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

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


Our bedding area


Ann's big Leng Chiam


Fishing til the rising sun


My Pin Minnow caught a boat!


Clean up time


One of her few Leng Chiams


This ugly fish is good to eat


Giant Leng Chiam!


Mommy goby


How he managed to untwist this fish that was stuck at the rope?


All the lures that I pulled out from my Doreamon pocket


Things you need to tie Sure Catch Tamban hooks


Serious fishing folks. Fish until no more lines


I look like sotong head or not?


Sir, you caught too many fishes. Cannot leave the kelong


All gwai gwai put on the life jacket


Crab hitching a ride on the boat


Ususual high tide


Gone fishing