January 15, 1996
Back in 1996 when I was still a young punk and a new comer in this exciting activity, I wasn't really had much affection with saltwater fishing as my fishing buddies back then were all into freshwater fishing. (find out my freshwater fishing here) It was until I met Lawrence and Ann then I was introduced back to saltwater fishing and during our fishing trip to the famous Pasir Ris Fishing Pond (full story here) I was amazed by the distance that Lawrence could achieve using the Shimano 13 footer surf casting fishing rod and after some thoughts I decided to get one for myself. Hence the Loomis & Franklin was bought (details of me buying thye rod here) and I went down to the Pasir Ris Fishing Pond few days later eager to find out how good the rod is.
I reached the place at around 6:30pm and the rest of the gang were not there yet, I went up to our usual spot and started setting up the brand new Loomis & Franklin fishing rod. I was taught to cast with Side Swing Casting when I started in freshwater fishing, Lawrence show me how to do the Overhead Casting and I was convinced that the Overhead Casting was a better way after seeing the distance he achieved. I walked up to the edge of the pond with the new fishing rod and took a deep breath, lifting the rod butt high on my head while the rod tip was dipping down to the ground, at the end of the fishing lines a float was attached to it, when I was ready I pulled the rod butt as hard as I could and whipping the rod tip towards the sky....
"Splash!"
I felt some water splashed on to my face and I could taste the saltiness of the sea water as it dripped pass my lips. It was a bad and failed cast as the float landed just five meter in front of me, it could be I was not used to the extra length of the new fishing rod and I misjudge the timing on releasing the line, I figured that I should patiently waited for the rest and their guidance.
It was around 8pm and Lawrence finally came and he was alone, his wife Ann was unwell.
"Wah! New fishing rod ah?" Lawrence was attracted by the shining new lacquer on the Loomis & Franklin.
"Haha! Ya, just bought it few days ago." I told him.
"Don't want to test out the rod?" he asked while preparing him fishing rod.
"Almost done, I wait for you lor, Let's cast together." I pretended.
"Wanna compete with me is it? On lah, wait let my Shimano kill your... What's the brand?" Lawrence was very confident with his fishing rod
"It's a Loomis & Franklin 10 footer, no lah, how to compete with you? I am still learning from you." I can't even cast more than 10 meter just now, how to compete?
Lawrence hooked a live prawn on to the hook after the set up of his Shimano fishing rod was done, he walked towards the edge of the pond and with a smooth motion the float which had a light stick attached on it, flew towards the sky and you could see the light stick painted a green light arc in the dark and dropped into the far corner of the pond. Wow! that's was more than 100 meter!
I monitored his motion and practiced it a few times in my mind and then it's my turn to walked up to the edge, I took a deep breath again and "Bang" I cast the float out. I didn't really looked at where it had landed and I was expecting more saltwater to splash on to my face.
"Good cast!" I heard Lawrence's voice from behind, I looked up to the pond and found out that my float was landed near to his float. My gosh! I was so excited and my hands were trembling as I couldn't imagine that I would be so close to the 100 meter mark!
For the whole night I couldn't sit still and was checking on the bait every ten minutes, reason behind was I felt like casting again and again and that morning I went home without hooking up any fish. In the afternoon when I was holding my cup of coffee at the office I could feel my hands were still trembling and my arms and back muscle were crying in pain.
And that's how and when I started to fall in love with Surf Casting and I just couldn't resist the thrill of it, every time when I tossed my float or weight towards the sea, the adrenaline rush that was created from the cast sucked me deeper and deeper into this activity. I began to study on various casting techniques such as Ground Cast, Full Side Swing Cast, Overhead Side Swing cast and finally I was hooked to the ultimate Pendulum Cast. I upgraded from the Spinning reel to the Multiplier reel and it was the Abu Garcia 6600 C4 that was bought, the Abu Garcia was upgraded into Open Cage and Mono Mag, Rocket bearings had replaced the stock bearing and the Rocket Bearing Lubricant was bought specially for the bearing, eventually a Brass Sport Shim had replaced the bearing for maximum performance and I was achieving 160 meter at my peak!
I had a 13 footer Surf Casting fishing rod added to my arsenal, it was not a Shimano though. It was given a full makeover with more guides were putted on,(realized that it was a mistake in later part) enhanced rod body and it was converted from a Spinning reel rod, it was built without any reel seat and I bought two reel coaster to secure the Abu Garcia at the Low Rider position. The pair landed my first ever Stingray weight around 12kg while I surf casting at Batu Layar beach. (click here for the story)
My fishing journey continued in between freshwater and saltwater and almost all were in Singapore, it was until 2006 when I encounter this place... Next post will jump ahead a few years which I will introduce the Air Papan beach in Malaysia, stay tuned.
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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!
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