Brunei Hari Raya special

[12345]

When typhoon jangmi hit Taiwan n China, a group of beh-kia-si anglers headed to brunei dropoff for 36 hours fishing, big swell also no retreat no surrender, according to them they manage to fish about 1 1/2 hours then headed back to Muara port. Not much fish though but they've break Brunei amberjack record this time, over 30kg mark.

[Akudou]

Before i start my CR, Would like to wish all our muslim's friends and anglers a selamat hari raya, maaf zahir & batin.

As usual Rickster organized another trip for raya and we got on The Apollo on the evening 1st october 2008. A total of 11 anglers participated on this trip which include Rickster (organiser), Tito (co-organiser), Benji, Gary, Hock Li, Lau meng, Yaw meng, Alan, Myself and 2 of Rickster's friend which i couldnt remember their names (apologies to them). Made a move at 8.15pm on the 1/10/08 and arrived on the dropoff spot at 4.15am 2/10/08. First Spot wasnt really biting at all but one of the anglers manage to hook up a tongkol by jigging.

Decided to change spot as the sun was about to rise and manage to land a table size fish such as krisi's, rubies and a couple of grouper weighing at 7 to 8kg individually. I had problems still with my collar bone so didnt use much of the overheads and spinning gears so i decide to use an electric reel.

Fish sounder was working great but according to Captain Nonoy, it was difficult to park the boat on the right spot as there were problems with above water current, underwater current and wind directions kept on changing position.

Highlight of the day was by Chong as he manage to break last years record which was 28kg Amberjack. Took him 5 to 8 min to land it as one of his hook was on the AJ's body. But then when the AJ came up, behold it was huge!! Looking at it, it could have been around 40kg but on the scale (hopefully accurate) it weight at 34kg. Another new AJ record for the Apollo raya trip and the possibly the new Brunei's AJ record.

Deciding to move to another spot looking for more table size fish and bigger AJ's, the weather decided to turn ugly. Underwater current was so strong and keep on changing direction that even my 1.5kg rocket sinker was also drifting quite far away instead of heading straight down. Then came the wind which we believe was the aftermath of the typhoon which was close to our region. The sea became rough and what seems to be a 36hr fishing trip had to be cut short due to safety reasons (better to be safe then sorry) and we left at 11.30am. Everyone agreed to head back dissapointedly as we only manage to fish for 5hrs. Didnt make it to the AJ's Playground this time.

Waves was as high as 2 to 3 meters on the way back and as time goes by, i could see it was almost as high as 3 to 4 meters. Everyone put on their lifejacket and prepare for the worst but due to the experience of the captain and the crews aboard, we manage to reach land at 8pm.
More pics will be posted up (hopefully by the anglers with camera) but then once again congratulation to our fresh water king: Chong who manage to break the AJ record for Brunei. Hopefully, the next time we'll be targeting for Aj's over 40kg.

Last 2 years record:23.5kg
Last years record: 28kg
New record 2008: 34kg

Thats my report for now as i'm quite tired due to the trip and after cleaning up my gears. Good record breaking AJ's but bad trip as we didnt complete our quest to get more AJ's as last year 22 Aj's was hooked up.
Cheers for now and keep the lines tight. We are waiting for the record to be broken again.. Next target on my list: GT's! hehehehe...

[Kingfish@76]

good catch, friend.

[Akudou]

Weight of the amberjack caught by Chong was weigh today on a proper scale. Correct weight of the Amberjack is exactly 40kg.

[DaFrogman]

Felix dude,

That is an awesome fish... was it caught on Jig?.....

I'm very happy to see that my feelings that we have AJs over 50kg on the dropoff are becoming more and more vindicated... Its a shame the weather shut down the trip, but hey... when its typhoon time, it seems thats when the big AJs come out to play.

Regards,

Saimee

[Akudou]

Saimee , Selamat Hari Raya! Maaf zahir & batin.

It was caught using bottom fishing. The fish manage to straighten the first hook off its mouth but it was unfortunate to get the other hook slice onto it's body since Chong was using the bajau lines with 3 vmc hooks.

Despite that the fish wasnt caught by me, i was happy to see that our waters have Aj's of that size. Before the trip itself, i told everyone i have a feeling the targeted AJ would be 45kg but was 5kg short of what i predicted. But then, you'll never know how big the next one gonna be. During those short period of fishing time, lots of busted lines and hooks was thrown up before the typhoon hit us. Guess it could have been much a happier trip since during those duration we only manage to fish for more than an hour. Guess better luck next time. Cheers and selamat hari raya once again, Saimee.

[sunny69]

nice catch

[eeyore]

40kg aj that is huge for our region. Great job and sweet cr