A nice barra among Snappers
Star Snappers galore! Plus Two Golden Snappers and a thrilling Ray on hongkong hook
4 June 2005 - Johor Shoal and surrounds A bunch of NTU undergrads came along, Sam, Cindy, Isaac and Huishan... with Guek and me, for a trip to Johor Shoal.
At the first stop, a wreck off changi, we stopped to see if the gals could take the waves. They could, so we started moving off toward Johor Shoal.
Stopped at some old spots along the way with nothing much to show except a few small fish. Then the sea lice moved in (KUTU), and we made a wise decision to head back to Ubin, where, at the Snagpile, a whole pile of decent fish turned up. Grunters were the dish of the day and so were Flathead and a nice Garoupa by Sam. Here are a few pics. Looks like Ubin still fires up when necessary.
Isaac shows how a 2.5 kilo Grunter can glisten in the evening sun
Cindy and Sam show some table-sized grunters
28 and 29 May 2005 Family fun day again!!! The whole family came along these two days of fishing. Plenty of small fish for fun, but a few serious fish like golden snapper turned up to add class to the catch.
Karen demonstrates good skills with a delicious small garoupa
23 May 2005 Vesak Day The boats were out in force. Saw so many of them grouped around the usual fish release area that I went to a quieter spot. Des, JJ, Karen, Felip, Reuben and me were out for some serious fish. And we got some. Snappers, grunters and a Garoupa obliged. Even big ones that got away by bursting our lines. A rather slow day overall, fortunately the company was great and some fish showed up.
Here's Des with a Grunter and a Snapper
Karen with her fish.
21 May 2005 Saturday and Vesak Day respectively. Just read about the terrible accident off Tekong. Poor anglers, hope they recover quickly.
Went fishing on Saturday with Uncle Ed and Guek. A few fish turned up to entertain, like a White Threadfin (can't grow as big as a Black Threadfin)- Kurau, a Queenie and small stuff like Grunters and Gelamas. Found a pic Jan sent me of the time she came and fished too and decided to post it.
Here's uncle ed who refuses to touch a small grunter... Amis la!
A nice fish for the babies to eat.
Guek with a hard-fighting Queenie.
Jan with a baby.
15 May 2005 Family trip Went on a short family trip with Wayne's family too. The three kids had fun. Some fish like snapper even turned up to add excitement.
22 Apr 2005 two-hour trip and 23 Apr 2005 Southern Island link-up trip ALRIGHT!!! Brendon and me fished a short while after work on Friday and the usual guest turned up when the feeling was good.
Bren with a kilo barra caught while holding the fort
BUT... Saturday was going to be totally different. After a long absence from the Southern Islands, a fishing buddy with a boat at Keppel Marina called and asked if I would be keen to go hunting for Kurau. How could I refuse???
So we met at Keppel on Sat morning, me with my trusty Surecatch $17 rod and a Shimano Ultegra 5000. Dave, my friend, was looking at my gear and saying that I was going to watch him catch all the fish this time. (Just like what happens on my own boat, I thought.) I didn't mind if he caught fish, as long as somebody catches fish, it would be great. Anyway, I had volunteered to be anchorman for the day.
So at the first Sentosa spot, we rigged up and, like pros, started pulling fish in almost immediately. Plenty of big Snapper up to 2 kilos, kaci, Star Snapper (what many call peck-tiam)... and then the Conrad show began again. I was chatting with Dave with my line straight down when the rod was almost yanked into the water by a powerful fish. Steadying myself, with cheers from Dave and Al, a nice Chermin surfaced after a good fight. Then, upon dropping my line into the water, I hooked another bigger Chermin. This continued until I had 5 nice chermin on ice in less than 10 minutes and a Sagai from Dave. Then we had to shift spot to get the Kurau.
Not a bad start indeed. Of course the Kurau were not cooperating as expected, but we all went back pretty happy. Here are some photos. Didn't lay out the fish but the ice box was heavy indeed from the snappers and chermins.
Might join Dave as his anchorman again soon. This time we'll specifically target Kurau.
April Fool's Day 2005 Half-day off gang... CONGRATS TO FRANCIS ON HIS FIRST WILD BARRA It's amazing how some people have got their priorities right. Between fishing and work, these guys chose fishing, the natural choice. I sent out an sms on Thursday saying I was gonna fish on Friday from 1pm to 5pm. And out of the woodwork came Weeboon and Francis, Des and Tomo... all on half day leave or time-off. Alright!!! We anglers do have our priorities right!
So by 1.30pm we launched the boat and bought bait from the aunty. The first spot was around Tekong, where I'd discovered something like a reef a few weeks back. The terrain was good. Corals were aplenty, but there were hardly any takers till Tomo pulled in a Barramundi. Then all went quiet again till we moved to GF.
Aha... that's when I noticed the water was dirty and mentioned that this was good for Barra. True enough, the moment I let my bait down, the rod took a good bend and I knew it was a barra. After a good fight, one kilo of golden muscle was eased into the landing net.
Then Francis was on to something and he really struggled with that one, till another properly hooked barra was brought into the boat. The moment I put the landing net down with the fish, Francis gave a yell and I realized it was his first wild barra.
Then the fatboy syndicate moved in to remove whatever optimism the rest of us had.
Returned to the boatel at 5pm sharp. Not too bad, 3 barra in 3 hours of fishing. Here's a beaming Francis holding up two of the barra.
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