July 4-5 - Pekan

I took my colleague fishing some 2 months back and seems that they got hooked on it. Just few weeks back our office got awarded with a job in Saudi and I said we shall make another trip to Pekan before they mobilize to Saudi.

So the trip is now set with ikan masin and we gonna take the blue (bigger) boat, as that is the last boat remain vacant.

Update: 7 of us boarded charter kiam hu boat with skipper Mat as the captain. On the 1st day out we were targeting on squid and apollo (sabiki). We caught some 10kg of squid, mostly small size squid with typical weight around 200g each. Strange thing was the kembong fish were no where to be seen but the big eye kembong.

On 2nd day the renown skipper Azahar took us out and we went to unjam at some 20nm from shore. Probably because of the distance from shore, squid were bigger in size and obviously the youngsters on board got good time with the catch. We caught few chicken fishes (trigger fish) too for our dinner.

I did not do much fishing because of space constraint. Fishing generally were bad; we were hit by south wind and white cap waves at height of 1.5m were there, causing few newbies went flat and completely silent.

However, 7 of us had good time with flower crabs, local Pekan durian and chicken fish cooked at restaurant.

I was thinking then, 2 more weeks I shall come back to Pekan for a serious fishing trip.

July 17-18 - Pekan

Got a fishing trip to Pekan planned on this date.
There gonna be 4 of us; Derrick, Kelvin, Ryan and the humble me going. Counting the getting-less days, start from now.

Update: Well, the trip was over and guys on board had fun, especially on the first day out. I shall wait till fellow boatmates have their catch photos sent to me, and I shall post the catch report.

One of my fishng buddies, Ryan, continue his fishing on Monday and Tuesday after our trip on Friday and Saturday. The 2nd team was rewarded with good size ebek (local name of diamond trevally). Ryan got his catch photos sent to me to be posted here.

Ryan with his 9.6kg diamond trevally

Most of the ebek were caught with live prawn and squid head baiting. Only 1 or 2 were caught on jigging.

Same fish with different posting I guess ...

Catches Display for 2 days

Coral grouper, or Kerapu Minyak as local call it.

Ryan passed few of these to me and it tastes simply awesome, served steam.

The group with their catches

Before the trip day, Derrick called me and saying we shall have another angler, Thum, that will join us. So 4 of us drove to Pekan and arrived around 1am. Ryan who was in Pekan earlier with his wife join us for late supper at the ikan bakar shop. I slept at 3am that night, after the usual angler chat about custom rod, reels and what not.

It was the most hardworking skipper Ah Boy who took us out on the 1st day.

We tried jigging at coral area but yield nothing significant. However, at one time, angler Ryan was rewarded with consecutive catch of emperor fish using prawn and squid slice on jig. I was waiting patiently with my crab bait but nothing came for it.

At that spot, Doctor Kelvin got his most handsome catch, a 1kg++ grouper.

A very nice size of kerapu minyak by Doctor Kelvin

We changed spots for few times and when we reached the spot which we knew will be our last chapter for the first day fishing, it was already late 4pm. The sea condition was not perfectly calm, with south wind rock the boat mildly. After about 30 minutes I worked on my elcheapo jig, something came for it ...

Me with a diamond trevally (ebek) on the other end

Cannot believe the size of this ebek when she was landed ... on steroid

After this ebek, we were hit by ebek about 7 times, on jigs and on live prawn.

It was Thum's turn after mine.

He was under a bit of fear factor as he got about 150m line in his spool, and line been stripped like they will stop only by tomorrow. Eventually he landed it and the whole boat went applause applause...

Thum with his 9++kg ebek ... look at the big grin ... hahaha

Kelvin Fire Tiger with ebek ON !!

Then, Kelvin Fire Tiger's turn, with about 230m of PE3 line, the RUN was stoppable finally.

Doctor Kelvin with his 10kg-ish ebek. Awesome ... awesome ... awesome ...

The most experience angler on the whole boat at Pekan waters, Ryan, hold the ebek and requested for a photo snap. He said it has been 2 years since his last ebek frenzy at Pekan waters.

Total catch on first day out

We went for dinner that night at restaurant sri pekan, and have very nice sea food.

Nyonya style steam trigger fish (or chicken fish as some call it) ... Yummy

Garlic Steam Parrot Fish


Oopps...broken teeth

On the second day uncle ikan masin took us out targeting at parrot fish. The usual spots that were productive did not seems to produce any bite. We changed few spots after that but situation was not improving at all. When the targeted fish did not response to our bait and jigs, we switched to squid and had some fun at unjam.

While fishing for squid, we saw school of trigger fish chased at squid that have been hooked and trigger fish rig then was sinked (4 pieces small and strong hooks tied as sabiki style and small little squid slice as bait). Guys on board had fun with trigger fish but not long after, we have too many trigger fishes who got away and the whole school swam into unjam structure.

When we got back to shore, we were informed that the spots that gave us good result on the day earlier was still productive. However, done is done and we drove back to KL after bath and dinner in Pekan.

Looking at my works schedule, I do not think so I will have time to return to Pekan this year. Until then, hope the ebek in Pekan remained !