Rakit Reiza - Woah!

Original plan was to head for Rakit today with Jess as hubby wanted to get a rod and reel combo. RT said to come along with family. Coincidentally, TC also called me to do a return to Rakit. So, all the stars were aligned with the plan.

But came Sat, and I was the blur head that didn't set my alarm properly. I woke up at 6.50am, and saw a missed message from RT. Looking at my phone clock, I realized that I had overslept. There was no way that I could make it over before 7, so no choice and had to put a OPC coupon. Luckily for me, I had 1 left. Crossing the singapore custom at 7.20am, the police asked to look at my displayed coupon and made a thorough check. He was all eager to fine me $10k for not displaying OPC coupon. So this OPC coupon matter, don't play play.

I regrouped with the rest at Danga coffeeshop, just slightly further up from the usual meeting place at the food court. Not a bad place to gather, and it shall be our meeting point in future. There we met Elyn's mother and P2. This trip shall be the first to the Rakit for them.

The fishing kakis


Promising spot beside the jetty


Where are we going again?


This is fun! Wooo...


We reached the Rakit around 9+am and waited a while for the boat to settle the logistic of getting us over. P2 was all eager and excited to be taking his first boat ride. We headed for Reiza since the facilities were better, and more child safe, in our opinion.

First "big" fish of the day


Die todak die!


Wah, so heavy


Soon to be hero of the day


Since I no more rods, resort to handlining for bait fish




Wah, this fish bigger than my hand! Yay!


Father and son and fish


First hour of fishing, we quickly realized that this was yet another tambanless trip. Nothing we were catching with our feathered jigs. We sent out bottom rigs and from that, some action. I was first to break the egg with a surprise catch of a puffer. There were some small fishes on baited hooks. P2 got his first feel of a rod and line with a fish. However he didn't seemed to understand much about the thrill of fishing yet.

I tried out luring for a while, but nothing was biting. There were some todaks doing the usual follow closely but don't bite routine. Behind the Rakit, the water was full of bait fishes (glass fish mainly) and surface action. But nothing. I gave up and went back to park the rods. I finally caught a small todak. Lately, I had been finding them trickly to get at the Rakit. They would bite, and throw the hook most times.

Papa, your grouper very big hor!


P2 feet


RT broke my "biggest" fish catch of the day, when he hauled out a good size grouper from the inner well. That showed some promise for quite a not so good fishing day. And then it was my turn. I saw my bottom rod twitching and held it for a while. I felt some bites and decided to open the bail for whatever to take my prawn and run. And ran it did. Good thing that I had tighten the drag and when I closed the bail, fish was struck and hooked for good.

Got my "difficult" to catch todak


Alamak, stuck!


Can see the fish stucked on the rope 5 ft away


Operation "recover Kurau"


My biggest kurau (actually, only one)


This is my day!


What Mr Kurau did to my lines (apollo rig)


The fish fought quite well, although it wasn't big enough to spool my lines. But it ran under a rope on my left and I realized that I was running the risk of being snagged. In the commotion, I took a risk and tried to guide the fish under the rope. But instead it went too close the rope and made a few turns, snagging it for good. By then, it was already near the surface and we could see that it was a Kurau! I finally got my Kurau but I couldn't bring it up.

Curly hair Rakit indian man came to the rescue and offered to dive into the water to recover my prize catch. And luckily for him, Kurau landed on my feet, to a delighted me. I was a happy man and tipped him handsomely for taking the initiative to get my Kurau.

Thereafter, Andrew landed another grouper. An equally good sized one. He was getting to be the grouper man for the trip. TC was quite fishless until he managed a todak finally on his famous giant bomb weight. Wife Jessie was quite unable to get any fish since tambans and all their friends not around that day.

Beauty and the beast


What sharp teeth you have


Thank you heaven for this fish!


The tide came up around 12pm, and I saw quite a few big splashes in the water. Switching back to luring again, I took out my unused redhead crystal minnow and toss a few times. To my utter delight, I got a very fierce strike and fish was a good fighter. I spent a minute of two trying to guide the fish away from the ropes. At first I thot it a todak, but from the way it fought, not quite. It didn't do the signature acrobatic jump and mostly went deep. When it got near to the surface, it was a beautiful bullet shape fish. I then thot queenie, but when I lifted it out of the water, what landed on my deck was a thing of beauty, a Tengerri! WAhoo! I finally broke my tengerri-less fishing history. For that matter, as well as my Kurau-less fishing history. :))

One of TC few todaks


So finally, TC was now convinced that "fish do eat plastics". Thereafter, he took out his lure and started luring too. But less than five cast later, he gave up. Luring was hard work and he went back to his todak fishing. After my tengerri, I didn't get any more hits despite trying out most of the lures in my lure box.

The afternoon came and the current got quite strong. Fishing wasn't that good and all were mostly restless by then. We decided to pack around 4pm, and then made our way back to the city for some air conditioning cum shopping.

RT catches. It's grouper for dinner


When I grow up, I want to drive a boat!


This is long lining, said RT


Lots of things to think about after a hard day of fishing


When we returned, the custom was usually smooth at around 8.30pm. Might be due to the assessment period for schooling students.

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.

Tanjong Rhu - Short SP session

It was a rather hot day, but I felt like doing some simple fishing. Following my success with SP, I was game to further experiment with it. It so happened that I was near east coast. I decided then to pay Tanjong Rhu a visit, even though the fishing wouldn't be good due to all the construction of the dam at the Marina South side.

We parked along a double yellow line. Problem with this place, legal parking was non-existent. Otherwise, it would indeed be a nice picnic spot for easy fishing. The sun was hot, and we needed a shade to hide in. A and D set up the mat under a tree. Although there was a little shade, the air was still rather warm.

Here fishy fishy..


I fished around the area for a while, but nothing was biting. Just in front of me, were dragon boats doing their practices. I decided to walk further down behind the condo, hoping for a better catch.



There was some kind of floating cordon around the bank, possibly for some dragon boat activity. I walked right up to the edge where they blocked off the rest of the park for construction. Over there, the bank was the rocky type, just suitable for SP fishing.

Green Chromide
http://www.handlinefishing.com/whatsthisfish/cichlids/greenchromide.htm


And true enough, I didn't have to wait long after my cast. I felt a slight nibble and struck. I didn't feel anything, but when I reeled up, there was indeed a fish. It was foul hooked by my grub. I hurriedly took some pics with my phone cam, and released the fellow.

Next cast, I snagged the rig, and had to walk the 250m back to where the car (and all my barangs were) to retie the rig again. And again walked all the way back. It was rather difficult.

Threespine toadfish (aka Kuku)
http://www.handlinefishing.com/whatsthisfish/toadfishes/threespinetoadfish.htm


I cast it out, and within 5 minutes another strike. This was much stronger and I thot I had a grouper. But out came the fish, and it was a kuku. I snapped some pics with my phone cam again, but this time my phone hung. I had forgotten and left my min SD card at home. Poor phone was running low on memory and misbehaving. I had wanted to call D to come take a photo, but phone wasn't working. Too bad. And I didn't have any pliers to take our the grub. Kuku are chompers, and I wouldn't want my fingers getting chomped by this bugger. I snipped off the line with my swiss knife and released it. Hopefully the hook will rust off in a short while.

I think I could have gotten more as the fishing here was quite good. And on SP too. But with the logistic and hot weather and my phone not working properly, I decided to pack and go.

Not bad at all. My 2nd and 3rd fish on SP grub.

Juicy grub. Fishes can't resist


Scary scarecrow


Future rod builder