Decent day considering we got cut off by 5 spanish macks aka batang Great eating fish! Was a little windy today! Need to display the fishes Biao again?! We went... too far. Must straighten the fish It was another action-packed weekend out in the waters off Desaru, and the crew at Baktao is excited to share our latest offshore adventure! 🎣 Date: 10-11 May 2025 📍 Location: Desaru, Johor, Malaysia at Tanjong Lompat 🛥️ Vessel: Ah Long Fishing Local Charter 🌊 Tide: Medium rising tide with a strong evening current (ChatGPT said this) 🎯 Target Species: Parrotfish, Grouper, Golden Snapper, and Cobia The Journey & Conditions We set out from the Desaru jetty early on Saturday morning. The weather was near perfect—slightly overcast skies with calm seas and a light breeze. Water clarity was fair, and the current started picking up around noon, giving us great conditions for bottom bouncing and drifting. The boat was fully equipped with fresh squid, live prawns, and some sabiki rigs to cat...

Not much catch report... just a trip with Ah Long from Desaru Tanjong Lompat, where we went quite far out for some bottom fishing. We went so far we even saw Ah Jiang Sportfisher. Bottom fishing was good, lost a few bigger fish, lots of nibblers around, we released the smaller fish below 800g. The fishes don't look big in the picture but they're actually table sized!  It was fun fishing with PE 1 gear and light sinkers... Great work-out on Zenaq Ikari 1.5 They really seem to love tenya... Great day, finished early and went for makan. Tasty, tasty bottom fish. Got video ok? @baktao Relax fishing at Tanjong Lompat, Desaru. #desaru #fishing #fishinglife ♬ Waterfalls - Death Cab for Cutie

Ah, the great outdoors. Short of being a dryad, these four words beautifully describe Merchong. And then you add some beef, some lamb, some tapah, some soon hock, some coral trout, some cuttlefish...  Here we are! Year 2024 in Merchong, Nenasi and with new friends. Our new friends were very positive and their target in two days of Merchong fishing was the humble coral trout. I say humble because it is just quite common here and we don't even need to go to Tioman or the faraway Jubilee reef to fish for them. Heck, we don't even go as far as Pulau Berhala. Anyway, catching the tasty ang gao here is quite predictable, just need to be lucky and present your bait well.  So did our friends hit their target? Yes! All the newbies to Merchong hit beautiful red groupers and they even busted off some bigger ones that couldn't be stopped. Champion of the trip was Ah Bao who hit three ang gaos on sabiki.  Sharing the catch report and food reports... Nothing special to share, because e...

Man, this trip is radical on many levels. I don't even know how to describe it. If you thought this Desaru fishing trip was already kind of weird, this one came out tops. Basically, only one spanish mackeral aka tenggiri was landed, one got busted at boatside. After that some Malaysian boat got jealous and drove straight into the school we were fishing at and then we ended up at a Durian stall. Taken on Jackall Bigbacker Metal Vibe 128mm 44g Taken on  Jackall Bigbacker Metal Vibe 128mm 44g The end! Oh, and I also discovered the joy of eating spanish mackeral aburi sushi!

King Chong built a new platform for catches. Extremely useful! Merchong! It’s been too long (yes it even rhymes) since we had a full-fledged fishing trip there. Merchong is actually situated at Nenasi, Malaysia. It’s after Rompin and just before Pekan. For the unacquainted Singaporean, fishing spots between Rompin, Pekan and Merchong are generally the same so they share the same fishing seasons and fishing styles. Many times, those fishing these areas may actually go to Tioman for fishing. Fishing is done in the wee hours for best fishing and so that they do not need to compete with too many boats. It is important to know where you are fishing exactly and where you are launching from. Boats from the areas above generally only have fishing licenses to fish the Pahang area and not the mersing or below area (e.g. Sibu, Sedili, Desaru) as these are considered under Johor Bahru. Exotic river seafood at Restoran 23B Rompin Restoran Dua Tiga After breakfast in JB, we headed out to Restoran 2...