The 2007 Account

[DaFrogman]

Its been close to 3 MONTHS since I last got out on the water to fish with my crew. That plus the even more unpredictable than ever NE Monsoon weather shut off January from fishing and most of February.

The last 10 days or so finally saw a change in the sea conditions that seem to have indicated a wind down of the monsoon winds and various crews restarted their piscatorial pursuits leaving me gnashing my teeth due to work commitments. The initial reports though were not that great, with crews citing big seas at night, cool water temps and dirty water conditions providing less than stellar catches. But with my crew bugging me to head out and the CNY weekend coming up, last Friday found Ishak in my workshop tying heavy duty Apollo rigs whilst I retrieved and checked the gear for the trip.

Saturday at 5pm and Ishak had topped up the fuel tanks and spares and I had just finished loading the ice whilst Kahar was putting the props on the boat. One more quick check and Ishak towed the boat to the ramp and we launched her. As usual, the port engine was a little stubborn to start and I blew the fuel system whilst Kahar held the boat at station using the starboard engine. After that both engines worked just fine..... until Kahar told me that he might have fixed the counter props the wrong way round.... which meant that putting the boat in forward gear sent us backward and vice versa... A lot of ribbing and good natured piss taking later, we brought her to the ramp edge and set about taking the props off and swapping them round whilst waiting for DaChief to arrive for his maiden trip of 2007.

DaChief duly arrived and we loaded his heavy gear on to the boat along with his "Lucky" Tiagra 30. Heading out, Ishak took us on a NNW bearing into a NE sea that was a lot rougher than it looked like from the shore. With the waves building slightly in the freshening breeze, we had to plough our way through a nasty 4-5ft quartering head sea to a spot some 68km offshore, with the target being big red snapper and possibly MJs. Roughly 1.5 hours later, we arrived somewhat battered, pretty damp, but ready to fish.

The first 2 spots we tried yielded a few decent snapper of the table sized variety and one or two bigger ones too, but Ishak decided to move on. We anchored up at a third spot and I rigged to fish as DaChief settled down to battle a horrible case of "Chunder Fever". That spot worked out pretty well as we had a quadruple hookup on the first drop of baited rigs, which duly yielded about a dozen or so snapper in the 2kg+ range and a few decent kerisi bali too. But all too soon, the bite seemed to die down, by then we had at least caught enough fish to make the trip seem worthwhile. Ishak then decided to shift even further offshore to a spot 7km away, so we pounded it out for another 12 minutes and spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out the right spot, but after consulting 3 handheld GPS units and the console mounted one, we anchored up on the lip of a depression in the seabed that had one or two nice little marks on the sounder.

I was the first to drop a rig down and shortly found my Apollo rig nicely hit by a double batch of red snapper... this continued for about 2 hours until midnight when the current picked up and the bite died down, but by then I had landed over a dozen decent snapper, the biggest only around 3-4kgs, so nothing much to brag about there... nothing had taken drag off my reel yet, so I decided to take a quick nap.

At about 2am, I cracked open an eye to watch Mahadi our new crew member fish away and shortly boat a nice snapper, followed by kahar who had a very nice one-two punch of a snapper and red emperor at the same time on his Apollo ranggong, so I sent down my Apollo rig and sure enough, I added another 3 snapper to the score before the current picked up again, so I took another nap.

At 4am, I awoke to the sound of a nice fish thumping on the deck and watched as Mahadi deftly despatched a thumper 7kg kerisi bali into the coldbox... Seeing the nice fish, I switched my Apollo for a heavy leadered ranggong rig and sent down my favoured big fish bait of a butterflied whole rumahan on a twin hook rig.

The bait hit bottom and I cranked it up just a crank and a half as I was using a shorter leader. As I chatted to Mahadi about his nice fish, I mentioned that I had caught my biggest MJ at this spot at about 4.30am a year ago and I was hoping for a huge kerisi bali or MJ again this time round.... The words had barely left my lips when I felt a huge hit on my rod and frantically cranked 3 times before striking. I knew immediately that it was a good fish and I watched my Calstar 755H Psycho Lite bend nicely before the drags on my 665 started hissing their song. Four times the fish wrenched its head back down towards the bottom and at that point I wasn't 100% sure what it was... its head shakes were not as frantic as a kerisi bali and I thought it might be a grouper, but big MJs and kerisi bali have a similar signature hit and head shake.

2 minutes later though, as I man handled the fish with short strokes, I started thinking it must be a grouper as it was really heavy but seemed to have given up about a 100ft off the bottom (water was 350ft deep). I was suprised when the fish made a last minute attempt to run as the ranggong approached, but I managed to control it and get the leader in hand...

Up popped a familiar barrel shape and woohoooooo!!! finally a decent fish to open the account.... a nice big fat grouper... I towed the fish to the side of the boat and sank the gaff in the corner of its mouth before I dragged it on board. Ishak deigned to crack an eye open and swiftly made the decision to rig up and fish, so I settled back to watch his rig as we chatted for about half an hour before he got a hit, but it turned out to be a small hammerhead shark that I cut off at boat side.

With that, I decided to go back to sleep having boated the biggest fish so far... At 7am I was roused and we made plans to head off to the west to fish a few more spots... Our efforts so far had just about filled 2/3 of the big coldbox with snapper and I had yet to put my big mama fish in there, so the crew started redistributing the fish between the coldboxes so that the ice woud be properly layered and big mama would get in the big box.

Just before we left the spot, Ishak repositioned for one final drift and after I sent down my Apollo rig, I got a nice 2kg red emperor to add to the account.

We spent the rest of Sunday morning motoring around and drifting the deep water reefs, which yielded a few more nice snapper and kerisi bali along with a bunch of highly prized bream of which I accounted for over half a dozen.

The trip meter was at 262km by the time we made it back to the ramp, so I guess we had certainly worked the water. Not a bad opener for the new season... the next trip will see the jig gear getting a workout.

Pics below, sorry there aren't many.

Regards,

Saimee

[edylie]

Saimee,

That is a very well written and detailed report!!!

As usual I could only envy you!!! Those snappers would come in handy for my chinese new year dinner

Best Regards,
Edy

[hdmcgatha]

WOW!! Nice catch and a very nice report. I enjoyed the read. I will be glad to get rod in hand again this April...... All work until then.... Once again Nice Catch !!

[MarkR]

Great catch and awesome write up

Breams! Wow! Those must taste pretty good

[stickbom!]

Awesome stuff Saimee This latest "gas tong" is even bigger than those that you guys pulled up during our trip!

[DaFrogman]

Originally Posted by stickbom!

Awesome stuff Saimee This latest "gas tong" is even bigger than those that you guys pulled up during our trip!

Mikey,

Actually, I reckon Zuls first big Tong Gas on jig was bigger than this one and was prettier too.... we didn't weigh the fish, but I reckon that it was over 15kg... Fish was given to Kahar although I did entertain the idea of bringing it home to freak out the kids... Its head was almost the size of the fuel containers we use...

MarkR,

I call them bream (Cos they look like bream), but to be honest am not quite sure what they are, but YES they are very yummy.

Edy,

It looks like the sea was in CNY mood for us, 'cos she gave us a whole bunch of angpow .... all in all we had about 30-40 angpow snapper. Hope the rest of the year only gets better and that the AJs have had time to recover from last year's onslaught of jigging.

Now, where are those angpow MJs...

Glad you guys enjoyed the CR,

Saimee

[pemburu ikan]

DaFrogman,
Good start for 2007' after the NE monsoon.
Nice CR & pics... Man.....

Rgds.
R.

[ophio]

Really good to see you going out fishing again .Been missing those fishes and cr of yours for some time already man .Very nice reds for the opening of 2007 I would say

[hardkoreangler]

Aslmkm bro,Nice catch and report. Can't wait to get into action again.Here's to a good year of fishing ahead!RgdsM H N

[sunburned]

DFM,

Nothing feels better than being able to scratch an itch well, and the mileage you guys put into a trip is staggering. Super start to the New Year! You and Grand Master Makaira are certainly having good catches this Lunar New Year! As the Chinese say, "Nian Nian You Yu" - may you have fish (ease/smooth sailings) each year.

Regards,
Khoo

[iam537]

DFM,

Your CR and pics are making me itch all over!!!
I can only console myself by fishing in the blue pond this Sunday. Oh well!! Sigh!! Half a loaf is better then none!!

[DaFrogman]

Thanks guys,

As always, the 1st trip of the year is always an uncertain affair as far as figuring out which spots were firing and which were duds. Just goes to show that the Captain knows best.... I understand some other crews had good catches too, but we were just happy that DaChief managed to get some fish to put in his freezer, 'cos although he was pretty much KO the entire trip, like all great anglers, he soldiered on and managed to crank a few fish up himself.

The weather has gone batshit again so it looks like we will be landbound for a few days still. Hope you guys and girls get some time on the water, the fish seem to be hungry.

Saimee

[physlo]

Saimee dude,

A great way to start year 2K7. Keep it up.

Anyway just curious, how does the tong gas taste?

Regards
physlo

[DaFrogman]

Dros,

The Tong Gas tastes pretty good actually, flesh is firm and white, not too fishy either. Better than AJ any day.... The striped species is nicer too...

Saimee

[physlo]

Originally Posted by DaFrogman

Dros,

The Tong Gas tastes pretty good actually, flesh is firm and white, not too fishy either. Better than AJ any day.... The striped species is nicer too...

Saimee

Hmmn...better than AJ. Reason i'm asking is because the ones locally caught over here sucks. I'm not a fish lover anyway...hahaha.

Hi from the old man...

Regards
physlo

[AmbeRjacKHunter]

Saimee...so over in BSB you folks uses Gas Tong to cook the Tong Gas ke...?

wait till I catch some Oil Drum huh..............nice catch & trip my friend.

Regards

[DaFrogman]

Dros,

My regards, to Uncle S....

Brada RK,

Yes, we need the Gas Tong and a Big Tong to cook the Tong Gas...

I hope that you get a 50 Gallon Drum this year....

Saimee

[Makaira]

Guru Saimee ............ fantastic catch report as usual!!!!!

[alucard]

yo saimee, must say.HAPPENING CATCH!!! ur report was also great.make feel like i was reading national geographic.

[DaFrogman]

Guys,

I did a last minute trip over Thursday night and Friday. I personally didn't catch that many fish, but the boys got 2 or 3 MJs and few ACKs, Kerisi Bali etc etc....

I got busted off by a something that ATE what must have been a smallish 1-2kg Kerisi Bali as I was cranking it up. It then took full drag off my 665 all the way to its rocky home and busted my mainline.....

On Friday morning we had a good run at a bunch of Jap Reds that were a nice finishing touch. Kahar also got a huge painted crayfish by accident.

The trip started in ok weather, but we were sorely hammered by heavy seas on the way back that forced us to throttle back after losing a few stainless steel bolts from our T-Top that were sheered through by the impact of the waves. We also almost lost a brand new spotilight I had mounted after the pounding loosened its bracket even though I was using two spring washers and a bunch of torque to secure it. The spotlight finally fell off the mouting after a particularly hard landing (but we managed to retrieve it 'cos it floated with a sealed housing), we also lost the bow railing..... tough sea guys. What usually takes us an hour to get home, this time took us 3.5 hours.

I'm too knackered to post a proper report, but I think Ishak took some pics of the catch after I had to race home to make a family function for which I was already late when we arrived at the ramp. I will retrieve them and see what they look like.

Regards,

Saimee

Post edit comment;

Sorry just checked the pics and Ishak just took pics of the painted cray fish.... there were probably around 20 Jap Reds in the coldbox.

S.

[hamour]

excellent report and great catch bro, keep it up,
regards.
shaz