2012 ~ Fishing Adventure of NorthernHardcoreFisherman

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Singapore Fishing Trip: Night Fishing at Woodlands Waterfront Jetty | FishingAdvNHF

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Was out for fishing cum net casting at the Woodlands Waterfront Jetty which was restricted to public access previously, when the news of it opening to the public many anglers including myself went there to try our luck. I had been there fishing for a couples of times and so far nothing significant was caught. But I always went home without empty basket as the place is a favorite playground for Mullets, Greenbacks and many more small bait fishes, and I always went there with my cast net to get the fresh live bait for fishing.

The long wide jetty

When I reached there I walked around along side the jetty and looked on to the surface of the sea, sometimes big barramundi aka Kim Bak Lor aka Siakap could be spotted near the jetty. I did a few attempts to catch them using my cast net but it's either I was too slow or they were too quick. After the recce done I started to cast my net out and landed only a few pieces of Greenbacks aka Tamban. Maybe it's still early I told myself and continued the hunt.
It was quite unusual for the night as I didn't see many ripples or bubbles around the sea surface, let alone splashes. it was almost dead silent and I could only managed to catch ten Greenbacks with the net.

View from the front

The Eatery

I walked all the way to the rear section of the jetty with the aim to get more bait fishes, bad idea as none was caught and just as I was about to walk further, a strong gust of wind out from nowhere blew on to the jetty, soon after that the sea became choppy and the temperature dropped, it was a disaster to do the net casting as the wind would mess up my net and causing my net to landed awkwardly into the sea, it was almost impossible to spread out the casting net.

The wind brought along huge rain cloud which covered the whole sky above the jetty, it seem like it was going to rain soon and I wasn't ready to get myself drenched, I hurried back to the center of the jetty where the Malay Eatery is situated, it would offer some shelter if the rain came.

The rain never came and the sky gradually cleared up, the wind was getting weaker and eventually stopped. It was around 5:30am in the morning and I wasn't ready to go home, setting up my fishing rod with the Greenbacks that I caught as bait, I cast it into the sea and hoping to hook up a fish on the first light of the day. While waiting for the Greenbacks to be taken I continued on the net casting, had a surprised catch of three small prawns and a few more Greenbacks. The trip ended as one of the worst catch on net casting and my fishing rod was never tested either.

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!

Malaysia Fishing Trip: Spanish Mackerel Caught at Air Papan Beach, Mersing | FishingAdvNHF

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The Air Papan Beach is one of the place that will always come to my mind whenever I wanted to do some fishing in Malaysia. Even though the distance is almost 160km away from my home and the journey takes around two hours of bumpy and narrow road, with many unexpected sharp turns that might shrink your balls especially if you are not familiar with the road. Not mentioning the huge and long timber trucks that are snailing when uphill, dragging your speed down to 20kmh! When downhill some of them speed up as you attempt to over-take them, intimidating you with the loud 10,000cc turbo boosted diesel engine sound and thick black stinky smoke from the exhaust pipe. But all of this can't stop me from visiting this place again and again, the beautiful Air Papan beach.

5.5km to Air Papan Beach

Beautiful Air Papan

On the 28th September 2012 I made another trip there, again another solo trip. I set off from my home at around 2am and headed straight to Air Papan after crossing the border into Malaysia. It was a smooth journey as there were not many slow moving vehicles on the road. I managed to reach Air Papan at 5:30am and without much delayed I set up my old timer, the Loomis & Franklin 10 footer with a two hooks set rig. The Sky started to brighten up as I hooked up the Tamban (Greenback) that I caught in Singapore as bait. After the first cast of the day I sat down on the beach and enjoyed this beautiful Air Papan sunrise.

Loomis & Franklin

Sunrise

The almighty Sun gradually raised above the horizon and torn apart the darkness, the cold misty air was disappearing and the cloud was dispersed. The Sunlight shot across the sky and reflected on to the cloud, it seems like it was painted with light orange color. As the Sunlight penetrated through the thinning cloud it shined on to the South China Sea, forming a long trail of reflection which extended from the far east towards the shore line.

New Resort Hotel

Life Guard Tower

Lot's of developments have been going on here. I remembered when I first visited this place in 2006 I didn't see so many resorts and none of the resorts back then were above two storeys tall. That Life Guard tower wasn't even there.

Parking Ticket

And best part of it was, nowadays you need to pay for parking here.

Surecatch

I set up another rod which is a newly acquired cheap spinning rod from Surecatch. A 13 footer with the price tag of S$26! It is a steal! This rod was paired with another new toy, another Surecatch product. It is a spinning reel with a size 6000 spool. It is loaded with 300 meters of 40lbs test braided lines.

Kite Fishing Gears

I had brought along this Kite Fishing kits. The kits consisted of a Power Sledge Kite which I bought from a kite shop here in Singapore, another dragon shape kite was bought from Terengganu when I visited there in 2012. The kite lines Drum was also purchased from that Kite shop in Singapore, costing me S$49! I loaded it with 2000 meter of 80 lbs kite lines. A fishing lines drum was made using a car audio cable drum and some PVC pipes, 1000 meter of 130 lbs monofilement fishing lines was loaded on to it. Again the wind was too weak to fly my kite up, even though it was blowing towards the open sea.

The Rod and The Beach

Over at the far end corner where the small hill stretching into the sea, found a flat platform on that small cliff during the 2006 visit, walked a distance of 1km on the rocky beach during low tide, climbed up there and trying out some so-call Rock Fishing there, got stuck for almost 10 hours due to the high tide, the return path was submerged. As I didn't prepared for this I got sun burn on my both arms and legs, not a inch was spared.

The South China Sea

As the land I stood on is situated right on the Equator, with sizzling hot sun beam almost throughout the year, temperature on a average of 31 degree Celsius, and it get hotter here at the beach. I was being toasted like a marinated salted fish, dry and salty. Hiding beside the Life Guard tower, I delayed the checking of the bait by 15 minutes.

At around 11am, after cooling underneath the tower for quite a while, i went up to my rod to check on the baits. It's been quiet since I reached here, no even a tremble was detected on my rod tip. I brought back the Loomis & Franklin first, the bait was gone, probably the Whittings had snipped it off. Another Tamban was hooked and cast out, went over to the Surecatch and same fate on the 13 footer, bait was gone. Well, repeated the same procedure and whack my rod harder hoping to achieve greater distance that's too far for the greedy Whitting to reach.

As I was placing the Surecatch onto the rod holder and adjusting the drag tension, I felt something on my right side, glanced over and saw the tip of the Loomis & Franklin was dipping violently, Got fish! Fish Strike! I ran over and without hesitating and pulled the rod up, I reeled back some lines until it's tight and gave it a hard struck...

"Fish On!"

The struggling was quite strong and the fish was running everywhere, Wow! what fish is this? I was thinking, I expected a stingray here but this one definitely didn't act like one. It was twisting and jerking and swam pretty fast. But the action was short and within 5 minutes the fish surrendered, I slowly brought it back and when it surfaced, It was a Spanish Mackerel!

The Trophy

The Spanish Mackerel

It's a table size fish, and a rare species that caught here. Best part was the fish was foul hooked on the tail! I wasn't sure if it was the hook drop off during the struggle and the line somehow entangled with it's tail, or it was too unlucky to swam pass my line a got stranded. Anyway, it was caught on my rod and I claimed the victory.

Johor Bahru to the left

Mission accomplished and I was starving, heade out from Air Papan beach and had my lunch at the Mersing town, reached home in the evening and was happy with the added dishes on dining table that night.

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!

Malaysia Fishing Trip: Fishing Expedition 2012 Pt 6, Kuala Terengganu, Rantau Abang | FishingAdvNHF

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The distance from Kijal to Kuala Terengganu is around 160 km. After spending almost three hours on the Kijal Jetty I left the place at 12:30am and by 3am me and my car were already beside the Kuala Terengganu Airport.

I was exhausted from the drive so I decided to call it a day. This Kuala Terengganu Airport was built on a plot of reclaimed land, from the Google Map view this place is shaded into a semi-circle with the coastal highway circled around it. At the both side of the airport there were some empty plots, these area might be reserved for some future developments. Without much consideration I drove off from the highway and parked my car at the middle of this plot, within minutes I was heading to my dreamland.

The highlighted Star marking was where I spent my first night at Kuala Terengganu. I was having a five star accommodation here at this quiet and peaceful night. With sea breeze gently stroking on me, soft and calm wave created a constant rhythm which resemble lullaby, I didn't have to count the zillion stars that are hanging on the dark sky as I was quick fallen into deep sleep.

I woke up at around 7am and with this much needed four hours rest I was re-energized. I drove off from the place and found a public toilet along the beach. Done my brush up there and I returned to the Kuala Terengganu Airport.

I had made this spot a place to visit while planning for the trip back home, the reason behind was from some articles that I read sometimes back. Anglers reported sizable catch here and according to them, some man-made breeding ground were constructed by the local fishermen around 200 meter from the shore. They were saying that with the help of long surf casting fishing rod and skill, they were able to cast their baits near to that breeding ground. Ikan Gelama or Red Bream weighing three kilogram was caught!

As usual the first beverage of the day was made, the "Renggit White Coffee". After having some bread which I bought at the Taman Seri Geliga Supermarket for breakfast I was ready to go.

The spot was surrounded by tall water breaker, it is around ten feet tall. I bet the wave during the year end North Eastern Monsoon season must be very strong. Due to this tall breaker I decided to go on the light gear mode, but... I ended up with three surf rods and a bunch of other accessories to carry.

The wind was not very strong and the sea was quite calm, I made it to the top of the water breaker and decided to settle down at this spot. Dark cloud started to gather over at the far end, it was around 9am and I was all ready for the big game.

Every fishing trip I went be it somewhere near to my house in Singapore or as far as here in Terengganu, which is around 600km from home! I will never left my old pal at home, the Loomis & Franklin 10 footer Surf Rod which has been with me since 1996. So I set it up and paired it with my another piece of antique reel, the Shiman Aero Symetre 4000 spinning reel. I am always a fan of surf casting since the day I started this amazing sport, using a bottom feeder rig with a 125 gram sinker, I sent my sinker and the bait flying far into the South China Sea.

It was a fine morning with warm sunlight beaming across this piece of Earth here, I sat down on the beach chair that I brought up here, lit up a cigarette and enjoyed the peaceful moment. Staring at my rod for any action I noticed that my fishing line remained tight, it didn't drift from the spot at all. Most of the time when we surf casting from the shore, the sinker tends to drift when the current strikes and when the current gets stronger, we would switch the normal sinker into a grip sinker. Hmm.. probably the current was weak at that moment I thought.

Decided to set up another fishing rod to increase the changes, I took out the Pioneer 13 footer and paired it with the Abu Garcia C4 6600, same type of rig was used with same type of bait. This Pioneer and Abu paired is capable of reaching 150 meter of the casting distance and it could be increased if Pendulum Casting was used. The spot didn't allow me to have a full Pendulum swing and I had to settle for the more humble Ground Cast.

Patient is the keyword in the game of fishing sport, I admitted I lacked this key component quite a bit. As soon I placed the Pioneer fishing rod onto the rod holder, I went up to the Loomis & Franklin and upon seeing no movement on the rod tip, I figured that it was time to reel back and checked if the bait was still intact.

I lifted up my fishing rod and as usual gave it a hard pull, this is to ensure that if there is any silent strike by the fish, this action will set the hook onto the lip.

"Damn!" I yelled

It was snagged! No wonder my fishing line remained straight and tight all time, it also explained why the sinker wasn't drifted as well. Spent 15 minutes using various tactics like walking from left to right while reeling in, stretching the fishing line to full tension and quickly releasing it. Finally I had to break the fishing line.

I had to retie the shock leader and another set of rig was putted on. I shifted to another spot and cast it back into the sea. It wasn't long before I found out that the Pioneer 13 footer suffered the same fate and the fishing line had to be broke off as well. I was quite devastated and decided not to retie this Pioneer 13 footer. Went back to my seat and decided to wait for the Loomis & Franklin to have some action.

By now I had figured out that this is a spot where anglers named it "Sangkut Heaven" or Snagged Heaven. The reclaimed work might had extended out far in order to give this place a strong foundation. I had seen this on documentary film about land reclamation, tons of small and huge rocks will be dumped onto the seabed and if the area is located on the soft land, this rock refilling work might go on for several miles out towards the sea. Judging from this tall water breaker and the vast empty plot surrounding this airport, I believed that the wave factor during the monsoon season might play a part for causing this extreme reclamation work. Thus turning this supposedly fishing heaven into a fishing nightmare.

It was approaching 11am, I sat on the beach chair staring motionless on the sea, anger couple with disappointment I recapped the losses. Over the past two hours I lost three size four 125 gram sinkers and two size three 90 gram sinkers, a total of fifty meter of my Surecatch 40 lb Shock Leader was buried deep under the sea, five sets of swivels, snap swivels and Mustad size 0/3 J hooks were vanished as well. As I looked into my tackle box suddenly it felt empty. Oh Man! I might ended up with a empty tackle box if I continued.

I packed my stuff and climb down from the water breaker, this was not my day, I told myself. Left this "Sorrow Land" and headed for lunch, I drove back towards the beach where some restaurant were spotted when I did my brush up in the morning.

All the restaurants or eatery here were offering Malay food and when I was indecisive on which shop to visit, the once familiar logo popped out in front of me. During my schooling day the A&W was one of my favorite hangout spot after school, the Root Bear Float was a must have item! Too bad the American Fast Food chain decided to pull the plug in 2003 and left Singapore for good. Many youngster nowadays don't even know the name, had shown my daughters how I enjoyed the food there and they asked me why they never see or hear about A&W in Singapore.

Ordered a Original Bacon Cheesburger set meal, added a set of chicken wings for sidedish. I opted out of the Root Beer Float as I had to admit that I am no longer a teenager now.

The A&W Restaurant is located next to this beach, Pantai Batu Buruk. After the delicious meal I strolled on to the beach and found some kite seller there. Bought a huge Dragon shape kite and two small Diamond shape kites and it only cost me Malaysia Ringgit $30!

I ventured on to discover many beautiful places along this beautiful Terengganu coast line. As always I love to roam around while on the fishing trip and I stopped by at a few places to take some nice photos.

Came upon this housing estate which is built next to the beach, i guessed this is what we called it a beach front property? As i walked down to the beach I found that the beach was quite narrow and steep, high wave could be spotted and there were some tall sand bar along the beach. I couldn't imaging how was it felt like to sleep in this property during the monsoon season.

As I roamed around I saw this humongous Semi Circle Water Breaker and I didn't stop my car from going up onto the water breaker. The star marking is where I was during that time, I didn't drive till the edge as I afraid that I might got stuck if there was another vehicle coming in.

The width of the path here is around six feet wide, which is just nice for a medium size vehicle like my car to went through. I stopped my car on the breaker and climbed up to the edge, the view here was spectacular. No fishing in mind though as this place reminded of the morning disaster.

According to the Nokia GPS Guided Map on my Nokia C6 cellphone, it measured 548 km from where I was to my home in Singapore.

My journey continued again after some exploring and sight seeing. My next destination was towards the South as I would be visiting a town that I bypassed on the way here, the Rantau Abang.

The once famous Home for the Greenback Turtles is loosing it's glorious day. It is attracting lesser and lesser tourist as a result from the no show of the Greenback Turtles. Poor management plays a big part in this failure, as you can see from the photo of that symbolic huge signboard whereby the wordings were disappearing. Poachers aggressively collecting turtles eggs openly and selling them for profits, although law was implemented with hefty fine imposed on those who were caught. Inconsiderate tourist that intimidating the turtle by sitting on it for a photo shoot, all this chased away the Greenback Turtle and had made this place downgraded to a mere resting stop for long journey coaches the went up north.

For anglers this news was not really that bad as we know that fishes will begin to frequent this area more, the disappearing of the Greenback Turtles is welcomed by most anglers. Huge Stingray was caught here more often and that's why I choose my last destination here.

According to these two anglers just a few days ago someone landed a 40 kg Stingray at this place. I wasn't in the hurry and I was a bit tired from another long drive, decided to have a rest in my car for an hour to recharge my battery.

I woke up at around 8pm and straight away I started to set up the pair, Loomis & Franklin 10 footer and Pioneer 13 footer, I was still using the squid that I brought from home as bait. Fast forwarded to 10pm, I didn't manage to have a single action on my both fishing rods. Haiz... lady luck wasn't smiling at me on that day.

I started to packed up as I figured that it's time to put a full stop for the trip, I had left my home for almost four days and I began to miss my family. It's a long way home from here but I wasn't deterred by it and even though nothing was caught on this trip, I enjoyed the whole process which gave me a short break away from the daily working city life. I returned to the Kijal Jetty again in 2013 which is featured in the other post.