Malaysia Fishing Trip: 8kg Stingray Caught Surf Casting at Air Papan Beach, Mersing | FishingAdvNHF

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    It was 8th of March 2009, Colin rang me and asked if there's any fishing activity over the weekend, he told me that Kiat Hong was interested to find out the fishing spot we went previously. They were talking about the spot that I frequent the most, the Air Papan Beach. I wasn't that keen initially as I needed to work on the next day, I told him I would get back to him later. My workday continued with the images of the Air Papan Beach flooded my mind. That evening minutes before I knock off from work Colin received my reply and the rest was history.

    As always they came to my place and we left Singapore at around 2am. I always prefer to travel during late hour, other than avoiding traffic jam at the custom, the traffic will be lighter along the journey in Malaysia. One has to be careful though when traveling on the Malaysia road at night, especially on the Jalan Kota Tinggi, you would be greeted by long trailers and timber trucks. At night they are the biggest gangster on the road, handle them with extra precaution.

The Air Papan Beach

    It was around 150km for the journey towards Air Papan Beach. We en-routed Jalan Kota Tinggi and after about 100km we reached this town called Jemaluang. Turned right at the junction into Jalan Mersing for around 40km and we arrived at Mersing town. Upon reaching Mersing town we took the second exit at the Mersing Roundabout and continued into Jalan Endau-Mersing for another 11km. A signboard written "Pantai Air Papan" told us to turn right into Jalan Air Papan for 5.5km and at last, we met this beautiful Air Papan Beach.

Sunrise at Air Papan Beach

    The time was around 5:30am nearing dawn. We wasted no time and quickly set up our gears and as soon as it was done, we cast the bait out as far as we could into the South China Sea. 

    An interesting tip I learned from some anglers sometimes ago. I was told that fishes are more active during the first light of the day so you will have a better chance to hook up a fish during that period of time. On numerous occasions I tried to focus on that specific timing but so far I never landed any fish. Anyway, as the Sun gradually appeared at the far east horizon, we enjoyed this magnificent Sun rising scene while waiting for the bite.

    The baits that we were using were the left over from the previous trip, they were loosing their freshness and they were tasteless. They remained fully intact when we reeled back to check on them, it was obvious that fishes were not attracted by them and we expected this. Thus, short fishing rods were brought here to hunt for bait fish. We were targeting the Whitting aka Swa Chiam. 

The Whitting aka Swa Chiam

    These fishes are very greedy and you can find them at most parts of the sandy seaside. The Sabiki hook set of size 3 was used and for quicker result a tiny piece of bait was added. They took anything from prawn meat, fish meat, worms or squid. The Whitting is one of the best bait to catch a Stingray, another tip that I learned from a fellow angler. 

The Sabiki Rig

   This rig is easily available at any fishing tackle shop for the price of $0.90, some anglers made their own but I would rather save the time as it didn't cost a bomb. 

    The first light of the day didn't bring us any fish and our activities slowed as the Sun rose high above us. We hung on and endured the blazing heat with the hope of landing a trophy for this trip. Colin and I were almost on the verge of giving up, Kiat Hong as the new comer didn't. He made full use of the remaining bait fishes caught over the night and he even took over Colin's fishing rod.

    It was around 10am, Colin and I were hiding underneath this huge shadow under some trees. Somewhere far, around fifty meter Kiat Hong was busy replacing fresher bait on to the hook. My rod has been left unattended for the past thirty minutes, I was about to bring it back and call it a day. I highlighted my intention to Kiat Hong and he requested for one last cast. As he walked up to the shoreline with his fishing rod both Colin and I sarcastically wished him good luck. Kiat Hong didn't respond, he raise up his arm and show us a V sign. 

    Kiat Hong is not really a keen angler or I should label him as a casual angler, he joined us about few months ago and he was those type of angler that always don't like to do his own baiting and rigging. We were quite annoyed by this behavior and were teasing him all the time. When we saw the Whitting that he cast out landed just somewhere thirty meter of range, we laughed and commented on this poor cast.  

    "Hey! Are you trying to hunt for Giant Whitting?" Colin was the first to make the remark.

    "Oi! Never eat ah?" I shouted

    Kiat Hong didn't reply but he showed us his finger. We laughed non-stop and continued the teasing. Suddenly Kiat Hong dashed forward to his fishing rod and grab it, he struck it with some force and the reel went screaming. We were stunned but immediately broke into laughter again as we noticed that he struck it without tightening the drag tension.

    "Wow! Hit a monster ah? So fast and so furious... Hahaha!" We just couldn't stop our laughter and when we saw Kiat Hong's silly face, it gets even louder. 

    "Bloody hell! I thought got fish. Wahahaha...." I almost went out of breath.

    "Kan Ni Na lah! Just now the fishing rod really bend down." Kiat Hong was a bit annoyed.

    "If really got fish just now, it is now on it's way home lor." Colin added.

Who has the last laugh?

    Kiat Hong was snubbed and stopped his argument, he turned his focus back on to his rod. Without any warning, his rod suddenly bend down and the reel screamed out loud again. Only for this time it is for real! We were all stunned and the reel continued the screaming until...

    "Grab the spool! Strike it!" I called out to Kiat Hong.

    Kiat Hong responded and followed my instruction. Fish On! Colin and I ran over to his side and assisted him. Colin told him to tighten the drag tension and lifted the rod high so the pressure could be applied to the fish. I asked Kiat Hong to strike the fish again as his first strike was weak. The fish was strong and it kept running even after the drag tension was tighten.

    The first two minutes was furious but the run slowed down eventually. The fishing line continued to be dragged out at a slower speed, it was almost like inching out. We were quite puzzled and began to wonder if a fish was being hooked up. I was recording the footage using my Nokia C6 and as I did the close up shooting I noticed something... 

    "Did you tighten the drag tension?" I asked Kiat Hong

    "I did! But can not too tight as the fishing line is very weak, it will burst." Kiat Hong told us.

    Then, we knew why the spool never stop spinning, the drag tension was too loose. Kiat Hong carried on by telling us that his fishing rod was too weak and it might break as well. Colin and I began to get frustrated, Kiat Hong seems to be dragging his feet to retrieve the fish while we were exposed under the scorching Sun.   

    "Shall we set up the tent and prepare for a overnight fishing? Colin." I deliberately made the comment in front of Kiat Hong.

    "I really scare it might break! Look! My fishing line is very thin." Kiat Hong refused to step up another gear and continued his bla bla bla...

    "Let me try." Colin stepped forward and took over the fishing rod.

    We were almost certain that a Stingray was being hooked up and as usual the fish started it's usual trick by buried itself into the seabed after some run. Colin held his cool and carefully pulled back the fishing rod, he was applying the pressure onto the Stingray. Bit by bit the drag tension was tighten, we have to be careful as the fishing line was weak. Brute force was not an option and the keyword was patience. This Tug of War ended when the fish panicked and began to move again. 

    "Keep the tension! Tight line!" I reminded Colin.

    The Stingray made it's first run after almost five minutes, it was resting at the seabed and regained some of it's energy. The run was not that strong though. However, it still managed to strip out some lines. The weak fishing line was given a full test but it didn't break, credit goes to the experience angler. 

8 kg Stingray

    The fight was over in around fifteen minutes and the Stingray weighed around 8kg. 

    The Air Papan beach is a very peaceful and relax place for holiday goers as well as anglers. Many Stingrays were reported caught here and I always placed it as one of the top destination to fish. Another place I visited frequently is Desaru.  A 12kg Stingray was caught there on my 2011 adventure. Check out the story here!

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Malaysia Fishing Trip: Kong Kong River Boating | FishingAdvNHF

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    The day was Saturday 19th of April 2008, I received a call from my hometown childhood buddy, Sao Hui. He asked if I was available on Sunday which was the next day, they had arranged a boat fishing trip to the Kong Kong river. I remembered the last trip I went with them was years ago, during the last meet up we bragged about fishing and I told them to update me if there is any trip arranged. Without much hesitation I told him that I would be going, as I was not sure where was the place to meet up, Sau Hui said he will get Kok Siang another Pontian boy to guide me there.

    I woke up at around 4am on that day as I needed to reach the meeting point which was at the Taman Perling, Johor Bahru by 5:30am. I was told to look for a Shell Petrol Station there and Kok Siang would be there to bring me to the next meeting point. Everything went smoothly over at the Singapore and Malaysia custom clearance and I managed to reach there before 5:30am. There was no sight of Kok Siang and it was until 6:15am then he appeared, we were late.

   We managed to reach the next rallying point at 6:35am, it was just two streets away from where I was. Sao Hui was already there and without much delay we headed towards our destination to meet up with Xiao Lee, who was also the skipper and the guide. As we were late, Sao Hui rang Xiao Lee and asked him to pack some breakfast for three of us. Brief introduction on Xiao Lee, personally I don't know him, according to Sao Hui, Xiao Lee fished at the Kong Kong river almost twice a week and he knew the place like his back yard.

    Pre-arrangement was made by Xiao Lee with a fifteen footer fiber boat equipped with a Yamaha 30hp outboard motor standing by for us. There are a few boat rental companies here and their boats are always fully booked. Without prior booking, you might ended up at one of the seafood restaurant here wondering what to do next.

The Journey Begin

    We reached our destination at around 7am, the tide was rising and the weather was perfect. We loaded our gears onto the boat and sped off to a floating fish farm on the river to get some live prawns as bait. This place sold live seafood as well, some anglers came here to fill up their cooler box when the catch was bad. As soon as we got our baits we headed straight to the first spot.

Fish Farm on the River

Live Prawn was bought here

Village by the River Bank

    Beautiful scenery along the way as we approaching the river mouth, look at those houses built along the river bank, the vast greenery at the background made the place extremely peaceful. 

Heading out towards the River Mouth

The Incompleted Senai-Desaru Highway Bridge in 2008

    At the far side construction work for the Senai - Desaru Highway was underway, the bridge had help to cut short the traveling time from Johor Bahru to Desaru almost by half. Before it was built we had to travel all the way to Kota Tinggi in order to reach Desaru, now we can just en-route the new Senai - Desaru Highway from Ulu Tiram, which we can cross the Johor River via this bridge.

   We decided to begin our activities at the middle of the Johor River, water level here is quite shallow and it is also a reef zone which is home to the Grouper. As soon as the boat was anchored, we dropped our lively prawn deep down to the bottom. Current was not very strong here so we only needed a size four sinker to do the job. Bite was quite slow but we were not in the hurry as this was the first spot of the day.

The Reef Zone

    Kok Siang sat at the front side of the boat most of the time and yes, he was also our anchorman. He had been silent for the most part of the day and paying most of his attention on fishing. We were joking about he would definitely win the first trophy of the day and indeed he did, he rang the first bell of the day as he landed a Queenfish. It happened as we were chit-chating at the back, we saw Kok Siang suddenly whacked his rod and began to fight against something in the water.

    "Fish on?" The Skipper, Xiao Lee asked

    Kok Siang didn't reply, maybe he was too excited. He chose to pay all his focus on the fighting, it was a fierce fight with the fish dragging the fishing line from left to right.

    "Sam Poh Kong!" shouted Sao Hui as he saw the silver shadow of the fish swam across the surface.

    The Queefish aka Sam Poh Kong aka Talang is famous of giving a aggressive fight when it is hooked, it is a very strong and fast swimmer too.

    "Slowly! Patience!" Xiao Lee told Kok Siang

    For almost ten minutes we watched with excitement as the Queenie demonstrating it's excellent skill in swimming, dashing forward and backward with occasionally cutting through the surface. This desperate attempt to struggle off from the hook gave Kok Siang some hard time. Kok Siang kept his calm and slowly wearing off it's energy, he eventually landed the first trophy of the day, it was weighed around 800 grams.

Still Struggling Aggressively 

    "Here it comes!" Sao Hui suddenly stood up, lifting his rod and whacked it hard, Fish on!

The Marked Snapper

      Another exciting fish fighting scene when Sao Hui hooked up this Marked Snapper aka Ang Chor Kee, it was a powerful swimmer too and it took Sao Hui some struggle to bring the fish up.

    We spent an hour here and caught a numbers of small fishes, I hooked up a baby Sharks and a few small size Groupers. The Captain, Xiao Lee suggested that we moved on to the next spot as the tide was full and the current had slowed down. 

The Malay Eatery by the River Bank

    We came to this Malay Eatery which is built at the river bank here to have our lunch, many other anglers were here too. The place was so relax and having the lunch break here was convenience for us, our boat was docked just right in front of the Eatery. 

  

Towards the Mangrove Zone

    We set off to our second fishing spot after the lunch break, it was the Mangrove Zone that we were going to attack! As we proceeded, Xiao Lee asked if we would like to get some mud crabs at low price from the nearby Indigenous Malay Village on the river. Sau Hui immediately responded and off we went to the village.

The Indigenous Malay Village on the river

The Floating House

     There are six wooden floating house here, using some waste materials and some huge plastic containers as float, these wooden house were built in poor manner and I was amazed by the living condition here. The house was tied on to the strongest mangrove tree to prevent it from washed away by the current. The villagers here were all fishermen and livewell was constructed to keep their catch alive. We didn't manage to see many fishes that day, we were told that the catch was bad due to the rain. 

  

The Mud Crabs

    These big fat juicy mud crabs were sold at Malaysia Ringgit $16 per kilogram! We bought five kilogram of them for our dinner later.

Into the Mangrove Fishing Spot

    The Kong Kong River is around four kilometer in length, it is not a large river and it is not accessible during low tide. The river is surrounded by mangrove forest and it is a fishing paradise that is made famous by the huge Barramundi aka Kim Bak Loh caught here.

The Hunting Ground

Deep into the Mangrove Zone

    We were told by our captain cum fishing guide that loud talking was forbidden here, the Barramundi is very sensitive and they might be scared away if we were too noisy. As the matter of fact, most species do not like noise from the outside world and this is especially true when doing the fishing on a river. That is why some river anglers preferred Electric Trolling Motor, which emitted low noise on moving.  

    Live prawn was hooked and it was tossed near to the mangrove's root, it is the favorite hide out for the Barramundi. Xiao Lee shown off his skill by doing the live prawn spinning style, he removed the sinker and cast the bait to the spot, when the bait touched the surface he quickly reeled back. Twice we saw the Barramundi attacked the live prawn but too bad it missed the hook.

    The stint here was cut short as the Skipper thought that it was a bad omen to miss the fish twice here, he decided to retreat to the river mouth. According to him as the tide was receding there is a spot that we might had a chance to land some biggies, he said that some huge Barramundi might swim out from their nest and ambushed near the river mouth, they were waiting for their food to be flushed out by the out going tide. The water level inside here would be very shallow as well and the boat would get stuck here during the low tide, he added.

The Final Moment

    When we reached the spot the current had somehow weaken, none of us had any action until...

    "Fish on! Fish on!" Sau Hui suddenly shouted and it happened right after I pressed on the shutter and took that photo.

    

Tiger Grouper

    The spot here was shallow and it didn't take long for Sau Hui to complete the task, in less than five minute this meat tasty Tiger Grouper was landed in the cooler box. 

    Our lucky star, Sau Hui learned the live prawn spinning skill from Xiao Lee and he hooked up a table size Barramundi. The Man of the Match trying to show off his skill and took his time to slowly retrieving the fish. 

    "Get the net!" Xiao Lee yelled

    As Kok Siang was the nearest to it he grabbed the net and shifted himself nearer to Sau Hui.

    "Here it come! Net it! Hurry!" Xiao Lee gave command again

    Sau Hui brought his fishing rod high up and slowly guided the Barramundi close to the boat, Kok Siang leaned forward and grabbed the leader line, slowly he lowered the net into the water. As the net was moved closer to the fish Kok Siang let go of the leader, a mistake that was not noticed by our experienced guide Xiao Lee, as he too was focusing on the fishing action. The Barramundi must have felt it when the leader line was loosen, it made a swift turn which caught Kok Siang by surprise and dashed towards the opposite direction from the net. The hook was shrug off from it's mouth and it quickly disappeared in front of our horizon.     

    For the next thirty minutes nothing happened and the superstitious skipper made the call to end this trip, he strongly believed that the escape was a bad sign. As the sky was getting darker we all didn't object the decision he made.

The Catch

    We returned back to the boat rental company and had our shower there before heading back to Johor Bahru. Our dinner was settled at a seafood restaurant here at Pandan, the owner is the friend of Xiao Lee and he too is a passionate angler. He told us about the trip he just made at Sedili and shared with us how he caught the giant Spanish Mackerel on jigging. Oh Ya! The Tiger Grouper was Teo Chew Steamed and Black Peppered mud crabs were served.

Something to show Wife

    A very nice fishing trip here with my hometown buddies, other than witnessing the excitement and disappointment, I get to enjoy the beautiful scenery on the Kong Kong River. My activity on fishing was reduced as I was busy taking photos and admiring the nature. 

    P.S. This is not my first trip here at Kong Kong River, I was introduced to this place by Sao Hui a few years back and I returned a few times including fishing on a wooden jetty beside the river. On one of the trip there me and my fishing buddies from Singapore were stuck inside the river, I forgot to move out when the low tide struck, we were forced to step into the mud and pushed the boat out. The story will be featured in the future post, stay tuned!

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The Pantai Penyabong trip in 1996 | FishingAdvNHF

    Back in 1995 after I picked up the fishing rod again it is an one way ticket for the journey, I fished in most of the freshwater reservoirs here and caught my biggest Snakehead which was 6kg (read the story here)and I went to most of the beaches and jetties for the saltwater assaults, My catches were mostly small fishes and the species were boring. I always dreamed of going abroad to hunt for the monster fish, during that time my dream location is Australia. (Influenced by the fishing magazine)

    I bought my first car in 1996 and it was a humble Daihatsu Charade 1.0L Turbocharged Engine, this tiny little machine gave me a lot of joys and sorrows. I got this car through Ken and again he made a killing on my purchased which I ended up paying 20% more and he never stopped doing so, although I didn't manage to prove that if I had paid more by repairing my car at the workshop he recommended.

    Few months after I got the car Ken asked if I was interested to explore beaches in Malaysia, he read on a magazine about this place called Penyabong which is located at the states of Johor. I was a bit reluctant to do so as I wasn't sure if my car could handle the distance of the journey, it is around 160km from Johor Bahru. Ken managed to convince me with the promise of splitting the cost of repair if it was needed, so off we went with my Daihatsu Charade on our rest day to the Penyabong.

    After some 5 hours of driving with many wrong turns we arrived at the place, the Pantai Penyabong (Penyabong Beach). It was around 3pm and the weather was perfect, I drove my car on to this stoned porch which I guessed it was a makeshift car park, back then there was only a Malay food eating house and three wooden houses right beside it, a few children were staring at us from their door step wondering what on earth were we doing here. Straight after I got off my car a gust of warm tropical wind blew towards me, the salty scent of the sea coupled with the rotten stench of some sea creature carcasses on the beach instantly reminded me of my home town, Pontian which is also a fishing village at the west coast of West Malaysia.

The Pulau Penanduk

  This place was quite deserted and it was so peaceful, we walked straight on to the warm beach which the soft and fine sea sand would bury your feet immediately, the gentle wave rhythmically splashed on to the beach and it was getting louder as we approaching the clear greenish-blue sea, you could see your feet clearly when you step into it, the cool and clean South China Sea makes me felt like jumping into it. Just a stone throw away there is a small island named Pulau Pelandok (Pelandok Island), it is covered with lot's of greenery plants making it looks like a broccoli flower on the sea, sitting there alone for god know how many millenniums already it give the place a very unique and relaxing view.

    There were two units of four wheel drive jeep parked on the beach, according to the villagers they were foreigners who worked in the city and they always came here with their diving gears, there are some ship wrecks around this area and as the place was unpolluted yet corals and beautiful tropical fishes lured the divers back weeks after weeks.

    When we left Singapore to here we brought our fishing rods as well, after some break at the Malay food stall we went on to have some surf casting there. We had some frozen prawns with us to use as bait and Kent had brought some lures to try here. We stopped the fishing at around 6pm without catching any fish, it took us another 4 hours to return home. Although no monster fish was caught I wasn't disappointed as this beautiful and peaceful Pantai Penyabong has worth every efforts we spent to get here.

A Jetty was built and it destroyed the view

    Human being are great destroyers of nature and it proved again when I returned to Pantai Penyabong after almost 12 years in 2008, it was given a complete make-over to the worst. The once clear sea is so milky now that I will never consider dipping my feet into it and the soft and fine sea sand was no where to be found, probably buried deep underneath the rough sand that was brought in from elsewhere, reclamation works were done here as I could see major landscape changed. I really don't understand why the reclamation is needed in Malaysia, it is a big country with vast land to spare, besides wasting the money it destroyed the natural habitation in the area. A long and huge fishing boat jetty extending towards the Pulau Pelandok was built and it spoiled the unique view of the lone island sitting in front of the beach, engine oil from boats floating on the sea surface and smell of gasoline is so strong that the natural scene of the tropical beach had vanished. Cars and motorcycles almost filled up the whole car park (It's now a tared surface car park) I lost the luxury of parking my car freely as I did in 1996. Countless of houses were inserted here and jammed the whole area, the population of the once tiny deserted fishing village grew so much and I regretted I took so long to revisit the place as I will never get the chance to see the paradise again.

P.S. I didn't take any photos in 1996 and it was another set back, photos show here were taken in 2008

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The Loomis & Franklin 10 Footer Surf Casting Fishing Rod | FishingAdvNHF

    After almost 20 years this Loomis & Franklin Ten footer surf casting rod still keeping me company whenever I go fishing, it help me caught numerous of fishes and the picture showed was the trip I made in 2012 at Air Papan beach, Mersing, Johor, West Malaysia. During that trip I managed to pull back the Spanish Mackerel (check out the story here) which's weight around 600 gram and it was a great fun with my longest fishing buddy and old pal, the Loomis & Franklin of cause.

    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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My First Surf Casting Fishing Rod | FishingAdvNHF

   

    I started fishing again after a long interval of 5 years and I was brought back to the game by my colleague, Ken who later became my best fishing buddy. Too bad it didn't last long and I stopped our friendship after I found out what he did to me and my friends repeatably.

    At that time I was so much into freshwater fishing (check out the story here) thanks to Ah Long and Ken, my biggest Snakehead aka Toman caught remained at 6kg. After I joined another company and became good friend as well as fishing buddy with Lawrence and Ann, I was introduced to the Saltwater fishing again. (click here for my first Saltwater encounter)

    Lawrence and Ann loved to fish at the Pasir Ris Fishing Pond as it is bright and clean, women hates mosquitoes so is Ann and that's why she insisted of coming here. (find out the story here) Remembered I said I was very curious with the Shimano 13 footer telescopic fishing rod? Lawrence always used it at the Pasir Ris Fishing Pond and I was so amazed by the distance he could reach with that rod. As my rod was the Silstar 6 footer and this was not a rod that you could whack hard on it, even if you did the most you could reach was like around 70 meter.

    I went to a fishing tackle shop at beach road thinking of getting myself a longer Surf Casting fishing rod, this is the tackle shop that Ken brought me here to buy the Silstar and the Shimano. I went there by myself as I didn't want to trouble Ken so much, and the move revealed something that shouldn't occur to me especially from someone you trusted.

    It was a Thursday afternoon and the fishing tackle shop was not packed with anglers, I went in and headed straight towards the fishing rod section. This old lady came to me and asked if I needed any help.

    "Er... it's ok, Auntie. I'm fine just let me browse first, thank you." I politely rejected her offer as inside my mind I was thinking that what could she know about fishing, she would just show me anything that might not suits my need. But in the end it proved how wrong was I to have that kind of judgement.

    "Are you into boating? what kind of tackle you use? a spinning reel or a multiplier reel?" The old lady asked

    Hang on! What? Spinning or... What is Multiplier Reel? I could feel my ears getting warm due to blood had shot up as I blushed. And my ego was brought down all the way to the ground as I was the one that knew nuts about fishing, I should have asked Ken to come along he definitely could handle this old lady well.

   "Ahem..." I pretended to cough to shield my embarrassment and I looked at the rows of fishing rods in front of me trying to get some inspiration to reply her. Hmm... I saw some fine print on one of the fishing rod written Multiplier and I immediately assumed that Multiplier was the strength of the rod multiply by something. So I turned back to the old lady and said,

    "Actually both also can, but I need something that is long, maybe in the range of 13 to 10 feet, can cast very far one, you know?" I felt amazed by my own answer and question, hahaha... I managed to snub this old lady and it's time for her to call for help from a guy who would be more expert in fishing.

    "I see, so you are into Surf Fishing lah. You wanna cast out from the beach using long surf casting fishing rod, right?" She said and continued

    "Well there are two kind of surf casting fishing rods to choose from and do you need a fishing reel? Which kind you like to use? Spinning or Multiplier?"

    Alamak! this old lady mentioned it again! Multiplier? what was that?

    "Show me the multiplier, I need a strong one." I replied as if I knew about it although I still not very sure if my assumption was correct.

    She led me over to the other row of fishing rods and told me to check them out while she went to get some pairing multiplier reels to show me.

    This shop is kind of like those traditional Chinese Medicine shop which they didn't like to put a price tag on the items displayed, this put me at a very awkward spot as I was on a tight budget. I saw Daiwa, Penn, Shimano and Abu Garcia ranging from 13 feet to 8 feet, I locked myself on that yellow color Shimano 13 feet as it is the same brand that Lawrence had. Not for long the old lady came back with there boxes on her hand, I could read Daiwa and Abu Garcia from the boxes.

   "So which one you like? all this are very strong and powerful fishing rods that can cast very far." She said

    "And these are the Multiplier reels that can go along with it, this very famous Abu Garcia...." The old lady opened up the box and took out a Multiplier reel and showed it to me.

    Wait! This is Multiplier reel? Shit! This is a Baitcaster which I read in the magazine and why she called it multiplier? I needed to make this right and I stopped her from continuing and said,

    "Auntie, I don't want Baitcaster leh, I want to cast very far, I think you get me Spinning reel instead, thank you." I was a bit annoyed as from what I read from magazine the kind of small drum baitcaster are mostly used in the lure fishing and it didn't cast far. Again this showed how ignorance I was back then, in the later day I found out about the Abu Garcia CT Rocket and was so fascinated with it, too bad I couldn't afford it at that time.

    This time the old lady didn't walk away and she smiled at me and some words came out from her mouth which made me so embarrassing that I felt like running out of the shop and never returned again. She said, "You just started fishing?"

    Old man said you can be smart, but don't try to be a Smart Alec. Now I was really in a very awkward situation and I didn't know how to reply her. I had to admit that this old lady is a very kind and nice woman, even though I was giving the "I know it" and "You know nothing" face from the beginning of the conversation she remained patient and calm.

    "Boy, how much you want to spend on the tackle?" She asked

    "Auntie, I got around $100 to spare." My voice was so soft and I wondered if she could hear me.

    "The rods here are mostly out of your budget and furthermore you need a reel, Multiplier reels are more expensive, maybe you can consider getting a Spinning reel to start with?" The old lady suggested.

    I told her that I picked up this fishing hobby few months back and I had a Shimano Spinning reel and a Silstar 6 footer, I was looking to upgrade my tackle to Surf Fishing set and I might wanted to fish at the beach. By now I was convinced that the old lady is very knowledgeable at least in the fishing tackle, I needed to be humbled and told her everything so that she could help me to find something that's suitable for me and within my budget.

    When she found out that I was using the Shimano Aero Symetre 4000 she told me I could use it to pair with a longer fishing rod, as this Shimano Aero is a very good Spinning reel for Surf Fishing too. She said I was cheated by the shop when I told her how much I had paid for the combo set, she could offer the same package at $50 lesser and when I told her I bought them here but not from her, she promised me she would find out which sales stuff did it but she couldn't refund the over-charged to me. By the way she is the lady boss and that's how I found out that my best buddy was probably enjoying a nice meal on my hard earned $50 now!

Loomis & Franklin

It is a two section Ten Footer Surf Casting Rod

    You see, back then I was a naive and simple minded young man, I was so touched by her reaction (I will definitely be skeptical today) and bought a Ten footer Surf Fishing rod from her, It is the Loomis & Franklin that I am still using it after almost 20 years! It costed $88.50 and I was left with $11.50 for my dinner and cigarette. Oh! by the way that yellow Shimano fishing rod I looked at earlier costed a whopping $460!

    I was so eager to test out the rod and I rang my fishing kakis as soon as I reached home, few days later I was at the Pasir Ris Fishing Pond to find out if I could reach a new level with the Loomis & Franklin 10 footer Surf Casting Fishing Rod....  Next post will feature my first test on the rod and if you wanna know if I managed to catch any fish on the new rod, Stay tuned!

**Check out my YouTube Channel here!

**Click here to watch my trip at Air Papan Beach with the Bait Launcher

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!

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