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Saturday, October 24, 2009

My Thirteenth Fishing Trip - 24 Oct - Changi Waters

HELLO I'M BACK!

This time, instead of Ah Chong's boat, I went onboard Ah Fong's boat. Why their names all got "Ah" I really don't know, but I can tell you that all boatmen names start with "Ah". Food for thought? LoL

This was a very last minute trip for me. In fact, I'm going offshore on the 21st of November and I didn't plan on making any trips till then. For some strange reason, I decided to call this Kaki from the forums as he posted "one available slot for sat", I called him on Wednesday I think? I was very half hearted as I lack the dough to go. But what made me wanna go, was because of the guy I called. His forum name is Apollo, real name is PohLoh... Don't laugh, not funny k. Over the phone I could tell this was one damn nice guy and was very willing to teach me, the newbie, anything and everything.

Ok build up paragraph finished, gonna start on the trip itself now.

Dear Mr Apollo told me on Thursday to meet up at 0720 for breakfast before departure. My SMS response was, "WTF? So early??? Cannot la brother I can't reach there in time!". But I wanted to try and make it so I got up at FIVE THIRTY AYE EMM!!! While waiting for the train at about 0600 I muttered to myself, "God dammit, it's way too early to be waiting for a friggin train. Well, at least this early on a Saturday morning, I'd have seats, maybe even space to lie down".

Ding Dong, train arrived.

OMG THE WHOLE DAMN TRAIN WAS FULL!!!
WHAT IN THE M**HER F**KI*G #@$%@#$@%

The train was packed with these people all wearing the same shirt. So I asked one, "Oi, what's up?" He said, "Oh there's a big race today, aren't you going?"

I wanted to SLAP a big fat DUH in his face

Which part of me looks physically ready to take part in a 10km race?!?!? DUMBSHIT!!!! Plus I was carrying a fishing rod? Dude, you're retarded, hope you drop dead in the race. Yadda yadda.... They all dropped off 6 stops later and I could finally rest... Ahhhh...

Fast forward to our meeting place, Changi Village. I arrived at... lol... 7am... Hahaha... Apollo came 15mins later and we had breakfast. After a quick intro to the rest of the crew, all 8 of us boarded and our day took off.

Ah shit, forgot to feed you guys with some pics instead of rant. Heh... Here's our bait for today. Seriously, I really think it sucks to be a prawn, there's so many ways for them to be abused, eating, cooking, BBQing, prawning, but the worst by far, is being bait.

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Certain areas today had super calm waters. Look at this picture, the water almost looks like a silky blanket.
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Waiting.... Waiting.... Sun burning.... Very hot....

and then suddenly....

BOOOOOOOOOOOOMZ!!!!!


FISH ON! FIRST FISH ON TODAY. GUESS WHO? ME!

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Wah this fish, I didn't know what it was, but it kept pulling my line straight downwards time and time again. Didn't move left nor right, just down and down. So I had to keep pulling and reeling slowly. I didn't wanna make any stupid mistake and lose my catch. I'd very much like to keep my consistency of 1 strike 1 catch. Hahaha.

Soon after a 2-4min fight, up came the little bugger. Well this time not so little! A Grouper! Same type as the one from my last post, but this time, BIGGER! Happy ne...

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Everyone around still had nothing, zero-fighter. I was still feeling very excited and happy as Groupers are excellent eating fish, one of my favourites.

So I slowly hooked on a new prawn and slowly let my line drop back down.


During this period, my mind would always be visualizing the line sinking down to the bottom of the seabed, then I'd visualize this little fishy swimming past. Then I'd see the fish spotting my bait and chasing it from 2-3 meters away. Chasing slowly and cautiously... Eyeing the suspicious looking prawn with a red hook sticking out it's ass... Slowly... AND WHAM!!!!



HUH??? I STILL DREAMING OR REALLY FISH ON?!?!?!



Fish On Again!!!!!!!

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Wow this bugger is heavy! It kept dashing left and right and up and down. It was pulling so hard that my it kept dragging more line down, I was considering tightening my drag and just pump this damn thing up. But no! "Don't do anything stupid, don't be impatient", flashed past my mind again. So I let the fish pull me whenever he darted, and when he slowed down I pulled him up more and more and more until....

BOOM BOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOMZZZZZ!!!
BOOMZZZZ!!!

My very first Grunter aka Gu Huud.
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As I was trying to calm myself down from the excitement and when I was trying to take the hook out, I was wondering, why call it Grunter?

Just then, "GRAAAAAA GRAAAAA....", said the fish...

The day was slow after that. Fellow Kakis started pulling up more Groupers. But two were kinda small, like the one in my last post. After about 4 more hours of baking in the sun, someone shouted, "DOOOOLLLLPHEEEEEEEN!!!!"

Wah! Dolphin! WHERE?!?!? どこ!!!!!!

I read before there are pink dolphins around Singapore, which is in itself, kinda hard to believe. And every time I'm on a ferry with my friends or gf, I'd always say, "Dolphin! Dolphin!"

TODAY REALLY GOT DOLPHIN!

I stood there mesmerized as about 5-8 of them came up and down. After awhile I realised... CAMERA WHERE?!?!?!?!

But after that appearance, they only appeared randomly around our boat, quite far away. So it was really hard to get a picture of them. I just kept taking shots hoping that out of 10 pics, I might actually get some proof that I saw Dolphins, if not no one is going to believe me.

Here's your proof. Near the middle right hand corner you can see a little bit of it's fin.
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For the next 10mins or so, I was more interested in catching a good picture of the Dolphins that I couldn't be bothered with fishing. Haha. But the boatman wanted to move off already. Cos when Dolphins are around, all the fishes run and hide. And they said the Dolphins didn't appear to be leaving, they kept playing and swimming all over.

Dude! Like that's a bad thing??

Anyway, at the last stop, I had another fish on. Why no CAPS LOCK? Why no story build up? Cos, it was a damn Catfish. Don't like, pest, nuisance. Before landing the fish when I still didn't know what it was, I kept asking the guy beside me to help me take a pic of me with a bent rod cos I still don't have that shot. But when the fish came up a Catfish, everyone laughed at me, say Catfish still wanna take photo. :( So bad.

Lastly, I just wanna thank all the great Kakis I met today. It was really fun hanging out and meeting you guys. Cheers.

Here are our total catches for the day!

The Happy Camper strikes again. :)
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Fall in!
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That's all for now folks! I'll leave you with some nice scenic pictures I managed to capture. I always try to get some on each trip. :)

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Till next time!

Random Announcement

Just to inform everyone.

In the future, all my Fish On instances will be represented by these pictures!!!

Isn't it exciting???

These pics make me LoL, I love em.

I made more actually, but the resolution and effects didn't come out to well :(

I'll come up with more next time but for now I'm going to use these!!!





FISH ON!!!




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Monday, October 5, 2009

My Twelfth Fishing Trip - 5th Oct - Changi Waters

Mmmmm what a day of mixed emotions! Will explain more later...

I was very very excited for this trip as it's only my second offshore adventure, and this time, I actually had a personal maid as well!

See...
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Nowadays hor, maids very hiao, like to wear hairband and play PSP given from their Bangala boyfriends, tsk tsk tsk.
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Today's venue: Changi Waters with Ah Chong.

We gathered at 730am at Changi Jetty. Quite a few hiccups with the organisation, in the end two people pulled out as well. 730am.... Changi... We had to wake up at like... 430am, and I'm not even usually asleep by 430am lol.
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Here's the gang for the day. Everyone was all smiles and happy. For now...
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Eddie, who was the organiser that took over from the previous one who couldn't come, said he could lend me a set up, but I felt bad having to trouble others for my own fishing, I also wanted to have a boat set myself so I went to purchase a super budgeted one. I bought a PE 2-4 Pioneer boat rod for $30 and a Daiwa reel for $20. OK! All set.

As usual, quick as lightning got everything set up before we reached the first spot. When we finally stopped, I did something before I threw my line down. I stared long and hard at my new and first boat rod and murmured, "Eh, first boat rod ok, bring me luck ah..". Sploosh went the sinker...

Just about 10mins into dropping our lines, Anthony who was next to me had a fish on! Maybe it's just him, I don't know, but he didn't seem too interested or excited and his expression seemed to suggest this fish wasn't even much of a fight. But I suspect that as the fish got nearer the surface, he started to feel excited cos the fish was still pulling.... BAM! As the fish surfaced, I peeked and saw a nice nice Chermin! So I helped him pull it up and that was that!

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For the next two spots, things were slow, bites were far between. The only apparent event was noticing how dark and gloomy the sky was. Kinda feels like I'm in England. Prior to leaving my house, I checked and the weather report said rain and thunder the whole day. Well, it wasn't raining now, I just crossed my fingers.

So bored... Then my maid started taking pictures of me, I think her Bangala boyfriend gave her the camera. So I said, "Fudge you! Stop taking pictures of me hoe!"
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Sar sar sar sar sar sarrrrrrrrrdenly..................... "Poke.. Poke..." went my line. And then followed by a tug 3 secs later! Not a huge tug, but a tug nonetheless!!!! So I kept repeating in my head, "Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid, Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid, Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid".

I fought it for like 1 minute or less and then suddenly... the line went light... "FUDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", I screamed. Heart sank to the bottom of the cold ocean floor. QQ... What the heck reel up anyway. And just as my leader started to surface... I saw a fish! "FISH!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAO HE AH GAO HE AH!!!!!!!!!", I exclaimed again. Unlike more experienced anglers, I cannot tell what fish is what just from it's behaviour alone. Ahhh, experienced gained, Groupers give you a tug, struggle abit, then morph into plastic bags. Sorry I have to make all my catches so dramatic, but it was my firstest firstest firstest Grouper ever!!! Ya sure, got people give "Chey" looks, but whatever! My first Grouper!

Orange Spotted Grouper!
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Huzzah, WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!

So then I put Mr. My-First-Grouper-Ever into his new arctic home, and proceeded to pick another lucky prawn. Moved back to my spot which was beside my maid and slowly let my line drop back down. Maid started asking me some dumb questions just as my sinker hit the bottom, and just about 2 secs later........... WOAHHHHHHHHH huge pull!

What the fudge? What is this thing!!! Pull so hard and left right up down, left right up down. What the fudge man!!! So I did the same heartfelt memory chant again, "Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid, Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid, Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid, Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid, Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid, Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid". Ya this time I said it more times cos I was getting really nervous! Firstly cos the pull was huge, secondly cos I couldn't believe I was so lucky getting another bite so soon!

Relax, take your time, don't do anything stupid", went on for another few minutes and I could feel the fish nearing the surface. And just then... JUST RIGHT THEN... The tension died, the line died, no more weight... Fish off :( "OH MY GOD LA!!!" I believe were my exact words. What the heck, reel up change bait anyway, so I reeled.

And then....

As my leader started to surface, I saw something... "FISH STILL ON LA NI NA BEI!!!!" Then it started darting left and right and left and right again! What the heck is this little bugger?!?! Finally, I managed to reel him up to the surface... COBIA! Wow! One of my target fishes! I was so excited that I forgot to flick it onto the boat, I just left it down there and Ah Chong was like, "BRING IT UP WTF?". Oh my god sorry too kan jiong already.

Then when Ah Chong saw it was a Cobia, he gave me a confused look and said, "This fish very rare to get in these waters, must go out further". Maybe that's why I only got a small small one. But still!!!! COBIA OK?!?! Good fight man this little bugger, at least for me it was! First time ok!


CAN YOU SEE ME BEEMING WITH JOY?
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WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!

Over an hour passed and my excitement wore off. Hungry and thirsty I went to eat.

Chik Chik.... KABOOOOOM!!!

Oh.... my... gawd... is that thunder?

Ploop... Ploop... Ploop... said the raindrops.

:(

It started to rain and continued to do so for a long long time. To us at least, it seemed forever cos that was the high tide period, best time to get bites...

And then we all started to feel like this...
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Soon, Ah Chong maneuvered his boat back towards Pulau Ubin area where the waves were less choppy. And despite the rain, we threw our lines back in.

Choppy waters and no current = No fish.
Rain = No fish.

:(

The only other thing that happened here after the rain finally decided to pity us, was... Ah Sengs... Catfish... Sigh... Suddenly, someone got a huge pull and he was fighting it like crazy. And I said, "I bet that's a 3kg Ah Seng". HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA true enough, I was right. He didn't see the funny side of that though... wonder why... Hahahaha.

In the end, the Catfish was given to my maid. Her Bangala boyfriend should know how to cook it I guess, since Bangalas always like to fish for and eat freshwater Catfishes caught from our canals.

Welp, it was soon 5pm and the day came to an end. Our prawns were all used up by then anyway. Here are some shots I took for fun. No one bothered taking a picture of all the fish together, since there were only like... 5? Everyone emo. Maid also emo, but less emo after she got the Catfish.

The Happy Camper
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Keesh Keesh?
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Golden Snapper
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Mr. My-First-Ever-Orange-Spotted-Grouper
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Mr. My-First-Ever-Cobia
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I kinda feel bad my maid didn't get to catch anything. But I promise I will take you out again and you will get a fish next time!

Overall I had fun. Happy I got two of my targeted-one-day-must-catch fishes, unhappy that the rain spoiled everyone's fun and chances to get more fishes. Don't worry! There's always a next time!


Signing off with my victory song...




I... am the champion... my friends...
I... caught two fishes... yes I can...
I got two nice fish...
Sorry you no fish...
We'll try again when...
The weather is better...
Don't be sad... Don't be sad...
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