Pre Chinese New Year Changi Offshore

Under top secret directives from the family, I was despatched on an offshore fishing mission to procure top secret items for the Chinese New Year Eve Reunion Dinner... Well to keep things simple, Ah Chong had an open slot as someone cancelled the booking... So I had to take it right? The previous day saw 30 over fish and Threadfin Salmon but luck was not with us this time and we managed just an average catch...

Joining us on this trip was Momok sister and beginner's luck was well with her!

Current was lacklustre and a little late so I was thinking that the bite may pick up around 3pm... well it certainly did but after the bites started coming in, so did the thunderstorm!!!

Terence with a good sized chor


This trip was extremely boring for me and I only managed to get two ang chors aka golden snappers... Ah Chong managed a beautiful Ang Kuey aka red snapper... Somewhere towards the end of the trip, Momok sister's rod bent all the way and the line kept going out. She thought that she might have snagged onto a rock while we were drift fishing.... She called to momok and momok went over to save her from the snag... or so we thought...

As momok reeled in, he found out that it was not a snag at all but a grouper!!!! A grouper close to 4lbs was brought in admist the cheers of the crowd... Well done well done i would say...


Well, below is the total catch... All of us had some fishes to bring back the chinese new year... and like they say.. nian nian you yu... and it's a red beginning to the new year for us!

Tom's First Peacock Bass

This is yet another Peacock Bass report. There seems to be nothing else that is easier to catch than these aggressive fish. This trip, we brought Tom along and he is raring to go as it's his first time luring for Peacock Bass outside the US...

When we were into the fishing grounds, I waited for awhile while Tom and Shawn set up. I wanted Tom to get the first cast as the fish would be unshy. But they took quite awhile so i gingerly made the proverbial first cast and BANG! I got a hit on the first cast! A good sized Peacock Bass which was well over 2lbs gave me some fun... but alas it threw hooks. Now Shawn was next and on his first cast as well... BANG! Tom was peeking over now and all of us were soon casting our lures out.

The fish were noticeably more fiesty perhaps due to the hot weather. Small ones were chasing our lures and hitting them constantly. This may have put the bigger ones off.

Shawn's Peacock


Tom finally got his first Peacok Bass but it almost dropped back into the water! Awesome stuff! We were getting hits and misses and the glaring sun... Tom and me worked the weedy patch at some point with our frogs and both of us registered good hits but the fish were totally blind! I made a mental mode of the weedy area as we called it a day... I will be exploring it further in another trip... Monster Tomans and Haruans were sure to be lurking... Hehehe...

Tom's first few Peacock...



I managed to get a crazy bugger...

Malaysia Desaru Johor Freshwater Luring

Catch reports are coming up slowly due to the Chinese New Year period having a massive slowing effect on the author. Hahaha. This was a trip we were very excited about but disappointed as a whole. Freshwater fishing for Toman in natural rivers in Malaysia or Thailand is very different from Singapore as water bodies are extensive and have more natural vegetation. The Toman here are more "natural" and one must go during the "season" to get more hits.

Luring in this kind of environments is an instant draw for many toman anglers simply because it is wilder and much more challenging. Weedless lures like frogs, spoons are much more popular than what we use in Singapore as weedy terrain is common. Diving lures are popular as the Tomans can lay deep. Trolling lures like the Rapala Deep Tail Dancer is one of my favourite lures when slow trolling for the Toman.

So much for the background... Now for the actual report...

During our trip, the first thing we notice is that it took a long time to actually get out on the water as the boatman need to fetch the boat one by one.. Zzz... That was pretty not exciting.. When we finally got out onto the water it was already 9am... dawn timing is over by this time and looks like it's going to be a hard time luring those Toman and getting them to bite...

Launching boat 1... then driving out to get another boat...


Boat 1 with another group launched out


Finally launching our own boat...


A video of the launching...


Pushing the boat out into open water


It's our first time on the boat and the first thing i noticed about the boatman is that he is very quiet and doesn't seem excited at all hahahaa.... but as we started fishing, he show us that he know a thing or two by offing the engine once we got near to the strike zone and paddling. He was quite hardworking and never stop exploring spots for us so it was up to us to perform lol....

We're finally on the water!



Fishing in the natural environment...



Weedy...



But sadly, either we weren't up to the mark or the fishes weren't keen... We only had one big hit on Shawn's scumfrog the moment the lure hit the water but the fish totally missed the lure! I had also lost a fish after it threw the hooks... after casting my Komatsu Frog from sincere tackle right at the fish.... looking at the abrasion marks on the 60lbs leader, this looked to be a good sized Toman at least above 4kg.... Tommy landed a smallie on Rapala lure....

Tommy with his first Toman ever


No shelter means you must protect your face with cloth... rendering yourself to become darth vader fisher


Around lunch time we headed to the floating house to cool down, talk about our morning fishing and have some drinks... lol this is a nice part of the trip as it brings back kampong memories and made me feel like a man in the wild hahaha....

Relaxing....


Mr snake at the house...


The guys had a good rest



A good relaxing day out of work



After that we set off again in part two to find our Toman.... And yup Shawn got a big hit... good sized Toman again as you can see in the video.... But the landing was a little rushed and rod angle was not correct... thus the Toman managed to get away... "AIYAHHHH" hahahaha....

Shawn losing his good sized Toman


Shawn landed one small one later...


I was also given a very good chance to land a fish later on when a toman around 3kg took my white scumfrog.... all of us were looking elsewhere and i actually striked the fish out of reaction lol... it was a good hookup and i quickly bring the fish in BUT... just as i was about to land it... it got away... as i forgot to close my snap swivel... OMG...... That was it.... We called it a day and started our long journey back as it started pouring...

No matter what, we still love doing this!


We'll be back for another trip to check out the place again;.... Hopefully this time we can launch earlier... hahaha....