The Real Deal. Welcome to the Brunei Dropoff

[DaFrogman]

Dusk at the Dropoff

There are days when everything seems to fall apart and nothing seems to be able to go right. I guess that’s how Mikey’s mission to Brunei seemed to go especially with the weather……

For three and a half days, Mikey and the intrepid Mr Wong patiently sat out Tropical Depression Henry as it tangoed its way across the northern Philippines and built up intensity to metamorphose into Typhon Prapiroon.

For three and a half days, my laptop was tuned to the Satellite images of Prapiroon, praying that it would just bugger off north and leave us alone. For each of those days, the crew and I would troop down to the beach in the morning and afternoon, to glare at the horrible swell and spit into the blustery winds that whipped the sea with white caps.

On Wednesday night, we had a little dinner and powwow, with Ishak and Zul and we discussed what to do if the weather did not give us a window, the plan was to try some bay and mangrove fishing instead if there was absolutely no choice.

The next morning, got up, checked satellite feeds and weather advisories….. all of them were grim and there was still a small craft warning in force. Nonetheless, I headed down to the beach to do some work on the boat and look at the sea… Lo and Behold, the 2m swells and whitecaps had disappeared and the sea looked decidedly flat with a few widely spaced bumps. I called Ishak and we agreed that it was now or never.

I then informed M&W to standby their jig and bottom gear as I worked fast to finish the work on the boat. That afternoon, after juggling a bunch of tasks in between picking up the boys and loading their gear, I finally made a last trip back to the house to pick up my rods and the food for the trip.

4pm and we loaded my rods and munchies on the boat but still had to wait for Kahar to turn up to complete the mission team for the final launching. The crew for this mission consisted of;

Mikey (“Never Say Die” Aqua Saurus Tan),
Mr. Wong (Not the Fei Hong),
Ishak (Captain “Bring It On”),
Kahar (Captain “Uh Oh Am down to the Mono Backing”),
Sofri (1st Class Pirate)
DFM (I like Deepwater Goldfish),

& OF COURSE

The Superstar,
MR ZUL (PANGSAI FISH FXXXING MARINE).

The sea conditions heading out were miraculously calm considering the conditions just the day before, seas were running a 3-4foot nicely spaced swell that built up to 4-5footers as we got past 30km offshore and finally after going past the 50km tidal rip, we reached the 6 foot swell that was mercifully well spaced too.

Ishak pushed as hard as he could to get us to the spot 90+km offshore before dusk fell. We ran an average speed of about 65kmh heading out and the boat left the water a couple of times. It is a testament to Ishak’s lifetime of seamanship that he got us thru comfortably as he threaded his way at high speed around a few of the bigger bumps of water that we encountered.

As land receded rapidly behind us, Kahar grinned at me and went to the console to retrieve a half dozen precut stiff wire sections to make a few ranggongs for the trip. I pulled my terminal gear box out and supplied him with some Rosco swivels as Kahar proceeded to apply a pair of pliers to the wire. In short order, Mikey found himself holding a bunch of ranggongs for Kahar.

At 6.15pm, we arrived at the first area and as we throttled back to sounder speed and began searching for fish, I told the boys to rig to jig on the drift.

Wong and Mikey moved to the front of the boat, with Wong on his cutey black 665N and PE6 Wrex Combo and with Mikey calling out for his CB-One + 9500SS combo.

Ishak spent the next 5 minutes assessing the drift and then positioning the boat over a promising looking spot in the area. As I looked at the sounder I was 90% sure that as long as there was enough light, the boys would score on the jigs.

As Ishak called “OK, Go down”, M&W sent their chosen bits of metal plummeting to the bottom 415 feet below. I told them to work about the first 40 cranks only as the fish were marking the bottom quarter and I adjusted my Furuno sounder’s range accordingly.

The first drop didn’t score anything, so the boys dropped back and a few seconds later of pumping and cranking saw Mikey’s rod bend nicely and he struck hard twice to secure the fish. Just as my cry of “SUCCESS!!!” left my lips, Wong gave a grunt as his rod too bent over on something that started zapping drag off his 665… Double Hookup guys…. AND the best part is I got it on video….

After about 5 minutes of concerted pumping and cranking serenaded by the catcalls of my crew and I, the dynamic duo got leader in sight and Zul leapt to the front with the small AFTCO gaff in hand and just like that, 2 smallish 7kg Amberjacks were boated.

WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!..... After 3 days of utter frustration at the weather, the feeling of relief at putting my boys on fish on jigs was phenomenal and I guess the smile on my face was reflected in Ishak’s expression as he too had shared my anguish at the weather and the predicament M&W had faced.

After the customary first fish pictures, the boys started to jig again in earnest, 2 drops later Mikey’s CB-One once again bucked right over, this time on something much bigger and the crew whooped in encouragement, unfortunately as Mikey gained his first few cranks on the fish with the drags on his 9500 hissing in protest, a big 6 foot swell shoved itself under the boat and caused Mikey to slip as he struggled against the long rod and what must have been a 15kg+ Seriola. As Mikey lost his balance, he managed to grab the raised foredeck on the boat and he shifted his footing to fight the fish from a seated position on the foredeck, but misfortune struck again as his grip on the rod slipped too and just for a split second, the heavily stressed braid between his reel and the stripper guide touched the Stainless Steel reinforced edge of the boats gunwhale…. PIAKKKK!!!, bye-bye fishy…

With no spare spool for the 9500 and not wanting to tie another midknot on a spool that had just lost 400ft of braid, Mikey switched to another oufit… I’ll let him try and remember which one.

Sadly by then, the light had begun to fail and even the lumo tipped jigs did not seem to help. I think by then Wongsy had begun to “feel the pain”….. so I suggested to Ishak to prepare to anchor so that my restless band of pirates could break out the bottom rigs.

Stay tuned for the next chapter; "At Night Phat Things Come out".......

P.S. just one little teaser pic for the moment....

[edylie]

Saimee and gang ... Continue please!!!!

I am camping here with my pop corn and diet cola!

Cheers,
Edy

[Makaira]

Originally Posted by DaFrogman

Stay tuned for the next chapter; "At Night Fat Things Come out".......

Saimee .... you mean someone got a huge erection from a wet dream????

[DaFrogman]

CHAPTER 2; “AT NIGHT PHAT THINGS COME OUT”

As dusk overtook us rapidly, Ishak moved on to park the boat on the compass bearing he had checked earlier on the drift. Motored around just in gear for a good 15 minutes, running parallel to a trough in the ocean floor and we found a honey of a spot which we marked on the GPS.

Ishak brought the us to a halt right over the spot and spun the big 33 foot boat to the earlier bearing and gunned the engines to a position 150 meters upwind of the spot where Zul chucked the anchor overboard and frantically sent coils of anchor line into the sea to ensure the anchor dropped totally unimpeded.

As the boat drifted against the wind and almost no current, Ishak and I watched the numbers click off on the GPS and when they hit 0.02km, he shouted for Zul to tighten the anchor line. Sure enough, the boat settled at 0.00km on the boat GPS and within 3m of the spot according to my handheld Garmin GPS76.

The boys wasted absolutely no time in sending down bottom rigs of their choice as Mikey and Wong decided to give the lumos another go. I broke out my leader and terminal tackle boxes and retrieved a ranggong too. Kahar who was also at the rear of the boat with me also used a similar rig but asked me if I had a small lightstick in my box. After a bit of rummaging I found a couple of 1.5inch ones and Kahar rigged it on his leader a few feet before the bait, in an effort to brighten the advertising for his bait.

We all sent our rigs down as Wongsy decided to rest as the movement of the boat in the swell overcame the dose of Dramamine in his system. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the last of the fishing for Wongsy as he conserved energy for the jigging we hoped to do the next morning.

Kahar was the first to hit a fish at this spot, and I guess the light stick worked, ‘cos it was a nice grey brown snapper we rarely see…. It looked exactly like a Dhuie as they call it in Australia.

Strangely enough, aside from a few nibbles, this spot turned quiet and after 40 minutes of little action, Ishak decided to shift even further offshore to another spot 8km away. So Zul clipped the on the anchor buoy as we stowed rods before weighing anchor and heading off to another crenellation in the bottom of the dropoff.

15 minutes later we arrived and spent another 10 minutes scanning the bottom before we found ourselves looking at an even better sounder picture then the first spot… I said to Ishak that if we didn’t get anything here, I didn’t know what else to do.

Ishak maneuvered to park on the same bearing as the first spot and we dropped anchor again. However, as the boat came to rest, it was evident that the surface current had weakened further and the wind had switched direction, we were 30m off the spot and Ishak looked at the compass to shoot a new bearing. We retrieved anchor and repeated the procedure on the new bearing…. 10 minutes later we were at 0.00km on the GPS yet again…. TIME TO FISH!!!!!

I made a somewhat prophetic remark to Kahar as I rigged my 1st bait at this spot. I said to him in Malay; “I wonder where the Rubies are?”, since they had been conspicuous by their absence during the recce trip.

Everyone was in bottom canon mode except Wongsy who was still flat out. I think Mike was running a 2 or 3 hook Apollo rig and the rest of us were in ranggong mode. Once again, Kahar was the first to score I think, proving the effectiveness of the lightstick, he pulled a nice 10kg Amberjack off the bottom as the Kaikon once again proved that its Carbontex drags were up to the task.

Zul unlimbered the cutting board and proceeded to create a bunch of chum from small baitfish and Sofri sent down a chum sinker loaded along. It was Ishak to be be hit next but came unbuttoned as he began to crank. My rig was suspended 6 cranks from the bottom and I felt a little tug, nothing spectacular, so I left the rig alone until I felt another little tug, then lowered the rod tip and cranked hard 4 times….

WHAM!!!, the GF755H doubled over and the fish went ballistic straight down, peeling off the strike drag from my 665 like it was in freespool. As I hung on, I resisted the temptation to hit full drag in the middle of a run and prayed the fish would stop before the deep reef below. Fortunately it turned to run parallel to the bottom just in time, headshaking like a GT on acid…. As it stopped, I mashed the drag lever to full, reasoning that the Maxima Ultragreen 37kg leader and twin Gamakatsu 5/0s would hold.

By sheer brute force, I yanked the fish’s head skywards and managed to gain 5 cranks on him before he figured out he was going the wrong way and powered down again against full drag. At this point I was convinced I had an Amberjack, the headshakes were that violent. But some 5 runs to the bottom later and with a perpetual bend on the rod, I managed to get him past 100ft into the “safe” zone and then the fight reduced somewhat indicating that the fish had a swim bladder that had begun to inflate…. Hmmm so it wasn’t an AJ…they can self vent.

By then everyone at the back of the boat was watching closely to see what would pop up…. 3 minutes later I was rapidly gaining line against a dead weight that got lighter and sure enough just within the circle of light beyond the boat, a big gold red shape popped up….. It was evident that it was big fish, but it wasn’t until Kahar pulled the fish to gaff range that we all saw that it was a Ruby and of the BIG MAMA version…. YEEEEEHHHHHAAAAA!!!!! My personal best ruby and the biggest caught amongst the crew yet. The fish went 14.7kgs on the scales the next day.

After that, what has been the best night time Amberjack session began, with almost everyone with a line in the water scoring at least one AJ, until Ishak got bitten off by barracoutas and gave up in after losing 3 ranggongs…. I think we boated some 4 Amberjacks in the space of 30 minutes, all of them biggish fish in the10kgs+ range. Mixed in with these were about 5 rubies of various sizes from 3-6kgs, but no other big mama specimens.

Kahar caught a large eel and then began to get bitten off so badly he too gave up as the Kaikon lost about a 100m of braid and was almost down to the mono backing after his rig hit bottom. After that, the boat must have shifted with the wind as the bite died down so with Ishak and Kahar now sleeping protest, that left Mikey, Zul and I still fishing, with Sofri keeping Mikey company in the front.

Mikey then started catching eel after eel on his Apollo, I think he got 2 or 3 snakes… all big ones and at one point he managed to snag 3 rigs that had been bitten off, so we recovered 3 ranggongs and sinkers at the expense of Mikeys right arm that had to crank up a few kilos of lead along with the eel.

I persisted with project Amberjack and boated 3 in the 10kg range and by then, I had got the technique down to pat. On the 4th AJ, Zul asked if he could take over the fight, so I passed him the outfit. We then started a tag team system, since I was so dialed in to where the Amberjacks were, I had the right combo of leader length, twin hook rig and another little secret weapon. I kid you not, from 3am-6am, Zul and I boated 9 AJs in the 10kg+ range. I retied the leader after each fish and when the leader got short, I changed to a new one.

Each time, the Amberjack would inspect the small whole basong bait I was using. He would sniff around the bait and even mouth it a few times before finally swallowing it, and even then the whole process translated to just a few tiny tugs and twitches more reminiscent of a coral wrasse nibbling on the bait, but the moment you tightened the line at the right time…. WHAM!!!.... It got to the point that I had a fish every 15 odd minutes and poor Wongsy at the back couldn’t get any sleep as he would here me whisper to Zul who was napping next to me; “Zul, standby” then I would strike the fish, haul it up into a safe zone and pass him the outfit to fight… I asked him each time if he wanted to fight the fish and Zul being the FXXXING MARINE that he is, would grin and jump to the back to sit on an engine and brace his legs against the transom to pump the heck out of the fish. Each time, I would gaff the fish, dehook it and wake up Wongsy as I had to sling the fish over him to get it into the floor of the boat.

What a night…. I also caught 3 pesky Barracouta, lost one rig on a huge fish as the Couta cut me off as the fish powered away, caught 2 Kerisi Bali and that’s about it for my night I guess. Mikey persisted and in the end caught 3 or 4 Amberjacks and a bunch of snakes. Everyone else snored it out and I found myself and Mikey the only ones still conscious as dawn saw the sun crack its eye over the horizon. I glanced at my watch and it was 6.15 am, so I told Mikey; “1 hour to jig time boy”.

Next the final chapter; “THE NEW MATSUTANI- ZULTANI”

[NightAngler]

great trip & Catch Report !!!

DFM,,thanks for the write up & drooling pics

[DaFrogman]

More pics...mainly of mama.

[zikista]

That was a wonderful write up Saimee....with larger font....clearer and never miss a text.
I had 3 orgasm reading the Catch Report.....more please.....more.

ZIKO

[DaFrogman]

THE FINAL CHAPTER; “MATSUTANI-ZULTANI”

As sunlight flooded a calm sea, the rest of the crew started to stir aside from Kahar who resolutely continued his version of Beethovens 10th Symphony in “Snore Major”.

Ishak got up off the console bench seat and stretched before wandering to the back to increase the depth of sea a little and lighten his load…. By then Mikey had dropped a jig and was cranking away for all he was worth, but a look at the sounder told me that chances were slim.

So Ishak said to me that it was time to get back to fishing on the drift and with that, Zul was aroused from his Amberjack inspired exhaustion and along with Sofri, started the anchor retrieval process.

Ishak warmed the engines and I checked the VSR charging system to make sure that our starboard engine alternator was charging the accessory battery properly. After the anchor was safely on board Ishak started to circle the area and then patrolled the dropoff with a close eye on the sounder. In the meantime, the crew were busy stowing fish and with the main coldbox already chock full, for the first time in a long time, we dug out everything from the big 300 litre accessory locker and lined it with canvas before throwing ice in an putting the nights Amberjack catch in. By the time we were finished, more than half the locker was full and the main coldbox was three quarters full, leaving only the 170 litre bait coldbox and its twin drinks coldbox free for service.

We hovered too over an interesting looking spot and Mikey and Wong began jigging. I assembled my Saltiga Expedition and PE8 Wrex and selected a jig to play with in this case a pinky silver cheap Norwegian herring jig…

I dropped the jig over the side and commenced jigging, but after 5 drops with no luck, I retrieved the jig as Ishak suggested that we have breakfast whilst the sea was so calm. I cracked open the provisions coldbox to find that in my haste to get back to the boat the afternoon before, I had forgotten to pack the plates and utensils…

So we went native and ate off the lids of the food containers using our hands…all home made, fried chicken, lethal sambal, salted eggs, rice, sliced fruit, simple, but recharging.

Ishak decided to shift a few hundred metres to another spot we had marked off during the recce mission and as if the fish were waiting for us to fill our bellies first, this spot proved to be simply awesome.

At this point, I decided that I had better let Zul have a go with the Saltiga Wrex combo, ‘cos the poor guy had been drooling over it the whole morning, so I resigned myself to video duty as Ishak repositioned the boat and called for “Jigs Down”.

Within short order, 3 outfits were sent down, with Zul in the prow of the boat with my combo and M&W on the port side cranking away… what started next was just excellent…

I think Zul was the 1st to get hit shortly followed by Mikey and then Wongsy…. Triple hookup no.1 for the morning. Zul pumped and cranked away and shortly boated a nice 10kg Amberjack, followed by Mikey with a ruby and Wongsy with another AJ… I do stand to be corrected on who caught what though, ‘cos it was a pretty busy morning.

Zul continued hammering away as Mikey got blown away with a busted mainline on my Twinpower and Genesis Amberjack special combo and Wong got busted off too. The next fish for Zul was a humdinger right from the start… as Mikey scrambled to change outfits and Wongsy did repairs too, Zul was at the front of the boat with the Wrex looking decidedly bent and Zul was obviously tiring after our night time escapade with the Amberjacks.

Seeing Zul flagging, Ishak shouted to Sofri to take over the controls and leapt to the front of the boat to take over from Zul as the fish continued to abuse the Carbontex drags on the Saltiga. With Ishak in control of the fish, I guess it had little chance as he pumped the fish into submission, but it still continued its hellbent fight all the way to leader. As the silver shape spiraled slowly up, I had a great time on video as a huge Amberjack came into sight… Zul sank the gaff, but could hardly pull the fish on board, so Ishak just calmly reached over and yanked the big papa on board with one arm, to be followed with the customary pics… the fish was really big and topped the scales off at 23kgs.

By then, M&W were back in business and Zul inspired and running on sheer adrenaline, continued his quest for more jig monsters. Through out that morning I continued videoing till I ran out of tape…and we forgot to bring a spare….. I will leave it to the pics and of course the video, to tell the story, but we caught four different species on jigs that morning… Amberjacks, Grouper, Rubies and Mack Tuna.

Kahar rose from his slumber and began a single minded plunder of the remains of the food, before tying an Apollo rig. He would go on to score a brace of grouper with the rig, all the fish between 8-12kgs in size. I rerigged the Tuna Max and OJ5000 combo with a 100lb mono leader and a midknot before continuing my own jig quest which resulted in one Mack Tuna and 2 smaller Amberjacks in the 5-7kg range.

Zul proved to be the star that morning, catching everything huge on jig with his energetic jig style. What was even more amazing was that all his fish were caught on the same jig, the jig I had tied on that morning. That crazy bugger Zul jigged 4 hours straight in the hot sun wearing a black T-shirt and shorts… That’s what I call endurance… Ishak fought 2 of the big Amberjacks and one of the big Groupers for Zul and caught another nice Amberjack himself using the rerigged Tuna Max.

By the time it reached 11am, we had filled every coldbox and still had no space for the 3 huge Amberjacks and 2 huge grouper that Zul had caught on jig that morning, so Ishak looking at the weather and to the south announced that it was time to head home.

To be continued... dang this limit on the size of CRs....

[DaFrogman]

As we secured all the rigs in their holders and made sure the loose gear was stowed for a fast run back, I was still slightly dazed by the amount of fish we had caught. At this point I don’t think anyone actually realised how much there was, but I did notice the boat was sitting a bit lower in the water….

So we loaded another 150litres of fuel in the main tank and Ishak set up for a high speed run and trimmed the engines a bit before laying the smackdown on the throttle and telling Mikey; “80 Minutes we go home”. As we literally flew home at 70kmh, I grabbed a space on a pair of coldboxes and an empty fuel can behind the console seat and used a lifejacket as a mattress to grab a quick bit of shut eye.

Keeping a tuned ear on the engines for any problems, I grinned to myself as Ishak played with the throttles like a Maestro to keep the boat on track in the 3 foot swells, about 45 minutes later, I felt a blast of cold wind and knew that conditions had changed, so I cracked open an eye and saw the dark grey clouds on the starboard side of the boat, Ishak throttled back slightly but was still running over 60kmh as conditions worsened and I knew he was trying to outrun a squall.

We made it back by the skin of our teeth as the squall lashed the beach just as we managed to park the trailered boat back at its usual spot next to the Jerudong fish market. The squall was so bad, we sheltered in one of the stalls in the market with another of our crews who had also had a reasonable catch. One of our friends managed to secure some hot tea and coffee so we sat around watching a few other boats come plowing and flying in running from the torrential downpour and 80kmh winds.

We couldn’t even get the fish out of the boat at this time so I just passed around the images on my digicam for the other crew to look at. It took almost an hour for that squall to pass and once again I thanked my lucky stars for Ishak’s seamanship and boat driving skills which saved us a bad soaking and more severe spinal rearrangement had we arrived back just a bit later.

After that we started unloading the fish and by the time the twelfth tray of fish had been spread on to the tiled table of the stall, it finally hit me as to how much fish there was. At first we conservatively estimated it at 400kgs+ all together, but I was told last night that it actually came to over 500kgs. A small crowd had gathered by then and Ishak called some of our mutual friends to come and help themselves to the fish.

Mikey and Wongsy selected their fish and I did the same before sending them back to clean up and pack before coming to my place that night for a celebratory dinner with the rest of the crew.

I shall leave it to the pics to tell the tale.

I would just like to thank all my Crew, especially Ishak for his superb Captaining and logistics and Mikey and Wongsy for their utter patience and stalwart attitudes in the face of the typhoon.

STEADY BOYS you did me proud, as Zul would say you guys are all FXXXING MARINES!!!!!!

Regards,

Saimee.

[DaFrogman]

Some miscellaneous pics.

Hope you guys and gals enjoyed it as much as I did writing that Catch Report.

Regards,

Dafrogman

[DaFrogman]

Mark R,

This one is just for you... As requested, the jig that I tied on for Zul and the only one he used that whole trip..

Regards,

Saimee...

P.S. check out those teeth marks.

[MarkR]

Thanks Saimee,

Awesome trip!

All hail king zul the jigging machine

[Din]

"headshaking like a GT on acid"
Saimee,
The fish are "Tripping",and giving u guys good shakes too!hahaha
Man,solid catches!!!Drooling by just looking at the sizes of it bro!!!

Nearly 500kgs of catches?????!!!!!
Even a fishmonger here in sg will be staring in awe with ur catches!
Once again...power catches!

You can even have ur own autobigraphy with all your reports in one!
Will never be a bore reading them.

Rgds,
Din..

[stickbom!]

Great writeout dude! Point to note though... before the ugly eels messed up my 3 hook, 130lb Varivas nylon apollo rig... I managed to winch up a few groupers and a pair of ruby snappers other than the few Amberjacks. It's a pretty good thing DFM was kinda busy at the rear winching in his own share of fishes otherwise he would have snapped photos of me in all kinds of funny poses. Winching the first few fishes from 400+ ft was fun but after that everything started to hurt... but hey, it hurt good!!

[DaFrogman]

Thanks for the correction Mikey, to be honest guys, I must have missed writing about a ton of the fish caught that night, since I was so focused on getting my Amberjack on bait technique right.

Btw, went back to that shop today and cleaned house on jigs for Zul. Apparently, since Friday afternoon, they have been inundated with requests for pink jigs.

Saimee

[DaFrogman]

Oh yeah,

I forgot to add that the total count for Amberjacks came to 26. Biggest was 23+kgs followed by the other one on jig that Zul got which came to 18kgs.

Grouper count came to about 10, with the biggest coming to 18kgs and the next at 16kgs.

Rubies... hey I lost count guys...but it was mama at 14+kgs that topped the billing.

Just being able to catch 4 species from one spot on the same jig was pretty amazing.

Right, see ya tomorrow Mikey. Boys say thanks for the jigs man.

Saimee