Brunei CR:14/09 to 16/09

[Akudou]

Time Departed: 8pm 14/09/08
Time Arrived at destination: 5am 15/09/08
Destination: Brunei Dropoff
No of Anglers: 9
Time ended: 6.30am 16/09/08

Was onboard the Apollo on the 14/09/08 at 6pm and waited for the rest of the anglers to arrive. As soon as the 9th angler got onboard, the Apollo took off from serasa beach and everyone made themself as comfortable as possible. Quite a few familiar numbers of angler was onboard including 2 newbies. As usual the newbies had to get use to 'Sea sickness'.

The usual time duration taken would be 7 to 8 hrs, and as the others were getting some good rest before reaching the destination, i was the only one at the rear,enjoying the view of the sea and ofcos looking at the clear sky with stars made me think this is gonna be a enjoyable trip. What i noticed was that the Apollo had decided to head to a new area which took 9hrs to get there. Looking at the time of arrival,positioning of the Apollo and the anchor dropping, it was 5.30am. A few of us decide to try jigging before the sun decide to come up. Results of jigging: 0!

Everyone gave up jigging at the break of dawn and down went the rigs and bait. The first spot shows very poor results as i, myself could feel the nibble but nothing was hooked up. Was trying hooks as small as 2/0 and yet nothing.

At 8.30am the Captain decided to move to another location nearby and the results was still the same. Nothing as much as little nibbles on the end of the line. At 10'ish due to the frustration of some anglers, the Captain decide to move to another spot which took 20 to 35 minutes to get there. Down went sinkers,hooks,baits,jigs,etc. and as usual the familiar Krisi Bali's was hooked up by a few anglers. I still had my 2/0 hooks on my apollo rig but didnt hooked up anything for atleast 30min to my frustration. So i decide to switch to 4/0's and oh yes, i was bringing up krisi bali as well.

Was trying out the Ripple Fisher rod and the new carbontex drags on my OJ4000P(installed by our own DFM:Saimee) which shows on the pulling scale at 50lbs without the line even peeling out at all. So i decide to set it at 17kg drag and set down a rig of 3 hooks with sliced fish bait and down it went till it hit the bottom at over 400feet. I lock up the OJ's drag lever, leave it on the rod holder of the boat and decide to wash my hands. But just as i turn around to do so, i heard the sound of a screaming reel and thought someone had hooked up a biggie. To my own surprise and shock, everyone was shouting loudly at me and i saw the ripple rod bent over very badly. As i move quickly to grab the rod out of the holder, the sight of the rod looks as if its gonna break, it bended over real bad and i couldnt get the rod out of the holder as something was pulling at it really hard with line peeling out and the reel still screaming. I loosen the drags to make it easy for me to release it from the holder and when i managed to do so, i had difficulty in putting the rod's butt onto my fighting belt so came along Tito another angler onboard to help me out and with both hands on the rod and holding on for dear life, i felt myself being pulled to the edge of the boat's railing despite Tito holding onto the belts strap from behind me. The next shock was that im running out of line with approximately 50meters left so i turn the star drag a couple more round to increase the drag while thumbing the reel and the heat caused by the thumbing was so unbearable, i release my gloved thumb from the reel and increased the drags some more..40m,30m,20m.. i know im about to be spooled out of my 300yards line when finally we thought the fish had given up. So i reel it in up quickly and to my dissapointment the 4/0 Gamakatsu hook threw up.. i didnt know which to be grateful about but im glad i didnt get spooled out but yet sad not being able to stop that fish. Everyone onboard had their own conclusion, some said it was big grouper, some said Amberjack, some said yellowfin.. as for me, as long as it hadnt been landed yet.. you wouldnt know what it is!

We stayed at the same spot till 10pm. During those duration, lots of krisi bali and rubies was landed. Biggest fish landed was an Amberjack estimated to be at 10 to 13kg, and also a grouper estimated at 7 to 9 kg. A couple of the anglers almost had their coolbox filled up. My Catch Report wasnt as good as them as i lost 5 big fights due to the fish hiding back in its own structure. One angler even manage to hook up during jigging but broke his rod during the fight. A newbie even had his krisi bali being chewed on 1/3 of its body. Overall everyone had a very good time and as for me, it was very tiring and sore with all those good fight. As we left, i guess i leave it to another day to fight whatever we lost to that day....Arrived back at serasa beach at 6.30am 16/09/08. (Pics will be posted once i receive them from the candid of the other anglers.

[stevenseow]

Nice write up and good catch.

Bro you mention the "4/0 Gamakatsu hook". can I know where you bought it as I only manage to get 3/0 from Beach road Hong Guan. They only bring in up to size 3/0.

I like using this hook as it is very sharp and strong.

[Akudou]

Nice write up and good catch.

Bro you mention the "4/0 Gamakatsu hook". can I know where you bought it as I only manage to get 3/0 from Beach road Hong Guan. They only bring in up to size 3/0.

I like using this hook as it is very sharp and strong.

Steven,
Yes, i admit that gamakatsu's are very sharp and strong (till this post was the first time it got up) but it is still one of my favourite. Overhere in Brunei, Most anglers would get it frm fred's fishing store but they only have limited quantities and numbers of its models as well. You should ask DFM (Dafrogman) where he got it cos he introduced to me the gamakatsu's and sinced then i was hooked on it!!!

[stevenseow]

Steven,
Yes, i admit that gamakatsu's are very sharp and strong (till this post was the first time it got up) but it is still one of my favourite. Overhere in Brunei, Most anglers would get it frm fred's fishing store but they only have limited quantities and numbers of its models as well. You should ask DFM (Dafrogman) where he got it cos he introduced to me the gamakatsu's and sinced then i was hooked on it!!!

Thanks Akudou.

[Akudou]

Steven,
You are very welcome. Can also recommend you hooks frm 'Decoy', 'Shout' or 'Owner'. If can afford the higher end hooks, go for the Fisherman hooks. Hheheheh... Anyways goin to the same spot again this weekend as some of us (esp me) are seeking for revenge. I'm much more prepared as i spooled in more then 400m of line compared to the 276m line on the last trip. And also no intentions of using small hooks unless no biggies around, so hoping luck will be around me this time...

[stevenseow]

Steven,
You are very welcome. Can also recommend you hooks frm 'Decoy', 'Shout' or 'Owner'. If can afford the higher end hooks, go for the Fisherman hooks. Hheheheh... Anyways goin to the same spot again this weekend as some of us (esp me) are seeking for revenge. I'm much more prepared as i spooled in more then 400m of line compared to the 276m line on the last trip. And also no intentions of using small hooks unless no biggies around, so hoping luck will be around me this time...

Oh yes I do use owner hook too. Woh you hard core, this weekend go again. Good luck lah bro, will wait for your CR. Btw I am going TP tomorrow.

[Akudou]

Oh yes I do use owner hook too. Woh you hard core, this weekend go again. Good luck lah bro, will wait for your Catch Report. Btw I am going Tanjung Pinang tomorrow.

Steven,
I'm not hardcore. I can manage to go every weekend but looking for giant mama's and biggies aint easy. If i do land lots of records size one's, then you can start calling me hardcore. Hahahah.. Hardcore people are like 12345, Kingfisher Meng,etc. Thanks for your luck. Good luck to you too, dont worry too much, just have fun. Thats the most important thing when sportfishing. If the Catch Report is great, then i will post. IF there aint no Catch Report, means real bad day for me. Hahahahaha


Anyways pics attached are the Gamakatsu's bfore used and the other one that the biggie throw up

[th2x]

Steven,
I'm not hardcore. I can manage to go every weekend but looking for giant mama's and biggies aint easy. If i do land lots of records size one's, then you can start calling me hardcore. Hahahah.. Hardcore people are like 12345, Kingfisher Meng,etc. Thanks for your luck. Good luck to you too, dont worry too much, just have fun. Thats the most important thing when sportfishing. If the Catch Report is great, then i will post. IF there aint no Catch Report, means real bad day for me. Hahahahaha


Anyways pics attached are the Gamakatsu's bfore used and the other one that the biggie throw up

Hi Akudou,

Looks like a relaxing and enjoyable trip for you guys.

For your coming trip, am sure you will be posting your CR. I will be fishing over at TP this coming weekend. So same goes here, if got posting of CR, means great fishing, if not, means it will have to be another trip!

Just wondering if the Gamakatsu's hook was red in colour like one of the range from Owner before hookup. I rinse and soak in fresh water some of the Owner red hooks after a trip only to to see it rusting and becomes like what your picture shows. The thing is mine did not catch anything but the colour coating seems to come off. So i figure if I do land anything with my red Owner hook, it will look no difference from your pictures.

Cheers!
th2x

[Akudou]

TH2X:
Dude, the hooks i showed you have been used almost every weekends and i remembered DFM passing it to me almost half a year back and after all those use and abuse, thats what my hook looks like after 6mths of usage. It was still fine even after i used it for 5 to 6 trips. It is the red Gamakatsu's thats shown in the pic after 6mths of almost weekly use. I dont let good things go to waste. And yes ,the colours comes off if you have lots of fishes getting hooked on it often. Heheheh. Its just a coating, no harm done. They still works but when they throw up, then they are not.

Well, you enjoy yourself too. Keep the lines tight!

[tripleK]

TH2X:
Dude, the hooks i showed you have been used almost every weekends and i remembered DFM passing it to me almost half a year back and after all those use and abuse, thats what my hook looks like after 6mths of usage. It was still fine even after i used it for 5 to 6 trips. It is the red Gamakatsu's thats shown in the pic after 6mths of almost weekly use. I dont let good things go to waste. And yes ,the colours comes off if you have lots of fishes getting hooked on it often. Heheheh. Its just a coating, no harm done. They still works but when they throw up, then they are not.

Well, you enjoy yourself too. Keep the lines tight!

Hi Bro,

From your reply i seeing that you mentioned you have been using the hooks for almost 6 months. Do you maintain the hook sharpness?Or Gamakatsu's hooks are so good that no need for maintenance.

For me i probably discard them after every 2-3 trips.
If you do maintain them can share how u do it?

By the way, nice catches you guys have over there in Brunei.
If only our trip are 1/2 as good as yours.We will be happier fishermen.


Cheers

[Akudou]

Hi Bro,

From your reply i seeing that you mentioned you have been using the hooks for almost 6 months. Do you maintain the hook sharpness?Or Gamakatsu's hooks are so good that no need for maintenance.

For me i probably discard them after every 2-3 trips.
If you do maintain them can share how u do it?

By the way, nice catches you guys have over there in Brunei.
If only our trip are 1/2 as good as yours.We will be happier fishermen.


Cheers

TripleK,
Those hooks have never been maintain, so i let the results speaks for itself. You can maintain them by rubbing sandpaper at the body part which is gonna rust but fot the sharp parts i reccomend u to use something alike to sharpen a knife. Make sure u dont blunt it tho.hehehe

Brunei have quite a number of good spots to fish. Problem is looking for the good spots which is still undisturb. Should come down to brunei one day and try out the trips here. hehehe.

[tripleK]

TripleK,
Those hooks have never been maintain, so i let the results speaks for itself. You can maintain them by rubbing sandpaper at the body part which is gonna rust but fot the sharp parts i reccomend u to use something alike to sharpen a knife. Make sure u dont blunt it tho.hehehe

Brunei have quite a number of good spots to fish. Problem is looking for the good spots which is still undisturb. Should come down to brunei one day and try out the trips here. hehehe.

Hi Akudou,

Thanks for the guidance on hook sharpening.
Brunei is definitely one of the destinations I would like to try..Hopefully the Big Mamas are still around when i m there.

Cheers