Team Jiggerlo Brunei Misadventure

[DaFrogman]

Hey Mak,

As requested.

Mikey & Team Jiggerlos,

I will leave it to you guys to add on any pics and details, my recollection of the trip is also very subject to correction, so apologies beforehand for any miscues and mistakes.

Lets see now;

Trip 1

Team Jiggerlos consisted of Mikey DaMan Stickbom, Gary, Hafiz, Alvin and Eugene. The mission plan was for 2 back to back 24 hour trips, the first trip on Thursday till Friday and the second trip on Saturday till Sunday.

I picked them up from the airport on Thursday afternoon around 4.30pm and after loading the gear into my bro-in-laws pickup truck and my patrol, our merry band went straight to the launch ramp at Jerudong to meet the Ishak (Captain) and Zul (Crew) and load their stuff onto the boat. As we ran parallel to sea along the dual carriageway to Jerudong, I pointed out the flat calm seas to Mikey and basically prayed that the conditions would stay this calm for the entire weekend...

Upon arrival at the ramp, the boat was towed out by another of my captains who would also be launching his boat at the same time. After unpacking the Bazooka and getting the 9 rods out, we loaded the boat with gear and provisions for the first trip and made our way down to the ramp.

Due to the extreme low tide conditions at the time, the boat had to be launched from the beach area adjacent to the ramp, so whilst the team looked on from the beach, we launched the boat and pushed her into a slightly deeper area, and the team and crew then boarded the boat after wading through the shallows.

After getting everyone seated securely towards the rear of the boat and making sure that the rods were secured in their holders with safety lines, we headed out from the ramp, trailing my other captain towards one of his bait FADs 20km offshore to pickup some livebait. The sea was dead calm and things looked pretty good as we encountered another boat in the area already pulling in some livebait. At the FAD we drifted and Zul dropped down his 30 hook sabiki rig which then began to regularly bring up a string basong and rumahan which Hafiz, Gary and I then stripped off as both live and deadbait.

We spent about half an hour picking up bait before we then moved on to the main area for the night..... the eastern side of Brunei waters and the western edges of Semarang Bank. The first area was roughly 30km further offshore and in under an hour we arrived at around 7pm at the first spot.

There were already 5 other boats in the area as Ishak parked the boat. The plan was to jig and pop for GTs in the area and Zul told me that when he was here the night before, he had seen a bunch of GTs smashing the surface all around the boat. However tonight, as Murphy's Law would have it, not a single decent GT splash to be had. Not to be deterred, the team rigged to jig and in short order everyone had down a jig of their choice and began jigging. I and Zul elected not to fish, to reduce the number of lines in the water, but Ishak dropped down a live bait on a ranggong just to see if it would be received well.

I looked around the boat with a smile as Hapiz and Gary cranked away in the front and Alvin and Eugene worked up a nice sweat at the back. Big Mike of course was the most conspicuous in the back of the boat with his 9500SS wailing out a rhythmic crescendo of metallic growls..... It was very interesting for me to see the various different rhythms used by each angler, but it was the slower jigging action of Alvin to score the first hit..... as his rod bent over and his drag grudgingly gave line, I grabbed the gaff and hoped that it was a decent GT, but as the leader came into view I caught the glimpse of a silver bullet shape doing the classic circles of a tuna in its death spiral and up came a fat 3kg Skipjack tuna.... I quickly gaffed it, pulled the jig and chucked it in the coldbox.

5 mins later, Ishak was next as another skipjack nailed his livebait on the way down and then Alvin scored yet again for another similar sized skipjack. It seemed to me that the smaller wider lumo jig used by Alvin was the key for these skipjack. So I grabbed my handheld 1 million candlewatt spotlight and proceeded to light up the jigs with it whenever I could. Eugene was next as his rod bent over and he struck to set the hook, 2 minutes later, yet another skipjack surfaced and I gaffed it up, only to discover that the greedy fish had basically almost swallowed the entire jig…. So I grabbed my leatherman and pried the jig and hook out of the fish, whilst receiving a liberal dosing of tuna blood from the gaff mark…. I forgot these fish bleed so much….

I’m not sure who got the next fish… I think it might have been Gary, but we did catch another 2 skipjacks from this mini session before things seemed to quiet down. In the meantime, Alvin’s productive jig had fallen victim to the local barracuda population and he had to tie on a new piece of metal. By this time, Mikey had moved to the prow of the boat to unlimber his popping outfit and proceeded to entertain everyone (including the other boats) with his popper chucking prowess. It wasn’t before long that Hafiz too joined him in popping, hoping for a GT strike or two. But it was not to be, as the spray and bloops from the huge popper probably terrified the local GT population…hehehhehehe.

Ishak then advised me that we might as well try another nearby spot to see if the jigs would work there, so we shifted another 2km to another spot and drifted around it as the boys jigged away. I grabbed Eugene’s jig before he sent it down and gave it the “dragon” light treatment. As the now incandescent jig zipped hit bottom, Eugene started cranking up and halfway through, his rod came to a crashing halt and he began to pump and wind for all he was worth, but $#%@#^@^ the jig came unbuttoned just before the leader came into view and that was that…. This spot however, went pretty quiet after that, so we shifted once again to the first spot to try for GTs. This time, Ishak elected to anchor the boat and drift back towards the spot, but with no current and small shifts in the light wind, he wasn’t happy with the result and we reanchored one more time, this time parking closer to some of the other boats.

By this time, I could see the effects of muscle fatigue beginning to take its toll on Eugene and Alvin, but I must say that they continued on fighting like pros….. Hafiz asked me if I was going to fish, but I told him to keep fishing and not worry about me. It wasn’t long after that I think, that Eugene decided to take a break and with the left hand rear side of the boat clear, I picked up my smaller bottom canon outfit, rigged the ranggong and FC leader with a butterflied rumahan and sent the rig down. After sitting with the rod in hand for a while, I kinda felt the faintest twitch of something, so I reeled in gently and was rewarded with a bent rod and some decent headshaking….. With drag being taken off my strike setting on the 665, I reckoned that the fish would be either a decent MJ or GT and as Zul grabbed the gaff and warned me not to screwup , I brought the fish up with short pumps and cranks until it got tired and allowed me to gain line faster… sure enough, 2 minutes later, a 10kg GT finally emerged at the end of my leader….. This galvanised Mikey even more to pop for all he was worth. Some nearby surface action in the water raised our hopes briefly but turned out to be a small pod of dolphins cruising around the spot and they provided some entertainment as the rest of the team continued their quest.

I think it was at this point that Gary broke out his bottom rig, a small ranggong with a 6foot leader and wire trace…. But he didn’t get much luck with it and I suggested that he use a longer leader and a bigger ranggong, so I broke out one of my XL sized ranggongs and rigged a 4m long leader of no.16 Seaguar FC for him on a two hook rig.

Mikey was once again at the rear of the boat, popper slinging and for his efforts had two strikes on the popper, but the hooks failed to find their mark…. Arghhhhhhhh…. I was really hoping to see what size GT would hit that huge popper of his. We stayed at that spot for over 2 hours, but with zero current, I was not that optimistic for the bottom rigs and I was hoping for the jigs and poppers to finally score something.

But nada/zip/nothing… so in a time honoured tradition on our boat, when the fish aren’t biting, the anglers might as well start biting…. So I broke out my provisions coldbox and the stuff my mum in-law had prepared earlier for the team and crew….. I think by then some of the team were pretty worn out so I was sure that after refuelling, they would probably settle back to digest “in peace” and indeed I think there was a snore or two from the rear of the boat after that…. This was actually a good thing, as I hoped that the team would rest just in case the day time drift and jig plan was productive.

After dinner, Ishak decided to shift to a series of other spots in an area 25km o the east north east and as we motored off towards the spots I kept my eye on the sounder just in case any interesting bottom structure popped up. Sure enough, some 7 km on, my eye was caught by a “trench” in the ocean floor that showed up as a dip on the bottom on the sounder screen. I nudged Ishak and he quickly slowed the boat and circled to have a second look at the spot, but whilst it looked promising, there were no marks at mid water, which usually signalled the presence of fish on the bottom too.

Nonetheless, Ishak told me to drop my rig and “cuba saja” i.e. just try…. As my rig hit bottom, I cranked up a bit to hold the bait just above the bottom and was rewarded with a few tiny nibbles that translated into a 500gm coral wrasse or kerisi…. Not to be perturbed I rebaited and dropped again, ‘cos we have caught mama grouper in these areas… on retrospective, I should have hooked the wrasse and sent it down as a nice livebait. Moments later as my rig hit bottom, I felt the same nibble and winched up yet another wrasse… hmmm. By then Mikey was jigging, but no luck. So after marking the spot on our GPS, we headed off the targeted area.

Arriving at the next spot, the sounder showed the step in the sea floor with taller structure at the top of the step, so Ishak parked the boat as best as he could given the lack of current. We ended up only 10 metres from the spot, so that was pretty good, since the boat would shift according to the light changing winds. By then, it was about 3am and I guess everybody was feeling pretty zonked. So Ishak sent down his bottom rig, set the clicker and curled up on the console seat to grab some sleep, something he would need since he would be driving the boat all the next day. I sent down my bottom rig as did Gary and Mikey kept up his jigging, but with zero current, it was pretty quiet down there.

Over the next hours, I watched everyone else but Zul and I succumb to fatigue and soon we were being serenaded by the Semarang Bank Nasal Choir, with the lead Nasalists being Ishak and Mikey. Zul and I continued to stay up and joke as we have so many times, smoking and just enjoying the quiet of the dawn whilst keeping a sharp eye out on my rod tip and Zul’s handline.

It was around 6 am that Zul got curious and picked up Gary’s outfit, the PE10 Blue Rose with a Jigger 4000P on it. He remarked that the outfit was so light and decided to bait up the bottom rig I had prepared for Gary and chucked it over the side….. I was waiting for a Kerisi Bali to pop up, but it seemed unusually quiet until I felt another tentative twitch and slowly reeled in. My rod tip bent over big time and for 4 cranks I had something very strong and angry on the other end of the line, and then just as suddenly, nothing….. It was at this point I think that Zul coined the term “Pangsai Fish” which proved prophetic, since a minute after I had hauled back my rig to inspect the bait, the Blue Rose bent over extra extra heavy in the rod holder….. Zul leapt to grab the rod and then proceeded to struggle against what ever was on the other side…. I tell ya now, I was absolutely petrified that the rod would blowup, since it was bent to the handle….

Gary woke up to the sight of Zul pinned to the side of the boat, clutching his outfit and trying not to bend the rod too much and I then told Zul to pass the rod to Gary, but Gary being the gracious soul that he is declined the offer and told Zul to bring the fish up. So after a serious bit of grunting and cranking I was hoping for a big MJ or Kerisi Bali….. but what should popup but Mr Kingfish No.1, the original “Pangsai Fish” or as its called locally Manyong; the deepwater catfish that pulls like a GT. It was a big bugger easily over 10Kg and ugly as hell. So we jammed it next to the cold box and extracted the hooks on it.

That Manyong woke everybody up and it wasn’t long before I think everybody was either bottom fishing or jigging again. I am not sure but at this time, I think that Gary managed to pull up 2 nicely sized 2+kg Lapih or spotted wrasses of some form. I hope that the team will correct me on the timing if I got it wrong.

Anyway, with the morning into 7 am, I woke up Ishak and we both pulled our GPSs to figure out where to go next. Over the course of the next 3 hours, we basically fished 5 other nearby spots, fishing on the drift with Zuls Apollo rig, Gary’s ranggong and jigs from the rest. And damn it, there was little to show aside from small fish. So we shifted further offshore to 3 spots that have delivered in he past with big Kerisi Bali, Grouper and Snapper, but once again, the lack of current and what seemed to be a lack of fish resulted in only tiny grouper and coral wrasses event though the water was around 350-400ft deep. So for want of any better ideas, Ishak decided to try one more spot that was supposed to be a well head in 800ft of water…yeah baby 800FT….. By the time we got there, I turned on my Sounder and uhhhhh….hmmmm where did the bottom go…

It turns out that my 300W sounder could not hold bottom at this spot, so Zul dived into the console and retrieved the OTHER sounder, another Furuno, but with 600W of power behind it and finally after tweaking the gain and tuning a bit, we managed to find the bottom which as I recall was between 780-800ft down. But unfortunately the spot which was tiny, also looked quiet, but Ishak told Zul to grab my Kaikon and Tuna Stik rig and send down his Apollo Rig. After adding on another sinker, to the huge chum sinker already being used, Zul sent down the rig…. And it took a real long time to get there, leaving I think only 2 dozen wraps of line left on the spool. Unfortunately Zul could only feel tiny nibbles and there wasn’t any sign of the XL sized grouper that do hang out in these depths. At this point we started a good natured debate sprinkled with many references to Pangsai Fish, on who should reel up the damn thing and as Ishak was about to grab the reel, our HERO Mikey stepped up to bat and seized the outfit. He sat down and started to crank the Kaikon……and crank…….and crank…….and crank (by now sweat and a flushed face evident)……..and crank (damn feel the burn)…..and crank (where is that damned leader)………and crank (hey Mikey I see the leader)…..and phew applause please. Mikey you da man dude.

Well, after that episode, I would have given the man a Tiger, but we were running reasonably dry at the time….. So I discussed with Ishak and as it was almost noon by then, we decided to head to a series of spots we call “Kingfish”, where we would anchor and maybe finish off the provisions and of course fish. With 20km to run, we reseated and resecured bodies and gear and turned SSW running at 50kmh. Half an hour later we arrived at KF3 and continued drifting and moving until we got to KF1 where we then anchored and started fishing in earnest. But there were only small nibbles and lots of baby grouper and before long , everyone was running a bottom rig of some form with Mikey pursuing the local baby grouper population with a vengeance.

It was at this spot that we finally moved to polish off the rest of the provisions and after I had finished packing away all the Tupperware and utensils, I heard a grunt from the back and turned to see Alvin with a serious bend in his rod from his bottom rig and struggling a little. Moving to the back, I knelt down to give him some moral support and held him with his rod, coaching him on when to pump and when to crank, which he did very well. I noticed that although the rod was real bent, no drag was coming off his reel and asked him how much drag he had on, to which he answered “Mike set it for me” ….. hehehehehehehehehe. So after more grunting and winching, the leader came into view and Ishak grabbed it to see if someone had finally managed to nail an Amberjack, but unfortunately it turned out to be yet another Amberjack Trainer model; Mr Manyong around 5-6kgs in size. But I think Alvin enjoyed the fight and a taste of what even a small AJ could be like.

With the time now nudging 2pm and the tide falling at the ramp, Ishak decided to start the 70km run home and we all reeled in and stowed our gear. After clipping on the buoy and retrieving the anchor, we started the fast cruise home at 65kmh and duly arrived at the ramp an hour and 10 minute later. The tide was already low, so the team had to jump off the boat in the shallows and wade ashore whilst Ishak and Zul manoeuvred the boat on to the trailer and after lot of winching, we had the boat secured to be towed up onto land.

We discharged the gear into the back of the pickup and Mikey jumped into the Patrol with me to head for the hotel and make the necessary room arrangements. An hour later everyone was settled in and I left the team to rest pending the trip the next day


Trip 2

As soon as I stepped out of the house on that Saturday morning, I knew that something was not quite right about the weather. The wind was definitely up and gusting and I prayed that it would die down and leave the sea alone. But as I ran a number of errands and stocked up on provisions for the trip that day, I watched the wind build even more. Mikey gave me a call and told me that 12345 had told him about a nearby tackle shop, so I arranged to pick them up at lunch to go to the shop.

By lunch time, I dropped in to meet the team at the coffee shop outside their hotel and we had some food and chatted for quite a while about fish , snakes and the jungle plus our various experiences with mother nature. I also showed them the only album I could find of some recent catches last year and also passed on my worries about the weather.

After fitting everyone in my Patrol, we wandered off to the tackle shop where I grabbed 2 small squid jigs to stock up in my tackle box. I think the guys managed to get some stuff like line and vcds. We next headed to the beach so that we could get an idea of the sea conditions and unfortunately my fears were confirmed with blustery conditions and a whitecapped topped sea. At that time, we also ran into two of my kakis about to launch their 26 & 28 foot boats at the beach and when one bogged down in the sand, I had to use the Patrol to tow out the boat and his Discovery. Must to the teams credit, they volunteered to help push the trailer and Discovery out of the sand and we watched as they launched the boat…. Steady Boys!!!.


I remarked to Gary that I thought the wind was blowing about 30-40kmh with gusts up to 60kmh and the seas looked to be in the 2m range. I called up Ishak and he concurred with my thoughts about delaying the launch to wait for the wind to die down a little. In all honesty we could have launched on time at 4pm, but running in these conditions is never comfortable nor dry. So I delayed the launch till 8pm and sent the team back to the hotel to grab some more rest.

I then headed back to the beach to help the crew refuel the boat and also to pick up some more bait. At the fish market there, a couple of the guys selling fish told me that they had just come back from some big seas and 2m waves. On the way back to my house to load the gear into my Patrol, I called up the Met office and they confirmed my guesstimation that of the wind speed and wave heights. They also warned my that the next day would get worse with higher wind speeds and bigger seas up to 3m, so I called Ishak again and we planned a hit & run to some closer areas between 30-40km offshore instead of the 72 km we had initially planned.

Come 8pm, I went over to the hotel with my bro-in law and his pickup and we loaded the team’s gear in and trooped down to the beach. At the beach, I met Ishak who had heard more news from a kaki just back from offshore and he confirmed it was rough out there.

So with the agreement of the team and keeping their safety as the paramount consideration, we elected to sit in the coffee shop at the beach and wait for the wind to die down. Off course the fact that Liverpool were playing West Ham that night had nothing to do with our decision to watch the satellite feed in the coffee shop..

By 11pm and after the 1st half was over, Ishak pronounced the conditions launchable and we loaded the gear before Moss my bro-in law towed the boat down to the ramp and launched her. After cranking up the engines and checking the lights, we headed out into 5 foot seas, running slow to avoid excessive pounding. Our target was an area 35km to the NW and it took us an hour to get there. On the way I periodically checked that everyone was ok and made it clear that if anyone felt really bad, we would turn back. But, hey, the team is tough dude…..

Given the conditions, at the time we decided to moor to the nearest rig and after Zul threw the line over the mooring posts, we drifted back and sent down the jigs and bottom lines. With Alvin and Eugene at the back bottom fishing, Gary also doing bottom and Mikey and Hafiz jigging in the front, I was very hopeful for everyone to catch something. But instead almost right off the bat three of us got snagged. I managed to free my line, but I needed a handline spool to bust off Gary’s leader. Ishak also snagged up and as he pulled on the rod, the damn rod just snapped….. this was a Penn Senator 37kg class rod….after inspecting the break, I noted some previous damage caused whilst the rod was on loan to a friend after he had snagged it on a tree as he towed his boat. So Ishak switched to the back up Kaikon rig. I also had my Tiburon on a 6455XH rod waiting.

With the snagging being intolerable, we shifted to another rig further offshore, running some 12km further in the 4-5ft seas. At the next rig, we tied off again and as Gary was the first to send down a bottom bait, he got the first and only MJ for the trip…. A baby 2kg version, but hey, by then I was happy with anything. Mikey was next with a snagged line on his bottom rig, that also entangled my line, but as I used the handline spool to pull the line, it came loose and I felt an unusual pulsation in the line, I told Mike he had a fish on and as he winched up what seemed to be a deadweight, he said it was probably a piece of heavy coral…. What did surface was a real pissed off 6 foot Moray eel which I duly cut off and released. I also discovered that in the process of sorting out our entangled lines, my drifting bait had been hammered by a small tarpon…ah well some kinda fish for me.

With nothing else really being caught on jig or bottom after that, and with the sea conditions getting mildly worse, Ishak made the decision to shift to our last spot, another nearby rig around 3km away and we made our way there. After tying up, Mikey began jigging with a vengeance as did Hafiz. But it was Hafiz who shortly got nailed by something uncontrollable that hammered the tight drag in his Stella 20k and busted him off on the rig in less than a minute. I reckon that was definitely a larger edition GT. Not long after this, Mikey came up tight with a fish and shortly boated a small large eye trevally in the 2-3kg range, followed by a twin fish again a few minutes later. I was very happy that Mikey finally getting something on jig and hoped for a big GT next. But it was Hafiz that got hit again by another big eye trevally. I think after that we got nailed by another big eye trevally, but it was pretty quiet after that even with Mikey changing around to his popper outfit.

With dawn breaking the overcast horizon and some of the team looking a little worse for wear due to the rock and roll, we decided to head back at about 7.30 am. Unfortunately, the port engine refused to start, so I had to go the stern and after checking the filters found that there was quite a bit of water in the Racor separators. I duly drained and pumped both filters and we got the engines started up to head home. On the way, Ishak stopped by a few spots for Zul to try with his Apollo rigged handline, but as Zul said, the fish were in “Pangsai” mode…hehehehhehe.

So with 6 foot following seas we ran home at a considerably faster speed than we had headed out and everyone received a good dose of windblown spray from the waves crashing into the bow. I took the opportunity to lie down at the back of the boat next to Gary and grab a quick Saimee power nap, with a lifejacket as a pillow. I told Ishak to head for a large private marina area that we dubbed the “kolam” or pool in Malay since we would be able to beach the boat in calm water there to have breakfast.

About an hour later we found ourselves nicely beached on a small artificial island in the middle of the pool and everyone took the time to jump overboard in the shallows, swim, explore the rocks and take a few pics. I broke out the provisions which included a curry fish using a wrasse Gary had caught the day before. I must say that it was a pretty nice relaxed ending to the trip, paddling in warm water, joking and telling tall tales and just basically messing around before having an ice cold watermelon for desert. Ishak even decided to float off on one of the raft like cushions we use on the boat…. We also took the opportunity to inspect the boat and engines and do some minor cleaning and the team packed some of their gear.

I called my bro-in law to bring the trailer down and we headed for the ramp some 3 minutes away from the pool. The boat was driven onto the trailer without incident due to the nice high tide and we parked the boat and trailer next to the Jerudong fish market to discharge the gear and anglers. As usual Mikey jumped in the car with me to head for the hotel.

Later that night, we had a dinner with the rest of my crew and also the owner of the boat, our most senior kaki. Dinner was great fun and it gave an opportunity to meet most of the rest of the crew. We retired at around 11pm.

Next day, I picked everyone up at 8.15am and squeezed them all into my van…. We somehow managed to fit all the bodies and gear and shortly saw everyone off to the airport. I would just like to thank Team Jiggerlo for contributing to the costs for the trip and for the personally signed jigs they passed to Ishak, Zul and Myself. The boys appreciated it, especially Zul who busted a gut reading the inscription on his jig.

Let me find better conditions next time and if you can make it, you guys are most welcome. Apologies for anything that might have gone wrong or awry with the trip.

I don’t think we have that many pics, but I shall leave it to the boys to post them. Hope the Catch Report is ok for ya Mak .

Take care, Tight Lines,

Saimee

[stickbom!]

Thanks for taking time off to do the Catch Report Saimee. This visit to Brunei has certainly been an eye opener for my friends and I. Some of these guys have never dropped a jig in their lives before so it's still a thrill to have something pounce on their jigs (regardless of fish species/size ) Rest assured that you have not seen the last of Team Jiggerlos :P Do send my warmest regards to "Da Chief" & everyone else on the boat

[ophio]

Saimee ,

Thanks for taking up your time to cook out this Catch Report and also the hospitality you have shown us during our stay there .The guys and myself really appreciated everything that You ,Zul and Ishak had put in for us .And also the very wonderful dinner that was organized by "Da Chief" during the last night of stay there .

No doubt the weather hit us real bad ,but I do enjoy the adventure .

Thanks alot Guys ,and see you again soon !

[Makaira]

YOU da man Saimee!!!!!

[stickbom!]

...... Mikey pursuing the local baby grouper population with a vengeance.

COMICAL INSERT :P "DUMP IN 60 SECONDS"

It was at this spot that Alvin could no longer hold the "motherload" any longer... so he sounded the "air raid" alert and everyone scrambled for safety Soon after, Alvin stuck his bomb hatch out from the back of the boat and with the most agonizing look on his face, released his entire bomb load in a record 60 seconds. For a urban chap with a desk bound office job, this must have been the most acrobatic stunt he has ever tried. Kudows to Alvin Not too long after Alvin's stunt, I heard a grunt from the back and turned to see him with a serious bend in his rod from his bottom rig and struggling a little. Moving to the back, I knelt down to give him some moral support and held him with his rod, coaching him on when to pump and when to crank, which he did very well. I noticed that although the rod was real bent, no drag was coming off his reel and asked him how much drag he had on, to which he answered “Mike set it for me” ….. hehehehehehehehehe. So after more grunting and winching, the leader came into view and Ishak grabbed it to see if someone had finally managed to nail an Amberjack, but unfortunately it turned out to be yet another Amberjack Trainer model; Mr Manyong (No wonder Zul calls it Pang Sai Fish... probably came around to feast on Alvin's offerings :P ) around 5-6kgs in size. But I think Alvin enjoyed the fight and a taste of what even a small Amberjack could be like.

Oh yeah... Saimee, does that long sleeve turtle neck feel a little "roomier" :P Sorry if its ruined dude! It did a very good job of keeping me warm though... was totally drenched by the time we reached the first fishing spot. Instead of investing in more fancy tackle... think I better get myself a decent raincoat

[ophio]

The man that gave the famous word " Pung Sai fish " .

[htchng]

SAIMEE!!!! SUPPPPPERRRRB Catch Report!!!!

[stickbom!]

Ophio dun forget his other famous terms like- "Bankrupt"/ "FXXkin Marine"

[physlo]

Saimee,

What a fantastic write-up. Even a police report is nowhere near this .

Regards
physlo

[alvindiana]

Hi Saimee

Thanks for a wonderful time in Brunei. Thanks for taking the time off your busy schedule to bring us out fishing. Heard from Mike that you had a ton of work to clear once you got back to the office.

For a newbie like me, it was a good fishing trip. The tunas were my first fishes on jigs and the "amberjack trainer" was a good fighting experience.

The total distance travelled for the first trip was really far (like Singapore to KL except that it was by boat). Must have been very tiring for Ishak who was driving and zul who was his lookout and for yourself as you were busy ensuring we were all well taken care of.

Thanks for sending over the medication that night after the first trip even though you must have been tired yourself. Definitely helped to prevent another embarrassing moment for me on the second trip out (with the rough seas the 2nd trip out, it would have been a lot more difficult to hold on to the back of the boat if there was any further 'business' to be done!!). Even taking a piss was difficult.

The 2nd trip out was a little rough for me but it was a good experience to build up for future trips (lack of sleep and choppy seas and the dark skies at night make for a good combination for seasickness. Need to build up the sea legs)

Pls thank the boss for providing the boat for the trip as well as for the 'fish' dinner the night before we flew back. If I remember correctly, we had 4 different types of fishes and 2 prawn dishes that night. That small little cafe is simply amazing (their menu list is more extensive than some of the singapore restaurants)

Pls also thank your brother-in-law for taking the time to ferry us to and from the hotel to the jetty and the rest of the gang for joining us for the dinnner that night. The food on the boat (pls thank your mother-in-law) was very good as well (believe we had the biggest person on the trip going for a big 2nd helping early in the morning. No prizes for guessing who).

Most of all, pls thank the 'minister of home affairs' (your wife) for granting you the time off from home to take us out while she takes care of the kids and the home.

[edylie]

Saimee,

That is a very detailed and nice written Catch Report
I truly enjoy it.

Best Regards,
Edy

[stickbom!]

(believe we had the biggest person on the trip going for a big 2nd helping early in the morning. No prizes for guessing who) ->Wrong I had second servings @ every meal Fish no eat I eat :P I like to eat and DFM's mother-in-law cooks reeeeeeeeeeeally well. Don't waste ma

[stickbom!]

Originally Posted by physlo

Saimee,

What a fantastic write-up. Even a police report is nowhere near this .

Regards
physlo

hahaha bludder bet during your policeman days you never write a report so long also right

[Din]

Originally Posted by stickbom!

hahaha bludder bet during your policeman days you never write a report so long also right

Bro,
Police report always short and swee...straight to the point!hahaha
If not I.O will be reading it for hours!

Rgds,
Din..

[fishpullipull]

Very powerful Catch Report DF.Enjoyable read this....