and Naval Base was brown, it only changed to light green when we passed the east of Naval Base. So I guess today we would be fishing at south of Naval Base.

Decided to fish using my Shimano Lucanus Orange/White jig with a live prawn. First few spots were very quiet. I somehow managed to foul hook a small puffer fish and nothing else. Low tide was at 12pm and there wasn't much current at where we were fishing. Fishing was unusually quiet by Ah Fong's standards. The fish weren't biting at all till after lunch time. We were drifting at the Eastern Anchorage and I was fishing at the front of the boat with Ah Fong. He had a 2-hook rig with running sinker. Shortly thereafter, he hooked up. It was a big fish, judging by the bend on his fishing rod. Up came a very big Ang Chor (by Changi standards!). I netted the fish and everybody began to fish with earnest! We drifted over the spot a few more times but nothing was biting. Think the current has started to move now.

Shifted to another spot at the Anchorage and again, Ah Fong hooked up. Similar sized Ang Chor was brought up and could see it was partially foul hooked. Seems his 2-hook rig has some 'insurance'! I was still using my Lucanus jig, bouncing on the bottom when I felt a mild tapping. I lowered the rod tip and BANG! Fish ON! The fish was giving me a rather good fight but I just continued cranking without pumping the fishing rod. Up came another Ang Chor about the same size. The fish weighed in at 1.1kg. Woohoo!! I never expected to catch an Ang Chor this size in Changi waters. So glad my Lucanus worked and it seems the Orange/White color is super effective. I remember my big Grouper catch on Ah Heng's boat at Southern Islands was also using the Orange/White color.

Re-baited the Lucanus jig and dropped it over. Within 5mins, I felt some tapping again. Lowered the rod tip but nothing.... Lifted the rod tip and BANG! Immediately the fish darted down and began pulling my drag. I realized my drag setting was not set to STRIKE on my Talica 8II so I quickly pushed it to STRIKE. Even at STRIKE setting, the fish was pulling out line. I could hear Ah Fong shouting "Don't tighten drag too much!" so I released the drag lever a bit. The fish made a few short downward burst and then as I reeled it up, it tried to dash off again. In doing so, it went around a few other angler's fishing lines. Fearing that my line could get cut in the line tangle, I tried hard to reel it up as fast as I could but this fella was really heavy! Finally it surfaced and to my surprise, it was a JUMBO Eng Ko!! I'm shocked!! Ah Fong netted it up and true enough, it was tangled with 3 other lines. Slowly untangled all the lines and unhooked the fish. I'm so happy and I'm dancing a jig in my head!! Hahahahaha..... A couple of pictures and then the fish weighed in at an eye-popping 2.8kg! My personal best Eng Ko!

Around 2:30pm, we headed back into the waters between Changi and Tekong. The waters were still brown/brackish looking and we just drifted towards the jetty. Along the way, my Lucanus got stuck and was unable to shake it free. Unfortunately, I had to pull and snapped the line. Bye bye my Lucanus,.....

Decided to tie a running sinker rig instead for the last few hours. Hooked a prawn on and dropped it over. About 10mins later, I felt the prawn darting around. Really active prawn or it's being chased by something...... Then I felt a sharp tug. I let it munch a bit more than I striked! Fish ON! This fish felt lighter so I slowly reeled it in. Up came a Orange-Spotted Grouper. Not a big fella but when I brought it up on deck, something unusual was in its mouth. Had a closer look..... it was a plastic bag!! Removed the plastic bag and it looks like there's some "stuff" inside the torn plastic bag. I guess this fish was trying to eat whatever that was inside the bag and decided to swallow it! And he was still hungry enough to have a go at my prawn. Unhooked the fella and he weighed in at 800g. Not too shabby!

Other anglers were also beginning to catch fish. Flathead, Gu Hood, Malabar Grouper, Kaci and a few more smaller Ang Chor were landed.

At the end of the trip, the 2 Ang Chor that Ah Fong caught were put in lucky draw to see who gets to bring them home. I opted out since I had my 3 fish already.

It was a good day fishing for me. Although it started out real slow, but I guess I was pretty lucky to hook up all my fish.

3 bites, 3 hookups, 3 fish landed! That's 100% conversion rate!

I've never been this lucky before.............


Gear used:
Rod - Eupro Salty Fighter PE0.8-2.0
Reel - Shimano Talica 8II
Line - Sufix 832 40lb braid
Jig - Shimano Lucanus jig Orange/White
Rig - running sinker 40lb mono with live prawn

Fish ID - Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)
              - Eng Ko aka Blackspot Tuskfish (Choerodon schoenleinii)
              - Ang Chor aka John's Snapper (Lutjanus johnii)

Rompin #2 - Day 2 - Red and Black

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Rompin day 2 started early with us leaving the jetty at 730am. Our order of 50pcs of live prawn was also on time and put in the live well. First stop was to catch some baitfish at an unjam. Dropped our sabiki rigs but only a few Tamban came up. Next unjam also wasn't that productive. So we decided to head off to the bottom fishing grounds anyway to try with live prawns and micro jigs.

The journey to the spot took almost 1hr and when we finally reached, we could see it was quite a big, shallow coral grounds. There were lots of floating markers around and the boatman said they were bottom fish cages. So I guess there should be a lot of fish here.

Down went our rigs and the first fish that came up was RED! Everyone was excited that it could be a Red Grouper/Coral Trout but it wasn't. There were some red stripes on it and black markings on the dorsal fins. I'm guessing this fish is still a juvenile. A few of these fish were landed, nothing big. All around the 500-700g range, caught on live prawn. There was also a Parrotfish lookalike that made an appearance.

Some guys were jigging as well and caught a few fish with red body and blue spots. After some research, it seems to resemble the Coral Hind (Cephalopholis miniata). They do look pretty awesome, especially the blue dots on the red background!

This coral area was so snaggy that we lost quite a lot of rigs/micro jigs and lures. The boat was drifting pretty fast as well and we just had to be careful not to let the rigs go out too far. My effort at micro-jigging also yielded another of the unidentified fish.

We spent quite some time on the coral area and manage to catch enough for each angler to bring home a few. After lunch, we headed off to an unjam, hoping to target some Tenggiri. At the unjam, we tried to catch some baitfish again and this time there was more and bigger in size. Hooked a few live ones and spread the rods out the back of the boat. Ron was still holding his fishing rod when a fish took the bait. Fish ON! Immediately the fish went airborne and I could see that it was a Dorado! The fish was subdued easily and landed. Not a very big fish but a welcomed addition to the catch.

In the midst of the hookup, a Sailfish actually jumped out near the boat and everyone thought it was hooked up. But all the rods were quiet. We stayed around for a little while before moving off.

Boatman spotted some birds dive-bombing some baitfish and we headed there. At the edge, we began casting lures out and Ron again hooked up. This fish was giving him a good fight and the rest of us began casting at the front of the boat as well. After about 10mins, the fish was brought boat-side and it was a nice Giant Trevally! After a few photographs, the GT was released. We tried to see where the birds were but the baitfish school had dispersed.

Our last stop was to catch squid. We tied our prawn jigs with a light sinker and sent them down. We drifted over the spot and began catching some nice Green-eyed Squid. Some big, some small. Some of the guys were not careful and got inked big time! Full-frontal squirt of black ink! We made about 6-7 drifts over the squid grounds and managed to hook up 17 pieces. I only managed to hook up 2 pieces and then lost the prawn jig due to a snag.

The wind was beginning to blow and we could see a big storm near land. So we decided to call it a day and pack up and head back to the jetty. Stored all the gear and got ready for the bumpy ride back. And then the heavens opened! Rain pelted down and the waves were getting bigger. Boatman slowed down a bit as we made our way back.

Passed through the storm cells and when we finally reached the jetty, it was only a light drizzle. Our driver was already waiting for us and we still had to pack our stuff in the rooms and divide the fish equally. So the fish and squid were divided equally and placed in a styrofoam box for transport back to Singapore.

We made a stop at Mersing for dinner at the usual Mersing Seafood Restaurant for its signature dish, the Squid stuffed with Salted Egg. We scoffed down dinner as we were all super hungry and then had a nice snooze on the way back to Singapore. Got stuck in a jam (as expected) at JB Customs side all the way to Woodlands. Took us 1hr just to clear immigration and customs at Causeway. Then we were individually dropped off at our homes, with me being the last drop-off as the driver had another pickup in Tampines that early morning.

All in all, it was great to return to Rompin to fish. Although I didn't managed to catch any big fish, was still quite a nice 'holiday' for me and meeting new fishing kakis as well.

I guess that's fishing, some good days and some poor days....