Chermin Fever On Ah Fong Boat

Just few days back, I got a message from Salleh asking if I would like to join them for a boat trip this Sat. I had fished with him some time back, and that was where I got to meet Patrick and people like DesT and Nimo from FK. Salleh himself is an easy-going fatherly person. A pleasant fishing companion. For the past few times that he invited me, I had turned it down as they mainly fish only on Ah Fong's Boat due to the block booking system. But this time, I thought it was good to catch up again and meet a friend.

Just yesterday, it rained dogs and cats. And even on the morning itself, it was raining relentlessly. I woke up rather late and had to rush to catch a cab in the rain to make my way to CV. But reaching there, the rain miraclously stopped.

My Black Rose - Changi Fishing Light Boat Tackle


And we indeed had very pleasant and cool weather for the entire trip. We had all thought that this time round, the fishing should be quite bad as the water was quite cold due to all the rain since yesterday. To our surprise, it wasn't true.

Ah Fong netting the catch


Jeff was the first to hit


Ah Fong a member of FishingNewsRoom?


Ah Fong for this trip, took us out from the usual route around Ubin/Tekong and headed for the deeper waters near Changi Naval Base. Along the way, we made a first stop at a Chermin spot. I hadn't ever caught any Chermin for all the boat trips that I had made before, so I wasn't too hopeful. But Jeff was the first to hit on a good size Chermin and that woke up everyone to full battle alert.

My First for the day


2nd Chermin


3rd Chermin. Smallest but fought the hardest


Then I got lucky and hit the 2nd Chermin. Ah Fong with his skilled hands got about 3 chermins, while I totaled 3 chermins too. And all these at around 10am! I landed another small grouper. For this spot, the current wasn't strong and the water wasn't too deep. With my light tackle, I had an advantage over the rest with their heavier gears with my sensitivity. Those 3 chermins really put up a jolly good fight on my Black Rose.

Jerry's ACK that broke his zero


Jeff's nice ACK that was fouled hook. (Prawn in mouth, but hook on body)


Joseph's catches




Salleh's two Groupers




But luck for me changed and improved for the others when they moved on to the next spot. At the new location, the water was very deep so much so that I ran out of braided lines and went into my backing mono. And due to the strong current, I couldn't bring my bait down to the bottom with a size 2 weight. I tried putting heavier weights at Ah Fong instructions but my rod was bending too much to be of much use. Even keeping the lines to check on the prawns took a hell lot of effort. I gave up the idea and didn't fish seriously. After all, I had already gotten pretty good results within the first two hours, so there wasn't any stress to get any more fishes.

The entire afternoon, they stayed at the spot. Those with heavier tackles did manage got get some ACK and some groupers. Jeff landed a beautiful Parrot. Jerry had a good catch of a small KBL.

Big Grouper!


Around 2pm, I too got lucky when I was reeling up my line. My reel suddenly went "zzzzzzzippp" out and I was stumped for the moment. Did I hit a rock? But the boat was moving too slow for the lines to pull out so strongly. The others all cried out and said it's a fish and shouted for me to start pumping. Coming out of my stupor, I began to gain control on the runaway fish. But the water was deep and getting the fish up took a rather long way and a lot of my strength. It did multiple runs on the entire way up. When it finally surfaced, I was shocked to see a Grouper. The way the fish fought and see sawing with me on the way up, it wasn't like any Groupers that I had caught before. And the initial run, it should have slammed itself into a rock and snag my lines. My guess was that when I was keeping my lines, the bait itself was already some distance from the bottom and therefore, it couldn't reach the safe haven of the rocky bottom.

The Grouper looked about 2kg to me, and when I returned home and boga it, it was indeed about 2.1kg. It should weigh a little more when it was fresh out of the sea with the water content in the body.

On the way back, we visited the Chermin spot again. But this time, they were not around anymore. We fished till around 5pm and then made our way back.

Total catch


All in all, a very surprising trip for me. I never expected to have such good catches in our local waters. But I guess, it still hold some surprises from time to time. If only I had a heavier rod for the deeper waters. A lesson learnt never to underestimate the fishing that might be possible here.

Strangely, it started to rain again at about 6pm. It was amazing how we managed to stay dry for the fishing period during this rainy season. :)