Rakit Reiza - Woah!

Original plan was to head for Rakit today with Jess as hubby wanted to get a rod and reel combo. RT said to come along with family. Coincidentally, TC also called me to do a return to Rakit. So, all the stars were aligned with the plan.

But came Sat, and I was the blur head that didn't set my alarm properly. I woke up at 6.50am, and saw a missed message from RT. Looking at my phone clock, I realized that I had overslept. There was no way that I could make it over before 7, so no choice and had to put a OPC coupon. Luckily for me, I had 1 left. Crossing the singapore custom at 7.20am, the police asked to look at my displayed coupon and made a thorough check. He was all eager to fine me $10k for not displaying OPC coupon. So this OPC coupon matter, don't play play.

I regrouped with the rest at Danga coffeeshop, just slightly further up from the usual meeting place at the food court. Not a bad place to gather, and it shall be our meeting point in future. There we met Elyn's mother and P2. This trip shall be the first to the Rakit for them.

The fishing kakis


Promising spot beside the jetty


Where are we going again?


This is fun! Wooo...


We reached the Rakit around 9+am and waited a while for the boat to settle the logistic of getting us over. P2 was all eager and excited to be taking his first boat ride. We headed for Reiza since the facilities were better, and more child safe, in our opinion.

First "big" fish of the day


Die todak die!


Wah, so heavy


Soon to be hero of the day


Since I no more rods, resort to handlining for bait fish




Wah, this fish bigger than my hand! Yay!


Father and son and fish


First hour of fishing, we quickly realized that this was yet another tambanless trip. Nothing we were catching with our feathered jigs. We sent out bottom rigs and from that, some action. I was first to break the egg with a surprise catch of a puffer. There were some small fishes on baited hooks. P2 got his first feel of a rod and line with a fish. However he didn't seemed to understand much about the thrill of fishing yet.

I tried out luring for a while, but nothing was biting. There were some todaks doing the usual follow closely but don't bite routine. Behind the Rakit, the water was full of bait fishes (glass fish mainly) and surface action. But nothing. I gave up and went back to park the rods. I finally caught a small todak. Lately, I had been finding them trickly to get at the Rakit. They would bite, and throw the hook most times.

Papa, your grouper very big hor!


P2 feet


RT broke my "biggest" fish catch of the day, when he hauled out a good size grouper from the inner well. That showed some promise for quite a not so good fishing day. And then it was my turn. I saw my bottom rod twitching and held it for a while. I felt some bites and decided to open the bail for whatever to take my prawn and run. And ran it did. Good thing that I had tighten the drag and when I closed the bail, fish was struck and hooked for good.

Got my "difficult" to catch todak


Alamak, stuck!


Can see the fish stucked on the rope 5 ft away


Operation "recover Kurau"


My biggest kurau (actually, only one)


This is my day!


What Mr Kurau did to my lines (apollo rig)


The fish fought quite well, although it wasn't big enough to spool my lines. But it ran under a rope on my left and I realized that I was running the risk of being snagged. In the commotion, I took a risk and tried to guide the fish under the rope. But instead it went too close the rope and made a few turns, snagging it for good. By then, it was already near the surface and we could see that it was a Kurau! I finally got my Kurau but I couldn't bring it up.

Curly hair Rakit indian man came to the rescue and offered to dive into the water to recover my prize catch. And luckily for him, Kurau landed on my feet, to a delighted me. I was a happy man and tipped him handsomely for taking the initiative to get my Kurau.

Thereafter, Andrew landed another grouper. An equally good sized one. He was getting to be the grouper man for the trip. TC was quite fishless until he managed a todak finally on his famous giant bomb weight. Wife Jessie was quite unable to get any fish since tambans and all their friends not around that day.

Beauty and the beast


What sharp teeth you have


Thank you heaven for this fish!


The tide came up around 12pm, and I saw quite a few big splashes in the water. Switching back to luring again, I took out my unused redhead crystal minnow and toss a few times. To my utter delight, I got a very fierce strike and fish was a good fighter. I spent a minute of two trying to guide the fish away from the ropes. At first I thot it a todak, but from the way it fought, not quite. It didn't do the signature acrobatic jump and mostly went deep. When it got near to the surface, it was a beautiful bullet shape fish. I then thot queenie, but when I lifted it out of the water, what landed on my deck was a thing of beauty, a Tengerri! WAhoo! I finally broke my tengerri-less fishing history. For that matter, as well as my Kurau-less fishing history. :))

One of TC few todaks


So finally, TC was now convinced that "fish do eat plastics". Thereafter, he took out his lure and started luring too. But less than five cast later, he gave up. Luring was hard work and he went back to his todak fishing. After my tengerri, I didn't get any more hits despite trying out most of the lures in my lure box.

The afternoon came and the current got quite strong. Fishing wasn't that good and all were mostly restless by then. We decided to pack around 4pm, and then made our way back to the city for some air conditioning cum shopping.

RT catches. It's grouper for dinner


When I grow up, I want to drive a boat!


This is long lining, said RT


Lots of things to think about after a hard day of fishing


When we returned, the custom was usually smooth at around 8.30pm. Might be due to the assessment period for schooling students.

Lab Park part 2

Jess called and asked if I was fishing. Seeing their interest to join me, I said to try Lab Park. Yesterday's session was short and Lab Park was a comfy place to meet. But at 2pm, the weather was a scorching hot day. Jess came with her four new tenants from china. Two of them were rather keen in fishing. We started mainly around the Jetty entrance at the beginning for shade. But from that angle, we had to tussle with rocks and shallow water as the tide was low at 2. One of the boys did manage to get a wrasse. Not bad under the conditions.

Two of the boys that loved fishing


A cardinal (was released)


Unusual sight of a fly fisherman here


Nice looking fish by Shawn


Tiny grouper. Just nice for my tank


Grouper take away in large Macdonalds cup


But at 4, the water started to come up. The weather then was quite breezy and overcast. We moved to the Jetty area to continue. I spied todaks around the area, and tried to get them on float. But the todaks here were intelligent and were very cautious about dead prawns floating around them. However, I did manage 2 runs, but unfortunately they lost connection. Shawn and boys had some small fishes although the fishing was rather difficult. We keep one of the small groupers alive and I brought it back to keep my archer company :)

End of the day, I the so called "expert" was fishless. :(

Lab Park post renovation visit

I had heard that the Lab Park Jetty was reopening after the CNY holidays. I wanted to do some luring and took the opportunity to go for a look see to check out what had changed for the Jetty.

Still closed at night

$5000!

Spankling floor


Reaching there around 6pm, apparently nothing much had changed. Only visible change was the flooring, which had a new coating of cement. The rules were still the same: No fishing on the main aisle (fine $5000!) and the jetty would be closed at 8pm.

The jetty was not the best place to be luring due to the height from the water. But nevertheless, I rigged up my new luring rig to try out. Out went my favourite crystal minnow for some swim but nothing was biting. I tried some squidding with my new Yozuri Q tiny jig, but again nothing too. But the water looked good though...the bluish green type. I spied quite a number of todaks hanging around too.

The sky turned dark rather quickly and seeing that the time was up, I packed. On the way out, saw the Jiaga coming in to shoo people out before he locked the gate for the night. Strangely, like some people didn't know and at 7.50pm, I still see some of them coming in with all their fishing barangs.

Ah Yew Kelong - 2nd Day of Lunar new year

The common thinking was that the kelong would not be packed during the lunar new year. But boy, were we wrong. In fact, all the kelongs were booked fully except for Hot Boys, which was closed. We were originally booked for Ah Fatt, but I decided to make a last minute switch to Ah Yew as when I called, it was only half full.

This trip, I brought along TK, a long time friend. He and family met up with me at the ungodly hour at 6.30am and we made our way up north to Leman. Passing custom was a breeze and we reached Tg Leman at a good time of 8:50am. Eric almost couldn't make it for the trip as he couldn't get the van transportation. But around 10pm, a good news SMS informed me that he finally got a contact, and would be on the way.

"Young man, let me tell you about the ones that got away..." Edwin thinking, "here he goes again..."


The power of marketing


Prison break. "Let me in! Let me in!"


Why you taking picture of me eating my burger? I break your neck then you know.


This girl is a rock collector. R O C K rock!


Arriving at the Jetty, we settled down to have a spot of breakfast. Unknowingly, the boat for the Ah Yew left and left us without informing. Anyway, Eric group came a little later. But then for some unspoken reason, no one was boarding the ferry. We waited till about 10am, and we felt something amissed. We were later to find out that the maritime police were disallowing any ferry to leave without the proper licence and safety procedures. The stringent check was due to the a recent incident with the ferry to Tioman where 7 people died due to a fire on the boat.

All thinking the same thot...."Stupid maritime police."


So none of the boatman dared to proceed to ferry the fare to the kelong for fear of being fined. Alas, we were told to wait, until we were informed later that the trip could only proceed at 2.30pm. The Kelong staff later got around this by getting a speedboat with lifejackets to transport us over. But speedboat, although fast, was quite a rough ride with periodic waves of saltwater splashing onto us. TK and I were drenched to the skin as we were seated in front. Later on the way back, I was again drenched even though I was seated at the back. *grumble*.

Yay, finally we are inside the Jetty. The air so fresh here


The speed-boat, before the speeding


Like taking some roller coaster ride in the theme park. So exciting


The trip therefore started rather badly and we had to waste some precious hours sitting at the jetty with nothing to do except to eat an eat and to play scrabble. Reaching the kelong, it was quite relief to finally make it there. The Kelong manageress assigned the beds behind the TV to our group. Although the noise from the TV was quite a nuisance, I thought it was quite alright given that we would be away from the main crowd of smokers.

However, one thing that was going for us was the weather. Throughout the 2 days, weather was nice and breezy. No hot sun whatsoever. It must be one of the few times that I came back without looking redder from UV overdose.

My first fish!


Double hookup of Emperor


So heavy you know? My arm going to break..


So crowded fishing


The first thing to get to was of cos fishing. I assigned TK, PK each a rod, as well as the short one for Vera, their daughter. Using tamban jig without bait, we jigged a little, BUT nothing was biting. At that time, there were hardly any tambans. We changed tactics and I told them to bait it with sotong strips. And soon, they were catching their first fishes, and posing for photos with their catches. Even Vera was doing well and did managed to catch some fishes. She seemed to enjoy the process very much and fished more than the other children who were more concerned with making a monkey of themselves on the Kelong.

My first Tamban!


I caught more fishes than my daddy! (Daddy thinking, "yeah yeah..")


My first Tamban too! (bigger than his)


The wave of Tambans came and soon TK and PL also started to get some Tambans on jigs. Their insy bitsy icebox was soon filling up with their own catches. Not bad at all. :)

My first Selar Papan on lure


Not an everyday catch


A shark


Glued to a two letter word. T.V.


Ann with a big Selar


Night came, and I tried to do some squidding. Moving around, I tried a few areas but nothing was biting. Squids didn't seemed to be in season and I didn't have any luck with them this time. I tried luring also, and had a very lucky and only catch of a Selar Papan on my L-minnow. But after that, nothing at all too.

Fish that thot it was a squid


The next morning, I woke up at 4.30am and tried luring again but was unsuccessful. No Parangs, no Barras, no Sotong, no Trevallies for this trip. But my short attempt at squidding again saw a small snapper mouthing the whole jig and being caught by it. A first for me to be catching a fish on squid lure.:o

Waiting for the bite


The girl and the sea. The fish and the pole


Jim and wife. *psst*...he is the real fishing expert here




A big Selar


Buy 1 get 1 free




The morning was quite a pleasant one and TK went around taking some artistic photos. I was to learn that he was quite into Photography. Well, fishing and photography goes very well hand in hand. The Tambans wave came in and soon everyone was jigging tambans and getting huge selars. Eric setup a rig for TK to try catching fish with Tamban meat. More fishes were added to the fish counter and overall, TK family did quite well for a first fishing outing. Even Vera was saying that she caught more than 13 fishes together. Including one very rare catch of a leatherjacket. :)

The Sat group came in early around 8.30am, to avoid the maritime police. Due to that, the Kelong was packed with 2 groups all aboard together. I packed early seeing that there were too many people. After lunch, we again got on the speedboat for a saltwater drenching experience all over again for me.

I like this T-shirt!
"The charm of fishing
is that it is the
pursuit of
what is elusive
but attainable -
a perpetual series
of occasions for
H O P E"


Terrors of the Kelong


Yew can cook/ I definitely can't


Rabbit fish food, other than you know what


"Face your fears. Bring it on!" (about the vegetables)


Change in the Kelong rates :O


With a pailful of reels like this, he meant business


All preparing mentally to get wet


A reward for the Jetty cat. For scratching the maritime police


Reaching the Jetty, I washed up a little and bade Eric's family goodbyes and we made our way back to Singapore. We stopped by Jusco for a tea break, but it was crowded like anything with CNY shoppers. The way back through the custom was very smooth with no jam.

Not a bad trip, despite poor catches for me. And despite the false start of the whole issue with the maritime police. Overall, TK was quite happy with the trip and he should be visiting it again quite soon in the near future. Perhaps during the sotong season in May. :)