Golden Pomfret frenzy!!

Works catching up.. time's flying fast.. so many things to do but so little time..
Almost forgotten that i actually have a blog hahaha.

Well this post is nothing much to shout about.. just that i've officially got my Pomfret license in fishing. Well i already got it the last time about a month back but its not counted cause as it is foul hooked.. this time i got it right in the mouth when it was nibbling my prawn bait away..

1st couple of hours i wasn't having any fun fishing and kinda regreted coming to fish on that day.. but soon grace was upon me and my sifu and we're hooking these Golden pomfret while it is having its frenzy.. all in all i caught 4 Golden Pomfret size ranging from 2kg - 3kg.. huge fish..
the worst thing is i had to carry my fish plus my sifu's fish along to go to the counter to check out of the fishing pond.

Its freaking heavy that's all i can say.. but the smile on my face... Joker also have to salute ahaha.
Here are the pic of the total pomfret we caught.. If we were to base on carrefour prices that is selling these fishes at RM 25 per kg.. we have about RM 350 here

My setup arsenal was

Rod : Lemax President Royal 6 feet

Reel : Ryobi Excia 4000

Line : Power pro 30lbs

Leader : 40 lbs el cheapo fisherman brand

Hooks : Maruto Circle hooks size 16

Fishing in Sealion on 21/06/2008

On my way to sealion at about 2.50 pm from my sifu's place in klang.. it rained super heavily.. so heavy that i hardly can see the road.. but lights were on and container lorries paving the way through the puddles of water on the road. Arrived at sealion at about 3pm. Bought baits, checked in and it was drizzling still.. went to the booth that don't have people and "park" there. Lines cast everywhere but no bites registered.

About 1 hour later.. also no bites as i've shifted places about 3 - 4 times.. tried all kinds of method.. casting, bottom and mid water.. but still no bites.. but there is a particular corner which is registering bites non stop.. but there are about 10 anglers there.. typical pasar malam situation when bites and fish landed.

Didn't produce any results as well until my sifu saw his friend.. he took my sifu's rod and he tested and tried a few places.. finally the pasar malam crowd subsided and there is a lil room to fish there.. learned a few methods by observing but i still didn't get any bites.. he got a 1st fish after about 15 minutes locating the fishes.. the next fish up in 10 minutes.. i was thinking.. damn this guy is damn good.. (heard from the people there that the boss actually pay him RM 50 so he would not fish) he's damn good.. total he fished for us for about 2 hours.. 8 hook ups.. 5 landed and 3 escaped (due to jealous ppl.. line sangkut... let go line la.. still wanna fight and though it was him that kena fish.. typical kiasu ma chan's there) 1 hook straightened and the other leader snapped..

For me still no bited yet after he registered his 3rd fish.. then his friend took my rod and tested for me.. took some dead prawns and in 15 minutes.. he registered a nibble.. after that.. he striked hard and it put my lemax black panther 6 feet rod and reel to the ultimate test.. the rod bend like a "U" shape and reel drag locked as he reel the fish in.. landed a Mangrove Jack about 1.5 kg..

This ordeal repeated for 2 more times and it was time for them to go off.. passed the rod back to me and my sifu.. time shows that fishing is already at about 3 1/2 hours and left us with 30 minutes to try and learn his method.. During this time.. i didn't realised that my drag was locked.. i registered a bite and i waited for about 3 seconds and i gave a hard jerk.. hook up but not landed.. fish lost due to hook up too early and fish lost while struggling to get free.. tried again after 10 minutes and a bite is detected and allow the fish some time to enjoy the fresh prawn on the end of the hook and saw my line moving.. a sign of fish swollowed and strike.. hook up and landed a 2kg ang cho.. all in all its a fun learning time.. the best part is .. fishes landed is with our rod, reel, line, leader, hooks, sinker and prawns.. all ours.. just the skill from them.. so proven that rod and reel is fine only our skill is not up to par..

so back to the drawing board.. have to learn to cast to the designated spot with light baits on the end of the line.. learn timing to retrieve the line.. when bites registered.. dun "kan cheong" and wait.. the longer you wait.. the higher the chances of hook up cause the fill will swollow the hook by then..

strong leader and a good rod about 7 feet with long but for fighting power and fish handling is required.. the power comes from the forearm when handling the fish.. not the wrist.. i've learn alot during this outing and it was wet (raining) fun (scooping the fish with net) and experience.. never before i brought fish as we were walking out to the counter everybody that was fishing there jaw dropped as i was holding 9 fish at the end of the lines...

What a fun experience..
Golden Snapper Top view


Fishes

A pompano

Total catch for 4 hours

A Mangrove Jack getting ready to bee cooked.

Labour day!!

1st of May.. a public holiday for most of us..

Woke up kinda early around.. 9am..prepared my stuff and head out to klang to meet up with my sifu with my uncle.. arrived klang around 10.30am... help sifu to thaw down and clean up some of the tiger prawns for breakfast later on...

This is what i had for breakfast.


Then we continued to hang out at the coffee shop until about 12.30pm.. went to tesco to buy some baits.. biscuits and water supply for our fishing later..

At 1.30pm checked in to the starcruise pond in westport.. at that time.. water is already coming in thru the water gates.

Immediately setup my rod and prepare for fishing.. there isn't much bites yesterday though but Thank God i caught some fishes.. I've used live mullet, live prawn and even dead prawn.. total catches landed.
2 White snapper and 1 queenfish.

Total catches in the icebox

The queenfish that i caught

The queenfish size compared to my slippers


The view of the pond


After 4.5 hours of fishing.. its time to call if off for the day, as the sun is setting and its super hot.. so we decided to leave and have something to eat to kill the hunger pang in us.

Okie here are the dishes that we had..
The famous hokkien mee


The queenfish cooked in some rice wine sauce


And fried egg with bittergourd and prawns


So thats about it on what i did on Labour day..

Fishing..

Well.. Most of you guys know what’s fishing already.

My favourite Quote:

Fishing: -
"The best feeling is when the fish is nibbling till you see the rod curves but not while waiting for it to nibble"

I’ve asked a friend to join me fishing one day and he described, “fishing is like watching the grass grow.”

Well conventional fishing may be.. where by you hook your worm on the hook and go to your favourite spot under a nice big shaded tree and cast out to the water and wait.. if the waiting game tends to be longer than usual.. you sleep..

Fishing its not about that.. It actually trains up your patience.. and nowadays anglers does not do what the conventional method. There are a few way to catch your fish.. if so happen the fish happened to be infront of your bait then your lucky.. what if the fish is not around your bait.. you don’t get any fish..

So the method we used nowadays its called casting.. where you can cast live bait, dead bait or even fake fish (lures). Its very simple method if you use live bait.. all you need to do is just cast out to a remarkable distance and slowly reeling in your line.
Let me draw you a simple illustration..

Pic A. conventional method of fishing vs casting Pic B

Pic A shows when you cast and wait.. you’ll have to wait until the fish actually swims around the area to get attracted to your bait.

Pic B shows that when you cast and retrieve you actually cover more areas and you will have a better chances of getting a hook up.


*this is just a simple illustration on how it works. If the method does not work, It could be cause the fishing pressure is too high are not maybe much fishes at the place you’re fishing or there is no fish at all(this is when i'm talking in the wild). I’ve used this method in pay ponds and it works very well.

For casting a lure.. it’s the same method of fishing with live bait just that you’ll have to present your lure in a way that it looks attractive to the fish to whack your lure. Fish in general look for bait fish that are injured cause it’s easier to hunt them rather than swimming around the pond chasing a baitfish.

Attached here is the fishes that I’ve caught using the casting method instead of the conventional method.


2.8 kg Golden Snapper

White snapper ranging from 1 kg - 1.6 kg and a 3kg senangin taiwan

Barramundi 1.7 kg, Mangrove Jack 1.6kg and Senangin Taiwan 4.3kg

Sorry no pics of the action and the bait setup and stuff.. cause i was fishing and my hands weren't very clean to get my hands to my cameraphone. Will try to take the next time i go fishing..

Okie the report for the last pic where i caught my biggest senangin ever recorded by me.. This happen somewhere last month when i was having my holidays and i decided to go to Sealion Pond 1 to fish.. Equiped with my Ryobi Excia loaded with 20lbs braided line and a 6 feet Lemax black panther rod.. Maruto size 14 suicide hooks.. (i'll explain what do you mean by that later)

After arriving there.. checked in and used prawns that we bought at a nearby stall before checking in cost RM0.70 per prawn.. if you buy at the stall at the entrance of the pond will cost you Rm 1 per prawn..

Started casting and there's this malay chap who got an immediate strike after casting his bait.. immediately i lend him a helping hand after he finished fighting the fish and controlled it beautifully into the landing net.

He landed a senangin taiwan and it weight approximately 4kg.. Then back to my rod.. i felt a hard "thug" at the end of my line.. waited for about 10 seconds and reel in my line slowly.. no response.. but i discovered that the fish whacked the prawn head.. so my prawn now is very much dead, i just cast at the place where the malay chap landed his fish.. immediately after my bait touch the water, not even 15 seconds.. my line went out fast and i realised that a fish took my bait.. i gave it a hard strike and my reel went screaming and i registed a "fish on" the fight was hard as i haven't been fishing for a very long time.. It pulled my line non stop and there were stilts in the middle of the pond.. all i can see is that my line is heading towards it.. the next thing you know.. the worst fear among all anglers.. the fish got stuck to the stilt.. I was like "AIYO" .. "WHY LA" .. then there is another malay chap adviced me to just hold the rod and keep it steady and he said eventually the fish will give up one. So i gave it a try and i see my line head out in the open where there is nothing for the fish to take cover now. .i start pumping my rod and reel in my line and after about 5 minutes.. i landed this huge fish..the pulling power is still fresh in my memory.. what a nice fish.. i removed the hook and took out the fish clip and put the fish into the water to let it remain fresh before i check out.

After another 10 minutes i register another hook up.. this time its a mangrove jack and the fight wasn't long about 3 minutes.. and the fish is landed.. then the 3rd fish landed 5 minutes after that..i was thinking.. if this goes on like this.. i will have overflowing of stock for several months.. but too bad.. it didn't came to reality.. all in all thats it for the 1st hour of fishing.. and the balance 2 hours.. i was just renting the chair there to warm my ass.. no more bites registered.. but its ok.. Thank God for it and it gave me a wide smile on my way checking out of the pond..

I still remember the words on the people i passed by "Wah.. look at that boy with that fish" "Wah.. besornya" hehehe.. in my heart. Its all grace..

Thats the report i have for this time..

Next post.. maybe i'll post my fish rigs.. hooks and fishing stuff.. till then.. hope you enjoyed reading it.