July 2nd to 5th 2010 - 4D3N Jarak Waters

Time flies, the last time I went to Pulau Jarak waters was end of September, 2009.

I remember I called the skipper not long after I got back from the September trip, inquiring on possible dates of future fishing trips. I was told then weekends on January to May of 2010 were fully booked, and the earliest weekend I could consider was July 2-5 2010. Not long after that, my mum got consecutive strokes and I was not able to think about fishing.

The Chinese dates for July 2-5 2010 is 21st to 24th; it gonna be moving current but not fast. Current will dies down on 25th or 26th. In my September trip last year, catch stats of spots we visited were recorded; species and size, number of drifts made, including terrain of seabed. For this trip around, I shall omit visit to spots there were far from the route connecting group of spots for fuel saving reason. There are few spots that are far from Bagan Dato' to the north, further from Pantai Remis which registered as good grouper spots. Now I am hesitating to ask skipper Ah Ho to make a survey to there because of the distance.

Update on May 24 2010

The date is approaching and I texted Ah Ho last week to confirm my July trip. Earlier this morning I received reply from him saying the trip is confirmed. Seems that he is extremely busy with his schedule and could not find a slot to respond to my email to him asking about the route arrangement.

Does angler really needs to "reconfirm" their fishing trip? Absolutely yes. I experienced 3 fishing trips being canceled because skipper made double bookings on good current dates. All these badly managed trips bookings were booked on ... eh hemmmm ... 2 Lumut fishing charters and 1 from Sg. Besar.

Trip Report

We were hit by Northwest wind during the trip. In fact I was warned by the skipper couple of days before the trip, that the sea condition would not be friendly. We moved out from Jarak island on 2nd day morning, and sea was calmer. With low bite rates, after we did drift jigging on 2 spots, I knew our plan to test those spots with good bite record has to be changed.

We revisited Black Ditch for jigging, and got 6 bites in 5 drifts. Boat mates topped up the ice box with kerapu minyak, cobias, not including an escaped 4kg-ish mackerel. Not a bad catch, but no where comparable with the bite rates on the same spot 10 months ago.

Nevertheless, golden snapper frenzy in the 2nd night make up the trip pretty much, where total boat catch in 5 hours fishing is 18 ang chor, range from 3lb to 15lb, as read from the scaled lip grip.

Cheong with a 4kg-ish grouper

My 1st ang chor, follow by the 2nd bout half an hour after. A 11lb fella if I remember correctly. The current was moving but mild on the 2nd night, with sinker size 720 kept still in the sea.
We have 1 electric reel user and 2 manual reel users placed at the back. During the hot hours, all bites were registered only at the rear end offers.
We brought live mantis prawn from Tanjung Karang, as standby live bait should the bait fishes are not sufficient. The general observation was, bigger target fish will took live bait fish, with live mantis prawn offers are just placed side by side. Bait fishes were aplenty from nearby Fish Attraction Device, or "unjam" as local called it. We gotten bait fishes of indian mackerel, yellow tail scad, round scad and others. Hook size used were aproximately 25mm in hook opening, as the striking path upon hook setting will be wider with bigger hook opening. Hook body shall be slim, so as the liveliness of bait fish would be prolonged with a smaller wound. When an electric reel is used, the drag and speed of the reel shall be lowered, rightly sufficient to set the hook and hauled the fish up. Excessive strong drag and high speed setting will break the slim hook if you are lucky to set hook on a whooper, and lost the fish unskillfully with a broken hook.

Golden snapper has got no cutting teeth, I am fine with a standard 60 lb rated elcheapo mono as leader. A broken mono because of fish bites were normal, suspiciously barracuda came for my live bait. Perhaps a short length of wire would increase the chance revealing the real identity of the culprit.

My 2nd goldie. A 9lb I think.

I use 2 hooks on a bait fish, as I observe the favorite biting area of the golden snapper varies.

A 2kg-ish grouper on jig

A new outfit, first in use, and possesses some luck, obviously

A 15lb goldie, landed at the rear end.

A 12lb goldie.

Another golden snapper.

The tide changed at 4am on the second night, and fellow boatmate only got to fish till 5am after the skipper repark the boat, later which we were hit by strong Northwest and the skipper went for shelter behind Jarak island.

Angler CK with his ang chor.