Grouper Streak

I had a whole day of company teambuilding event, and coming back from Sentosa, Andrew messaged me to ask if I was fishing. In fact, I had not been doing it for the past few days, although it was a long weekend. Definitely some fishing had to be done, the only question being where.

Since Andrew had not tried out the boardwalk place, I suggested for him to pay that area a visit. However, being a weekend, I was expecting it to be crowded.

Reaching there, it was truely quite crowded at the main boardwalk area. But walking in, the crowd became lesser, but the place was occupied by 3 chinese students. Andrew politely asked if they could spare a spot. They friendily agreed, even though in their heart, they should be telling us to get lost. Still, there wasn't much casting place, and AD and I had to stand side by side to share what little space we had. The 3 young fellow were doing distance fishing, and was using live prawns and worms.

Instant grouper. Drop bait, wait 3 mins, and it is ready


I had gotten a pack of prawn meat from CV before coming here. I had not yet tried baiting here, and was curious what baiting could achieve. I rigged an apollo with size 4 hooks on half a prawn meat. AD tried out using his small hooks. Fishing just in front of the walkway, my first drop had a strong tap barely just 2 minutes into the fishing. Instinctively, I jerked the rod and felt a strong vibration at the other end. Lifting it up, it was a nice grouper. That was like my quickest catch ever.

I want to eat it!


The students were impressed that I had almost instantenously gotten a catch. After that, they became quite friendly with us. I was hoping that my grouper catch would continue, but it seemed that it was the one and only one. Andrew got a couple of glass fish, and landed 2 cats. Baiting here, taps were plentiful, but mostly due to the glass fish.

Seeing that the prawn meat was limited, I left AD to do the baiting and did some luring and trying out with the grubs. But stupid me had left my bigger size white grubs at home, and all I had were the smaller ones. The chartreuse colored grub was bigger, but the color was not effective in the cover of the night.

The students apparently had been here quite a while. We were told that they lost 2 good bites. During the time while we were there, they landed some cats, 1 eel and finally when they were leaving, a good Gelama.

Finally, they packed to leave, to my delight. Tide at that time was just about the peak and on the way down. After the students left, I brought AD to try out for groupers at the place deeper in.

First we tried out the chartreuse grubs. But after many cast, I felt that it was not working. I decided to change to a white grub albit smaller one. True enough, I started feeling some bites.

That boosted my confidence, and I kept trying until I landed a small grouper finally. It was a relief to me, and proved that this spot was still quite unspoilt. I too change the grub for AD into a white one. AD being the first time using a grub, was hoping to land a grouper for himself.

However, that again seemed to be the one and only one tonight on grub. There were many taps for AD and I, and I actually dropped 2 groupers on the way up. For some unknown reasons, the fish just couldn't connect with the hooks. My thinking was that the small grubs were too light and didn't have the momentum to drive the hook into the mouth. Furthermore, AD was using a light rod, not enough fast action to react instantly.

At 1am, we gave up as it was getting late. By now, another group of 5-6 malays came to settle at our place. Given the action tonight, I would say it was still a very good spot. We just needed to think about using the correct tools. Tonight was quite a learning point.

Under the Boardwalk

After last week positive outing, Patrick wanted to try out the area again. This time, he was prepared, as he brought along his icebox. That definitely said something about his confidence :). We met at Changi V where he grabbed his dinner. We started chatting about KBLs. It would really make my day if I were to get a KBL there. From CRs in the forum, not an impossible task, as there were some that did manage to land KBLs in that area.

The "never heard before" lure


We reached the place at around 9pm. By that time, water was upcoming and rather high. After setting up the rods, we started casting. PT was trying out a new lure, a Owners brand "never hear before" one. I continued with my experimentation with my white grubs. But strangely, cast and cast, nothing at all for an hour. By that time, confidence started to wane. I myself had snagged 2 grubs, losing 2 jig hooks and 2 soft plastic and was on my third set.

At the end of the walkway, there was this opening in between the rocks and the coastline. I cast my SP there just to try out the little pool of water. But grub got stuck in some rocks and couldn't be unsnagged. Not wanting to lose this grub and to have to retie again, in my desperation, I climbed over the railings and walk a narrow dangerous path to the untrodden side of the beach. On my right, the seawall was like a metre high and a slip would surely mean some injury.

Reaching there, I managed to loosen the snag and retrieve my lure. But behold, that area opened up to the other side of the big rock. From there, on my left was some low hanging branches, very potential for KBl, and on my right, the other side of the giant rock. Hey, this looked like quite a good spot. I decided to try out this area and told PT that if I got anything, we could bring our stuff over and fish from there.

First grouper




And true enough, after some 10-20 cast or so, I got a hit. Although it was so light that fish and lure flew out of the water when I struck. I took a closer look and yelped in delight that it was a grouper. PT was all excited and took some shots. Seeing that that place was good, PT climbed over and we moved some things over to fish that area.

I had an accident with my icebox while tossing it over the railings on the grass slope. It tilted over, and the contents all spilled into the 1 metre drop of water below. Darn, but luckily my scissors and pliers didn't dropped into the sea.

2nd Grouper




3rd grouper




PT was next to hit another grouper, and wonderously, on his "never hear before" lure. Wow, I myself had not even got a grouper on lure before. Again rounds of pictures. So then, at that time, score was 1:1. The next one was his again. Another grouper on lure. I came next to hit another grouper and this time a little bigger. It gave a good fight and I could see it swimming left and right while I reeled it in. So score was 2:2.

However, that place was quite snaggy and we many times almost lose our lures. But we were quite lucky that day and always managed to shake it loose. PT decided to change to try out the small L-minnow.

4th Grouper




Glass fish




Last Grouper




While he was busy tying the rig, I got another hit. This time, although a small grouper, but it was very fierce. It almost swallowed the whole lure despite its size. PT trying out the L-minnow got a take of a glass fish. Quite amazing. Final score was 3:3.

The water started to retreat and we soon got bored with the place, seeing that it yield only small groupers. Nevertheless, it did give us some enjoyment and we had fun and definitely not a go back empty handed trip.

We moved back to the boardwalk area and tried luring around. I changed to my newly acquired small Yamashita to see if there was any squids around. So it was that I was trying out at the right end, when I saw Patrick was a very serious bend near the big rock. He was shouting "big one big one". At first, I thot he was just playing the fool but second look concluded tha he was really on something huge.





Magnified view of the Barra that I captured in our haste. Can imagine the size as compared to the lure. I doubt it is more than 5kg as we hung it up with a 10lbs line. But it looked quite close to 4kg


I ran over and tried to locate his camera in his many pouches. I hurriedly tried to figure out the controls and took some pics. The fish was a big one seeing how his lines were like ziiping out. PT was guessing big KBL, I couldn't see anyting in the dark waters. When it finally surfaced, I saw it immediately to be a Barra, and a huge one at that, possibly in the 3-4kg region.

But in all the pandemonium, PT decided to try lift the fellow up on his puny 10lbs mainline, and a 25lbs leader. I said don't, but it was already up halfway. The line was too thin to hold with my hands and I grabbed a rubbish plastic bag to try to managed to hold on to one side. But the height of the railings to the sea level was too high and 2 hands were needed in tandem to pull the line in. I was trying to find some other material for my other hand, but alas too late. Line broke and we all saw in dismay the prized catch falling back to the sea. Argh! we all cried out in unison. PT immediately ran over to the railings and down under the boardwalk. I stared in disbelief that he was willing to risk his life to get the fish. Hey, that a 3-4kg Barra that we were talking about. Kind of like running into the jungle to confront a tiger. But from my top side, I saw that the fish was like concussed and was floating around the water. But I didn't think that it was injured, probably just tired out. I shone my touch and managed to see it a little while more, until it sanked into the deep water. Patrick by that time was in the water below the boardwalk, and it was up to his chest level. Goodness!

I could share his anguish at losing such a prized catch. And on lure somemore. But in restropect, we should have tried to guide the fish over to some rocks that was like just a little out of the water. That would have minimized the risk of losing that fish. But in all the excitement, it was hard to think straight. PT decided that his next project was to make a portable gaff. :)

Last fish, a Kuku




After that intense episode, I too changed to a lure. But cast here and there, nothing. PT was just lucky to have hit the Barra while it was swimming by. It was already 2am by then, and we all had enough and called it a day. Over some midnight food at the coffee shop, PT was still sighing over the lost fish. Well, life is like that. You win some, you lose some.

Total haul

Boardwalk with SP

I was again on leave this friday as usual in my bid to clear up my leaves before the year end. I called up Patrick to do a spot of squidding at PJ. We met around 11pm, but the tide wasn't too good. Water level was quite low, but on the uprise. There wasn't much people there, though the spots at the end of the Jetty were taken up by a couple of surfcasting folks.

We gathered near the jetty steps and cast out our little squid jigs. But maybe due to the low water, nothing productive. I snagged my jig on some obstructions, and soon lost it. Argh..another one bit the dust. I suggested to Patrick to go Boardwalk to check it out, since he had never been there.

Reaching there, I parked at my regular spot just beside the chalets. It was a few minutes walk to reach the Boardwalk, in front of the Sailing club, facing the sea. PT continued his squidding, but again, like no action. I rigged up my L-minnow to test water if the luring action might be good. But as expected, nothing at all.

The Grub


We walked to a further end to change spot for better luck. Seeing the squidding not doing well, I decided to test out my grubs, to see if SP(soft plastic) was any good here. I rigged one for PT as well, for him to try it out.

Yahoo!


As we were chatting and talking about fishy things, I suddenly felt a tap on my line. Instinctively, I struck and behold, something heavy was pulling at my line. Good thing was that I had the drag set to quite tight and the whatever thing below couldn't dash to the rocks for cover. Still, it was immovable for a short while, but I won the tug of war. Soon it was thrashing on the surface. I quickly lifted the fish over the railings, and fish flopped onto the boardwalk.

Quite a good size


Kena cheated by plastics


Taking a closer look, it was a grouper, and a fairly big one at that. Finally I had broken my grouper egg. All the previous ones I got, all very tiny weeny. But this was a respectable sized one, and good for a sumptuous dinner.

PT was impressed as well, and couldn't believe that the grub really worked. Other than a first in grouper, this was also my first fish ever to be caught with a SP. I would soon be getting a few more packs of these. :)

But after this excitement, the fishing died down, though the water was getting higher. Seeing that the time was already 3am, we decided to call it a day. I too was feeling quite sleepy but it was all quite worth the effort. :)



Yummy