Fuji Hook Keeper

Bought this Fuji hook keeper from Sabre Tackle yesterday. Been looking for this hook keeper everywhere for quite a while. Finally found it at the rod components section at Sabre. Thought they should have put it at the accessories section, although the box itself says 'Rod Components'.

Strongly recommend this item especially if you do a lot of sea fishing. It lets you keep your assist hooks or squid jigs or any other hooks firmly inplace. I know a lot of ppl (including myself) always keep their hooks of any sorts at/around the guides of their rods. Not recommended. 1stly you run a risk of scratching your rings especially with used hooks which surfaces are slightly rusted and rough. It may just be a tiny scratch but imagine your lines running past that scratch when you are fighting your prized GT. Secondly, be it SIC or whatever brand, you run a risk of rusting or staining your frames over time.

EHKM-B. B stands for Black i think. It also comes in red where the product code is EHKM-R.

The hook keeper and the rubberband, which comes in 2 sizes, to hold the hook keeper to your rod.
The bigger rubberband fits nicely with the Tenryu JigZam PE3-5. Unfortunately, most of my medium-heavy jigging assist hooks are quite big and it doesn't fit.

The smaller rubberband fits perfectly on the EverGreen Poseidon Spin Jerker.


And the smaller assist hooks fits nicely to the hook keeper. :-)

Shimano Butterfly Jigging System

Shimano Butterfly Jigging System - Action, Reaction

HISTORY OF DEEP JIGGING FISHING

In the early 1990's Japanese anglers developed a revolutionary style of deep water jigging that changed jigging as we know it. These anglers were fishing depths as deep as 500 feet using the first generation of super lines coupled with fluorocarbon shock leaders and the original jig designs. Shimano saw the significance of these jigs, and created a new lure design called the Butterfly Jig. This lure, combined with the line and tackle, helped increase sensitivity to detect bites, and get successful hooksets, with the end result being an increase in their fish catching percentage. The Butterfly Jig catches more species of fish in more locations while giving you a new, exciting way to fish! - http://fish.shimano.com

Since I'm taking steps to 'refurbish' my jig boxes and bags, decided not to limit myself to just IMAs and Evergreens. Introducing Shimano's Butterfly Jigging System; not something new in the market, just something new to me. :-p A well deserved clapper for Shimano I must say, is the extensive information/guide you can get on the Butterfly Jigs on their website. Although very much a marketing tool, the abundance of PDFs & videos does provide some very useful and clear guidance. So do check it out - Fishing the Butterfly. A very interesting selling point of the Butterfly Jig is 'Action, Reaction'. According to Shimano, the jigs have very sharp flutters on their way down, and very sharp erratic actions on their way up which generates Reaction Bites (not hunger bites), hence 'Action, Reaction'. Of course that can only be achieved with the right presentation. And in Shimano's case, with the right complete package of Butterfly Rods, Butterfly Reels & Butterfly Jigs.

Whatever it is, there's no harm having a few of them in the jig bag.

Butterfly Regular 55g. Shape - Symmetrical. Rod/Reel Action - Short lift, one turn. Jig Action - Walk-the-dog.
Butterfly Long 200g. Shape - Asymmetrical. Rod/Reel Action - Long lift, few turn. Jig Action - Side to side.
Butterfly Regular 270g. Shape - Symmetrical. Rod/Reel Action - Short lift, one turn. Jig Action - Walk-the-dog.

Butterfly Regular 55g.

Similar design as EverGreen Caprice & Caprice Kid. Only difference is this is symmetrical and Caprices are not.

Butterfly Long 200g.




Assymetrical design.

Butterfly Regular 270g.

Shimano Nasci 2000

Bought this reel a month back to replaced the busted Ryobi Zauber for fresh water casting and occasional eging. Simple and nice reel. :-) Was very tempted to buy the Shimano Fireblood 1000/2500, but decided to wait for their new ARC spool lineups to pop up in the market before getting anymore spinning reels from Shimano. Been eyeing the Jackson Red Shady casting rod which is like a perfect match with the Fireblood. But...must resist resist...

Shimano Nasci 2000

Some of the specs.

S Reliance


Interesting details at the rear of the reel.
Power handle.
Maintenance port.






Free gift that comes with the reel. :-p

Merchung & Pekan - 15th & 16th September 2007

DAY 1 - Merchung - 15th September 2007

Merchung is always a good place for some cheap2 good2 fun. And we did just that. As usual, we left town on Friday nite around 7:30pm and head pass Pekan down to Merchung. By midnight, we checked in to Kg Merchung Chalet, 2 rooms, 1 for 2 person. Got up the next day at 6am and after breakfast, we packed some nasi lemaks and started loading our gear onto the boat. We left the jetty around 7:30am and went to the opposite jetty to get some live prawns before heading out.

Good morning Merchung!!

Usual Chee Wai.

Freezing Bruce.

Sleeping Johnson

As usual, we started off the day by jigging for some live baits. After filling our live well with Selars, we headed towards an ikan bilis boat to buy some ikan bilis for bottom fishing. This was when one of us was looking for some tidbits and to our horror, we realised we left all our nasi lemaks in the room. And what's worst, we ALSO left all our bread (2 loaves of Gardenia, 2 cans of mayo tuna, 10 pieces of choc/kaya/coconut buns) in the room. Thank god we had a pack of apple and also a watermelon and that became our lunch along with milo, nescafe and 100+. I also had a kitkat in my tackle box which I always bring when I go fishing just in case of any emergency. And this, was clearly an emergency.

While waiting for the boat to bring up their huge net, I started jigging with my new setup - Shimano Stella C3000 '07 with EverGreen Poseidon Spin Jerker Light. On the 3rd drop, I had a STRIKE!!! And up came a baby grouper!!! SUPER GOOD SIGN!!! Hehehe... Although it didn't put up a good fight it was a GOOD sign. A sign of 'taruh makan'!!! Or so I thought...

The rest of the day, I spend most of my time jigging and eging. The squids were only cooperative in the morning but they were a lots of fun. And the good sign I had in the morning was slowly turning to a sign of 'SMALL FISH ONLY'. After the first grouper, I jigged 1 Selar Kuning, 2 Kunyits, 1 super baby Grouper (S.V.) and a 1kg Tenggiri (which was lost by the boat). Numerically, it was very impressive... Anyway, I wasn't expecting much so it was a very fun day. The rest also had their fair share with lots of squids, lots of small fishes (selars, kunyits, etc), 1 todak, 5 Ang Kors/Parrot Fish, and several 'Red Fish'.

Tools of the day - i) Jigging - Shimano Stella C3000 (15lbs) with Poseidon Spin Jerker. ii) Eging - Shimano Nasci (10lbs) with Daiwa TD Light & Tough. iii) Casting - Daiwa Caldia Kix (30lbs) with Shimano Basstera.

Grouper on IMA GUN 40g

Selar on IMA GUN 40g. Kunyit with the same jig.S.V. on River2Sea jig, 10g.
Caught the biggest squid of the day. Felt like I was lifting a freaking rock!! SHIOK!!
Assorted species - Blue Stripped Grouper (Dunno what's the supposed name).
Coral Trout. Johnson with his Todak.
Part of the catch, with more in the plastic bag.

Around 4:30pm, we were all very hungry and the action has died down. So we decided to call it a day and save our energy for the next day in Pekan. We got back, cleaned all our gear and packed our stuffs. By 6:30, we were in Restoran Pahang in Pekan getting ready to have our dinner. As usual, fresh seafood is the way to go!! :-)

Dinner in Pekan with our Coral trout... Squid...
And Red Fish... SHIOK!!!
After dinner, we headed towards Inderapura Country Resort (09-4267666) and checked in for the night of much needed rest. We took their VIP room, with 2 bedrooms & bathrooms; very comfortable and not so pricey.

DAY 2 - Pekan - 16th September 2007

Day 2 was a much disappointing day. The wind was blowing the whole day and water was very choppy. The boat ride was extremely bumpy and time consuming. A lot of time was wasted travelling from 1 spot to another. Just like Day 1, I had a sign; only BETTER. On my FIRST drop, I had a HOOKUP!! But again, it was not big enough to peel any lines from my reel...maybe it did...like 1 inch... I jigged throughout the day nonstop, but it didn't pay off. In total, I had 1 miss hookup when the jig was dropping, 3 jigs lost to toothy creatures, and another Super Baby Grouper . The rest didn't have a very good day as well wrapping the day with some Todaks and Barracudas from trolling, and of course the ever present small fishes. The only consolation we had was the abundance of food. We had fruits (honeydew melon & pears), the FORGOTTEN bread, and we bought 8 packs of nasi lemak with fried chicken and 4 packs of fried mee with fried chicken and we DID NOT leave them behind. And drinks we had mineral water, milo, nescafe & 100+. So although the fishes weren't biting much, WE SURE WERE!!! :-p

Good Morning Pekan!!! Ever present small fishes on Apollo.

FIRST Drop & FIRST Catch of the day, on IMA GUN 40g.Another baby...