Pulau Jarak 20/12/2007

2 months, grounded for exactly 2 months as there are no fishing trips to join, I finally couldn't take it anymore. After I've got down the phone with boatman Ah Chung of Sitiawan, I was frantically calling everyone i know of the dates that the boatman proposed. And it was on a Raya Haji holiday. So everyone agreed on a 1 day trip to Pulau Jarak.

Part of the the gears of the trip

2nd( 1st Fish photo N/A) Catch of the day by Darren on IMA RO 80gms

Followed by the barracuda on IMA RO 80gms

Albert's turn to hit a mac on IMA RO 120gm

Poseidon PSPJ 502 & Stella 5k opening accounts with EG Javelin 90

Followed by Ah Siang's power Angchor

Darren's IMA RO strikes again on a grouper

And again

Overall, this trip was just average, we were hit by heavy rain en`route to Pulau Jarak and we wasted quite some time waiting for the waves to calm down and rain to stop. By the time it did, we did not make it to the island itself but we could see it from a distance. Well, what can we expect from a 1 day trip :)

Christmas Present - Parcel 2 of 3

I've waited for this rod to arrive for quite some time. Finally the wait has ended, and I've manage to test this rod out on Hari Raya Haji holidays at Pulau Jarak. Perfectly matched with the Stella 5000 and I couldn't find excuses to complain bout this combination :)

EG Poseidon Spin Jerker PE 2.5

Fuji reel seat with a groovy dark blue marble`ish effect

Fuji SIC titanium coated stainless steel guides

5 feet 2 inches, max jig approx 100gms PE 2.5 which I think its under rated

Christmas Present - Parcel 1 of 3

Finally ! my first popping setup ! Was tempted to get a popping outfit for quite sometime, but decided to delay it as popping was never a regular agenda on this year's fishing trips. I will be going to Pulau Jarak on the 20th this month and testing this new outfit is a must do. Also this will be my main popping arsenal when i re-visit Pulau Jarak again from 26th January 2008 till the 28th January 2008.

My initial choice was the Pencil Instrument series which is rated at PE 4-6 but looking at the built of the rod, I thought to myself, saving my lures is a much wiser decision to make as my heaviest popper is only 70gms. So a decision was finally made, to get the younger brother, Light Pleasure. Although this rod is rated at PE 2-4, I still feel it is capable of going further.

The partner in-crime for the Light Pleasure will most probably be the Daiwa CapricornJ 4500 as its the highest ratio reel I have in my armory. Been wanting to pair it with the Shimano Stella 8000FA, but I found it a bit too heavy for casting long hours. Maybe when I can afford it, I will get a Stella SW8000HG to match with Light Pleasure or any future popping rods..

Presenting, Shimano Caranx Kaibusu - Light Pleasure

Max Lure weight 120gms, PE 2-4 Length 7`6"

Paired with Daiwa CapricornJ 4500

Some neat craftwork on the Fuji guides' wrapping

Daiichi Hi-Speed Line Recycler

I've not been fishing since after Hari Raya. The itch has been tremendously terrible. Hence when the itch is out of control, the wallet loses control :P. Walked into Sabre 2 days ago and i came out with the Daiichi Hi-Speed Line Recycler.

Small red knob for tension setting

View from the other side

Lock n load with a 600m plastic spool

Last but not least, my new `armies` joining the batallion :) More to come soon

2008 Wish List

Considering the rate I am going buying fishing tackles/gears, I think I should be mellowing down a bit since I've yet to register a record catch considering the amount of investment I have put in for this year.

However, upgrading your tackles is part of the process of improving and moving on from what your current setup can't offer you in terms of balance, weight and performance. I am currently lacking of a popping setup which I will only get next year before my trip to Pulau Jarak with Ah Ho, Captain of GT Chaser.

Below are the list of my `dream` new setup which I think ..achievable :P

Jigging

1. Shimano Ocea Bluerose PE8
2. Fisherman Spinoza CC PE8
3. Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000P / Shimano Stella 10000FA
4. Evergreen Poseidon SpinJerker PE3
5. Shimano Stella 3000HG/Daiwa Morethan Branzino
6. Studio Ocean Mark Blue Heaven L50

Popping

1. Carpenter SP78H
2. Daiwa Saltiga Expedition 6500
3. Accurate SR30

I'm also interested to checkout HOTS' Wei World PE8 rod if it is available locally after watching the clip from youtube. Watched in awe when the guy repeatedly put the rod to it's limits, pumping it effortlessly. Anyway, dreams are dreams and things do not come by itself. Hope to secure more trips next year and will need to complete my light jigging setup for light jigging trips to Pekan, Merchung and Kuala Rompin when the season opens next year.

New addition to the family

On one fine crazy day, after being intoxicated `kuat kuat` from the past few weeks, I took a drive down to Ocean Tackle at Sri kembangan on a friday lunch after receiving the call from Ah Boy "Your 8kFA is here...". There i go ...without hesitation, opened the box, inspected the Shimano Stella 8000FA and grinned to myself and handed my credit card over, signed the bill. And on that very evening itself, after work, I drove all the way to Syarikat Kepong to get a nice rod to match with this reel which I ended up getting a Tenryu Jigzam 571-S7 PE 3-5.


Only used this reel paired with the Jigzam once during the trip to Sunvista wreck. Still a virgin.
After getting the Shimano Stella 8000FA, i lost my sanity again. After using it once, i'm kinda impressed with it, I called Ocean Tackle again sometime early last month to order a Stella 5000FA to kick off my light jigging setup project. Was informed that there is no more stock and I need to wait till early December. So it is, i told myself. Barely 2 weeks after I called to order it, Ah Boy called me again "You're lucky ..they manage to bring in one last unit they have in store". So, there i went again, driving all the way down to Sri Kembangan after work. Now I can't wait for my next trip to test out the Stella 5000FA and pop the cherry of both 5000FA and 8000FA :)


Thats all for this year, the Shimano Stella Family will still be the 5000FA and 8000FA. Still thinking hard whether to bring in Stella 10000 into the family next year as the only reason for me to get it is for Lombok and Maldives trips planned for next year. if they ever materialise. Other than that, it'll be sitting in the cabinet.

Sunvista Wreck & Pulau 9 jigging trip report - continuation

The 4 hookups from KY, Alan, Sharma and myself

Sole GT of the trip by KY on IMA jig

Our sore ass from the bumpy ride ..resorted to standing for the next 1 hr of the journey

Bruce and me, getting wet from the so called "roof" of the boat while escaping the dark clouds

Great bunch of ppl to fish with. Non stop jokes, whistling and cock talking buddies. Till then, hope to see you guys January next year on Jarak's trip :)

Similar reports of this trip is also available here.

Sunvista Wreck & Pulau 9 jigging trip report

My 1st pure jigging trip for this year has ended with a lower note. Good calm seas greeted us on the 1st day enroute our journey to the Sunvista Wreck. As I have been told previously, our boatman's ride is very very bumpy. Indeed it was bumpy and furthermore i was sitting at the center console next to the boatman, the best seat of the 2 hr bumpy ride to get your spines n ass tested out to their max. At the end Sharma and myself rather stand and let our knees take the punishing than our asses.

As soon as we reached the top of the wreck, our boatman echo sounded the area, and when fish was spotted on his echo sounder LCD monitor ...there he goes with his signature "OK ..Laiiii ..sea bed 60meter...wreck 30meter" shout to signal us to drop our jigs. As everyone started jigging, snagging frenzy started with everyone had at least 2 jigs snagged to the body of the wreck. We breaked for lunch and KY caught the 1st catch of the day, a 2kg+ GT. Lots of time wasted re-rigging and soon after jigging about 2 hours later, we saw dark clouds and white waves dancing towards our way. Sadly we had to leave the spot without registering any fight at all. We did went to other spots but total catch of the day was only the GT.

Day 2 started with gloomy weather as well. It didnt do enough to hamper our spirits for the day. We spent the morning jigging for nothing. Changed many spots around Pulau 9 cluster of islands and we managed to land 4 talangs from 3-5kgs and 1 bust offs each from Bruce and Sharma.

Final verdict is lousy weather ruined the 2 days of fishing. We had good entertainment from the Whisling Brothers entertaining the boat with "Sunshine through my window" throughout 2 days and also the nice company from everybody on board.

The jetty we're boarding from

Our `battlecruiser` for the 2 days
Mad ass arsenals from Stella 3000, 5000, 8000s, Twinpower 5000 to SaltigaZ 4500, Saltiga Game 3000, Caldia Kix, Freamsj, CapriconJs.

Sharma, Kuan Wai & Co

Bruce warming up kungfu, KY & Alan

Whistling Brothers - singing "Sunshine" since Day 1

October fish`fest

Rain have been falling non stop for the past few days. Will be leaving for Sitiawan in 3 hrs time for the jigging trip at the Sun Vista a.k.a Galileo Galilei wreck 46 nautical miles off Penang Island and also a jigging trip the next day to Pulau 9's cluster of islands. Hope the Allmighty shed some kindness on us for our hope of a good weather for the next 2 days.

Also in the line this month is Paka trip again next weekend 20th Oct. Till then, will be taking a break until the last offshore trip for this year, Tukun Perak.

Hopefully there "will" be a good outing report after this weekend. Till then, Selamat Hari Raya and Happy holildays folks !

Jigging Rods

I've just completed building my "basic" collection of my jigging rods from light jigging to medium. Heavy setup is still on the way as the rod i've ordered is still not stocked in yet.
Decided to pair the Jigzam with Stella 8000FA and Shikari with CapriconJ.

My headache now is I could not find a suitable partner in crime for the Shino Amberjack. Short term planning is to pair it with the CapriconJ with my spare spool loaded with 20lbs braid. Long term plan or Xmas wish list ....Daiwa Morethan Branzino + Tenryu Delsol PE 0.8-1.5 :P Anyway its just a wish. I need a popping outfit more than a light tackle outfit for the time being.

From left to right: Tenryu Jigzam PE 3-5, Shikari Custom PE2-4, Shino Amberjack PE1-3

From front view

Shikari PE 2-4 custom

Tenryu Jigzam

Jiggling jigs

My humble collection of "wallet`ache" jigs after stock check as of end of August! Actually i bought a few more light jigs this month hehehe.

Will continue adding my collection between 50-80gm ones and 150-200gms. Top on my shopping list, Caprice/Caprice kid, more IMA, more n more ailemetal 100gms n above...and hopefully Patriot design :P. I also need to get more of the cheap jigs ...its not fun losing your favourite jigs to those busy body barracudas all the time :S

From clockwise: IMA RO 120gms and 80gms. Jazz 120gms, Ofmer 100gms, the solo Metallic Sardine, Ailemetal 80gm and 200gm( these are my favourites), Williamson Bentos 100-150gm and last but not least the tamentais( i lost a few of them during the last Jarak trip, so ...looks like its productive over at west coast :) ).

Paka Sept 16 catch report

6 hours on road, 3 hours on sea, just 30 minutes of andrenalin rush. Thats the best word to describe my shortest fishing trip ever. Starting off the journey from KL at about 12am, we reached Paka at 5am in time for breakfast. Got our stuff loaded on the boat at the jetty by 6am and we were good to go.

First destination was to the unjam to get some live bait for our `supposedly` tenggiri(spanish mackarel) hunting trip. Selar, kembung was showing up in very little numbers. Some of them was too big to be used as live bait. Suddenly, we saw a few boiling spots around the unjam. Our deckhand immediately took out his rolls of handlines and there we go, trolling around the unjam for the boiling bonitos(tongkol), cencaru for the next 3 hours on hand lines !! Trust me ...you wouldn't want to try holding a handline with 10-15 hooks attached to it, each hook with a bonito which are close to one kilo each :)

EK, pulling a full house load of bonitos on board ...notice a glove was used...my fingers were bruised too by the line peeling out of your hands when you're trying to bring them in

After that, we proceeded to drift for tenggiris. Unfortunately we've got a few bites but no solid hook ups. According to boatman, water was too clear but even when fluorocarbon leaders were used, it did not yield any positive results either :(

I started to jig when nothing seems to be working, looks like fishes there were not interested with the jigs as well. I've tried almost all the jigs i have from 50gm - 120gm but there's not even a nibble. Sea started to get choppy and i starting to get seasick, lied down or a nap and i did not realise how long i slept until i heard line peeling out from not one, but ALL 3 reels my friends were using. I immediately got up with a blurry face, with the grinning faces of my friends looking at me, i immediately casted my jig out to the school of Dorados. They were least interested in the jigs and they went after the fillet baits drifted into their way.

Feeling dizzy to change my rigs, my friend hooked up one and passed me the rod to fight while in the meantime, the tekong helped me to changed my rigs. Feeding frenzy lasted for about 15 minutes. Total chaos on the deck as we had double, triple, quad hookups and the dorados was jumping around our boat and had a good try to tangle up our lines. We were practically running around the deck trying to sort out our lines.After about 20 minutes or so, we managed to land 16 Dorados. Bad news hit us after all the andrenalin rush for the past 30 minutes. We ran out of ice as boatman only brought 2 packs of ice on board...ggrrrrrrr. We chose to get back to shore to save the dorados as our cooler box was all full as well. We had a short but great time, reached shore at about 3pm.

Fully filled cooler box of bonitos, cencaru, kembung.

Our taruh makan taruh makan catch. Lucky and unlucky for us to bump into the school of them and run out of ice in the same time.

So long for now

Preview of a new family member

The day has finally come .... will post up a lil more writeup and more pictures later bout this new baby.

IMA

These jigs have been proven to be the top hit during these 2 months with multiple strikes from trips of MFN jigging kakis. Being abit kiasu, I've also purchased some 120gm and 80gm IMA jigs to test out at the coming trip next month. Hopefully it will turn out to be as productive as per what KY told me. Abit regretted didnt get a few of IMA Gun as i might be able to test it out at Paka waters this weekend

IMA 120gms with black label and 80gms in purple labels.

Daiwa Saltist 40

This reel was purchased quite some time. I've only used it twice before. Maybe I will bring it to the upcoming shipwreck trip next month to give it a try if i do not sell it.Sadly i'll have to part with this reel in order to make way for project Stella :P . Really admire it in terms of build quality and its nice clicker.

The beautiful saltist.

Saltist 40 with its original Daiwa knob for the Saltigas...wannabe again :P

Saltist 40 front view.