Fishing Noob: March 2008

Venue: Ah Fatt Kelong, Sibu, Malaysia

Group: Richard, Marcus, Lu Cong, Tian Siang, Patrick & Myself

Catches: 2 Grouper, 1 Giant cuttlefish, 1 Sotong, couple of Selars

This trip was initiated by Richard who in the first place was organising for his group of friends back in company. In the end, the same old die hard kakis went when all his friends back out. As usual, we drove in pairs towards the jetty, on the way always left Marcus and Lu Cong lagging behind due to his concern on his Starlet letting him down! I can't help but overtake him even thou I told him I will be the last car....hahaha:o)

Patrick's car leading the way.

Finally reached the car park.

We were picked up soon enough by the boat man and I was the first to dash to the sheltered deck inside the boat. Guess the guys were a bit concern and Lu Cong even offered me sea sick pills! Hahaha:o) We reached the kelong and was slightly disappointed by the operator arrangement, Patrick was told that no one else booked the kelong that day! What bullshit.....we were told to left our stuff at the benches first as we have to wait for some guys to leave the kelong after lunch! It was only later that we realized that a section of their kelong was being renovated.

Happy fishing kakis

Setting up our gears at the benches.

Section of beds under renovation.

A lot of this sign around the kelong which seems transparent to everyone.

We were attracted to the area behind the kitchen when one of the guys got a take on his sabiki jig, his rod was bending to a C shape! When finally pulled the fishes up, there was 2 big eye trevally on his jig! As a COPY fisherman, I took a glimpse of what sabiki he was using, turned out to be the mustard worm jig which I happen to keep a pack. Without further delay, I set up my Shimano bassterra and Daiwa freams 1500 combo to replicate it! Damn....seems like luck not with me after all, gave up after countless empty casts. During this while, the couple who took the same boat with us seems to be pulling in giant Selars one after another, he was using a gigantic pole rod about 15ft at least! He uses tamban fillet fresh from his apollo jig, so simple yet very effective! Judging from his catches, he can sleep the whole day without the need to fish anymore! I had a good take on my bigger hook sabiki jigs when I used Marcus rod. My wrist was struggling to hold onto the rod and the 8 pound loaded cetus 500 on it was no helping at all. The fish dived for the stilts and got stuck, we can see the fish from the deck. Out came Patrick's DIY net, but alas the current was too strong for the net to go deeper without straying away from the fish. It was this during this time that the 8 pound mono line snapped.

The 2 big eye trevallies caught behind the kitchen area.

Mean while, at the opposite end of the kelong, Richard along with Marcus and Lu Cong were having a mini Todak competition! They were challenging each other to see who can catch the longest Todak. Richard was declared the winner with his 10 over pieces of Todak which annoyed me and Patrick as he was using our bait fishes which he took no part in catching. We were leaving them for the night fishing.

Todak champion with his countless catches.

Lu Cong fighting hard to challenge the Todak Killer

Patrick's DIY net to the rescue!

Both Patrick and me were using our yozuri and yamashita squid jig to lure out the squids, however, they were not as plentiful as previous trip. Patrick managed to hook up 1 giant cuttlefish and was crowned the sotong king! Hahaha:o) I lost all my 3 expensive jig to the sea and was rewarded with only a single sotong.*sob sob*

1 and only Sotong.

Patrick's giant cuttlefish

In the night, we had great excitement and fun with some of our catches and mis-catches. First incident was the electronic buzzer which I attached to my 40 pound line set up with the wire leader. When the buzzer goes off, everyone in the vicinity thought Marcus was playing a trick on us. However, when he reacted by yanking the rod backwards, then we realized something was at the end of the line! Patrick who was beside him, took over and despite his effort to thumb down the line, there was no room for him at all to prevent the line from peeling out. In the end, we lost the fish when it dived into the kelong stilts. Next was the ever patience Lu Cong to put on the show, he was the only one who would hold on to his rod while fishing when most of us lazy bum would cast out and parked using the rod holder. After a few nimbles on his line, he reacted by giving a good strike, straight away we can tell that the fish had no chance with Lu Cong. When he pulled up the fellow, we can see a bloated puffer fish on the surface of the sea! It was getting bigger and bigger and by the time we bring it up on deck, it was like a football with spikes...ouch! Hahaha...we had a great laugh and everyone came near to take pictures.

Patrick's improvised net prove to be very useful and effective!

The amazing spiky football

We decided to call it a night at around 1am after no more actions from our rods. Alarm were set to go off at 5am to catch the tide. I was beginning to regret packing light for this trip as I soon realized that the night was damn freezing and the wind was constantly blowing. It reminded me of one of my army field camp where I endured inside a 5-tonner during one of Singapore's history worst rain fall. The difference is I didn't have to endure with wet underwear this time....hahaha:o) It was only after Lu Cong pulled down the canvas that I managed to catch some sleep and do so with half of my mattress raised up against the wall to block off the wind. I must have slept so "soundly" that Lu Cong jokes that he knows that I finally able to sleep. When the alarm goes off at 5am, everyone woke up except Richard who seems more eager to sleep then to fish. We were greeted with a heavy downpour which lasted all the way till lunch. And the catches were poor with the exception of both Tian Siang and Lu Cong who managed to get a grouper each. We ended the trip with couple of beer and coke during lunch.