This blog kicks off with an entry about a recent trip to Desaru for a spot of fshng. Desaru, on the east coast of Malaysia is a popular resort destination. For example, the Desaru Golden Beach Resort, shown below:
We proceeded to buy prawns from a live prawn vendor / part time graffiti artist, and then negotiated 4WD country.
Arrival at Paradise Desaru Sampan Fishing Village. Sort of.
Clearly this wasn't the Desaru Golden Beach Resort.
Nevermind, we are here to fish, not have fun, else we wouldn’t have gotten up at 4am to come here anyway. ^_^
No berthing fees, no marina membership. Just a tow bar and a 4WD and we were off.
Sometime in the morning I was told that it was raining bats and frogs in Singapore. In the evening I read all about it on Stomp. Although there was only a slight drizzle in Desaru, but the winds was oh-my-天 super strong and our little sampan was rolling all about. The morning’s action was limited to trying not to look down so as not to merlion. At about 11am most of us decided to take a 15 min power nap. When we got up 2 hours later, the winds had died down and the sea was a peaceful bluey greeny velvety carpet once more.
A change of spot, and the action began. Slowly, with a couple of ang chors (or ang chor ki, I can’t really tell the difference without a sample set). Then, suddenly, the Lo Chiak began. No bait went unmolested for more than 5 seconds. If your line was quiet for more than 10 seconds it means that your bait had been stolen without so much even as a thank you note. And so we were pulling up various groupers, orange spotted groupers (not me → re: blog description), and a grouper-ish creature with blue stripes (bluelined hind) (me). This went on for about 2 hours.
Thankfully, unlike in local waters, there were no millions of small Aramugum to steal your bait. Naturally, the moment I said that, I pulled up a small Aramugum that was trying to steal my bait.
Tuskfish put up a good fight on a light rod, and just when I thought maybe my blog description was inaccurate, I pulled up a really fat and pissed off looking puffer with black lips instead.
I think it was pissed off coz I said it was fat. Picture adds 10 pounds. Fishermen exaggerate by about 99%. My guesstimate is about 2.5kg. No licensed nihonjin fugu chef aboard, so fatuffer went back in the drink.
There were monsters below as well, twice on my light rod, the line burst from a ridiculously strong tug. When I put my heavy rod down, the fish decided not to bite. T_T
We even had a small (1kg) queenfish foul hooked on a sabiki jig. Fella was promptly thrown back into the sea to fight another day.
Now I must comment on the 1million selar you see in the picture above, littered all over the boat floor. Clearly most of these are not table size. They may be ikan billis size, if you like really big ikan billis, but I’ve never heard of selar ikan billis anyway. The point is, the boatman who jigged them up should have tossed them back immediately instead of chucking them about the boat only to toss them at the end of the day. In fact, the queenfish was caught by him and chucked into the boat. No one really eats queenfish so after checking that he didn’t want it anyway, I tossed it back.
Seriously, what’s the point of letting the fish die if you’re not going to keep it for food or bait? Pondered about it while admiring the beauty of the South China Sea.
Later on, Bluelined Hind-mon evolved into Thai Sauce Golden Brown Dinner-mon. It was ok, rather flakey, but very white and very fresh.
Report Summary
Boat: 20+ foot fiberglass sampan with overhead tarp
Weapons: Shimano Basstera EV 5'6" 8-17lb + Daiwa Crossfire 2500 12lb braid, 30lb FC leader; ATC 5' 20-35lb + Penn Slammer 560 30lb braid with wire leader
Bait: Live prawns
Bounty: Tuskfish, Aramugam, Grouper, Swa Chiam, Leng Chiam, Ang Cho Ki, Seklar, Shui Jing, Queenfish, Fatpufferfish
We proceeded to buy prawns from a live prawn vendor / part time graffiti artist, and then negotiated 4WD country.
Arrival at Paradise Desaru Sampan Fishing Village. Sort of.
Clearly this wasn't the Desaru Golden Beach Resort.
Nevermind, we are here to fish, not have fun, else we wouldn’t have gotten up at 4am to come here anyway. ^_^
No berthing fees, no marina membership. Just a tow bar and a 4WD and we were off.
Sometime in the morning I was told that it was raining bats and frogs in Singapore. In the evening I read all about it on Stomp. Although there was only a slight drizzle in Desaru, but the winds was oh-my-天 super strong and our little sampan was rolling all about. The morning’s action was limited to trying not to look down so as not to merlion. At about 11am most of us decided to take a 15 min power nap. When we got up 2 hours later, the winds had died down and the sea was a peaceful bluey greeny velvety carpet once more.
A change of spot, and the action began. Slowly, with a couple of ang chors (or ang chor ki, I can’t really tell the difference without a sample set). Then, suddenly, the Lo Chiak began. No bait went unmolested for more than 5 seconds. If your line was quiet for more than 10 seconds it means that your bait had been stolen without so much even as a thank you note. And so we were pulling up various groupers, orange spotted groupers (not me → re: blog description), and a grouper-ish creature with blue stripes (bluelined hind) (me). This went on for about 2 hours.
Thankfully, unlike in local waters, there were no millions of small Aramugum to steal your bait. Naturally, the moment I said that, I pulled up a small Aramugum that was trying to steal my bait.
Tuskfish put up a good fight on a light rod, and just when I thought maybe my blog description was inaccurate, I pulled up a really fat and pissed off looking puffer with black lips instead.
I think it was pissed off coz I said it was fat. Picture adds 10 pounds. Fishermen exaggerate by about 99%. My guesstimate is about 2.5kg. No licensed nihonjin fugu chef aboard, so fatuffer went back in the drink.
There were monsters below as well, twice on my light rod, the line burst from a ridiculously strong tug. When I put my heavy rod down, the fish decided not to bite. T_T
We even had a small (1kg) queenfish foul hooked on a sabiki jig. Fella was promptly thrown back into the sea to fight another day.
Now I must comment on the 1million selar you see in the picture above, littered all over the boat floor. Clearly most of these are not table size. They may be ikan billis size, if you like really big ikan billis, but I’ve never heard of selar ikan billis anyway. The point is, the boatman who jigged them up should have tossed them back immediately instead of chucking them about the boat only to toss them at the end of the day. In fact, the queenfish was caught by him and chucked into the boat. No one really eats queenfish so after checking that he didn’t want it anyway, I tossed it back.
Seriously, what’s the point of letting the fish die if you’re not going to keep it for food or bait? Pondered about it while admiring the beauty of the South China Sea.
Later on, Bluelined Hind-mon evolved into Thai Sauce Golden Brown Dinner-mon. It was ok, rather flakey, but very white and very fresh.
Report Summary
Boat: 20+ foot fiberglass sampan with overhead tarp
Weapons: Shimano Basstera EV 5'6" 8-17lb + Daiwa Crossfire 2500 12lb braid, 30lb FC leader; ATC 5' 20-35lb + Penn Slammer 560 30lb braid with wire leader
Bait: Live prawns
Bounty: Tuskfish, Aramugam, Grouper, Swa Chiam, Leng Chiam, Ang Cho Ki, Seklar, Shui Jing, Queenfish, Fatpufferfish
