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!