Fishing Noob: October 2007

Ah Ngan's Kelong 5th to 6th Oct 2007

The night before this trip, preparation stretch to the early morning due to some unforeseen circumstances. Still searching for a steering lock to ease my mind due to the fact that I am going to park my car in a secluded spot in Malaysia. Finally, managed to borrow from my buddy who also happen to have some spare ringgits on hand to exchange with me solving all my problems!

Wake up at 4.30am and took a shower and went down to my car towing all my barang barang. Picked Richard at the MRT, and continue down to Kranji to meet up with the rest of the gang namely Lu Cong & Patrick. After a short greeting, without further delay we cross the checkpoint and took our breakfast at the usual kopi tiam at JB.

We waited for Patrick's other 2 friends, Arther & TC to begin the drive down to Tj Leman jetty. This time with the chatty Richard beside me, time passed quickly and we were there after about 1.5 hrs drive. Was told we were the only ones boarding the boat to Ah Ngan's, was glad we have the whole kelong to ourselves!

The 4 of us from Tech, Canon.

Kelong sign

As soon as we reached, we began setting up our rods. During which one of the kelong helper whom Patrick recognized as a "cuttlefish" expert hooked up a giant cuttlefish! I immediately brought out my new shrimp hunter and cast out, after imitating his action of jerking the rod up and down, I got a hook up soon enough! To my surprise, mine wasn't too small either! I was so happy with my 1st cuttlefish ever caught, and immediately posed for a picture, to my displeasure the cuttlefish gave me a nasty spat all over me!

My 1st cuttlefish.

Closeup with shrimp hunter in pink.
After a few more cast with no more hookup, we returned back under the roof whom the kelong operator Ah Ngan himself taught me a few rigs to tie for different tides. Sure am impressed with his eagerness to impart his skill to me! Armed with his arsenal of rigs & hooks, we set off for our boat trip. Eagerly anticipating this moment since the last kelong trip we did not manage to get to one due to foul weather! However, to my horror, I started to regret getting on the boat. Richard was the 1st to surrender when he started series of vomitting! Soon enough I too gave up and retired onto the platform to rest. However, due to the 45 degree rocking from side to side, no comfort whatsoever lying down.....turn out to be the worst nightmare for me, paying $ to suffer! It couldn't be any worst when none of us caught anything bigger than our palm. Must salute the rest of the gang Patrick, Arthur & Lu Cong for not feeling any impact at all when they continue fishing as if on land! What a relief it was when finally the boatman announced that we are going back to the kelong after 5 hrs of solid rocking!

I declared there and then that no amount of money would bring me back to boat fishing after this nasty experience! Patrick, if you are reading this, my boat rod is up for sale!

After a refreshing shower, took only a few mouthful of rice still recovering from the aftershock! Went back to catch more cuttlefish and squids which was aplenty as told by the boatman as the season is in. The sotong expert was also very eager to impart his secret skill to me, snip my rig to the correct length and modding the hook. It was indeed very effective, because after that I caught one after another, landing about 15 pieces overall. When the squid are no more biting, I went back to our bunk and found all 3 had already knocked out!

Woke up at 4am to continue squidding as it seems like that is the most productive on this trip. Arthur began to have continuous hook up on his lure, I was so jealous that I too switched to my yozuri and started flinging away! To my dismay, that's the last time I ever see my precious lure....

Went back to my squidding and the yamashita jig is still very effective after the expert modded it, landed 3 pieces and decided to call it a day. Washed up the gears and catches, as we prepare for lunch and the boat ride home.

view of the kelong from boat.

Richard & Lu Cong.

Puffer caught by Arthur.

2 dead merlion.

arrow squid

1 of many to come!

swimming around.

packed and ready to go.

28th Sep
Started the morning early, went straight down to meet up with Richard. Brought us to a nice little coffeeshop, ordered each one set of chee cheong fun and cup of famous Ipoh white coffee! As we are not very sure of the location of our adventure, we immediately set off without delay to our destination, kg. galah. Armed with my photocopied map, we some how missed the entry point to the pond. We over shoot quite a distance and reached a malay kumpung, luckily we ended up at a fishing takle shop, thinking that the owner sure know where we heading! He told us to look out for a mosque for indication to turn, however, there are many mosque along the way! Richard again make a call to his ever trustworthy friend, and with his prompt, we managed to locate the entry point with a little petrol sign(handwritten). Now we are finally on our way!

The route into the pond was full of port holes! We stopped counting at 30, and managed to snake our way deep alongside into the palm plantation. The sun was blazing down at us when we reached the pond, it look exactly as it should be from the map. We quickly setup our rod and put on the farmer hat to shield our brain from being cooked! After a few cast, my rod caught a little PB. It was a motivating sight, as we were only there for half and hour. However, after that catch, all 3 of us never get any bite at all, and the sun was unbearable. We decided to recce further in to look for potential site, came across 2 malay chaps seeking shelter under the tree. They are hunting for toman. We went back to our 1st site after recce and met more fishing kakis, we greeted them and asked them for any tips. They were quick to add that the PB will only start biting after 7pm, which we can't stay that late. Despite the trip did not haul many fishes as we would like to have, I must admit that I enjoy it very much. We will definitely return another day to have another go! Yeah!