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Pekan April Fishing For Ebek (Light Jigging)

We last visited Pekan last year in October where we had our yearly Sailfish pilgrimage. This time, we were here for the Ebek also known as the Diamond Trevally. And we did manage a few of them although they weren't around in good numbers.

We started the long 4hr drive up on a Friday night and reached the captain's house at around 5am in the morning and we took a quick nap. At 730am we woke the captain up and went to get our usual breakfast, drinks and lunch.

According to him, he couldn't get out the past few days as it was very choppy and today was also a big question mark. Luckily, as we got out of the river mouth, it was choppy but still fine.



Bringing the green horn out




We had an ass bumping time to the first spot but the spot wasted no time in giving us some ebek fever.

A triple hookup ensued after around 10 minutes of eternity. 3 of us were doing some light jigging but the fishes took live prawns set out for them. Sadly, one was lost when the line went bust. But the other two were landed after an intense battle with light tackle. Captain was using Eupro Twincraft PE 1-3 and Daiwa Luvias 3000. I was using the Twincraft PE 1-3 and Team Daiwa Tierra 3000 with Varivas Casting PE 2.5.




The fight of the ebek was entertaining and fun. The fish can take out a good amount of line while they go on their runs. You must also be careful as they might turn a big round into the unjam (FAD). But slow and steady wins the race here and the fishes tire after some time.

We had a few more hits after that but careless fishing led us to lose them. The action had all died down when i hooked onto something which moved slowly but strongly. It was peeling out my line slowly. I thought oh no... a stingray took my jig?! But the captain was adamant and just advised me to relax. The fish was moving like a slow steam train while i hung on. Somehow, it changed it's mind and swam up to the surface and we saw a huge fin cutting the surface. Some may think it was a shark but the moment i saw the shape i knew what it was... A COBIA!

I have never fought a Cobia on light tackle! I was using a Eupro Twincraft PE 1-3 and Daiwa Caldia Kix 3500 with 20lbs powerpro line here! Jig used was a smith forcast 60gm. The fish brought me a few rounds about the boat and sometimes as it was about to be caressed in and might be gaff at anytime, the crazy deckie and captain will shove their nets and gaffs into the water making alot of noise and scare the fish away. This happened for at least 3 times! 15 minutes into the fight and i was shouting at the fish! This was simply the experience of my life because everyone was cheering on and scaring the fish the moment it came in.

After 20 minutes of brutal fight though, the prized specimen came up docilely beside the boat and the captain made no mistake in gaffing the gills. A second gaff was deployed and the monster was hauled onto the boat. An exhausted me took up the fishes for a few poses! A fish weighed in at almost 20kg on the zerek grip. Job well done Nigel!

Smith 60g jig!






After that, we were greeted by bonito schools but they refused to come near the boat. I hooked up some live 1kg Barracudas on the wire and let it swim out. I had some good big takes and one big take managed to slice off my 30lbs 7 strand wire when i tightened the line. Definitely Spanish macks at work... That was almost everything for the first day and we had a sumptuous dinner.

2nd day... nothing much to note about. Our boat engine died on us at the first spot and made it impossible for us to shift spot. And best of all, the captain told us that this was not the prime spot we were to go for today. He had even prepared live crabs for us to fish up the monster parrot fishes of the deep.

FS hit an ebek at the first spot

We were stranded for 5hrs until a friend of the captain moved us with him to the next spot. The deckie hit an ebek on jig there. After that, we were towed back...

I completed the day with something wrecking my octopus jig.

When we returned to shore, we saw that the boats the went out today were averaging 30-50pcs of spanish macks above 5kg. Looks like the fishes are in now. We were disappointed but we must count our blessings for at least we had some action!

May 7 we will be back for revenge...

















Comments

Paddy Pike said…
You lot never cease to amaze me, You catch tons of fish but the food at the end of the day is allways fantastic,
Excelent blogging,
,,,Paddy,,,
Nigel said…
Paddy, it's now or never. We'll never know when these fishes will stick around. Thanks !
Unknown said…
Dear, Do you have the boat contact person ? Because we need the service. My email gt_trading1@yahoo.com. Thanks you
Nigel said…
https://www.facebook.com/rickey.tay.7?fref=ts

check out boatman fb

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