Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Burma Bank - Part I

Finally, the much anticipated trip is just 1 day away. All packed and ready to kick some ass!!

Braid fighting belt, jig bag, windbreaker, Kit Kats, Accurate 665, Saltiga Dogfight, Saltiga 4500, Stella 8000 and Avet SX. CHECKED!!
Hooks, Boga, swivels, rings, gloves, leaders. CHECKED!!
Poppers and pencils. CHECKED!!
Pouch with passport, MP3 player, camera, medicines, US dollars, etc. CHECKED!!
Bazooka with rods; Tenryu JigZam 3-5, VFox 4-8, Kaibutsu 2-4, Xzoga 5-6, Gcraft 6, Daiwa Saltiga Expedition 6. CHECKED!!
In the past many many trips, I've learned to not have any expectations on a trip. A week ago, saw some pictures on Fisherzone forum with Yellow Fins of 80 over kg caught on Polaris Gold, the boat which I'm boarding tomorrow night. So will I have any expectations? Hahahaha... don't dare to think. Anyway, I want a DOGTOOTH!!!! I WANT IT!!! The bigger the better!!! So please, if you are reading this, pray for me!!!!
DOGTOOTH!! Get your tuna red meat ass ready for some WHOPPING!!!!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Ko Adang - Dec 2007

5 weeks since my last posting...Thats 1 of the longest gap I think ever since I start this blog a year plus ago. I didn't even had time to post a anniversary message to myself couple weeks back when my blog celebrated its 1 year old birthday :-p Work has been crazy lately, working 12 hours everyday yet it's not enough. Crazily shiok!!
Anyway, December was suppose to be a honeymoon month for me with Ko Adang and Myanmar all planned out. Ko Adang was a much anticipated trip (not as much as Burma Banks) as I've seen some pictures of good size trevallies every now and then. However in the past couple of weeks, the weather has been predictably BAD. Everywhere is pounded by strong wind and heavy rain, and Ko Adang was no exception. Few friends who just came back from Ko Adang right before our trip were all hit with bad weather and bad catch. Even when we were at the custom in Thailand, we saw 2 pickups with rods and stuffs and they stretched out their hands and gave us a thumb down and shaking head. Which is good cos that kinda made us prepare for the worst.

Long long drive up north, towards Padang Besar to Kaki Bukit.
It was quite obvious why they call the place Padang Besar. They should really call it Padang Super Besar. There were empty big huge fields everywhere...
Finally arrived at the immigration checkpoint.

The pick-up that was used to transport our gear across the border to Pak Barra, the jetty where we will be boarding.

Arsenal, food, drinks, tool box, etc etc. :-D Gallery of toys!!!
Cool islands everywhere after several minutes from the jetty.




Our chef in action. Food was decent throughout the trip. Maggi noodle, chicken, veg, fried rice, rice, etc.
ZZZ...zzz..ZZZ..zzz...ZZZ
First..or first half fish of the trip! YEAH my first 'kena cukai' or 'taxed' catch!! Hehehehe...
Eh...? Didn't I catch this in Pekan? Sigh...memboringkan...
Having fun with my light setup with BT (Baby Trevallies)
Poor fellow..kena gaffed by the boatman...wanted to release it...but we need food...
30 minutes later... :- The ONLY GT kept and chopped...all other released!! :-p
Baby grouper...
Another baby trevally...
Yet another baby...
And it goes on...and on...and on...babies babies babies...
And here comes the pain... :-s
This is me with my Poseidon PE2 and Stella 3000 getting stripped of 170m 15lbs braid in ONE minute :-D
BEST NYA!!!!!


That's all...I had a lot of lost fish that were not hookup properly...cut off...all in all, I think I lost around 10 IMAs throughout the trip....

Some other fishes from the rest...


HAHAHAHAHA...Bruce and his ROD BITING...DAMN FUNNY!!!!
The only 2 hours of rain throughout the trip...suprisingly...

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Pulau Jarak & Pulau Sembilan - 8th & 9th Nov 2007

2 months ago, a trip to Tukun Perak was planned for 8th, 9th & 10th of November, taking advantage of the Deepavali holiday. Unfortunately we had to cancel the trip 1 week before as several confirmed participants couldn't make it and we were having problem looking for more. Just when I thought my holiday will be spent in town, 1 of the kaki called and said that his friends still wanna fish and even if it was 4 person, they would still wanna go Tukun Perak and they don't mind paying the extra. Just so happen, right after my phone call with him, Chung (boatman from Sitiawan) called and told me he just landed a 14.5kg grouper with the PE1-2 Sabel Dance I got for him. And the spot is a mini drop off somewhere between Jarak and P9 which has long been forgotten after much 'used & abused'. At another spot, he also bumped into a school of Black Tips. And after several phone calls with my friends, I confirmed with Chung to fish Jarak on 8th and P9 on 9th. Funniest thing was, in the end we had more than enough people for the initial Tukun Perak trip. But since I already cancelled off with the Tukun Perak's boatman, we just stayed focus with Jarak.

To make matter even more shaky, Chung called the evening we were suppose to leave town and said 'Bad news...very strong wind now. If it rains heavily tonight, we are safe tomorrow. If not, very dangerous.' After much discussion with the kakis, we decided not to call off the trip and take our chances. And so it did...

Day 1 - Pulau Jarak

At 4am in the morning in Leisure Bay Cafe when everyone were still sleeping, I was awaken by a loud and heavy thunderstorm. And I remembered what Chung said the night before, and I fell back to my slumber with a thin smile on my face...hehehe...

When we woke up the next morning, the sky was all clear and wind was cool. Good weather. There was a slight drizzle in the morning but other than that, it was good weather throughout. :-D

For day one, we proceeded straight to the Black Tip spot which was 15 minutes further out from Pulau Jarak. Unfortunately, we only landed 1. We lost countless jigs to them. The annoying part is they tend to strike when the jig is dropping. So very often when you are dropping your jig, they accelerate suddenly or just stop dropping half way. And to add to the annoyance, they were also spotted on the surface many times but was never near the boat. Kaibutsu was paired with Saltiga-Z 4500 IZE and ready for action but not getting any... :-(

First Ang Choh of the day, by 小雄.

Skip Jack Tuna on Ever Green Javeline 140g by me :-)

Trevally on IMA RO 100g by me :-)) Another trevally.

On the way back from the 'Black Tip' spot, Chung stopped by Jarak and pointed to a spot for me to cast. On the 3rd cast, this baby GT was landed. YEAH!! Kaibutsu LP officially blessed!!! With my self designed Halco Roosta Popper. :-p

NG with his Tenggiri Papan.Another Tenggiri Papan.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to leave Jarak and head to the Mini Dropoff. The reason we called it 'mini' is because if you look at the fish finder, you will not think that there's anything interesting down there. The drop off is a mere 10 metres and you don't see anything else. As it was already quite late when we reached there, we only drifted the spot 3 times.
My reward on the first drift. Ang Choh on 100g IMA RO.
On the 2nd drift, I had an unstoppable train which busted me off. And on the 3rd drift, was rewarded with a 13lb Barracuda on 100g IMA RO. Everyone thought that this Barracuda was a big huge Grouper. The runs were short, powerful and quick. And lifting it was a total nightmare as it was hooked on the tummy. And seeing the bend on my JigZam, everyone got very excited. I was myself a bit disappointed when I saw it was a Barracuda. :-p But can't complain!! It was a good way to end the day.


Day 2 - Pulau Sembilan

We arrived at P9 around 9:30 and we left around 1pm. I had 1 hookup in the first 5 minutes of jigging and I lost it half way. And it was quiet all the way until noon. So we decided to head out to the Mini Dropoff again. GOOD DECISION!! On the 1st drift at the mini dropoff, we had a triple hookup. On the 2nd drift, double hookup. After that, the hookups were more far apart.

NG with his catch at Pulau Sembilan before we leave for the mini dropoff.Jackpot Ang Choh of the day from the mini dropoff.

Me and my share of action. I was tying my leader when there was a double hookup. And seeing the frenzy, I quickly dropped my jig and it was whacked the moment it touched the bottom, Triple Hookup!! :-D Setup was Shimano Stella 3000C and Ever Green Poseidon Spin Jerker Light with IMA RO 60g.

Another big Barracuda.Ang Choh on pink Ofmer jig.
A case of confused identity. Later in the day, saw a pile of rubbish drifting in a distance. Took out my Shimano Basstera with Caldia Kix 4000 and started popping pass the side. 2nd cast, I was rewarded with this Tripletail who thinks he's a GT. Yeah!! Basstera BLESSED!!! After landing it, another kaki started popping but instead of popping the side, he was popping throught the center. Within minutes, he dragged the whole pile of rubbish to the side of the boat. Hehehehe... We could see Dorados and Tripletails still underneath the rubbish, but they must have been spooked...

More Ang Choh...

Baby Cobia on IMA RO 100g.

Overall the 2 days were very good. It has been quite a while since I had a trip with so much action and took so much pictures on boat. Weather for both days were excellent, one of the best compared to the past few trips with Chung. Both my Kaibutsu and Basstera finally saw some action, although nothing big. I did have a very close call with the Basstera when popping around P9, easily 10kg. When my popper was nearing the boat, Chung shouted to me as something just whacked and missed my popper. I didn't notice as I was looking out at the horizon to look for the next potential spot. But sinceI was standing at the front end of the boat, I was quite high up. When I looked down, I could see this dark shadow right underneath my popper and it made a sharp u-turn and sped off. Well, you win some you loose some. Can't complain. :-)

Past 3 trips with Chung -

http://kyfk.blogspot.com/2007/10/sunvista-wreck-pulau-sembilan.html

http://kyfk.blogspot.com/2007/08/wreck-revisited-p9.html

http://kyfk.blogspot.com/2007/07/sitiawan-wreck-9th-july-2007.html