Burma Banks - Part III - Chillis

Here comes the most important part of ANY fishing trips...FOOD. There are some ppl who are not very particular. Thankfully, my usual kakis are very. Not that we want 3 course meals to be served when we are fishing. It's just that we wanna make sure we are well fed even when we are in the middle of nowhere. So whenever we go fishing, we always make sure we have enough food...tidbits...snacks...fruits...drinks...etc etc. If the fish don't eat, WE EAT!! I think the must have for any trip is watermelon. Which must be stored in the coolbox with ice!! And to be eaten around 3/4pm when everyone is all drained from the sun. Ahhhhh... Heaven........

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Ok Ok...back to food onboard PG. Lets keep it simple. If you like spicy food, you'll love PG. If you don't or can't take it, big ass problem. The amount of chillis they used in all the dishes is as though they are floating all over the ocean and they just scoop it up and chuck it in the dishes! I'm no fan of chillis, but I don't mind spicy food. So overall food experience was good and very tasty. Oh... their dishes are also very 'porky'. Almost everything has pork. So another thing to take note of.

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The only down side of food is the earlier mentioned lack of chairs and table to eat. Other than that, overall food experince is good :)

Our chef :)

This was a shot taken when we were having breakfast in town. Nothing fancy.
Fried lala and tomyam soup. The lala were superb. Big and juicy. And the tomyam is damn power!
Pork with chillis. Vege with chillis. Thank god their soup no chillis...
Paste and chillis and stuffs for rice noodle. DIY.
The rice noodle.
And the soup for the rice noodle.
More chillis and meat, and vege.

Burma Banks - Part II - Polaris Gold vs Crystal Coral

Finally, Part II!!!!

Lets talk about the boat, Polaris Gold (PG). Since the only other bigger boat that I've been on is Crystal Coral, that's the only comparison I can do. And also it's more relevant, I think in Malaysia these are the more popular ones beside Sea Maiden 1 and...nah don't know any others. :-p So refer to CRYSTAL CORAL for some references.

Exterior wise, the PG looks newer and more aero-dynamic. And the short stairs in front to go the the top deck is a very 'friendly' alternate entrance/exit. Captain's cabin - The PG definitely looks cleaner.

Captain's bed.
The front deck with additional rod holders. This is where we keep all our popping rods as we used the front decks for popping.
Side - sufficiently spaced.
The back area. The 2 doors would be the toilets and the left would be the kitchen. The floor on the lower left of the picture would be their freezer.

Entrance to the living area.

The crampy living area with the tv and stuffs. CC definitely win handsdown here with proper sitting place and speakers although we didn't really turn the speakers on. But who cares!?!? It's there!! :-p
Sleeping area. Comparatively, I prefer the sleeping area of CC. It's slightly more spacious.

More sleeping areas 'downstairs'.



The shower. Unfortunately, unlike CC, no hot shower. And size wise, CC wins hands down. And it tends to flood.

That's about all. Didn't take pictures of the deck but it were't very spacious. One of the MAIN downfall of PG is the lack of tables and chairs; there's no proper sitting place. And that applies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The next posting will be on food, and you'll see that our food are either placed on the floor or on top of the red ice box and we either eat sitting on the floor, or standing or just sit on the side of the boat. Overall, the PG is and looks newer. But in terms of 'built for anglers', CC is top notch. The dining cum battle station table is a total winner. We have a mini abeit cacat but full functioning juke box. Simple things like permanent marker hanging beside the fridge for you to write your name on your mineral water bottle. A big as storeroom for all food and snacks.

So all in all, if I'm given a free trip to choose between CC and PG, Crystal Coral all the way!!!

238

238 days since my last posting!!! I'm BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D Back from Myanmar!!! Hahahahaha...

This is totally crazy. I just stopped from Burma Banks - Part I and disappeared for 238 freaking days. Before I go any further, if you are reading this, PLS DROP A COMMENT and let me know you are out there!!! It really got me wondering...is anyone still reading my blog? Or shall I title this post 'Death of KY Jigging Space'?

Anyway...a lot happened in the past 238 days. Lets start from the beginning...After Burma Banks (which I'll post some pictures later), it was BAU (business as usual) at work. But things got a lil busy as I was gonna change job so there were lots of handover to be done. Then when I started my new job, LEAVE APPLICATION was ceased automatically. Therefore it wasn't just the blog that kinda died...fishing died too. I've only gone to the sea ONCE in the past 238 days...ONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even that also weren't a very fruitful one. (which I'll post some pictures later too)

Anyway, things are looking bright again. The fishing is gonna resume AND so is the buying. Several new members were added to the family; couple of rods and reels. The Poseidon Spin Jerker's elder brother has joined the family, and the eldest is on the way. There's also a 4'8'' XXH new member. Nature Boys also joined the family. And how can I miss out on the 2008 lineups of Stellas, whom have already joined the family!! The Stella 3000C is going through more cosmetic changes. There are stuffs from Accurate and Alutecnos. MORE stuffs are coming in from Plat, Tackledirect, Melton Tackle & Anglers Pro. Jigs wise, the total weight is still growing. So in summary, it's totally BRIGHT!!!!!!

And I've also got into some other mini investment outside of fishing. Bought a XboX 360 a while ago along with Sony's 42 LCD. A double storey linked house was purchased. So that's a total bomb. And a CATCH OF A LIFETIME was caught sometime back. So yeah... a lot have been going on, and it's about time to blog about them ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So lets see what's coming up in the next few posts...gotta arrange my thoughts... First it'll definitely be Part II of Burma Banks. That may be broken down into several posts. Then some of the mini trips that I went on in the past several months. Then the heaps of new toys. Then the CATCH OF A LIFETIME. Hmmm...I think I'll post the XboX and Sony LCD too. They deserve some attention too since they are part of the family.

So if you are still reading, stay tune as things should get all heated up again. Maybe a bit slow on the fishing reports as leave application will be tough until my job confirmation at the end of the year. So til then, no fishing trips more than 2 days. But everything is LOOKING TOTALLY BRIGHT!!!

AND ONCE AGAIN, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, DROP ME A NOTE AND LET ME KNOW!!! PLEASE!!!!

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!!!!

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...