Monsoon Season Kelong Fishing

December Ah Ngan Kelong trip

Tide:
20th Dec 07 0037 1.3
20th Dec 07 0705 2.7
20th Dec 07 1346 0.9
20th Dec 07 2022 2.4
21th Dec 07 0154 1.5
21th Dec 07 0754 2.8
21th Dec 07 1445 0.6
21th Dec 07 2146 2.6

Chinese Calender: 十一月十一，十一月十二

December, the Monsoon period whereby the weather is pretty unpredictable and heavy downpour is common during this month. However, it is worth the risk as we have heard from some anglers saying that there are many bait fish at the Kelong which attracted big fish and hence, chances of landing a big one is pretty high. And so, despite of the weather, my kakis intended to give it a try hoping to have some serious fight with the biggy.

At 0600, we met at the Kranji MRT and by 0630 we have cleared the custom check point and reached our favorite Coffeeshop at Pelangi to have our Wanton Noodle. On this trip, there are total of 6 anglers. Darren, Marcus and our so call “Organizer”, Captain Richard Sparrow managed to gather another 2 new kakis, Bryan and Tien Siang. After our breakfast, we were to pick up Tien Siang who is staying in JB. Every fishing trip to JB we are sure to have some delay in our schedule and this time, Marcus who is also driving could not catch up with Darren and my car at the checkpoint and Darren who had already ordered his breakfast at the coffeeshop had to drive back to the Malaysia checkpoint to direct Marcus to our breakfast location. Hahahahaa....Another miscommunication happened again and this time, we had roughly only 1.5hrs to reach Tg Leman. In fact, I was quite worry of the delay as the Kelong in-charge informed me that due to the low tide in the morning, we had to reach the jetty by 0900 as the tide could hinder the boat from ferrying us from the Jetty and hence, my traveling speed have to be slightly faster despite of the poor weather.

Contact of Sibu Kelong and faciities




New Kakis and familiar faces



Red Flag-Monsoon Warning

Along the way, the weather was not favorable to us as we could see thick dark clouds hanging over our head. However, the rain last around 30 minutes and upon reaching the Jetty, the downpour has already ceased and we are just in time to reach the Jetty before 0900. All of us board the boat at around 0920 and the tide was not really that bad as what we were told. The sea was fairly choppy and upon reaching the Kelong, it started to rain. The sea was murky due to the raining season and all of us hope that the rain will ceased during our stay. After we were directed to our beds, Darren and I wander around the Kelong and saw some guys preparing to clean up their catch. I was surprised to see an 80qt coolman box was filled with many bait fish of all sizes. This indeed had given me some motivation as there were bait fish around sure there will be some biggy lurking around. The rain stopped at around 1100 and we started to jig for our bait fish. Although water is murky, landing bait fish is utterly easy. Ikan Tamban landed during this season is much bigger than those caught at Bedok Jetty.

Other than baitfish such as Tamban, Selar and Kunning, there is also some big eye trevelly lurking under the Kelong which will strike on live Tamban. Using light tackle on this fish is really exciting as one can really have a good fight. Bryan was lucky to caught one big eye trevelly. During the day, there wasn’t much big fish and it was pretty boring. Captain Richard was bored too and so, he decided to try out fishing Todak. Getting todak is pretty easy, but getting the big ones are quite difficult as the small ones seems to be much more hungry in snatching off the bait.

Oh no, we board the same boat on the last offshore

A must to wear the warm and uncomfortable life jacket

Our handsome Captain Richard Sparrow

Raining days reaching Kelong

Wow..big Eyes..our target

Full box of bait fish

During evening time after dinner, Darren decided to try out squid jigging and was awarded a big cuttlefish which weighs more than a kg. However, the cuttlefish managed to escape after struggling in the water for a couple of minutes as Darren was not keen in pulling up the cuttlefish as he was scared of the ink. Initally, I wanted to gaff up the big cuttlefish but the Kelong uncle told me not to use it and so off goes the big cuttlefish. During the struggle of the cuttlefish, Darren’s Shakespear rod tip was broken as well. Not his luck. After 30mins later, Darren’s try out his Yozuri Shrimp hunter and had caught his first big green eye of the day but the squid managed to escape when he pull up the line. Another squid disappeared in front of him. As for me, I have no luck for squid and had lost a fish which bite my Yamashita while i was pulling my squid jig. The fish which bite my squid jig seems to be either a belt fish or Parang. Throughout the night, I caught nothing. I have even tried out luring using 10 over different types of lures but it seems useless. It was the worst night fishing I ever had in my Kelong fishing experience not even getting a small squid. Therefore I decided to change my strategies by going fishing in my dreamland which is very much better than I expected.....hohohoooo!

The first catch from Bryan and Richard

Small Selar...how to answer to my wife?

Our delicious Lunch

Bryan's one and only big eyes



Slipper fish caught by Richard

Captain Richard doing his summon Fishing Rituals

Dancing no fish, then sing for fish lor

Captain Richard highly recommended

Finally a squid for Darren

Ah Xiang with his first Kelong Todak



Captain showing off a bigger Todak

Make love with my Emperor

Save water...save the world!!!

Overall, this fishing trip is a disaster where I did not even want to bring back any Selar or tamban fish back to Singapore. No fish and no luck at all. Will wait till the monsoon is over and by then will decided on my next Kelong offshore trip.

JB-Layang Floating Kelong Trip

The Malaysia Johore Exploring Trip

Time: 0800am ~ 0500pm

Tide:
30Nov07 0352 2.3
30Nov07 0839 1.4
30Nov07 2233 0.7

Chinese Calander: 十月二十一



Sign directing us to the fishing land

Last week, was informed by my fishing kaki, Arthur, whom found a nice fishing place and had caught a 2kg Grunter (Gu-hook) . I was pretty impressed with his catch and the place he went. So, we arranged a Friday morning trip to this new fishing ground at Malaysia.

Arthur brought has wife and daughter along and also his friend, Teck Chin came along as well. We met at Permas Jaya early in the morning and the 3 cars head off to Rakit Layang, our new target fishing ground. The journey to R-Layang was a bit confusing but luckily, I have my GPS, it does helps a lot on directing the way for the trip. The toughest part of the driving is the last quarter of the journey where the road condition is not really pleasing to drive with a saloon car. Frankly speaking, at that point of time, how I wished that my ride is a 4WD….hohohooo!

The Convoy led by Arthur



One way lane



The Entrance to our fishing ground

Finally, i saw the sea

Upon reaching the fishing village, there was a pretty nice freshwater reservoir whereby there is a dam separating it from the sea. The place was nice and I have never expected that we are able to visit this kind of old style fishing village which had already disappeared from Singapore for long…long…time. Our fishing spot is not inshore but on a floating Kelong own by the malay villagers. The floating Kelong is not really a fish-rearing Kelong but a Kelong built for visitors to fish. There is a few such kind of Kelong in this area but too bad, it’s not as popular as Sibu Kelong and getting here definitely needs a transport or maybe your personal transport to be exact.

The weather was not really good as I can see some hint of dark clouds and it was pretty windy whereby the sea tends to be choppy. As this month is the monsoon season, the water in this area is sort of murky. The catch rate was not up to our expectation whereby not even a single bite for nearly a couple of hours. Moreover, I believe that there are many small fishes which have stolen our baits which causes our live prawns to be either dead or gone missing. Not a single 500g~1kg specs soul had come to rock our fishing gears. However, the only thing which keeps rocking is the floating platform. The rocking was caused by the incoming waves but no worries as it was not as bad as on a boat.

Layang information sign board

The fishing village

Our boat to the floating Kelong



Sheltered floating Kelong



Wow...so windy and where is my fish?

No fish then have a good rest

My Mee Goreng Lunch..Yummy!!!


At around 1530, Arthur had already landed a total of 3 small puffers, 1 Whiting (PasirPasir) and 1 Gelama. TeckChin landed 1 Duri, 1 Gelama and 1 puffer. For me, I landed a small eel which drops back into the water as it was trying to swallow my whole piece of prawn and luckily the hook did not set on this small fellow or else I would have a hard time cutting my line from this slimy creature.

Our lunch came pretty late and there was not enough live bait for us to use. I can feel that Arthur was not very happy as the live baited which we had requested was not delivering to us. Moreover, the tide window was closing and without live prawns, the chances of big catches were somehow equals to zero. Through Arthur’s wife, we got to know that they had some problems with the prawns as their stock had died due to the poor water condition. Luckily, TeckChin had brought some Kelong Ah Fatt’s Squid which he has kept for nearly 3 months in his fridge which comes in handy for targeting some fishes. As for me, without any live bait, I got to think of some good ways to fish. Without live prawn, we are really handicaps at this point of time.

Boxfish for fillet as bait

C'mon...where is my fish!!!

As for me, I’m pretty desperate to get some baits to attached onto my hook. So, i finally came out an idea to fillet the boxfish which Arthur had caught. As the weather is windy and there wasn't any bite, we decided to call it a day. While all of us started packing up, I went over to my Shakespear contender rod which I use a piece of boxfish meat attached to the hook. Upon retrieving, it seems i had caught sometime heavy and I thought i might have hooked onto some plastic bags. There wasn’t any fight or resistance and I just keep reeling it thinking it was not a fish. To my surprised, when the thing came up to the surface, it was a decent size grouper. Another grouper day for me as it seems i have been landing grouper in my recent fishing trip.

Yahoo..a Grouper finally!!!

Wow..a big mouth

Boat fishing anyone?

Going back home.

This fishing spot seems pretty decent and promising. Both Arthur and me decided to re-visit this Kelong once the monsoon is over and for sure, we will arrange for a offshore boat trip on our next JB-Layang trip.