What the Fish!: Sedili - Ujam fishing

I couldn't quite confirm going for this trip till the very last minute. However, on Friday, the runway was set for me to go. Quick call to Patrick and the plan was to rendevous at Jusco Shell station at 3am in the morning.

First thing to do for fishing, is to pump petrol

I want my food in 1 minute

Driving in at 2am, I was still caught in an half hour jam. Nothing too bad and quite crazy considering the time. Patrick came with the others and I was soon making the aquaintenance of Edmund, Qin Long, Vincent. Joon I had met previously during a tackle shopping trip. All of them were obviously experts, judging from the fishing gear that each one of them had. There were Jig-zam, Stradic, Bay area, Golden mean Sabre dance, Certate Hyper custom, Caudia Kix and all the goody stuff.

We soon sped off to Sedili after stocking up on food and what nots. Reaching there, we were shocked to find the carpark full of cars. There was news that a trawling boat came back with 200kg of Tengirri (Spanish Mackeral). Everyone was having high hopes of getting a Tengirri or two.

Early morning exercise

This watch can tell me the tide and how many fishes we will get today

So crowded

Goodnight guys

I tossed this out to troll, but realized that trolling was hard work

Beautiful Sedili sunrise

Not so tired yet

We had to wait a little till 6am before the boats could move out due to the low tide. From there, the boat ride was a long wait of 2 hours. When we finally reached, the sun was already up and shining. But for the trip, the weather was quite kind and not very hot.

Ujam #1

Fishing here is easy. Drop and retrieve for a full house

Vincent's parrot came visiting

Edmund preparing his "surecatch" fish bait

Edmund with a nice ACK

"Red chicken"

At the first Ujam, I was very happy to see batfishes swimming around just under our boat. The water was clear and it was a nice feeling to be at a ground with plentiful fishes in sight. I rigged up a Sabiki and my first haul came up with a full house (line with a fish on each of the 6 hooks). There were plentiful of Selars and Kembongs around the Ujam.

Vincent was the man for the day with the most varied catch. He was first to get a good fish. After some fight, up came a decent parrot fish. Not bad.

Joon and Qin Long are avid jiggers, and out went their expensive jigs. Patrick and I also tried some jigging, but nothing was interested in biting metal.

The boat got a little rocky, and Patrick and Edmund started getting queasy from Sea sickness. This must be the worst trip for Patrick and he had to "merlion" 4 times during the whole journey. Edmund spent most of his time sleeping away, and only woke up to fish a little when the fishes were around.

The boat drifted around, and the fishes started disappearing. Sabiki going down would come back empty. After hanging around the Unjam for the morning, boatman drove us to another Ujam to continue the fishing. For the whole trip, it was just fishing around 2 Ujams.

Ujam #2. (the bamboo stick sticking out)

I puked how many times already?

My Cencaru nice or not?

Our sumptuous lunch on the boat

Why my $20 jig not working?

My first not big todak. Released

This fish good to eat. I catch one

2nd Ujam water wasn't that clear. But Sabiki going down did get some assortment of fishes. The guys did caught some interesting fishes like Crimson snapper, groupers, and Cencarus. And plentiful of Kembongs.

I was trying out live baiting most of the trip, and I drifted out kembongs and Tambans in the hope of getting some macks. However, I was wireless and even if they bite, I would not likely be able to get them. Bait was struck a few times but by todaks patroling the water. For the first couple of times, Todaks would run, do acrobatic jump and shook off the hook. I adjusted my technique and was finally able to get one in for some photo taking.

We spied some boiling surface activity and the experienced guys here were shouting Tongkol, meaning Tuna in Malay. I badly wanted to get one. It would be interesting. The advise was to drift Tamban near the Ujam to entice them to bite. Out went my Tamban offering and it was largely untouched, except for the occasional disturbance of the pesky todaks.

Big todak

Action abit

Nearing the end of the trip, my line shot out again and I struck and had a firm connection. But from the signature jump, it was another todak. However, this one was a big one and I didn't want to lose it. Playing it slowly, I managed to get it beside the boat. Patrick handed me his Boga and I gripped it at the mouth to lift it up for some photo taking. It was an impressive sized todak. In fact, the biggest I have caught. Weighing it with the boga, it measured slightly beyond the 2kg mark.

After some photo taking, I released it as most aren't interested to eat todak.

ZZ time

All knocked out

Catch no fish? buy some durians

Sedili one "man" security force

Supporter of myfishing.com

Buy 3, 1 pack free? (Bargaining at the fish market)

We came here for these. RM35 per kg

top view of our catches. Plenty of Cencaru below

Some of the catches

Some more of the catches

We packed and called it a day around 3.30pm. From there, most took a slight nap for the 2 hour drive back. Reaching the Jetty, the guys went to do some shopping for Durians along the way. It was quite cheap at 3 durians for RM10. From there, we went on to the Sedili fishing port market to get some famous big prawns at the cost of RM35 for 1kg. According to the guys, it was very cheap and worth it. I got a kg myself to try it out. Some of them even bought some fishes to bring home. I found that quite amusing as weren't we supposed to have just returned from a fishing trip? We split up the rest of the catch at the Port and from there, I left the group to make my way home. The checkpoint was rather jammed and it was an hour drive across the slow bridge.

All in all, despite the nothing outstanding trip, I did enjoy myself with the fishing and the company on board. Sedili fishing is not that taxing as the Pekan one, but I was quite tired nevertheless after returning as I had hardly slept along the way. But definitely a worthwhile outing once a while.

This boat got a decent place to do business