We are long fans of squidding at Sibu Kelong and what better month than to be the first wave of egi crazed fishos who might encounter the first wave of squid invasion coming to the Sibu Kelongs? We started out planning this trip about a month ago but there were not much people interested in the trip.
In the end, after many ups and downs, we still went for the trip... We took the car rental option. It's slightly more expensive but perfect for short simple fixes. I guess we'll be using more of the car next time because it's quite comfortable and fuss free as we do not need to lug our iceboxes when going through customs.
We had a quick breakfast at Johor before heading up to the jetty.
We were ECSTATIC when we reached the jetty as there was no one else on the list. We are the only ones to the kelong. This was great news as we would have luxury of space.
We boarded the kelong after the boat ride and had a quick lunch. Me and Momok quickly setup and tested the waters for squid and fish. Momok's sister got quite a few larger than usual Leng Chiam but there weren't any squids moving around. I then got itchy and put out a dead prawn on floater rig for the Todak... The Todak took my bait the moment it hit the water but but but... it was a HUGE Todak and made a damn big splash on the water. It took out my 60m of line in around 2 seconds and i could see the backing. I had no choice but to stop it and burst my light leader... -_______________-
Momok joined me and we were getting multiple hook ups from huge Todaks. It was strange that they were feeding hard on dead prawns and in the middle of lunch! Momok even got his reel STRIPPED by a monster Todak when he was not looking at his rod. The fish took all his line and he was left with an empty reel... kekeke...
Momok still landed a few Todaks and Giant Halfbeaks. They sure are fun on light tackle... best of all, we didn't have to wait long between hook ups...
After getting baked in the sun, i went around for some squids and finaly got my first day squid at around 5pm... I got a few more and even a baktao a.k.a Giant Cuttlefish came to visit me.
Dinner was also a hurried affair because the eging action will start right after dinner. Eging was good after dinner we were pulling in some squids.
Momok went to sleep after supper while i continued on... After supper, squidding was good i was having fun using big squid jigs and i was all alone at the kelong... but i too knocked out after around 3am... not before bagging a few more squids. Our total squid count was probably at 40 for the first day and night.
We woke up early the next morning and were told there was around 20 people coming today but we are still smiling as it's still little compared to usual weekends. The Todaks were not feeding heavily but we still caught some... It's hibernating for most of the day until after lunch... when the rain came pouring down and the winds went howling away... BUT it was good for squidding! Apparently either the squids were taking cover from the rain or they were here for the baitfish which took shelter under the Kelong...
We got a mini squid frenzy while the rain lasted. I managed another baktao here... After dinner, it was a full night operation for me and Momok... we squidded before and after supper. It was good fun when the squid school came. We can hookup lots of squids in a few minutes. After supper, the current died down and it was low tide... Eging came to a standstill and we went for a quick nap...
Suprisingly, Momok managed to wake up after that and we continued eging while Momok got his first Baktao... squids were being pulled up at a constant rate by us. After some time, Momok gave up while i continued. I guess it was a bad choice sleeping as before sunrise, the squids were feeding like crazy. Lol i managed to land around 10 squid after Momok sleep... all in around 20 or 30 minutes?
At sunrise, the squids were seldom feeding and i too went for some rest.
After napping, momok and me went for some todak action... can you guess what we saw? We saw an HUGE Barracuda at least 10kg... sniffing around on my live Tamban on my plastic bag floater... lol... it sniff around and circle the fish and we could see the tamban was like crazy hahaha... BUT IT DECIDED not to take.... never mind the leader will sure burst if it takes..
We later saw the Barracuda again but this time there were two of them trying to grab the half beak that we caught... after that i got pissed liao the barracuda was just swimming around lazily for easily 20 minutes liao i knew they will not be gone so fast... I rigged up a 40lbs wire tracer rig and tried halfbeak meat... the barracuda will come to the bait to sniff at it and then swim away...
I reeled up and tried a different bait while throwing the used bait down and the barra will come and grab the used bait... i tried lots of different bait with same results until i decided to use halfbeak fillet with a small dead kunning... lol guess what all of us there stare with big mouth as the barra chomp the bait... BUT BUT BUT... it just stay there munching the bait...lol...i made a mistake here as the fish was not running and i was using big circle hook i had to strike and the circle hook came out of the mouth,,,after that it still hang around and sniff my bait but no longer took it anymore... what an old lazy barra... there were 2 or 3 of them now and all they did was swim around lazily and sniff my baits.
This is the video of the small cuda sniffing my bait... if only i could hook up the big big 1....
We had a quick photo taking with the makeshift eging table. Anyone want to guess the total number of squids and baktaos...? It was... 84 pcs... kekeke... I'm sure we will be back to the kelong... it's just too addictive for squids...
Enjoy the pictures below....
Comments
Cheers
However I have some questions for you and I hope for your guidance.
1. Is it possible to use the rods there to catch those fishes?
2. What kind of bait and line and hook should I bring? Any equipment I should buy to emulate your success?hehe
3. How do you catch the sotong? Do I have to be like the bedok Jetty ppl and light a lamp before scooping the sotong out with a net?
4. Is there really alot of Sotong now?
5. Which Kelong did you go? I booked the Ah Fatt Kelong.
Thank you so much my friend. If you find it inconvenient to share your secrets, can I trouble you to email me instead? thank you!
The rods there are quite ok but we are picky anglers so we prefer using our own rods. I guess the rods there are okay for normal usage.
We catch the sotong with squid jigs u can find them at beach road...no need lamps or lights just jig under the lights there
I guess u can say theres much sotong now as its the start of the season or rather the pre start...
we went hotboys kelong...