Dropoff Time: The Series

[DaFrogman]

After our last little outing with Mighty Mikey and the Intrepid Mr. Wong, I figured that for the rest of the year, we would be hard pressed to find ourselves as fished out as on that trip.

So when Ishak called me up on Wednesday to tell me that the sea seemed to have miraculously calmed down after a period of nasty conditions caused by the latest typhoon queue, I thought lets give it a go. All the satellite data and forecasts seemed to indicate a good turn of weather for at least a 48 hour period, so I green lighted the trip and packed accordingly.

As always, the usual merry band of pirates turned out for role call with Ishak captaining, Zul crewing, plus another old friend cum pirate called Ah Teck, DaChief and of course yours truly providing technical support and AV duty.

By the time I got to the boat to load gear on Thursday afternoon, we found Kahar and Soefri just returned from a little trip of their own, but the news was not very good, with the catch being less than encouraging. But in his “never say die” manner, Kahar decided to basically jump from his boat on to ours and join us for another 24hour wander in the blue yonder.

So after waiting for the final element of the crew to turn up and a quick session of pumping the tyres on the trailer, we were locked, cocked and ready to go.

As Ishak brought up the boat to a fast cruise around 65kmh, I watched the widely spaced 3-4ft swell glide towards us and the boat rose and fell with the occasional thump. The sun was just an orange ball on the horizon, its brilliance muted by the haze which has pervaded most of our region and which cut visibility to about 8km at that time. Even the usually incandescent flare from one of the nearby oilrigs, looked like a mere twinkle of a firefly in the face of the haze.

We were heading to the same area on the dropoff that had provided success with Mikey. I wanted to target the big rubies again and we came loaded with over 30kgs of baitfish and squid, as well as my now mandatory array of jigs and jigging outfits. Bait at night, jig the day, that seems to be the new mantra of the crew.

We ran for just over an hour to the first area and darkness had fallen by the time we sent down the first test Apollo rig to the bottom 450ft below. I held back from sending down my rig first, letting Kahar recce what was available. In short order, he was stuck into something very angry and as the new 65lb braid hissed off the Kaikon, I reckoned it was either a big ruby or a decent Amberjack… Sure enough, 10 minutes of pumping and cranking later, a 12kg sized AJ surfaced and was gaffed and boated.

I had discussed CnR with the boys earlier, but they seemed pretty reluctant about it so I didn’t push the issue on this trip. I reckon it will take a while yet.

As Ishak set up to anchor, I readied my ranggong setup with the 27kg Maxima Ultragreen leader and the twin Gamakatsu 5/0 Octopuses. A butterflied whole baitfish was the bait I decided upon.

Ten minutes later, with the boat anchored, we began fishing in earnest. Unlike the last trip, this time, the current was definitely a lot stronger at the bottom and worse yet, I felt the characteristic pickings of the #@$#%#^^# barracouta and in sheer , I struck and sure enough hauled up a 1 foot long barracouta.

As if on cue, the boys began losing outfits as the barracouta attacked the braided lines… Ishak just plain stopped fishing in and also because he had seen too much lost braid the last few trips.

I was fortunate, in that I was the only one who did not lose an outfit. Eventually, we boated a few rubies but nothing huge. Ishak decided to shift spots and 8km later, we scanned another few spots and settled the anchor on a promising sounder picture.

I elected to use the same rig and shortly boated another ruby in the 5kg range with Kahar also adding to the tally. The rest of the night saw 3 more Amberjacks including a real honker of over 15kgs that just hammered the crap out of my bait and made a mockery of the 15lbs of strike drag I was using on my 665.

We again suffered the attack of the barracouta and at about 2 am, as the moon rose, the current picked up to the point that the fish just plain went off the bite, so we had an ultra late dinner.

By 3.30 a.m. everyone else was snoring and I decided to grab a quick 1hr catnap. As I woke up at 4.30 am to catch the dawn bite, I found that the current was still very strong and the bite was off. Kahar’s rig was flapping in the current and as I pulled the braid in by hand to check it, I found that it had been assassinated yet again by the barracouta.

Throughout the night, I found that I was probably the only one who did not lose a rig to the barracouta. At first I thought that this was due to the thick 80lb Stren braid I had just loaded, but then I noticed something else. I was the only one using Sic guides on my DFM Psycho Lite GF755H as opposed to roller guides and tips….. And there was a LOT of plankton and gunk in the water…. I checked the Sic tip and sure enough, the tip had helped to filter a lot of gunk off the line…. Maybe this was why my line had been spared?.... Less fluorescence = fewer bite offs?....

Rerigged for day fishing with an FC leader and also readied the jig gear for me and the boys to use. At around 7am, Ishak woke up and the rest of the guys aside from Kahar started to stir. Everyone else switched to Apollo rigs or jigs but I kept my ranggong on FC on standby as I wanted to try for a big grouper.

We had the usual morning ritual of caffeine, Listerine and yummy food out of DaChiefs excellent catering and setup the morning powwow plan… We decided to drift a few spots and jig first along with just 2 Apollo rigs.

As Zul and I dropped our jigs on the first spot, Kahar readied his Apollo rig. We jigged without success for about half an hour before, Ishak called for the bait rigs to go down, so with Zul remaining the solitary jigger, we dropped the bait rigs down and shortly, I felt the solid hit of a nice fish and started to wind it in…. Good Morning Mr. Kerisi Bali… good to see an old friend again… the fish were not huge, mostly in the 3-5kg range but we boated a whole bunch of them along with assorted deep water snappers and other fish.

As we shifted spots a little more, Zul got a solid hit on jig and boated a nice Amberjack, seeing this, Kahar grabbed the outfit from him and I passed Zul the Wrex and Expedition for him to continue his jigging quest. With the bite heating up, I resigned myself to camera and support duties.

By 1pm, we decided to get ready for the run home and as usual the run home at 68kmh was the time for me to grab a nap, but after about 20 minutes of running, I felt the air cool and a serious gust of wind plucked at my face, followed shortly by the familiar sensation of being airborne with the boat before crashing down…. We had just been hit with a rainless squall, and like a schizophrenic Dr Jeckell, the sea had turned extremely ugly in the space of a few minutes.

The last 50km of the run home took place in confused 5-6ft swells with very nasty 4-5ft whitecaps all over the place and Ishak just pushed as hard as he could, but our journey time effectively doubled and the conditions would have put a big smile on the face of any chiropractor…

Getting to the ramp, it was low tide and there was a queue of boats but we managed to get the boat back on the trailer without incident and set about having a look at the fish we had caught… All in all around 200kgs of fish all together.

Enjoy the pics, there will be video too….

Saimee

[stickbom!]

Dude, the seas behind Ishak in that first photo looked as calm as a duck lake!! Hard to imagine the weather turning nasty at such short notice. Well good thing the rough bits came in at the end so I guess its still ENJOY MAH


Hey man, that temporary posting thingie would reeeeeeeally come in handy Wahahahahaha

Send my regards to Da Chief and the crew

[htchng]

saimee good trip huh!! glad to hear u folks made it back to land safely!!! Videos!!! i believe all of us are still waiting for the Mikey AlmightY's action drama!!!

[stickbom!]

hehehehe.... I think ah.... better give the video with me inside a pass

[edylie]

good stufs Saimee!

As for the video, i will send you a PM and you could upload it to me.

Cheers,
Edy

[ophio]

Wahaha ! Pirates rulesss !! You guys always makes my hand icth !

[DaFrogman]

Thanks guys,

I am converting the video clips from their Quicktime format, 'cos its just too huge... Quality is not superb, but should be ok.

The video from Mikey's trip is taking a little longer than envisaged, since it had to be converted from mini DV....

Mikey,

The weather is just nuts man. It was dead calm 90km offshore, then just after covering the first 30km home, the wind and sea went batshit.... and it just got worse and worse as we neared shore....

When I was in Miri over the weekend with the family, we were staying in a beachside resort overnight and I watched the sunset on a PERFECT sea, flat calm, soft breezes, in fact Kahar called me to ask me when I would be back, so he could borrow my jig gear.

That night, I was waiting for a live telecast of the PGA Masters on the Sat TV, when at about 2a.m. and in the space of 15 minutes, the wind went from calm balmy breezes to a whistling fury that had branches falling off trees and palms bending.... crazy man.

Anyway, was a fun trip, can't complain.

Saimee

[Narc]

Great haul Pirates!! aye aye!