Pulau Sembilan 23 June 2007 : Catch Report

About two weeks ago, while recovering from my trip to Penyabung, I received a call from Vincent (Rorytate from MFN). The conversation went something like this...

Vincent : Sharm... u free on 23 June? Planning for trip to P9... U in?
Me : Yeah... !!! Count me in....
Vincent : Ask your cousin as well if he interested.
Me : Ok.. will do..
Vincent : Chow....
Me : Chow....

Less than a minute of conversation and my trip to Pulau Sembilan on 23 June was set. In the days to come, I had the chance to meet up with Vincent and the the rest for some discussion on the tackle setup for the assault on Pulau Sembilan.


Fast forward to 23 June 2007.

We left KL in a convoy at 3.00 am. Since we were all coming from different parts of the city, we all met up at the Rawang R&R to group up before heading out to Sitiawan. The journey there was quite fast and very uneventful.

We arrived at Sitiawan town at around 6.00 am. We met up with a another angler who was joining us from Ipoh. We had breakfast at a mamak shop and took the opportunity to take some pictures and pop some sea sickness pills.

:::... Breakfast time in Sitiawan Town ...:::

From the mamak shop, we all proceeded to Leasure Bay where we would be boarding the boat from. I took this opportunity to tie my leader. I was in such a rush that I didn't have time to do any prior rig tying at home. The boat that we were going to board was the best so far that I have encountered. I would say that this is the perfect type of boat for all offshore fishing.

:::... The location where we would launch the boat ...:::

:::... Fish cage for farmed fish ...:::

:::... The boat ...:::

:::... Ample space to accomodate 8 anglers easily ...:::

:::... Twin 200hp engine ...:::

We board the boat at approximately 7.45am. One this that I can tell you that this boat was SUPER fast. The boat ride itself was a thrill. Half way to our first fishing spot, the weather started to change. It was raining and the rain was quite heavy. The boatman slowed his boat down and asked Vincent if he wants to proceed with the journey or turn back. We all decided to proceed. Thankfully we made the right decision. The rain was on at that particular area. when we arrived at the first spot, it was bright and sunny.

:::... Only picture of me on board ...:::

The first spot that the boatman went was near and island. This spot was quite rocky. The boatman told us to do casting, and soon all of us were casting different types of lures towards the rocky shores, hopeing to strike it big. We all tried everything we had; poppers, deep divers, shallow divers, spoon, bulu-bulu, and even jigs. I can't really remember if we had any catch at the first spot. After some time, the boatman decided to move on to a different spot.

The second spot was more productive. This was where I got hit on my jig. The feeling was awsome. This is my first jigging trip and the first time that I got something on jig. The feeling is beyond words.... All of us managed to land fish here. Well, almost all lar... Hehehe... When the bite died down, we moved on to a different spot. The boatman had a lot of spots for us to try out our jigs. I was trully impressed with this boatman. Very professional and very hardworking.

We fished till about 6.30pm and decided to return to shore. We reached the shore at about 7.00pm. We were all salty, burnt, tired but happy. Only when we reached the shore we decided to take a peek into our coolerbox to see what the damage was like. I would say that this trip was quite a good trip.

:::... Cooler box filled with our catch ...:::

:::... Better view of all our catch. Not bad eh ...:::

We all went for a shower and then proceeded to a seafood restaurant to get them to cook the fish that we caught. Very satisfying indeed. Fresh fish from the sea.

:::... Fresh GT ...:::

:::... What is left from the kerapu ...:::

We retired for the night at about 11.00pm. As soon as our head hit the pillow, we were drifting away in lala land. We were that tired.

The next day, at around 11.00 am, we said our goodbyes and then proceeded to leave for KL. I will be back in Pulau Sembilan in 2 weeks time. This time I will be going with Jeishen, May, Hari and Navin. We would be using the same boatman. Hopefully that time I would have more photos to show all of you.

:::... My catch ...:::

:::... Biggest queenfish I got was 1 kg ...:::

Note : Danny, my score for this trip is 6 points . 1.5 kg x 2 x 2 = 6