Kota Kinabalu, Sabah - 13th April- 16th April - PT II

Lets continue on the KK trip.

A month ago, my Hutan Melintang trip was totally under-gunned. So when I was doing some pre-packing a week before this trip, I told myself 'I'm so gonna OVER-PACK!!'. Outcome...total OVER-gunned. I brought 4 rods (V Fox PE 6-8, Xzoga PE 5-6, G Craft Short Rodder PE 6, JigZam PE 5) and 5 reels (Accurate Boss Magnum 665-80lbs, Daiwa Saltiga Z6500H Dogfight-80lbs, Daiwa Saltist 40-50lbs, Avet SX-40lbs, Shimano Navi 8000-40lbs). Once we were on board, I set up my Accurate with my Xzoga, DogFight with V Fox, Avet with Short Rodder, and left the Jigzam and Navi in the bag. And I think after half a day of jiggin, the Accurate, DogFight, Avet, Xzoga, V Fox, all went back into the bag. Jigzam and Navi became the main arsenal throughout for jigging 100-200grams of jigs. And the G Craft Short Rodder was paired with the Saltist for bottom fishing.

As usual, there's always a 'Gaya Centre' on boat.

This was the catch on our first spot. The moment i saw the boatman reeling up fishes like these...i thought to myself 'wtf? I can get this in PEKAN!! I don't need to fly 2 hours here and paid so much more for this?!?'
The idiot FARTED!! :-p

I didn't catch this. Was just having fun with my Boga Grip all over the boat, gripping anything I can and taking pictures with them. Hehehe...desperate measures....
I didn't catch this either...

This has got to be the most beautiful sunset I've ever captured on camera...

Overall, this was a very unfruitful trip. Proportionately, this has got to be the most expensive trip ever, considering the catch. I jigged very hard throughout the trip. But unfortunately, the elusive ones stayed elusive.

There was a moment on the second day of jigging, where everyone has already given up and some were only doing bottom fishing. I was jigging alone at the far end of the boat with my JigZam and Navi 8000, jigging a 200g jig. Out of nowhere, i felt a strike on my jig. After many jigging trips, a reflex strike as already been built into my system. So without a blink, I lower the rod while reeling in the slack line (within 0.5 seconds) and gave it a good hard strike! To my horror...ultimate ultimate horror...sky tumbling armageddonly horror...my drag was not tighten properly. The only thing I could hear from my bottom to top strike was my lines peeling out from my Shimano Navi. At this moment, I could feel the fish is still there struggling. But from the looseness of my drag, I knew I've not register a solid hook up. Immediately I tighten the drag, while swearing out loud and slapping myself silly in my head, bring down my rod again while reeling in the slack line, and gave it another hard solid strike. This time, I could feel the bend on my rod and the pressure applied to the other end of the line.

This is the beauty of jigging. 1 minute you are all bored and tired from jigging cos nothing seems to pay attention to the dancing jig that you are presenting 100 metres down under. Next minute, you are scrambling all by yourself trying to register a solid hookup from a sudden suprise strike when you have already given up hope. Another minute you engaged yourself in a 'forever never ending' or 'everything seems to happen and finish so fast' tug of war with an unknown opponent. And the final second, everything went silent...either you've landed the fish and it's gaffed and safely in your hands...or they have won the battle...and you come home with the usualy story of 'The Big ONE that Got Away'.

Obviously, this time round its the 'Big One That Got Away' moment...sigh.... :-s

Part I