1st Hit & Run for 2006

[DaFrogman]

Well, what with holidays, work and the weather all gone weird, I put off a H&R since I got back from my holidays with the Missus and Kids.

The crew had been out a few times this month, but each time, the seas were really mean, even when they used the big boat and catches were not that good. But, after reports of reasonable seas over the last week or so and keeping a keen eye on the weather, the crew were clamouring to go this Saturday for an overnighter.

So after doing a basic prepping of my gear on Friday night, we decided to leave the decision till Saturday afternoon, subject to the weather reports and sea conditions. Come Saturday, the Malaysian weather forecasters (who are usually pretty reliable), were predicting really bad sea conditions with wave heights to 3.5m and wind speeds in the 40+kmh range, plus a small craft warning being issued for Sunday. But the crew after checking the sea condtions visually and also checking with the Brunei Shell Forecasters, decided that it was fishable.

So we launched late on Saturday afternoon just before 6pm, 'cos I was really tied up at work and still had to rush home to grab my gear... as a consequence, I carried only the minimum of gear and left out my box of favorite 5/0 Gamakatsus....ahhh well there you are.

We headed out in our smallest boat, a 23ft single engined boat. Sea conditions heading out were pretty good, minimal chop and just a few bouncy 3 foot waves to contend with and minimal swell too. We tried to jig bait, but got to our baitgrounds wayyyy too late, so we were stuck with dead bait. After checking out some nearer to shore spots (around 30km offshore), we reckoned that the sea conditions would permit us to make a run to further areas 50km off shore and thats where we headed.

At the first spot, we ran into another of my crew (Kahar) who was taking a local charter party out in his boat... we elected not to join him at the spot and moved another 10km or so to another spot where the water was over 300ft deep.... This spot had produced some really good MJs last month and hopes were high..... The current was pretty strong at over 1 knot, but alas, thru the entire night, it was a letdown, with me pulling in 2 really big (10 & 12kg) deepwater catfish and only a single 3kg Kerisi Bali along with a couple of smaller Kerisi Bali and Coral Wrasses.... The rest of the crew fared even worse with only another deepwater catfish (boy can these suckers pull hard).

Come morning the old coldbox was looking really bare, but the seas were just Flat Ass Calm, so with soft winds and great seas we jumped to a series of other spots even further; some 85km offshore... Water was now in the 400ft range and everyone was using XHD 3-4 hook Apollo rigs and the current had died down...

The 1st spot started well, with some big 4kg Kerisi Bali being boated, but then it quieted down. So we shifted to a further spot and this was where we got some nice 5kg red snapper and 2 nice Kerisi Bali. With the day moving on and being at the safe edge of our fuel range, we decided to make our way home, visiting some other spots along the way. It was the 1st spot on our way back that we finally hit a good patch of fishing, with all 4 rigs being hit just after getting to the bottom. Over the next hour of fishing we boated some big red snapper going 7-8kgs, one big black grouper over 10kg, 5kg Kerisi Bali and a bunch of Yellow Spotted Grouper in the 5-7kg range.... so by this time, the Coldbox was looking much prettier and after the bite died down here we shifted to 3 other spots on our way home which didn't yield many more fish.

At the last spot 40km offshore we ran into Kahar and his charter again, but we decided to make the run home and we got back at about 2.30pm Sunday....

All in all not a great trip but not too bad either. Not too many pics, but I hope you like the ones I managed to take.

Kamsan, I'll try putting names/nicks to pics

Happy 2006 everyone.

Regards,

Saimee

[edylie]

Saimee,

Good fish you guys landed there. If only we have such fishing grounds around this area ....

Cheers,
Edy

[AmbeRjacKHunter]

Saimee...awesome man....very nice catches your pic 3....what bait you fellas used............looks like tongkol to me or perhaps some XL selars

Salam
Bro RK

[AmmarHaziq]

Brada Saimee,

It's a dream in SG waters. Great catch there.

Zaini

[AmmarHaziq]

Brada Saimee,

It's a dream in SG waters. Great catch there.

Zaini

[DaFrogman]

Brada "Eagle Eye" (or is it Amberjack Eye) Kamsan,

Yes, that was the remains of a Tongkol..... Actually our dead bait wasn't in very good condition but we managed to get some fresher stuff off Kahar when we met him at sea. But, Tongkol has proven to be a prime big Kerisi Bali bait and works well on big snapper too... heck it seems to work on basically everything, but we use biggish 6-8 inch streamlined baits for the Apollo rigs.

I was really hoping for an MJ or two, but well, ya can't win everytime ...

The weather seems to have listened to the forecasters and the sea is now off limits... so it looks like our H&R planned for the prime CNY holiday period may be put off and I have an Awal Tahun Hijrah function to attend on Monday evening anyway.... Must mendoakan rezeki from the BIG BOSS for the new year....

Brada Zaini,

If Team Hantap completes its "developmental" projects for this year, catches may get even better...

Regards,

Saimee

Originally Posted by AmmarHaziq

Brada Saimee,

It's a dream in SG waters. Great catch there.

Zaini

Brudder Zaini,
In mandarin they say "TAN KU KU". Meaning "Wait long long".
heheheheh

1 word Brudder Saimee..... SWEEEEEEET................

Slick

[zikista]

Brada Saimee, seems that every Catch Report you posted always haul good catch bro, even though you have mentioned before, the trip was bad but yet you guys hook on good eating fishes. Always looking forward for your new reports bro......Brunei Fishing Heaven.....a wonderful place to be ....cheers brada.....great catch you got there..especially the reds.

ZIKO