6 July Changi Offshore fishing with Ah Chong

It was hard to think i was going on a Changi trip again. It's been almost a year since the last trip and on this trip i fished with some old friends again. It was like the great old times except something which was a first for me. The current was great today and the rainy weather was slowly clearing up. There will be a good pause in current flow just right after we board the boat. That will be good for some drifting action while we wait for the current to pick up in the afternoon.

At Changi, deep sea species are not known to reach huge sizes. It's getting harder to fish there nowadays with more land being reclaimed and the Diamond Trevally (Chermin) breeding area being cleared out by trawlers. Still, more and more artificial reefs are being constructed and the debris will be attracting more coral.

We did drift fishing for the morning but we did not have luck but Ah Chong still managed to get one table sized grouper. I myself missed a take which took me by surprise. It's been some time fishing here so must get used to the conditions...

Then, the unthinkable happened... Ah Chong's boat engine died down in the middle of the big shipping channel and we were stranded! A few attempts to start the engine was made by Ah Chong but eventually Ah Chai's brother came to tow us to the nearest shallow reef area away from the shipping channel. We were dismayed as we knew fishing would be affected. Hopefully, Ah Chong could fix the engine and we could get going.

Ah Chong @ Work

Thankfully, I knew this reef and we were lucky to be nearby to be able to be towed to this reef. At this reef, threadfins, parrot fish, big snappers and groupers were landed before. It was a man made breakwater which was made some time back. During construction, debris and rocks got into the water. Now, it's a solid reef after years of coral growth. Sadly, we were not positioned at the drop off at the corner. We were still at a good area though with lots of snags and rocky break offs.

At reef's edge!




There were lots of small nibbles and we landed a couple of small groupers and deep sea kims. After that, the action started. Discmen casted out parallel to the man made breakers. The tactic was to bounce of the reefs. He had many takes including one very fast take followed by a bust off by the suspected big rock. He landed 2 slightly bigger than table sized Grouper by using this method. If only we had brought HK Hooks along... Sim also landed one Grouper by just dropping down his rig to the bottom.

Grouper mania

We spent the next few hours there talking nonsense and exchanging stories. We had our lunch there too. The bites came with the change of tide only so we were pretty bored most of the time. AG landed the virgin fish on my new Calstar 600 xl 10-25 paired with an Accurate 197. Her comment that it was like reeling up a sinker. Hahaha...

After some time, Ah Chong had given up fixing his engine and we would have to be towed back to the jetty. However, he was still pretty enterprising, letting go bit by bit of anchor rope so we could "Shift" spot. We drifted along the breakers slowly and we got our rewards towards the end. Our towboat was coming when mini hell broke loose! 

Lazy fishing ... and then!....

I was holding my rod lazily about to go to sleep when my rod dipped violently and the fish which did that took out lots of line. My pre set drag was too little for it and i hit the lever... After that the violent thrashing resumed but the fish couldn't take out line. The initial run made me think it was a kim or something that could run fast but after it was knocked out in mid water... it was what it was... the Ang Cho...

Rewarding the long wait...

Sim also had a take here and another Ang Cho was landed but the tow boat was already here and off we went back to the jetty...

End of the day... it was a pretty decent catch considering we were stuck most of the time...

My next booking is in September... Hopefully the boat doesn't fail again and we can do some REAL fishing... Hehe...