How I missed this beach! Fishing at Desaru has always been special for me as it was one of the easiest places to get started on light jigging last time. The glory days of TU lighthouse were simply amazing and I'm sure the older anglers would know what I am talking about. Countless queenfish, GT, mackerals and so on... basically all the pelagics you could dream of!  Desaru is also a place that is fairly near us (under an hour drive) that will produce good sized tenggiri batang also known as spanish mackerals. It is also the place that I caught some of my nicest red groupers on jigs . The downside of Desaru? As it is a little more exposed than other fishing areas up the east coast of Malaysia, the weather can be a little unpredictable and stormy or bad conditions at sea will mean you might have to cut your trip short. That's what happened on this trip but I am not complaining! During this trip, we started out very late at 10am and the fishes were in a frenzy till about 1230pm. Th...

Always always try new approaches to your usual fishing grounds. It's a golden rule that I abide in and this mindset will produce surprises sometimes especially when the fishing is tough. It was one of those trips on Jeff. We would start out by spinning our prawns in the shallows for the small jacks and snappers. Just that today, they weren't really biting.  So I thought heck... let's try something totally different. I took out a 80g green top kurau jig and did some casting. The idea was to simulate baitfish fall while horizontally retrieving the jig. This will allow me to cover more ground and to also simulate fleeing or injured tamban. I decided on a 80g one simply because I wanted to go for size. Small tiny micro jigs won't work as they are for folks that usually target smaller fish. Risky I thought to myself... as the water was just up to 5m and there were rocks peppered throughout the terrain.  A few casts into the strategy, I connected with something that took the ...

I've been quite bored of fishing recently because it's just so predictable. It has come to a point where it's just about time and abit of luck. But... this guy called "AB" made it interesting again by showing me how to use an eging rod for offshore fishing!  So on my last trip I tried it out... and I think I will be trying it out again fairly soon.  Some thoughts...  It is not true that you will get bullied or it is not strong enough. I was able to handle up to size 4 sinkers, 40g to 60g jigs and 40g sinking minnows. I was using a Shimano Vanquish 3000 with 10lbs braid, 40lbs fluorocarbon leader. If required, I can still get the fish up easily. Jigging and casting on the rod is actually not tiring. In fact it was fun!

Stuck with local Changi Fishing because of COVID-19 I've been super and too busy over the past few months to update anything regularly and to be honest, would have forgotten most of the context of past fishing trips to write out anything substantial. Hence, posting the below trips as an update instead. The trips were on Ah Fong Fishin, he's probably no.1 when it comes to Fishing Charters in the Singapore, Changi region. Dec 2021 Ah Fong Trip Not such a good catch but some decent sized fishes... March 2022 Ah Fong Trip Probably a farmed specimen. But still a very good fight. Weighed in at about 3kg. One of them pesky groupers This good sized specimen was taken on kelong sotong via tenya March 2022 Ah Fong Trip This grouper was caught on octopus bait and was one of the most tasty gaos I've eaten. Food CR:  https://www.instagram.com/p/CbZ7b9OpLfp/ Not sure why no total catch CR. Probably caused it sucked? Tried out a few contraptions that day Tried this too... March 2022 Ah Fo...

If you're into the local fishing scene, you must have heard of fishing for giant groupers (gao tun) or tong gas (how the local fishing community in Singapore and Malaysia calls it) in Singapore. It's an interesting form of fishing that takes much patient, perseverance and skills. Personally, I have never caught any grouper above 10kg in local waters! Thus, my experience with a recent 8kg hybrid grouper at Changi waters on Ah Fong's boat shocked me because of how hard the fish pulled. It does seem that hybrid groupers fight much better than their orange spotted cousins and are also much more sneakier! Tackle used: Zenaq MYS Fooketo Twitch 59-3 Shimano Ocea Jigger 2000 NRPG with YGK Jigman X4 PE 5 Shockleader #20 Seaguar FXR Fluorocarbon Biteleader #16 Seaguar FXR Fluorocarbon Hooks 2 x Lions Fishing cheap hooks Description of fight: Fight was not easy. First the boat went over a hill so it was shallow followed by a downslope. At the end of the downslope though was something ...