KFC - Trip to Ah Ngan Kelong

7 cars convoy

This post has nothing to do with that smiley old man with the cane and that fried chicken parts that boast of 11 secret herbs. KFC is simply an informal gathering of friends to enjoy the wonderful activity of fishing. KFC stands for [K]elong [F]ishing [C]lub. It started with a small group of friends, and it had grown to a gathering of about 20 odd pax by the third visit. Andrew extended the invitation at onemotoring forum, and we had a number of them joining me for this trip. In total, there were 23 adults and 8 children, making this by far the biggest group of people that I had brought along to a Kelong. The convoy itself to the Leman Jetty was 7 cars long.

We started off under my block with Peter being a little late. It rained and all of us got worried about this becoming a wet trip. Yew was tasked to wait for them, while I led Alcas and Andrew to JB. The plan was to rendevous at Mac at carrefour with Issac's and Lip Sing's group. But the sotong me realized that I didn't bring along my rod bag at the Singapore checkpoint and I had to make a U-turn at the custom. The officers at the counters were rather nice about my request to turn back and activated some special gates for me to drive back into Singapore. I was quite impressed.

The whole roundabout took only 15 minutes and when I next rejoin the checkpoint queue, it was just about 6.30am and queue was still short. So, I promptly met up with the group at 7am, but alas Issac side came rather late. Due to that, we had to drive rather fast to catch a boat.

Behold my special weapon

Familiar sight

But the drive up to Leman was fast and furious, and we made it in good time at 9.15am in time for me to rush to the toilet to take a leak. We met up with Eric's group and soon we were all squeezed into the boat to chug along to the kelong.

I want to get 10 todaks, 5 parangs, 2 killer whales, 1 manta ray...

Once on board, we settled into our bunks and started to set up for fishing. But we were shocked to see rows and rows of rods. I thought there were over 100 pax on the kelong itself. It was going to be a stressful kind of fishing this trip. We were also to find that the tamban jigs were not working, and the bait fishes were rather scarce. Even the obliging todaks were not around.

Mummy mummy....this mad uncle stole the fish from me. Boo hoo hoo***

My grouper. Who more handsome?

First catch by Mummy

Tonight we will have curry fish head

I taught the newbies like Yew and LS to get their first fish using sotong baited hooks. The fishing was not looking good and we mostly just rested.

Fish don't come to us, we go to them

This little girl can fish

Golden Trevally!

When will I get my own?

Centre of attention

Borrow the parrot fish to bluff my wife

Until there was a commotion about someone getting a big fish. It turned out to be a handsome Golden Trevally. A rare catch indeed. Just 5 mins later, someone else got another good fish. It was about a kilo big Parrot. Another good fish. Wow, I was impressed that there were experts at the kelong.

Andrew and I had the same idea to fish under the kelong

First time I see whitings here

Peter's magic show

Oui! You cheater (future IR bouncer)

Peter entertained the children with some niffy magic tricks and the young audience was definitely impressed with this magical uncle. However none of his magic could help to make the fishing better for us adults.

I got my todak finally!

What ugly teeth you have

I also have...come to daddy

Alamak, the todak too heavy. Broke the rod

Eric fighting a todak

ZW was the first to get an impressive catch for us of a large todak (1.5kg) and we all started to do todak fishing soon after. However, their numbers were few, and we only got some strikes in the late afternoon. Yew got a good one and did some decent kung fu fish fighting. At that time, the tide was rather low and the distance from the water up to the kelong was a challenge to lift such a heavy critter up. I helped to grab the lines, but accidently broke my fishing rod. Nevertheless, I held on to the lines and just as I was about to swing the fish over, the line broke and it fell back into the sea. What a waste for Yew.

Night came and while we were having dinner, the expert hauled up a good size parang with lure. I finished off my dinner and went to lure too and got a very good hit on my SS minnow. The water was very low and I almost lost the parang when I couldn't swing it over and it fell short under the kelong. The expert came over and helped me lift the parang over and got it on the floor. Many thanks to him. That was to be my only decent catch. Thereafter, there were some bites here and there but they were far and few.

I finally caught a Parang

Hardworking lurer

A big cobia. Landed by the expert uncle

ZW's greedy parang. It attacked the lure head

ZW was constantly luring and to reward him, he finally got a parang for his own. Eric too managed to get one on L-minnow as well. In total, there were 3 parangs landed. IZ was not doing well for this trip and didn't manage to get Todaks or Parangs. Very poor fishing this round.

Kelong sunrise

Half of a Half-Beak

My biggest snapper

Sending a message to the sea dragon for more fishes

Children fishing

This uncle very clever. Can make money come out of my ear

This fish very fat

Who you looking at?

Daddy, can I keep it? Pleeeasseeee

The next morning, although I woke up at 5am to do some luring, it seemed a waste of time and I crawled back to bed and woke again at 6.30am. By then, it was already bright, and luring was no longer good. I half heartedly did some squidding but gave up about like 5 tries. Tamban jigs also got nothing. It was back to baiting with sotong to get tiny fishes to fill up the icebox.

This lady no hope already. On the way back still fishing

Parting glance

F1 pit stop. Tyre changed in 5 secs

We left the Kelong around 1pm. Yew's car got a puncture and we all helped to change his flatten tire in no time, F1 pitstop style. From there, Peter wanted to visit the fishery to buy fishes. Well, since the fishing wasn't good, we had to go market to get some.

Hey, this is my fish that got away!

Price haggling at the fish market. You don't give me cheaper, I scratch your car arh!

You want to eat me?

Chop chop into 3 parts

The fishing port at Sedili was along the way. Although I wasn't sure it was open, when we reached there, the stalls were still around hawking their wares. Quite an interesting visit and some of them got quite a fair bit of fishes to bring back.

From there, it was a straight bee line to the Lorry checkpoint. Along the way, there were some outpouring of heavy rain and wet weather. That slowed us down a bit but we reached the checkpoint in good time and all managed to reach back around 6pm.

Group photo of KFC

All in all, not a good fishing trip but an enjoyable trip nevertheless. It was good outing with friends, new and old. The children certainly had fun. It isn't everyday that you get magic show in a Kelong. Hopefully the folks were not discourage by the poor fishing. We shall be back for a better one soon.

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Pekan - 24 hours fishing

This trip should is probably my first foray into big game fishing. Taking stock, it would be my 4th boat trip. But this would be trip that I would be fishing on any decent ground. We were to be going to the legendary Pekan, synonymous with big catches. The day before, PT eagerly texted us that reports from the tekongs were that fishes such as Parrots, ebeks, cobia were in season. That got some firing up of my fishy itchness and I was quite looking forward to my very first far away (and expensive), fishing adventure.

Rendevous at Kranji MRT


We all gathered at 1.15am promptly and I was introduced to the fishing kakis, all of which already know each other. I was the new bird, and I soon got to know how "hardcore" these bunch of people were. And amongst them, also some jigging enthusiasts and experts.

Custom Jam at 2am!


There was a queue at the Custom, even though it was the ungodly hour of around 2am. I have seen the security checks being tighten recently. Clearing that, the van drove up to Kota Tinggi for some late night supper, and then it was all a single dash to the sleepy town of Pekan.

We reached Pekan coffee shop


I am here to drink Kopi-O


Breakfast till the morning light


The Boatman


Luckily the ride was quite bearable, and some sleep was possible. We reached there quite on schedule just in time for kopi-o in a small landmark coffee shop. The boatman came by to join us for morning coffee and we were told that his two sons will accompanied us for the trip out.

The Boatman house


Twin Power boat


Our Pekan Express


Boat is branded one k. Don't play play


I am on my way to catch my 20kg amberjack


From there, it was a quick stop at the boatman bungalow shop for some freshening up, and soon we were on the way to the Jetty to board the speedboat.

Loading up


All thinking what they will catch today


Settup up


My power reel


Ricky, the F1 boatster


Runway to the Pekan sea


Model for Pro fishing magazine


One of Kelvin's many catches


Soon we were all speeding out from the estuary into the big sea. From the looks of it, there were certainly lots of fishing activity. Every stop we make, there were be some other fishing boats as well. And Bubus were scattered all over. Definitely quite high fishing pressure here.

Our liveprawns unfortunately didn't make the gruesome trip, and ended up as dead prawn bait. There went our chances of getting any ebeks if any. Baiting with dead prawns didn't give us any good results except for the occasional "miss wong" (indian snapper).

I caught something with Jig. It turned into a coral. I swear.


All the way here to catch Miss Wong


One Miss Wong for you, one for me


Everyone dropped lines, and most started with jigging on green jigs which was supposed to work here. The only "green" thing that I had with me was my Salty rubber. Down it went and it sure caught something: the rocks. My first loss. Darn.

First serious action of the day


Up came a whopper 4Kg Parrot


Patrick2 with a serious bend


I am not sure who got the first fish as I was seated on the boat front. All the lau jiao were at the back. There were already some small catches. Kelvin was doing small fish fishing, and was consistently brining up "aramagums" (small groupers). But the first excitement came when Ricky, the boatman son, caught on a really big one. Seeing how the rod was bending was great excitement. Moments later, up came a 4kg Parrot caught on crabby bits. That was my first view of anyone catching a Parrot and it was good like hell. Patrick2 rod also went into an sizable bend. For a while, he looked like gaining lines, but ended up with a snag.



Shaun fighting the Cobia at the back


An elated Shaun weight lifting


Some of the experts started getting the small fishes and using as live bait. That worked excellently for Shaun when his line went into a nosiy zzlip and it was on to something very good. A couple of minutes later after an exhaustive fight, a gray shape sharklike creature appeared. Cobia! It looked huge and I believed it to be about 10kg although when we weighed it at the boathouse, it only showed 8kg. Boatman expertly gaffed it up, and that was the champion catch of the day.

They got an ebek


The boat changed a couple of spots, and at one, we witnessed a local boat catching some huge ebeks. We all could only salivate as we didn't have any live prawns. Only chance was to try jigging but that didn't work at all.

See. Got sotong, never bluff you


Mine bigger. Need a net to bring it up


My pirated Yamashita is effective!


See. Another hit. Throw away your shrimphunter lah!


Boatman helper (dunno name) started squidding and bought up the first squid. Thereafter, everyone else try squidding and Patrick was quite successful in this. But poor me suddenly lost all my squidding powess and couldn't even land a single one, although equipped with "premium shrimphunter". *sigh*.

A tiny Remora on Sabiki (released)


Yay, a decent catch on Sabiki. I am happy now (easily contented)


Good fight on my Black Rose


Hmm..isn't this pattern a very familiar Zodiac sign?


Final minute catches of Yellow Tails


Around 6, the action all slowed to a crawl, and most of everyone was sleeping and taking it easy. For Patrick and me, we decided to give one last attempt on Sabiki. And strangely, it worked quite well, and we hit on a spot of Yellow tails. I also had a very good light tackle fight with a Big eye Trevally, my very first. With that, I am quite satisfied with my "big game" catch of the day.

On the way back for a much needed bath


Cobia too big for the icebox


Scale says 3 kg. Should be bigger


Full set of Gaff at boatman house. Better not complain about the fee


Pekan famous restaurant


We headed back to the Jetty hawaii five O style, speeding through river channel, making James bondy death defying cornerings. Reaching land, we unwinded at the boatman house having a much needed shower. Therafter, it was dinner with Parrot on the menu. Dinner was a long wait, but it was superb (and cheap!). From there, it was the long drive back to Singapore, back to the high pressure day jobs waiting for us.

It was no doubt a fishing adventure. I returned with much back and body aches as well as a sore backside. In a short period of less than 24 hours, we had like done so many things. Life should be like this everyday. Quite a good trip all in all. I think I need to get some more jigs, especially orange and green ones. ;)

My ultra ultra light fishing reel that I got for Father's day. Should have brought it along. Good for rod bending fight with guppies