What the Fish!: ah ngan kelong

Showing posts with label ah ngan kelong. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

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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Sunday, September 07, 2008

Ah Ngan - Circle of Friends

Since the last ex-greendot outing, I organized another one for those that couldn't make it. However, turnout from the expected group wasn't that great, but ended up that my old pals, ST and TK could make it for this outing and with their families too. With their last minute addition, the resulting group was quite a sizable one seeing four cars doing the Sedili run to Tg Leman.

I was really happy that ST and TK could join me this round, as it had been a while since we had any gathering as friends and as families. There would be few people that you could claim that you have known for decades. But they were just that, and were part of my growing up, my working life and my life history. Therefore, this outing was very special one, at least to me.

The plan was to start early, but ST was a little late. With some hassle of filling up the white cards for the custom, the entire group finally get together wtih IZ's group at carrefour Macdonalds around 7.30am. I limited the time for a leisurely breakfast as we had to be on the move as the drive would take about 2 hours.

Famous Nimo from the forum

However, timing was just nice due to Ah ngan boat only arriving around 10.30am. We touched down on the Kelong floor around 11am. Reaching there, I immediately recognised Nimo from the forum and went over to say hi. And true to his reputation for getting todaks, he just landed a good size todak when I went over to say hello. With him was his son, the famed todak killer little boy and his bunch of hard core kelong friends. However for some reasons, I hardly bump into him in the kelong during the stay and quite wondered what he was experimenting with this time round.

I had read his article on Orkar fishing and wanted to try it out. However when I asked him, he said "no orkar" today, and I gave up trying. Since the expert has spoken, no point in trying to challenge it.

The fishing in the Kelong was quickly evident that it wasn't going to be that good. I was trying to demonstrate how to jig to the bunch of newbies, and couldn't even hit one tiny tamban with 2 tries. In fact for the whole trip, no tambans at all. I left it at that and let the newbies discovered for themselves on how to fish. Even the ever obliging todaks were quite sparse and not visible around the Kelong. Water visibility was quite poor, and not much of a current.

However, weather on the whole was rather good, with only the early part of the afternoon being a little hot. There was a short light platter of rain, but it cleared up very quickly but helped to cool down the weather. Seeing that the fishing wasn't good on plain old tamban jigs, I instructed my fellow trainees to cut sotong to bait the hooks.

The general catches were mainly Yellow fish (Indian Snapper), Kunings and Kekek (Pony fish). From these, Eric and gang who previously had great success with todak, starting throwing them out as live bait on floats. But action wasn't too great, and they were missing the occasional hookups as they flip flop over the sea and did their signature hook throwing jumps.

First good catch by Lijuan

Proof that sotong eats fish

What !#$% happened to my fish?

This is how to get a todak

ST family with demo todak

I decided to boost the group confidence and toss out a todak rig. One good fellow took my bait and with a little luck, I managed to subdue it and brought it over to the Kelong floor. Everyone was excited with the catch since they were like seeing todaks for the first time. Todak fever started all over again.

IZ spoil market, and caught one bigger than mine! measured 1.3 kg

Zunyou doing weight lifting

Vera and mummy with spoil market todak

Funny, looked so small together with Lijuan !?

Ting ting with the biggest fish she ever held

Later I go restart server to catch one

My biggest fish wor!

IZ is our friend

This is a stupid todak. Never buy insurance

IZ went on to break my record catch and hauled up a good size todak of around 1.3 kg. It was a impressive specimen and one of the biggest catch for the trip.

ST stopped messing with sotong baits and setup for todak to give it a try. Some misses later, he found it to be exciting and tried all late afternoon but with no result. However, the experience was enough for him to keep trying.

Two sea monkey, jumping on the bed

Where the fish?

After dinner, I started seeing people getting Parangs and confirmed that Parangs are still plentiful today. The other group where Jon was with are all experts fisherman. I think for the trip, they got more than 10 Parangs and countless todaks altogether. IZ got a very good catch of Parang on live bait drifting. To his credit, he observed how the others were doing it and copied it with great success.

Zunyou with my demo parang on SS minnow

Iz's catch on live bait drifting

We never play cheat and use plastic fish

My catch on gold pin minnow

Night came and I decided to demonstrate to ST on how to do lure fishing. With my trusty SS Minnow, the lumi one, I tossed it out to show how it was done. Third throw only, and wham! fish on. it was a good hookup, and despite the jumping protests, I managed to lead the parang under the kelong and with one swing, got the fellow on the wooden floor. ST was of course impressed seeing how "plastics" could get something like the thrashing thing on the floor. To give him a head start, I passed him the proven lure and setup a luring rig for him.

TK caught the action too, and I too gave out to him a pin minnow lure. I also gave ZW a L-minnow to try out. With that, I had recruited a new batch of lurers and dispatched them to practise their newly acquired skill on the dark open sea.

ST first lure fishing catch. This lure very good

ST and family with soon to be fish ball parang

ST 2nd smaller parang

Certified lure fisherman

I was luring with ST most of the time, when he suddenly got a good take. With some coaching, he successfully brought the Parang on the Kelong floor. It was finally sweet success and he was grinning from ear to ear. The entire family came out to share the glory and it was rounds and rounds of picture taking. From there on, he was a certified lurer.

I told the group to sleep around 12am so that they could wake up around 4.30am to start fishing. However, there was a good number of people having the same idea. But the fishes were there, and the other group got a good number of around 13 parangs all laid on the floor. ST went around on his own and managed to get 2 more Parangs all on his own. It was quite an achievement.

Best view in the morning

I got one last catch of Parang just before the sky lighted up. I noticed they were suddenly more active as if to catch the last meal before retiring for the day. The last one was a strong fellow and was able to spool out my lines. Bringing it under the Kelong, just as I was lifting it up, the lure and Parang disconnected and there went a prize catch. But it was a good fight.:)

I taking a break from PSP

My todak, hehehe (the mad fisherman)

See. I also know how to catch fish

Restarted server already

Pose pose like safari hunter

Interesting catch of a "slipper" fish

Finally got you

Quick take the picture. Very heavy

United Colors of Benetton

PSP more fun than fishing

Morning came, and Parangs all disappeared. Luring ceased to be effective. It was back to todak fishing. ST got a take, but due to line entanglement, it got away again. For this trip, he didn't manage to land one. TK however got lucky and finally successfully landed a todak. It was certainly a good achievement, and an upgrade from the last trip where he was just getting tiny ones. It was rounds of photo and a job well done.

Zhao Wei also got lucky and managed 2 todaks in a row. Todaks were certainly helping our newbies to have a good time.

Lai lai, buy 2 get 1 free

Kuning wave is in

How come no escalator?

We will be back

The sun came out and it soon get too hot to be fishing. Around 11am, we started packing and cleaning up our stuff. After a good lunch, we headed back to the Jetty. For this trip, the return was quite late, and we set off from the Jetty at around 2.45pm. From there, a quick drive to Permas Jusco for dinner and quick shopping and then to the custom to brave the jam. The traffic was quite bad, and the jam started from a long way. But the drive over was about 45 minutes, considered not too bad.

I think everyone did enjoy the trip, and would most certainly come again. And this was despite the relatively poor bait fishing this time. Thanks to todaks and parangs, they helped to give us some actions to remember, for life.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Ah Ngan - Luring trip

It has been a very long long break since my last trip to a Kelong. Likewise for Eric. So when he messaged that he was heading for Ah Ngan this Sat-Sun, it was just perfect timing. Quick check with family to confirm that nothing was planned for the weekend, and we were set to go. I originally was planning for a 28-29 date, but then, I could go again :).

So it was with great expectations when we set off to cross the checkpoint at 6.20am that morning. However, the moment I turned into the 100m stretch that leads up the ramp to the checkpoint, it was a bumper to bumper traffic jam of the sorts that I had not seen before. And one hour later, I barely moved 50m from my original spot. I was still like 200m from my home. Quick call to Eric's vehicle, Jim's car, also found that they were caught in the Jam likewise, from the Kranji end. I decided then to head for Tuas checkpoint, hoping to avoid the traffic mayham. But later did we expect that when we joined the queue at Tuas, it was like 2km long. And that took another 2 hours to navigate to finally reach the checkpoint. Jim's car mistakenly went on the wrong lane and had to "cut" queue. :). Turned out that he passed the checkpoint much much earlier than I.

We rationalized that there must have had been some tip off regarding the fugitive Mas Selamat. The custom checks were unusually stringent, and everyone had to disembark the car to scan their thumbprint.

At that time, it was already 10.30am when we finally regrouped at the Gelang Patah rest stop. From there, traffic was ok and smooth until the stretch before Kota Tinggi, another traffic Jam! I have had enough of traffic jam for the day, and my legs were tired from all the clutch shifting. After moving along for half hour or so, I decided to detour out from the Kota Tinggi exit to make a round about to come out from the other exit from Kota Tinggi further down. But the round trip took another 20 minutes. Although we did come out to a smooth traffic, Eric's car had already passed the jam and proceeded on. Ended up we were slower than them. Anyway, it was another one and half hours to the Jetty, and when we finally reached at 1.30pm, we had completed a driving marathon of 7 hours. That sort of timing, I could have reached kuantan.

Rain rain go away

Ang Moh also going Kelong

At the jetty, finally

And it didn't help that along the way, it was dizzling and pouring heavily at some stretch. It sure didn't look like a good day. But nevertheless, it was a memorable adventure driving adventure. But a day out fishing is better than any day no matter how miserable it is. This trip, it was a small group, with Eric, Jimmy, Ann and Edwin.

We reached Ah Ngan around 2.30pm, in time for a late lunch at 3pm. We were informed that there were more than 100pax in the kelong, but it didn't seem to be that packed. There were quite a number of singaporean youngsters that were enjoying their school holiday.

Fishing in the rain

A very beautiful lure. But nothing touched it.

A very handsome Parang

Ann, the Leng chiam killer

Since it was raining, I decided to do some shut eye and wait out the rain. I had come to the kelong with a purpose, to do some field test on some lures that I bought along. Therefore, I wasn't into tamban jigging and baiting and what nots. My aim to be catching things purely with lures. But it was too tempting for me not to try out squidding first. But few attempts later, squid didn't seem to be around in the daytime. Water was fairly clear, but no surface activity whatsoever. There were abundance of kembong and kunings, and the ever obliging Leng Jiams. But mr todaks were no where to be seen. The water was just too cold. But for some reason, the tide was a very high one at that time (and later, a very low tide as well).

Luring also didn't seem to work at all in the daytime. Few tries yielded nothing. But I was sure that people were starting to wonder about this guy with so many pattern of lures.

Ah Ngan Cinema

So, it was to wait till dark, before I tried again. To boost my confidence, I started with my regular search lure, my L-Minnow. And moments later, I felt a tap. Aha, there were fishes. Earlier on in the evening, Eric had caught a very good sized parang on live tamban. So, it was quite likely that Parangs were around. And then more taps, and some strikes. Alas, my L-minnow hooks weren't that great, and I was unable to land anything. But close examination of the lure confirmed that it had been bitten, from all the scratch marks. Since I had confirmed their presence, I started to use my other lures.

Parang on Maria Tight Salom

Selar on Seabass colleage

My first success was with Maria tight Salom. It was hit and I had a fish on. I quickly pull it in and swung it over to the floor of the kelong. It wasn't a big one, but still, it was a good start. People started to notice that I had landed a fish on lure, and all started luring/jigging around me as well.

Catch of the day! A 5.5kg Cobia

Barra on FixBait

Later, I had another success with my Tackle house FixBait, catching a small barra. Nevertheless, it was a good hit. The rest of the lures didn't do that well, given the condition of the kelong at nite. Someone's rod had the good luck of hitting a Cobia, and it was a very good one indeed. I later offered my virgin boga to get the weight, and it measured an astounding 12lbs. That is about 5.5kg.

My Parang on FakeBait

I went to bed and woke up the next mornig at 5.30am to continue fishing. I landed another Parang again, on Maria FakeBait. My next fish was another Parang, but a very good size one. It was on FakeBait, and it fought so hard that I had a bend on my Black Rose. And Black Rose is not that light a rod. I had some difficulty to swing it up due to the weight and also that the kelong was by now very high from the water. So fish fell short and low under the kelong. With a few of it's twist and turn, it freed itself and I lost it. Argh!

After that, daylight broke and Parangs all gone home. After breakfast, I did some general fishing to get some fish for cooking at home. As I was landing Leng Chiams after Leng Chiams, A wasn't doing that great and landed the Yellow snapper fish instead. Strange.

Then it started to dizzle again. With that, I decided to pack and rest a later for the drive back. The price now for the Kelong is RM155 for adults and RM95 for kids.

The way back was quite alright except for a short jam at the Kota Tinggi traffic light. I led the guys to Fishingline and they were impressed with the sheer number of products in the store. From there, it was home sweet home after a fill up of Petrol. Petrol prices are now RM2.70. Still cheaper for Singapoeans. From there, the queue to the Lorry checkpoint was snakily long. But it was moving steadily and turned out that the queue wasn't that bad. From that point, we arrived back in Singapore within half an hour. Checkpoint at Singapore side was smooth.

Not too bad a trip, although I was hoping for some bigger catches on Lure. Other than the first day traffic Jam, it was some good fun with old friends and good company.

This is the way to eat a Ramli Burger