Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Pulau Angsa Fishing

It has been about 1 month since my last fishing trip. The last trip that Navin and myself went was to One Fathom Bank during the Chinese New Year Holidays. (Read here for details). We decided to organize a trip to Pulau Angsa to satisfy our lust for fishing. My brother was supposed to join us for this trip, but due to his exams, he would have to give this trip a miss. In the end, only three of us went for the trip; Navin, myself and my girlfriend.

We left KL at around 7.00am, and arrived at the jetty in Sasaran at about 8.15 am. The boatman was already waiting for us when we arrived. We bought ice from the jetty and proceeded to load our gears onto the boat. The boat ride to the first spot took about the 30 minutes and the time used to prepare our tackle.

Upon arrival at the first spot, we wasted no time and quickly lowered our bait into the water. Navin and myself were fishing from the back of the boat and my girlfriend was fishing from the front. Less than 5 minutes after dropping our bait, my girlfriend gave a shout from the front of the boat. she had caught the first fish of the day. It was a gelama. Soon after that I got a gelama on my line as well.

After about 15 minutes, I realized that my girlfriend had gone silent. I thought she was having some problems with her fihing gear, so I went to the front of the boat to check on her.Imagine my surprise to see her sitting on the deck, with teary eyes. I asked what was wrong, and she promptly gave me an answer by puking over the side of the boat. She was suffering from seasickness. Uuhhh... oohhhh...!!!! Sounds like trouble. She had forgotten to take her seasickness pills. My fault partially for not giving it to her before we left.

I told her to take a rest and fish only if she was feeling better. I felt kinda bad for her. She had been looking forward for this trip. While she rested, I continued with my fishing. The current was not too strong, but the wind was quite strong. I was kinda hard to stand and fish as the boat was rocking.

We were hoping that some other fish other than the gelama would take our bait. Instead, were were only hauling up one gelama after another. I was catching the normal gelama where else Navin was hauling up the bigger variant of the gelama, locally called Gelama 3 Gigi. He had more than 5 sizeable Gelama 3 Gigi and I had only 1 Gelama 3 Gigi. In he midst of it all, I caught a freaky looking gelama. The gelama was well formed, it had all the fins and all, it was quite big as well.. the freaky part was, it was missing a tail. The gelama had no tail and yet it survived after all this while. wonder how it would swim in the water. Quite hard to swim without a tail I guess.

We fished till about 5.00pm before heading back to shore. Sadly, my girlfriend did not enjoy the trip at all. She was feeling quite sick on the boat. The moment we reached the jetty, she was feeling better. I guess I have to get her those seasickness pill next time we head out to sea.

---------------------------------------------------
Danny : I got about 2kg worth of gelama. This translate to 2 points. It's a start... It's a start....
---------------------------------------------------


:::... Calm sea as we head out to Pulau Angsa ...:::

:::... Left to Right - Abu Garcia Conolon Rod with Abu Cardinal 106 Reel, Abu Garcia Workhorse Rod with Shimano Slade 2500 reel, Abu Garcia Ultracast II with Abu Cardinal 104 Reel ...:::

:::.. Before she got seasick ...:::

:::... After she got seasick ...:::

:::... Before the fishing started ...:::

:::... Freaky gelama. Tailless gelama ...:::

:::... The scenery on the way back to the jetty ...:::

:::... My total catch, 2kg worth of gelama ...:::

Saturday, March 17, 2007

New tackle layout

I had a lot of free time for the past 2 weeks. What did I do? I rearranged the tackle display in my room. While going thru all the stuffs I had, I discovered a few things that I thought I had lost, and a few things that I thought I had but was missing. Hehehehe.....

With this new and improved display, I hope to eliminate unnecessary spending. I discovered I now have one too many hooks, swivels, clips, and weights. Hrrmm... anyone wanna buy from me?

I am also thinking of selling off some items that I have but is not used. Bought them on impulse, not regreting it. Example : 13 footer rod. What the heck am I gonna use the 13 footer for? Whack lizard on my ceiling? Hehehe...

Anyway, here are some pictures of the new tackle display in my room....

:::... Tackle Corner In My Room ...:::

:::... Fishing Rods ...:::

:::... Storage area for reels, bags and boxes ...:::

:::... Reels ...:::

:::... Bags ...:::

:::... Fishing Accessories ...:::

:::... More accessories ...:::

:::... Lure boxes, jig bags, and boxes for hooks, swivels, etc ...:::

:::... Lead weights ...:::

:::... Storage for main lines, accessories, rigs, leader lines, etc ...:::

:::... Fishing Magazines ...:::

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Abu Garcia Waist Bag

Recently, I was at Tightlines Sportfishing browsing thru the tackle display there. While browsing thru the items, I happened to lay my eyes on the Abu Garcia Waist Bag that was on display. I took it out from the display cabinet and immediately decided to purchase the bag for myself.

I came across the following article in Rod and Line Magazine, March 2007 issue. Below is the the write -up in the magazine about the Abu Garcia Waist Bag

---------------------------------------------------------------------
It is quite hard to find an ideal fishing bag that can cater for all your angling needs. Most of the bags are for urban or general use only, meaning that it is more for fashion and not meant for the outdoor adventure like fishing.

Pure Fishing really understands the anglers' need by coming out with this stylish but highly functional bag which serves two purposes, either as a pouch or sling bag.

Measuring about 30x15x12 cm, it has a main compartment to keep the bigger tackle box or items such as wallet, reels and even camera or video camcorder. At the front and sides are smaller compartments or pockets designed for ready-to-use items such as small accessories boxes, fish lip grip, knife, torchlight, pliers, etc.

The bag also comes with water resistance material with durable stitching for rough usage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Below are some pictures taken of the waist bag.

:::.. Wear it on the front ...:::

:::... Wear it to the left ...:::

:::... Wear it to the right ...:::

:::... Nice and comfy ...:::

:::... Easy access to the side pockets and lots of place to hang lip grips and other accessories ...:::

:::... Abu Garcia Waist Pouch ...:::

:::... Worth the money spent ...:::

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Happy Birthday Krazie Fishie

I turned 28 last week. 8 March to be precise.

About a week before my birthday, I was at a tackle shop in Klang with my girlfriend. We had gone to Klang to buy some household items and I stumbled upon this tackle shop while waiting for her to finish her shopping. I was browsing thru the items on display and I happened to notice a rod rack which was for sale. There were two models on display; 20 rods display rack and 10 rods display rack. The price of the rack was quite reasonable. Navin had got one for himself much earlier and he paid more for it.

I consulted with my girlfriend about purchasing the rack for my rods. She then gave this brilliant idea to me. She said that she would be it for me as my birthday gift. Without hesitation, I said sure. Hehehe....

Didn't cost much, its the thought that counts. Here are some pictures of the rack taken in my room after all my rods has been properly arranged on it.

:::... 20 Rods Display Rack ...:::

:::... Almost Full ...:::

:::... 6 more space available ...:::

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Blast From The Past

Here are some pictures from my dad's collection. Some of the pictures are quite old and were taken while I was still an infant. Some pictures has my face in it, try to identify me if it is possible. There are more pictures in my dad's collection. You will all have to wait till I get back to Sabah before the next batch of pictures can be scanned and posted here.

:::... This was taken during the early 80's ...:::

:::... My dad (holding fishing rod) and my uncle fishing from a rocky outcrop somewhere in Sabah ...:::

:::... My dad fishing from a barge that came to the estate he was working in ...:::

:::... A typical Sunday morning outing during school holidays in the estate. Such a wonder atmosphere. Fishing and having BBQ right by the stream. Those were the days ...:::

:::... My mom holding up a tilapia caught in a pond situated in the estate my uncle working in ...:::

:::... My cousin holding up a tilapia caught in the same pond in the above picture ...:::

:::... Fishing platform on the pond. Pond situated in a palm oil estate ...:::

:::... Me (yeap.. it's me) and my cousin fishing in a longkang in my dad's estate ...:::

:::... Nice big pond in the middle of a oil palm estate ...:::

:::... That's me sitting down next to my uncle in the front row ...:::

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Fishing During Chinese New Year Holidays - Part 2

During the long break for Chinese New Year, Navin and myself had gone fishing too keep ourselves occupied. We had gone to two locations; Rawang Wild Pond and One Fathom Bank.

One Fathom Bank (18 - 19 February 2007)
The day began quite early for the both of us. We were supposed to meet up with Maniam and his friends at the jetty at 10.00am. Being Team Crazyfisherman, we were there at 10.30am. The tekong was rushing us. Told us to quickly load our gear onto the boat. The reason was the tide was going down fast. We quickly bundled our gears into the boat and proceeded to leave the jetty. According to the boatman, another 15 minutes, we would not be able to go out and we had to wait for the tide to come back in before proceeding.

The trip to OFB was eventful. We had fun on the boat listening to the stories that Maniam was telling us. He always had some interesting fishing related story to tell. We arrived at OFB at about 12 noon and the sun was really hot. To our surprise, there was hardly anyone fishing on the lighthouse. During the previous year Chinese New Year celebration, there was about 50 people fishing on from the lighthouse. This time there was on 4 guys fishing from the lighthouse.

On the way to OFB, we had made a plan. We would take turn to fish from the boat and the lighthouse. 3 people would fish from the boat, 3 would be fishing from the lighthouse. We made this plan as we were anticipating a lot of people would be on the lighthouse. However, since there were not people on the lighthouse, we all proceeded to fish from the top instead of the boat.

The selar kuning were quite abundant this time around. Even the sizes are much bigger compared to our previous trip. Navin had rigged his rod to do some bottom and surface fishing using live selar as bait. I was happily catch selar to be used as life bait. Most of the selar and tamban cought were kept in the cooler box. Towards the evening, at about 5.00pm, the selar were getting bigger. I could easily haul up 2-4 good size selar kuning during that time. However, the frenzy period only lasted for about 45 minutes.

At about 8.00 pm, Navin and Maniam decided to go out by boat to the shipwreck to try their luck. I decided to stay back and fish from the lighthouse with the rest of the guys. At about 9.00pm, we noticed that that a large school of garfish were at gathering around the lighthouse area. There were thousands of garfishes around. Naturally, when this happens, predators would definitely be around as well. Sensing an opportunity, I quickly rigged my casting outfit; which was an Abu Conolon PE 1-3 rod and Abu Cardinal 106 reel spool with 30 lb Fins Braided line. I took out a popper from my stash of lures and then waited for a feeding frenzy. I didnt have to wait long, soon splashes were heard from everywhere. The biggies are here...!!!
I launched my popper at the direction of the splashes and quickly popped my lure in.. No hit from the biggies. The only hit i got was from some foul hooked garfish. As I was popping my lure in, the treble hooks from the popper had accidentally foul hooked a few garfish in the process. This happened for a few times before I decided to change from a surface lure to a diving lure. I took out my Halco lure and waited. The first cast didn't yield anything. After a few cast, I felt something hitting my lure. Unfortunately there were no solid hook-up. I inspected the lure after that and was quite excited when I saw bite marks on them. It was clear something big has hit it. My guess was a barracuda. Barracuda is a known predator around OFB and their favorite is garfish.

The action kinda died down after about 2 hours.. No solid hookup were registered. Even the others fishing with me didn't register anything. The only consolation we got that night was a squid caught by Maniam's friend and loads of garfish caught on appolo rig (foul hooked). By the way, the two guys who went out in the boat didn't get anything.

The weather changed at around midnight. There was a thunderstorm coming and we quickly packed out stuff and placed them where it would not get wet. The storm was quite bad that night. According to Navin, the waves were huge. I was fast asleep when all this took place.

Early the next morning, we proceed to continue fishing. Looks like the biggies are not around this time. So instead of fishing for the biggies, I decided to fish for baitfish. I was happy catching the selar kuning and tamban which was abundant around the area. I managed to fill about 3/4 of m cooler box with the baitfish.

We left OFB at about 10.00 am. I would consider this trip a disappointing trip. Why? Simple reason.... The lack of action from the biggies...