Friday, December 11, 2015

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    As we arrived at St.John's Island we quickly settled ourselves and as soon as the floating jetty was cleared, we were ready for some action. The rain eventually stopped but the aftermath of this rain was disastrous, rain water flushing out from the island turned the surrounding water into milk tea like color.

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    As usual we stationed at the floating jetty here, other than the shelter, this is the only spot that can do bottom fishing without loosing your sinkers and fishing line. The deeper water here is also another reason why we choose here, it is confirmed later with my Lucky Fish Finder that the deepest part is around 20 meter.

    We started something light by using the Sabiki Hook set to gather some live bait fishes and we also toying with some lures. I never was a fan of luring but once in the blue moon I do force myself to spend sometimes trying out. My friends hung on around the floating jetty but I decided other wise. 

    I went around the area to try my luck and I walked up to the water breaker on the far left side of the jetty only to find out that it was surrounded by sea weed. Determined to prove that I could catch a fish by using the lure I continued to the right side, this is an area which is quite shallow during low tide. It is also right beside an abandoned wooden jetty but after an hour of trying I gave up and decided to return to the jetty.

    I brought along the Lucky Fish Finder that I bought for boating with my Intex Seahawk II inflatable boat, I wanted to find out the depth of the water here. The Loomis & Franklin 10 footer was used and the transducer or the sonar was attached onto the fishing line. With the help of the Lucky Fish Finder I found out that the area on the right side of the jetty is around nine meter and the center front is fourteen meter. 

    The gadget was used on the side of he jetty and it shown tons of bait fishes underneath, it was proven by my friends and other anglers as they hooked up quite a number of Selar(Yellow Scad) with the Sabiki set. I had bring my shorter cast net here and I decided to go for the easier and faster way to catch the bait fishes.

Next on Part 3, my six footer cast net was drawn out and I began hunting for bait fishes. Stay tuned for the next episode.

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!


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    Most of the Southern Islands within the Singapore water are restricted to public, some are being occupied by rich giant oil company and some are used by government military force for training purposes. St John's Island is one of those that's open to public and I have been fishing there since 2008, numerous fishes were caught and a few exciting encounter which almost stripped naked my friend's spool.

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    My friend organized a fishing trip to St. John's Island and I was invited, it was a long overdue fishing trip for me as I turned down a few invitation to the island. We set off at around 2pm via ferry from Marina South Pier to St.John's Island, a round ticket cost $18 this day. The journey is less than half an hour and at around 3pm we arrived the destination. 

    St. John's Island is always a fascinating spot for fishing, the depth here ranges from 30 meter to the deepest part at 50 meter. On this formally Quarantine Station for Cholera patients back in the early 19th Century and Leprosy patients in the 1930's. Not many activities can be done here except to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Visitors mostly take the morning ferry and return to the main land in the afternoon. It is a great place to relax and unwind, somewhere to get you out from the hectic city life momentarily.

    To many anglers, St. John's Island is the paradise and a great fishing ground that has potential of getting your fishing gears a real test. The possibility of hooking up a big fish is very high and you might get the fight of your lifetime here. We encountered twice where a "One Way Ticket" almost made my friend's spool empty.

    It was drizzling when we arrived, we quickly moved our gears to the long sheltered corridor and settle ourselves down. It was Saturday and many visitors were alighting and boarding the ferry, our usual playground, the floating jetty was off limit for us. We waited till the ferry left then we started some light jigging on bait fishes. 

    In part 2 we begin our activities on light fishing, luring and gathering the live baits. Stay tuned for the part 2!

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!

Monday, December 7, 2015

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    I am always a fan of Surf Casting ever since I restarted fishing in 1995. (Read the story here) As a matter of fact I wasn't into full gear until my friend Lawrence showed me what he can do with his Shimano Thirteen footer Telescopic Fishing Rod. (Check out my pond fishing trip here) Instantly I became a Surf Casting Fishing Fanatic. Although in the later stage I am more versatile and do many other type of fishing like offshore fishing, long line kite fishing, cast netting, inflatable boat fishing, I even went on creating some gadget like the Compressed Air Bait Launcher to shoot out the bait.

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    Over the years of fishing while doing the surf casting at the beach we sometimes face the problem of the sinker being flushed away by the strong current. It is quite frustrated when you fish at a crowded spot with many fishing rods on both side, it's either your fishing line might cross over the other angler's fishing line or vise versa. It is also a headache when both anglers are using braided fishing lines.

    When this post about the DIY Sand Grip Sinker came up on a fishing forum it immediately caught my attention. it's easy to make and low cost, it can be done on any type of surf casting sinker as well. The added DIY feature on to the normal sinker helps a lot during strong current fishing day, sinker is holding up firmly at the sea bed thanks to the four steel wire that attached to it. 

     Back then there were not many commercial Sand Grip Sinker available here and sometimes you might not be able to find one. The price is also an obstacle as it normally priced at few times higher than the normal sinker. We all knew that sometimes the sinker might ended up deep in the sea due to snag line and this DIY Sand Grip Sinker is definitely a saver of your pocket.

    The construction of this DIY Sand Grip Sinker require minimum materials. You only need basic tools like Pliers, Nail Clipper, some Scotch Tape and some Fishing Line. The cost of making one is less than a dollar and it is worth every penny. Lastly some basic knotting skill and you are good to go.

    In this video I will show you how you can build this DIY Sand Grip Sinker in less than 15 minutes.

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!

Friday, June 5, 2015


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    As planned I left my hometown Pontian to Mersing for the fishing trip, the schedule was delayed as I spent a total of two days at my parent's home doing some chores, on top of that I spent some times to do some shopping. 

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    The day was 6th June 2015 Saturday and at 2:50pm I left Pontian. The rain had just stopped and the sky gradually clears up. Before I set off to Mersing I did some studies based on the Google Map to help me figured out the shortest route. It showed that the Simpang Renggam - Ayer Hitam way is the best and I followed although I was a bit reluctant to. This is due to that route has to pass by Kluang and the journey from Ayer Hitam to Mersing via Jalan Mersing is a killer! The narrow and winding two way lane claimed many lives as I heard. As the matter of fact I did this once in 2008, back then I was still an inexperience driver on Malaysia road. I remembered that it was a raining day and my car's tires was 40% worn. Throughout the whole journey I could feel the moist on both of my hands and feet. I was quite confused as well and I lost my way a couple of times. 


    After stopping by at a Fishing Tackle Shop cum Pet Shop cum Aquarium Shop to get some worms, I began the journey northward. The starting point was en-routing Jalan Pontian towards Batu Pahat direction and halfway through I needed to cut through this small town called Ayer Baloi. From here I continued for some distance on the Jalan Parit Raja and then I got into Jalan Parit Makorsa which at the cross junction I continued onto Jalan Parit Ismail. At the end of that road I drove onto Jalan Besar which leading towards Simpang Rengam. 


    From the beginning of the journey on a few occasion I nearly made the wrong turn, fortunately the mistakes were amended earlier and I was able to arrive at Simpang Renggam without burning off extra gasoline. The rain resumed somewhere on the journey here, one glance at the sky it didn't seems like it was going to stop anytime soon. 

    Simpang Renggam is formed by four town of Renggam, Machap, Layang-Layang and Simpang Renggam itself, the major trade here is plantation and Pineapple is the main product produced. Among the four town, Renggam was made famous when the British Queen Elizabeth II visited the place in the 1950s.

    From here I was supposed to make a turn onto Jalan Batu Pahat and proceeded towards Kluang. Somehow or rather I made a wrong turn and I ended up at this small little old town named Renggam. At that time i wasn't aware about the history of this place but I was attracted by the peaceful and quiet environment. 



    I decided to make a stop here and explored the town on foot. Everything looks old including the buses, I found a Train Station and took some photos. This old town preserved most of the original look from the past, it made me felt like I was walking into the 1970's. 



    Next in part 4 I returned onto the right track and came upon a new highway which offers stunning scenery, stay tuned! 

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!


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    Before I left for Mersing for the fishing trip I had to help my parent to do some chores. So on the second day I arrived at my hometown Pontian, I went out to pay some bills in the afternoon and after the mission accomplished I went on to search for my lunch.

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  The place I went for my lunch is the new town central, it is created from a plot of reclaimed land and after many years of development, it is now replaced the old town central, the Jalan Taib. Many shops set up at this new town central here and some newer projects are on going when I was there.

    Pontian Kechil which is the town where I was born is located at 1°29'05.2"N 103°23'23.7"E. A small town whereby the livelihood of the residents here are very much depend on the fishing at the Straits of Malacca. The Kukup which's a small fishing village produce some of the best seafood that attracted many seafood lovers to visit the town, mainly from Singapore due to the geographical location which's only 62km from Johor Bahru. Travelers who wish to visit Kukup will have to pass by Pontian Kechil and most of them would stop by and pay a visit to Pontian Kechil and this made my hometown bloomed.  


    I stop by at the seaside as I searching for my lunch and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Pontian Kechil. I recalled those days when I was a carefree little boy who roaming around with my bicycle with my gangs, I remembered once I walked almost one kilometer out towards the sea on the mud, I remembered the old fashioned playground which was built using concrete, I went back to the Chicken Rice Restaurant that I had the chicken rice since I was seven years old, I passed by my primary school... Those were the days.

    After my lunch I went to check out a fishing tackle shop here, I was looking for some big pyramid shape sinkers for my Bait Launcher. I intended to stick to the formula that has proven to be workable, the frozen bait bullet. The shopkeepers here gave me some stone cold faces and their mono tone voice turned me off, initially I though of recording some video here but.... Anyway, I got what I wanted from that shop. Although it is not the pyramid shape that I was looking for. I went on to search for the Spark Plug for the Hangkai 3.5hp Outboard Motor, I was told by many shops that this Spark Plug is quite unique and it is hard to find here. Devastated but I didn't give up, more shops were visited and this included Hardware Stores, Machinery Stores and so on. Finally I barged into this half closed Motorcycle Workshop, it was around 7pm and I found the identical Spark Plug for the Hangkai. 


    I decided to stay at my hometown for another night and the next day after some more rigging at my parent's home I set off to Mersing. At Pontian Besar I dropped by a Aquarium cum Pet Shop cum Fishing Tackle Shop to get some worms as bait, I bought some Umpun aka Pun-Pun or Sarong and some Wawat. 

    I traveled via the route that cut through the center part of Johor state and I came across a few beautiful places which will be featured in the next video. I had use this route in the year of 2006 and after almost 10 years I did it twice in a month!

    Stay tuned for the part 3 which I traveled from Pontian to Mersing via the Ayer Baloi - Simpan Rengam - Rengam - Kluang - Kahang - Mersing route which cut through the center of Johor state.

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!

Thursday, June 4, 2015


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    During the June school holiday I decided to make a fishing trip to my all time favorite fishing spot at Malaysia, the Pantai Air Papan. My plan was to spend a few days there with all my new and old toy. 

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    This trip had two purposes as I got a Call of Duty from my dad to help him look after his house during his holiday trip to England, I was told to check out the house once in a week as well as to check on the mailbox and pay bills if there's any. On my second hometown visiting I brought along literally all my fishing toys, I intended to spend a night at my parent's house and heading to Mersing on the next day. So off I go onto the journey back to my birth place, my hometown, Pontian, which's located at the state of Johor, West Malaysia.

    Pontian is a fishing province and it is situated at the west coast of Malaysia, facing the Straits of Malacca this town offers some great seafood that attracts many seafood lovers came all the way here, this includes Singaporean. Not far away from the town there is this famous seafood town named Kukup, most part of the houses here are build on the sea and many good seafood restaurants can be found here, it also attracts many tourist to visit, namely Singaporean.

   The journey back home is around 40 minutes drive during the wee hours, which is also my favorite travelling hour. It used to be a two hours driving on this winding and narrow old route. I took my time and had my supper cum breakfast at Johor Bahru, at around 6:30am I reached Pontian.   

   After inspection of the house was done, I found a few bills and a light bulb went burst. I took the ladder and replaced the light bulb, I also help to do some cleaning up on the house. As soon as it was done I was too tired to continue in any activity, had my shower and headed to bed. 


    I slept throughout the day and woke up in the evening. Took my dinner at a nearby Coffee Shop and went back to my parent's house to do some preparation for the up-coming fishing trip. I tied a few rigs and did some final checking on my Hangkai 3.5hp Outboard Motor, this was to ensure that it didn't breakdown in the middle of the sea. Everything seemed fine except I was not please with the Spark Plug and I figured I could get one in local Auto Spare Parts Shop. As it was approaching midnight and I began to feel hungry I decided to call it a day. Went out to a 24/7 Coffee shop to have my supper and I returned for more beauty sleep.


    In part 2, I woke up earlier on the next day, I went to pay the bills and check out a local tackle store, a small tour around of Pontian was made. 
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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!

Saturday, June 14, 2014


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     It was a warm night and I was sitting in my living room watching some YouTube fishing videos from my 40" Sony LCD TV which's connected to a computer, as my flat don't have a store room all my fishing gears have to be placed at here in the living room, I had made a DIY fishing rod rack to hold all my fishing rods and there's a few cabinets for my accessories and a five level storage rack for my other stuff. They are all kept at the far right corner of the flat and are just beside the TV set.

    I got bored as there was nothing interesting at YouTube, I shifted my focus away from the screen and I saw my rod rack, the 18 years old Loomis & Franklin 10 footer surf casting rod was standing there and the rod tip was trembling, as if there was something over at the other end of the fishing line was nipping my bait...


    "HOLD-ON!!"


    I was still sitting on my PELLO rocking chair which I bought from IKEA and I wasn't at any beach or jetty, what's wrong with me? Hmm... maybe I should just go for some fishing now since I'm not working tomorrow.



    At 9:45pm I was ready to go, packed with two rods, the old timer Loomis & Franklin of course and the formerly PIONEER 13 footer surf casting rod. The PIONEER was given a complete makeover from a 7 guides spinning reel rod to a 12 guides multiplier reel rod, the reel seat was not installed as I bought two reel coaster for adjustable reel seat position, most of the time it was placed at the low rider position. Everything was ready except for one very important element, the bait! Although I had kept some baits in the freezer but I wasn't really keen on using them as the expiring date was long overdued!


    I used to buy prawns or fishes from the supermarket to use as bait, but ever since I bought my 12 footer braided casting net I no longer needed to visit the store. Whenever I needed bait for fishing I went to the jetty or pier which is frequent by small bait fishes, species like Tamban(Herring) and Mullets, with the cast net most of the time I got what I needed. Not far away from my home there is a jetty, I headed straight to that jetty and after a few cast I caught around 30 pieces of Tambans(Herring), now my ammunition were ready for the assault at the Punggol End.




    It was 11:30pm there were quite many people still here at the Punggol End, ever since the government gave this place a new face-lift and turning it into a modern looking full facilities recreation park, it is populated by people from all over the country especially on the weekend and it was given a new name too, Punggol Promenade. A stretch of new shop houses were built here and it was called Punggol Settlement. Many new seafood restaurants were opened here and it reminded you the old glorious days of the 80's where seafood was the main reason for people to come here.

     I chose the far right corner of the park which is right before the canal that separated Conney Island from Punggol End, reason for choosing this place was it is just under 100 meter distance away from the canal mouth which I could easily cast my bait on to there, there is a beach right in front of where I was and if a big fish was hooked up I could go down to the beach to land it, the canal mouth is also the channel that sea water flow during the high and low tide, fishes will be entering the canal follow this channel and exit via it too.


    I set up two rods using two different method of rigging, on the Loomis & Franklin it was rigged with a DIY float system which I make use of the cough medicine plastic bottle as float, this DIY float can be filled up with sea water and depending on how heavy tackle you are using, weigh can be increased or reduced base on the water level inside. I used a three feet 80 lb monofilemant line for the hook line, this was to target the surface predator fishes like Barramundi aka Kim Bak Loh aka Siakap, the Tamban is one of the favorite food for it especially a live one, I had to settle for a dead one as I didn't prepare the air pump to keep them alive. On the PIONEER 13 footer it was paired with the Abu Garcia 6600 C4 which I had modified it with a MonoMag breaking system and a CT cage open frame, The PIONEER was rigged with the standard long snood bottom feeder, a longer four feet 80 lb monofilemant hook line was tied near to the sinker (weight), this method would leave the bait further away from the leader line, greater chances that fishes will not see the leader line when they are taking the bait. Shy species like Stingray will never take your bait if they spotted or felt the leader line, some anglers went a step further by using Fluorocarbon fishing line which is the so called Invisible Leader Line.


    I used a DIY grid sinker on the PIONEER 13 footer and it was cast straight out from the spot, the Loomis & Franklin was cast over to the canal mouth which was on my right hand side. The tide was coming in and the current brought the float into the canal, drag tension of the Surecatch spinning reel which I paired with the Loomis & Franklin was loosen to almost none, this allowed the current to pull the float into the canal though I needed to reel back some lines after the float went too deep, but in this way the bait had covered most part of the canal mouth and increased the chances of getting spotted by fishes. 

    While waiting for the bite I went around with my cast net and caught a few small fishes, they were hooked on as bait immediately as the local breed is always the best bait. High tide tonight was at 2:35am at 2.8m with half moon and it should be a good day for fishing, current was not very strong but I guessed it would pick up some pace when the tide raised towards it's peak. 

    At around 1:30am the rod tip of the Loomis & Franklin dipped a few times, it was not a strong pulled and it was intermittent. I went near to the rod and monitored the action, it continued to pull gently for about two minutes and it stopped. This should be a small fish I thought and I didn't want to waste more time waiting, I lifted up the rod slowly and tighten the drag tension, reeled in some line to get the fishing line tighten and then by holding firm on the spool I lifted the rod tip up further, immediately I felt some jerk from the rod and Yes! it was hooked. Without further delay I pulled the rod upward with some force and velocity to set the hook deeper, as I retrieved the lines it was like almost zero resistance, some light struggle suggesting that not only this fish was small but it was not a aggressive type of fish. What fish was that? might be a Ah Seng aka Catfish aka Ikan Duri, they are everywhere here at Punggol End and they are not really a fighter fish. Here I am referring to the small catfish which is weak when hooked up, it is not the case if this species grown more than one kg. Some times back I was fishing inside the Yishun Army Camp, I had a shock to see my rod tip bent violently and the fishing lines stripped off, it was a 2.5 kg catfish that took my bait and I can assure you that the thrill was almost the same level as you hooked up a Stingray. When this fish which I presumed as a small catfish was lifted up from the sea, t
o my surprised it was a Stingray, a baby though. Well, it was better than nothing I told myself and after unhooking the baby stingray, it was released back to where it from for it to grow into a monster.



    At around 3am the 13 footer had a hard struck but it stopped when I reached to the rod, I waited for it to strike again patiently but it never happened. After 5 minutes I decided to test out if the fish was hooked just as the baby stingray did, the step was repeated as I lifted up the rod with some fishing lines retrieved to get some tension, slowly I brought the rod upward hoping to get the jerk or pull from the other end, I was quite excited and nervous as judging from that struck, it could be something huge and aggressive, could it be the Mama of that baby stingray? It appeared that my dream catch was not going to happen tonight, nothing could be felt and the bait was still attached on to the hook when I reeled it back, half of the bait was gone though. What a missed!

    For the next two hours the two fishing rods remained unchallenged and as I was getting tired and hungry, I packed up and called it a day. 

    Many biggies were caught here at Punggol end in the past, it used to be a hot bed for Barramundi and most of them were 3kg and above. In recent year the rate of landing one of this is getting slimmer, the construction of the dam could be the main culprit. Having said that occasionally anglers did catch some nice species from this fascinating place, I shall be returning soon to hunt the biggies, till then see you, Punggol End.


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