Date: 16th Jan 2009

Venue: TMJ Paypond (0900 to 1600)
Group: Marcus, Lu Cong, Richard & Myself
Catch: 4 KBL & 4 Snapper

Its been a while since the guys gather for fishing, and since Marcus who missed the last kelong session wanted to cure his itch, we decided to visit our favourite(easily accessible) paypond. I went to the wet market to buy some tambams which was in abundance, rare sight as usually none of the stalls would have them. Reached the pond around 9am, and thankfully only 2 shelter was taken up, meaning the pond would not be crowded, another reason why we always choose weekdays to visit paypond. Set up using the tamban and started combing the area with my trusty shakespeares 5ft and zauber vs700 combo. After changing a few location and repeated casting, no bites at all. Seems like the kbl are in lazy mode, not wanting to chase any preys. No choice but to buy 100grams of live prawns and hook them to the tmj pond killer double hook floater rig. Richard soon arrived and followed by Marcus, both of them seems to be more interested in chatting then in fishing....hahaha. The weather was damn hot and the sun shone blazingly, we were very reluctant to move around to find spot. Kept to the last pump of the pond and cast near the edge where usually there will be fish lurking to prounce on any drifting live prawn. We don't have to wait long before the 1st kbl took the bait. Lu Cong came in the afternoon with our lunch, and we had a quick lunch before resuming the fishing. Lu Cong decided to try his luck at the 1st pump where the cages were, none was taking the tamban bait. He decided to buy more prawns at the counter when I walk over and joined him at his spot. Saw his rod shaken and quickly give a tug to set the hook, no escape from it as the bait was swallowed. Pulled up a medium sized snapper and we quickly switched to using dead prawn as bait which proved to be very effective against snapper. We were rewarded with another 3 more pieces and 1 of it caught by Marcus was a nice specimen with red colouring! After that short frenzy, no more takes, and we retired to the last pump and continue our edge fishing. Lost 2 and brought up another 3 kbls at that spot and happily packed for home.


Total catches, 4 kbls and 4 snappers

Date: 5th Dec 2008, 0830hrs to 1530hrs
Venue: Taman Jurong Paypond
Group: Lu Cong, Richard & Myself
Catch: 6 KBL

Decided to pay tmj a visit since during the last kelong trip, I managed to keep some tambans. It will be a good bait for the kbls which is proven by the regulars there. I reached the pond at 0830hrs and started casting with the tamban single hook set up. Within a few cast, the hungry kbl couldn't resist my tasty breakfast, and soon was landed my me. I continued casting with the tambans and I don't have to wait long before the 2nd and 3rd kbl landed. Lu Cong arrived at about 10 plus with my breakfast, it was one of my favourite meatball noodles from 888! Brought some prawns from the pond operator and tried float fishing using the tmj rig which everyone is using. Not much action, and soon Richard came with our lunch, chicken rice. Pass the rod to him to try his luck, which was also lacking. Our neighbouring guys was reeling in the kbls one after another to our disbelief, the last humiliating blow was when he managed to hook 2 kbls in one go, not once but 2 times! OMG.....we were really down on our luck. Before the end of the session, both Lu Cong and Richard managed to catch another 3 pieces to save our faces.


Total catch of the day.

Ah Fatt Kelong - 28th to 29th Nov 2008

Date : 28th - 29th Nov 2008
Venue: Ah Fatt Kelong
Group: John, Francis, Kelvin, Angie, Jame's family(Jame's Mom,Lauren,Sarah & Isabelle) & Myself
Catch: 4 arrow squids, 1 green eye squid, lots of Big Eye

Finally managed to organize this kelong trip after several failed attempts due to the guys work commitments. Reminded them to be punctual as we will be travelling in 3 cars and I was still not 100% sure of the route despite having drove there countless times. When I reached the rendezvous point at Kranji Mrt station, both Kelvin and James are already waiting there. After a quick briefing, we proceed to clear the traffic-less custom. Went on to the petrol kiosk to buy some more drinks and titbits, and proceed on to our next destination for breakfast.
With my newly appointed co-driver Francis beside me, we managed to reach our breakfast stop over at Qiang Ji Bak Gu Teh. And no surprise, the place isn't open for business yet, as we are there too early at about 7am. We decided to wait for them to prepare the food as from my experience, the food at TJ Leman jetty doesn't really taste good. When the food was served, can see everyone satisfied face, well worth the waiting.

Our 3 cars convoy

Qiang Ji Bak Gu Teh

Auntie taking our order

Bak Gu Teh

Pig stomach

We proceed on after consuming our breakfast, and relying on my fishing kaki Patrick's hand drawn map, we reached the jetty ahead of time. We have to wait for another group which was late, and finally board the boat when they arrived, and took the leisurely calm ride to the kelong. Thankfully, the kelong was not congested with people as was told to me. They were not very truthful on this part of the deal from my previous trips. We were quickly assigned our beds and got the "sea view" section, nice......


Ah Fatt Kelong

Seaview beds section

After settled down, I quickly set up the rods to start fishing, pass the set up to Kelvin and francis with the sabikis. They were pretty efficient bringing up the bait fishes! Without delay, I quickly use the live bait and cast out using the drifting method which I learned from my last boat trip. I don't have to wait for long when my 7" connosiuer bend and a todak was on the end of it. It gave a few acrobatic jump out of the water and can see it was quite a size. After pulling it up and took some pictures, the todak was release back into the sea. Come to think of it, it was my 1st todak from all my kelong trips, as I wasn't really into them as they don't really taste good.


Todak taking the floating "live" bait

Lunch was served

After the todak, the lunch bell went off, as usual the food was well prepared and everyone tuck in. The weather was holding well, in fact it was quite hot during the day. Everyone got their sunblock applied. We continue to bring up the baitfishes but my battery power pump was pathetic, can't really support the fishes in the pail. We didn't catch any sizable fish during the day as we waited for the sun to set.


James and Kelvin working hard to fill the pail with baitfishes!

Out came our yamashitas and shrimphunter when evening approached, I was targetting the squid this trip as it should be in season. On my shrimphunter, I managed to hook 1 small green eye squid. I was damn happy as it has been quite some time since I last got a squid! I thought the evening will be busy after the 1st catch, but alas it wasn't that amazing. My worst thoughts came true when James suddenly came over to me and apologize repeatedly after I came out from the showers. Arghh....my shrimphunter has been donated to the seas. Took the remaining yamashitas and continue jigging, one after another they too decided to stay in the seas rather than my tackle box....kaoz....


The beautiful sunset.....

After dinner, everyone was back to the sabikis to try to get some fishes, but only small bait fishes was interested to know what its like breathing air out of the water. Caught quite number of good size tambans, which I intend to use them at the local paypond. At about 10pm, John, kelvin and Angie decided to retire to bed while James, Francis, Lauren and myself continue on. Our perseverance paid off when we hit on the arrow squid spot, saw a bunch of them near the surface chasing our one and only yamashita and a sure catch lure. I was proven wrong by Lauren when I told her the green coloured surecatch lure couldn't catch any squid. She pulled 1 up in front of me....geez....why spent $16 bucks on a shrimphunter huh? We landed a total 4 arrow squids at this spot. After the squid wasn't interested anymore, I took the sabikis and target the fishes which was seen in the same spot, to my delight it was a school of Big eyes! I was energized by this sudden frenzy, hook up a few on my sabikis but the frenzy went off as quickly as it came.


Dinner was served

The spot where the arrow squid is lurking!

The 1st arrow squid landed.

James getting into the action!

Lauren getting one with the green lure...amazing!

Decided to move to the area beside the kitchen, saw many people gathered around, they were filling up the pails with big eyes! Shit....how can I miss this frenzy! Immediately changed to the big eye flavour of the the month sabikis and start fishing away. We managed a few pieces and some of them were quite big, and continue fishing till 1:45am.

Star fish caught by our neighbours

Next morning not much fishing as the sun was seemingly burning much hotter than the 1st day. We decided to pack up and wait for lunch. We can see lots of people coming aboard the kelong and the guys was relieved that we don't need to juggle space with them since we are leaving after lunch. It reiterate the fact that going kelong on a weekday confirm is a right choice.


Beautiful sunrise!

Lunch was served before heading back

Bye bye Kelong

After the crowded lunch, we took the boat back to the mainland and proceed our way home. This time we took the 2nd link as Kelvin 6th sense tell him that woodlands custom will be jam due to the holidays. I had a edgy moment when my fuel indicator was very near to the empty bar when we were still in the middle of the oil palm platation. Afraid that my car would run out of petrol, I decided to stop at the next nearest petrol kiosk instead of the one at 2nd link as agreed upon with the guys. We got caught for 1 hour at the jam and it could have been worse at woodlands. Overall, the trip was quite enjoyable with the guys and my worries of the kids was unfounded. Great feeling everyone was enjoying themselves except maybe Angie, she spent the 2 day 1 night eat sleep eat sleep....hahaha.

Sedili Boat Fishing

Date: 1st Nov 2008
Venue: Sedili Offshore
Group: Patrick, Marcus, Lu Cong,Thiang Siang & Myself
Catch: 1 Tuna, 1 Queenie , 1 "cowtail" Fish, 2 Rabbit Fish, lots of Selars

This trip was organized by none other than the seasoned fisho Patrick. The thought of the last boat fishing constantly came to mind, but in the end decided to go along with it. This time however, did prepare many ginger flavoured titbits and raw ginger too. All these effort made was in the hope that the merlion will not follow us this time round.

As we need to reach the jetty at 7am, we went in jb the night before to rest at Thiang Siang's home. By the time we settled down after late supper, it was way past 1am. And we have to get up by 4.30am to meet up with Patrick at his in-laws place also in jb. Turned out none of us able to get a good rest with the exception of Marcus who claim he did managed to doze off. Thiang Siang being at his own house too couldn't get a good sleep! He was too excited about the trip......hahaha
The alarm soon sounded to the relief of Thiang Siang & Lu Cong, both of them couldn't sleep at all. We meet up with Patrick and drove to nearby 7-11 to get our ice, food and drinks for the day. Next was to collect our live prawn on the way to the jetty, saw a few fishing kakis there who were also going to Sedili for fishing. As the boatman we indent had a poor reputation among the regulars, it was some how comforting to hear from them that it do depends on luck. We reached the jetty on time and immediately called up our boatman, the weather was glooming with dark clouds, but thankfully it went away as soon as it came.


The carpark was quite small.

The jetty view

Unloading our stuff, waiting for the boat.

The team happily posed for pictures!

We quickly boarded our battleship and posed for pictures, before the mood dampen with the merlion spirit! We started preparing our rods setup and chatted how each of us gonna get the biggies, after an hour or less we reached our 1st spot.
Can't wait to fish!
The 1st spot was quite promising, Lu Cong was able to hook up a almost 2kg temmengong, good fight he had with it! The boatman assistant was eagerly hooking up lots of selars and soon I joined in the fray! It can be quite addictive to see your sabikis loaded with selars everytime it was pulled up! Soon the bait well was full with selars!



The 2kg Queenie

Small queenies eagerly snatching at the sabikis as soon as it touches water!

After the frenzy die down, we moved to our 2nd spot. This time, we encounter lots of bait stealers, nibbling away at our live prawn. I managed to hook up 2 palm sized rabbit fish which is bigger than those I used to foul hook at kelongs! Next came the only set back of the trip, our anchor was stuck at the bottom of the sea bed, tried as they might, the anchor was not giving way! The guys took this 1 hr break to catch a little nap while the poor chap and his assistant continue their tug of war with the anchor.


So tired....zzzz.....zzzz...

After the short nap, we soon reached our 3rd spot. The selars taking the sabikis were not as big as they were from our 1st spot, soon we shifted to our last spot and the climax of the trip! The tuna was spotted splashing on the surface. The bait fishes were coming in like a production line, and we were at first blur blur on why the boatman was supplying us with so many tambams....Soon we were enlighten by the boatman with his method of tying the live tambam and the jig to catch the tunas, it was so simple and yet pretty effective! The live tambams were able to swim out and provide a good tempting meal to the tunas!
All our rods were deployed and waited eagerly, it was then that Patrick's reel started screaming...fight is on! After a 5 minute fight, the 3kg tuna was landed, this make us even more excited and the thought of getting more tunas had us all engrossed in the waiting game...we
remained silent for a couple of minutes...but alas that Patrick's tuna proved to be the one and only...sigh...we signal to our boatman and call it a day.

Patrick's tuna!

It was already dark when we reached the jetty.

"cowtail" fish and the rabbits.

Our total catch minus the tuna(inside our stomach)

Overall, this trip was considerably a good outing, with only Thiang Siang suffering from sight seasickness. This certainly boost my confidence for future boat fishing trips!

Ah Ngan Kelong 26th ~ 27th Sep 2008

Date: 26th ~ 27th Sep 2008
Venue: Ah Ngan's Kelong
Group: Lu Cong, Ah Kee, Patrick & Myself
Catch : The usual bait fishes

Thinking the sotong and the giant cuttlefish should be in season already, Patrick and I was eager to visit our favourite kelong to catch them to our hearts content. This time round, Ah Kee was able to join us finally when he got a rare break from work. This time round, breakfast was a big and hearty one at Ah Qiang Bak Gu Teh at the halfway point to the jetty. This has become Patrick's favourite stall, making it a must stop for every kelong trip. Reached the now so familiar sight of the jetty and boat, then the kelong. And the kelong employees seem to have a few new faces, 2 very young chap from Myanmar. They were very energetic and was seen carrying out their duties quite diligently unlike those old birds. The fishing begun with the usual sabiki combo to get some live baits, the tambans seem to be playing hide and seek with us, only managed to hook up a few pieces. They were quickly transfered to Patrick's live bait pail and a few were immediately casted out through Ah Kee's rod. No action for the whole morning, and had a uncomfortable lunch sharing with a bunch of guys, no appetite at all. This reminded us again to come in bigger group next time so that we won't be sharing food with strangers anymore. Looked around the kitchen area for the rabbits but found them too small to our liking, hence we did not bring out our trusty hand line with the treble hooks. The sun was glaring down and was truly unbearable, Lu Cong, Kee and me decided to hide underneath the kelong floors to hunt for our elusive grouper. We ended up feeding the bait fishes, nothing caught. Dinner came and more fishing followed, I was eager to try out the secret to parang luring. However, the whole stretch was occupied, not much space to cast. After a few casts, my rod together with my morale retired back to the bed. Next came my sotong combo rod, the trusty yamashitas in bright orange colour. Covered the entire kelong, no signs of any squid lurking around. This sums up the whole fishing situation for this trip. Nonetheless, enjoy a short break from the usual routine. Am so tempted to try out boat fishing again after having so many fishless trips......but in my heart still recalling the dreaded seasickness feeling...totally unbearable!



The familiar site at the jetty

The gang on the boat.

Lu Cong hunting for the elusive grouper!

still waiting patiently...

Patrick preparing his baits to get the bait fish?!

Lets give up and pack up....

Futsal@East Coast

Date: 26-07-2008

Venue: East Coast Futsal Pitch 4

Group: Leslie, Jyh, Eddie, Lim, Myself, Imran & his 3 friends

Our organizer for this 2 hrs night exercise was none other than Leslie & co-organizer Jyh. Soon the news spread thru the Canon camp, managed to gather more players to join in the work out. As the co-organizer Jyh sms me that kick off time is 9pm, and not reached there by 9pm, I was very ON, and really reached the venue early. Only to find out that the guys are no where to be seen.

When the guys finally arrived, we did a quick 10mins warm up and immediately started the match with 4 vs 3 initially. Jyh was very energetic, dribble the ball stick to his feet. Leslie was keen to run up and down the whole stretch of the pit but his finishes let him down. Eddie was a natural but he too was panting away after about 30mins into the game. Lim was a surprise when he showed that he too can kick a ball despite his bookworm look. The only exception is Imran and his kakis, they sure have the skills and stamina. Can tell they "let water" after seeing how amatuer we are kicking the ball. I was flying and leaping, scissor & bicycle all came out, but in the end no goals to my name....

Nonetheless, enjoy the game and the work out, its been a while since I last put on a drenched shirt. Hope to have more regular session to burn out the excess baggage.

the futsal kakis

Hotboys Kelong

Date : 11 to 12 July 2008

Venue : Sibu Hotboys Kelong

Group : Marcus, Richard, Kar Seng, Patrick & Myself

Catch : 1 squid, 3 Todaks

Well, after a long break from kelong fishing, decided to go and relive that kelong fishing feeling again. Rounded up a few kakis including our new member Kar Seng who wasn't really into fishing but more of netting! Richard suggested Hotboys kelong since we been to Ah Ngan's and Ah Fatt's Kelong before, he wanted a new experience. Reluctantly, both Patrick and myself go with it despite our heart telling us otherwise.

As we were anticipating some traffic hold up at the causeway, this time we decided to meet at a damn bloody early hours of 5am at Kranji. I have to wake up at 4am and pick the guys up to meet Patrick. To our surprise, we cleared the custom in a puff of smoke. Richard begun his whinning on having to wake up so early and directed all ammo at our dear Patrick-san who obviously suggested to meet this early.

Our usual kopitiam for breakfast was closed for renovation, thus we have to move to the next junction for our breakfast. The Char Kuay Tiao ordered by Patrick tasted delicious, while most of us stick to the usual wanton mee which sucks.....

We reached Tanjong Leman Jetty at 8am, still got an hour or so to kill before the boatman come. Richard decided to catch spider to kill time, and he did got 2 males to fight it out. It was a dull match as the spiders didn't really put up a long fight. It was over in a matter of seconds....both males were released unharmed back to their habitats.

Spider fighting

Finally we board the boat at about 10am, and were quickly led to our bed when we reached the kelong. First impression was the place was clean, and luckily not many people on board.

We set up and went to the kitchen area immediately to catch some rabbit fish. The potatoes were put to good use as bait to lure the rabbit fish close to our treble hooks hand line. Yes......we didn't fish them, we foul hook them! There were a few good size ones swimming around, but they were not interested in our potatoes at all.

Rabbit foul hooking

In the afternoon, there was a big group of 20 plus teens coming onboard. I overheard one of the lady asking the kelong helper where can she swim....omg....she must be either damn good swimmer or a dork! The ladies was a distraction to Richard, who can't help to look over every once a while. With the group joining, we lost all hope of fishing, not even tambans want to be caught by us. Whole day of jigging with the apollo jigs, only miss wong, miss wong, and more miss wong. Patrick and myself was targeting the elusive squid, which our yamashitas, yozuris all out in full force, but alas, nothing was caught. Richard as usual hook up a few todaks for enjoyment.

Todak killer lives up to his reputation!

Kar Seng taking over from Richard's todak rod

Richard who haven't recovered from his flu was the 1st to retire to bed, follow by Patrick, Marcus and Kar Seng. Unbelievable, they actually slept at 9.30pm!! I continued to try my luck with the squid, but after 2 hrs of no action. I too gave up and went to bed.

We woke up the next morning and informed the helper of our intention to get out of this place at the earliest possible boat, we were disappointed with the catch and the lousy meals they serve. We were made to eat strangers salivas at one of the meal sitting which made the experience even more worst.

The dishes served

On the way back to Singapore, we stopped over at the infamous bak gu teh stall. The soup was very nice indeed but the meat wasn't that soft. Richard explained that most Malaysians like it that way. At the causeway, we were stuck for an hour. And by the time I sent everyone back, it was already 4pm before I finally reach home. Home sweet home......