August 13th to 15th 2010 - 3D2N Jarak Waters

Hmmm ... these days fall on 4th of Chinese calender, nice current it is going to be.
We got back from the trip which supposed to be 4d3n and got shortened to 3d2n.
Overall, the weather was ok but bite rate was very low.

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.

Long Lost Photos

I registered into facebook and my old friend AKH show me photos that he has kept from me few years back.

It was a trip summary photo to grouper spots located at Northeast of Pangkor island for 3d2n fishing.






Could not helped from recalling the scene how these groupers took our bait in the 2nd night. Hope the day will happen once more, I really hope so.

New Member in My Arsenal

I ordered a St. Croix 20lb casting rod some months back and got it picked up from Derrick's place last week.

TIS66HF
6'6" heavy action
fast action
SC" graphite
12-25lb

I bent the rod to feel its restitution and thought it's a very stiff rod. With 12-25lb rating I would need a bigger lure to press the flex out.
The problem is I can only get to test the rod on September, that is 6 more months to wait.
Starting the getting-less day count now ...

Pekan Fishing March 5th - 6th 2010

Just got back from 2 days fishing in Pekan with a somewhat above average catch rate.

On our 1st day out jigging, we got continuous takes on our jigs by ebek (diamond trevally) and decided to stop after couple of our attempts to release the beautiful specie lively ended up unsuccessful.

A yellow tail barracuda on jig by my collegue HP

A trip summary photo with my colleague and fishing buddy at boatman house

The skipper, Ah Boy, with a good size golden trevally

This cobia, estimated at 15kg, took a scratched pintail and got itself freed with a broken treble hook in its mouth

The negotiation with cobia took some 30mins. By the time the cobia was released, we were more than 500m from where we started

Ryan's custom rod was put under good test with the cobia

A double hookups ended with 2 happy anglers. We tried to release these 2 ebek but both turned up side down when it was soaked.

A perhaps 4kg ebek

Ryan with a 6kg golden trevally, or gerong belang as local name it

Hmmmm ... happy Ryan

Custom rod with United blank rating 8-17lb in test

Pump pump pump ... zeeeeeeeeeee ...

Skipper with his ebek

HP with a juvenile GT

Another ebek on elcheapo jig

On the second day we went jigging at FAD (unjam) and was rewarded with baby GT and couple of mackerels. I got a >15kg cobia on jig and freed itself with a broken kevlar. We tried jigging at few coral trout spots but register no bite at all. Juvenile barracuda were just too many at FAD waters; sabiki was seize and went disappeared before it reach the bottom consecutively 3 times!

Overall the trip was a good trip. I read from somewhere about excellent catch of Pekan ebek fishing and that was why the trip was arranged. Later I was made to understand there were trips where anglers got hit by ebek non-stop biting and some brought back 80 over ebeks. Puzzled I am, on what do they expect on ebek jigging in future if they continue taking everything home.

If you are interested in Pekan fishing, call skipper Ah Boy at +6 013 933 7455. If you speak no other language but english, leave your contact here and I shall get it arranged for you, freeeee service.

An isolated reservoir at Southern Thailand

While searching and learning about Thailand, I noticed this reservoir located at Southern Thailand and could not help thinking; how is fishing at this mysterious reservoir, where not much information is available about it?


I guess I can reach this reservoir from Betong, one of the townships located at Northern Malaysia, or Southern Thailand.

Hmmm ... wondering, wondering, wondering ...

Updated on February 25th 2010 - Just checked and got the name of the reservoir, namely Banglang Dam.

My Mum Passed Away

My mum who was attacked by stroke since September 8th 2009 passed away on Saturday, January 16th 2010.

She was 82 years old.

I do not believe in second world or life after death, but for the last few days I felt deep grieve when I am sitting in family hall and watching things that are related to her; the sofa cover, the leather incline chair that she has been using, the blanket she did for us ... many things.

Many say live goes on, sure that is, just that the feeling someone I have been staying with for last 16 years is now gone and the sadness facing this fact is unbearable.

One of my friends told me it took him 2 years to accept the fact that his dad is gone and for him to be normalized, well 2 years is a bit long for me.

I hope I can walk out from this grieve soon.

I talked to my sister who took care of my mum most of the time, about my thoughts to write down the experience and findings we have learned through the 4 months plus and put it on a log as sharings to others in the world who might need it. She thought it is a good idea and I shall take it up soon.