Sabah, KK June 18 - 21

The boat that we were supposed to be on broke down the day before the trip and so had to change to a bigger, more comfortable boat but with a relatively new and inexperience captain. The weather was kind of choppy initially but in the last 2 days was almost mirror calm.

The catch is not fantastic at all. The photo may show alot of fishes but believe me the catch rate was poor; 3 of the 6 anglers caught very few fishes. The biggest scale fish (not inclusive of tenggiris) was a 6 over kg red emperor by me. I also caught 4 of the 7 tenggiris landed.

Lengthy

Found this picture at a webby. I am not the jigging type and so this jig is just mind-blowing.

Changi 19th May

Five of us, Frank, Daryl, Preston, Robert and I went on Ah Chong's boat. We had a lot of laughters with a hosts of original and creative humor and fun making but the catch is one of the poorest I ever have on Boat 681.

Catch:
1 snapper of about 800 gm
1 small grouper
3 other not to mention kind of tiny whinny fishes

Sabah June 18

I just managed to confirm a Sabah trip after much searching for anglers and boatman. I sure hope that all the effort will pay off. I am not asking much, just 10 fishes above 10 kg and a 'one drop one bite' experience for all and off course mirror calm sea. A repeat of my first trip experience would suffice. But as they say first love is irreplaceable. Now what is left is to pray and wait for the magic moments to come. I love Sabah .... if the fishes are biting that is ....

A Long Local Offshore Trip

I had an interesting trip with Adrian, Mark and Alvin. We were on board Osman boat and fishing around the Southern Island area. It was the longest local offshore trip I had - we started at 6.30 pm on Saturday and came back to shore on Sunday at about 3 pm. It was also a heavy sinker trip, I was fishing 2 size 18 sinkers at one stage and 1 size 18 sinker for a good part of the trip. The catch was not good for the amount of time we spent but I must say that I had the best catch rate .....I guess I am pretty blessed when it comes to fishing. Good baits were apparently important, we had very few squids, the jew fish was caught on a life mullet and the queen fish on a dead but fresh 'kelong chi'. The fishes:

1. 3 golden snappers about a kg plus - 2 were by me
2. 2 grunters - 1 by me
3. 1 jew fish of about 4-5 kg by Adrian
4. 1 queen fish of about 4-5 kg by me
5. 1 ray of about 1kg
6. 1 huge malong eel
7. 3 sweetlips of about a kg each (1 by me)

Photo by Mark.

No Sea Pond Will Do

I was at Kranji Pond last saturday again ..... There were five guys and at the end of the 3 hours I caught 5 fishes and the rest zero. Francis was so fed-up that he left after 2 hours.

Kranji Pond Again

Nothing to shout about. Only 9 fishes in 3 hours and broke my previous record of 8.

Pond Again

I went early in the morning to the Kranji Pond. I was the only one and had the pond all to myself. For the first 45 minutes or so there was not a single bite, then I caught a GT (Sagai) of about 2 kg, it put up an impressive fight and took me a while to subdue it. I decided to let it go as it is not a nice eating fish. Then up came a 4 over kg barramundi and followed by 3 snappers and a grouper. It is a good morning indeed but I still long for the sea.

Grunters & Grunters

Francis & I took leave today and went fishing at the Changi area with Ah Chong. We fished mostly at the ship channels. Nothing fantastics but I caught most of the fishes. Francis fishing quota ran out and he managed to catch only one grunter.

The Missing Boatman

Last saturday (4/03/07), Daryl, Frank, Adrain, Seng Chee and I were supposed to board Zainol's boat to fish the Tekong and Naval Base areas but guess what? The boatman Zainol did not turn up, I called him close to 50 times and he did not pick up his phone and later on the phone was switched off.

Nevertheless, we found a small boat that was willing to bring us fishing behind Tekong (Seng Chee dropped out) and we caught about 25 small fishes, the biggest being a flat-head of about a kg.

The next day the boatman, Zainol sent me a message giving a dubious and quite unbelievable excuse. I guess this is one boatman that I will not patronize again.

Interesting Bait Rigging

I understand that this is effective for big snapper. Will it work with Singapore snapper?

Sewing

Found this from some webby, I think in this part of the world we don't do enough sewing of our baits. Now where am I going to get a chance to try this out? At the pond with a tamban?

Catch With A Prize

After work, I went to punggol pond with the intention of fishing for an hour or so before heading home and I caught a 2.5 kg grouper that was tagged (a chinese new year promotion) that came with a $58 prize money (see the red packet in my pocket). In addition, I caught 4 'drum-fish' of about a kg each and all that in less than 2 hours. I am happy!

Lost and Found

I had a dismay trip with Ricky on the eve of the Lunar New Year and so decided to seek some satisfaction at the pond. I was early, in fact the only one at the pond at that time. I spinned at the usual spots but my labor was not rewarded at all. I then decided to try out the unpredictable spot at the central cage and again there was no result after two spins. I decided to cast and park and take a break. As I was putting the rod into the rod-holder there was a violent pull and as I was totally unprepared the whole rod flew into the water and disappeared.

To cut the story short, a friend came along and I borrowed his rod and landed one snapper and to my amazement at the next cast I managed to retrieve my rod, the line had burst but the rod and reel was in working condition. The rest of the fishes were caught with my lost but found rod. I caught a total of six fishes; one was given away (not in the picture). I lost 3 barramundi on the fight but I will be back ……..

Changi With Ah Chong 9/2/2007

Took leave and went with Frank and another 3 guys to bottom-bash Changi. We caught 28 fishes but alas they are really small. The biggest is a sweet-lip of about 1kg not counting the almost almost 2 kg catfish I caught. Anway the campany is great.

Another 3 Hours At The Pond

Nothing much but quite satisfying.

Good Time & Good Buddies

A Late Catch Report

SSL10272, originally uploaded by HenryKoh.

This was a Sabah trip in September 2005. It was a very disappointing trip for me, given the hype and anticipation of 'one drop one bite' fishing in Sabah. The weather is the culprit; it was too rough and makes it impossible to fish at the trench. The fishes for some reason were not biting at the shallower water. 6 out of 8, not including were suffering from seasickness. Infact one guy slept for at least 90% of the trip. I was sleeping much more than my usual; just too depress to get up and fish. Will I go back again? Likely, but next time it will be with less expectation and longing.

Not Bad For 3 Hours

No chance to fish the sea and thus decided to try the pond instead. Eight fishes for 3 hour is not bad I guess. The secret I guess is to work hard - spin here and spin there!

Changi By Night

Last Friday (19/1/07), Daryl, 2 other guys and I went on a night boat trip to the changi and tekong area hoping to catch the remnants of the red snappers that escaped from the fish farm. Ours was the only fishing boat in sight and the reason became obvious over time – the fishes were not there or were not biting.

The result of one sleepless night:

8 red snappers (500 gram or smaller)
2 sub kg golden snapper
1 x 500 gram grouper
A few small eels and catfishes

Mekong Catfish

I have not posted here for a long while basically because I have not been fishing and that's another story altogether. Anyway I was at the latest catch and release pond in Singapore to try out the infamous mekong catfish. I managed to hook one that is about 20kg on a short rod of about 4.5 feet and a small 1000 equivalent reel loaded with 15lb fireline. It put up an impressive tug of war.

category: catch report