What the Fish!: Ah Eng Boat

This was the second trip for me on this boat. If you had been fishing around, you would find that Ah Eng boat is kinda special. It is a very spacious boat and fishing here is very comfortable with plenty of space for everyone. 8 persons on a boat would be just nice. For this trip, it would be Patrick, Chew, ZW and I and then we met up with Bernard and friend Jon, and fishing veterans, Ah Hwee and Ah Fat. (who for some reasons, is not fat at all)

We boarded the boat under the Penjuru flyover

Unfortunately the coffee shop with the favorite scallop noodle shop had closed down. I was so looking forward to it. After a quick breakfast at Ayer Rajah market, we top up on some fishing stuff from the tackle-shop; like $2 per piece weights; and proceeded along to the boating pickup point.

Once out at sea, we started fishing at the first spot. The sea was rather deep but the current was manageable. I had setup 2 tackles, my Jigwrex PE2-4 and my lighter tackle, blackrose. ZW did likewise and we alternate between the 2 rods depending on the current. ZW was using his recently purchased set and during the trip; TLD15 and a rather pricey Expert Graphite Ares which he found it very much to his liking.

While I was taking his photo and holding my rod under my arm, I also got a take. Another T-Boon

First fishes were by us. ZW and I scored a double hookup of T-Boons (Spanish Flag Snapper). After that, the rest started getting fishes like Kaci, more T-Boons and the regular groupers. However, after the first T-Boon, ZW was quite fishless for the rest of the day. Despite the advise by others, I stuck mainly to my light blackrose. Due to that, I scored mainly small fishes. I think I might have caught the most fishes, but all smallies. My score was:

2 T-Boon, 2 aramugum (small grouper), 1 KBL (small), 1 wrasse (small mouth and yet attack my prawn!), I had also plenty of sangkot, some of which started out promising.

Patrick with his first, a nice Kaci(Sweetlips)

For this trip, I thought it very strange that I kept feeling small bites and sudden takes, but when I struck, it was usually empty. We rationalised this to the bottom being full of corals or weeds that gave us plenty of "false" alarms as if the fishes were biting. Therefore, the fishing was very confusing. We didn't know if it was fishes or just coral bottom. After a while, I didn't quite enjoy the fishing as it was mainly a hit and run affair whether to get the fishes or not.

The morning started rather hot, but it kind of cooled down in the afternoon. Luckily we were quite well covered up and didn't suffer too much from the burning sun. I was trying out my seahawk hat, which worked rather well.

But the star of the trip was from a simple man, John who was Bernard's friend. John wasn't a very technical fishingman, and we could tell from his gear. While the rest were all using expensive stuff like Saltiga, Accurate, Jigging Master, Expert Graphite, Calstar etc...he was just using a Surecatch rod and a cheap combo of an overhead. His first catch was good, a nice Kaci to my envy. Around 3pm in the afternoon, he hooked on something very big. We could all see him struggling to lift the fellow up. When it surfaced, we all gasped at the fish. It was a prize catch of a 2kg Coral Trout. It was not every Sunday that one could see such a nice fish. From the market, this fish could be sold for around $32 per kg. It was indeed his lucky day, and we could see him smiling away and feeling satisfied. Bernard was feeling rather unhappy as his seemingly less experienced friend was getting all the good catches. He turned out to have a duck egg this trip.

After that, the fishing all quieten down. Chew was the last to score a nice leatherjacket which he mistook for a puffer. Everyone told him that it was a chicken fish and good to eat. After that, he probably felt happier. Around 4.30pm the boat headed back and stop at one or two more places for us to try our luck a few more times. We reached back to the land at around 5+pm.

This trip, a mixed bag of catches. Good trip for some, and not so good for the others. But seeing the coral trout, one can only hope that it would soon be their turn to get something that good. It literally took John 40 years to get that. Fishing is certainly a life-long adventure.

If you see people wearing this, you are in the midst of experts.

ZW using his virgin rod set

Petrol station in the sea

ZW got his first fish, a T-Boon

Decent table size

This special T-joint knot. Very useful to spread the line out from the sinker

The deckhand Tonni teaching us how to do it

Nice grouper (not sure from who)

Another grouper from "Ah Fat"

Woot. My KBL. It had taken me 4 years to land a true blue wild KBL

Pose pose with it

Chew got a surprise visit from a Sotong who was trying to attack a "aramugum" that he caught on the way up. It squirt at him on the surface to all of our surprise. Tonni got it up using net