A Sedilli Offshore trip before Monsoon

This Sedilli trip was quite a short notice for me as out of a sudden, my fishing gang decided to try an offshore trip to Sedilli. Fortunately, we were able to locate a malay boatman who is available and the trip was confirmed on the 1st November. Total, there were five of us, Darren, ThianSiang, Lucong, Marcus and me.

On my last few Sedilli boat trip, i was with the other boatman and had never try out this boatman for fishing before. I was informed from my malaysia fishing friends that this particular boatman was not very popular and had poor reputation with the regular mainly due to his boat parking skill as well as his fishing spot was not that good. Some of them even came across without any fish for the whole trip. Eventually, he was given a nickname as "Holland-no.1" Since he is our only choice and my gang is desperate for an offshore trip....we must have full confidence with him!!! Indeed, all of us was not really convinced about the comment and moreover, the sea is big and there is full of surprises.

Our meetup place

At 0430am Saturday, the four of them meet me at my JB house and we set off to a nearby 7-eleven to buy our breakfast, Lunch as well as some ice pack for our catch. As i'm the only one who went frequent for offshore trip, preparation for seasickness is a must for the others. Before the trip, i have informed Darren to prepare some Ginger flavour tibits and fresh ginger for the trip and i will bring them some seasickness pill which i found it to be very effective for offshore 1st timer. Everyone was very excited before the trip and i can see that everyone has hardly enough rest.


1kg live prawn please

Next, we proceed to Kota Tinggi to collect our pre-ordered live prawn. Over there, we met up with a few anglers who is also going for an offshore trip at Sedilli. When we reached the Jetty around 7am, we could see dark clouds handing over our head and the strong wind almost blowing off our hope of going for an offshore trip. Our boatman informed that we can still head off for fishing and surprisingly the weather become better and throughout the trip, it was a cloudy day with not much sun.


Look at the sky

Hmmm..hope to fill up the icebox

All the best with "Holland" boat

Our group photo

After around and hour ride, we reached our 1st fishing spot where all of us eagerly wait for our first bite of the day. The sea was rocky due to the strong wind but the weather is fine. Soon, Lu Cong got his first bite and he had a good fight with a beautiful Queenfish that is around 2kg in weigh. Our boatman informed that this spot is promising with big fish, he wanted us to try out live-baiting. As i'm not too sure what fish is lurking around this water, i decided to used my 80LBs flurocarbon leader attached to a 5/0 circle hook and hook on a 6-7inch fat juicy Selar fish. Soon, the alarm from my Shimano Torium 30 was screaming for merely a minute and the line was slacked when i reached my rod. After retrieving back my line, the bait fish is gone and what left is my 80LBs FC line. What monster is this??? I really could not imagine what kind of fish is around us and i'm quite dishearten at that very moment as i did not bring any wire with me.

LuCong with his Queenie

Luckily, our boatman had some fishing wire with him and i had my 2nd chance. Without delay, i release my 7-inch baitfish into the water and not long, the monster came back. Once again,my Torium 30 was screaming for my help and the fish was on. I can see that my Zeus Red Scorpion PE2-4 rod was bending for its mercy and i'm sure that i can land this fish. After a few minutes fight, the fish came up. While its almost reaching to the surface, ThianSiang shouted to me that its a very big fish....i can also see it length and it was a huge Barracuda which was estimated to be 10kg above in weigh. However, while the fish was struggling, my line give way and the Barracuda managed to escape. Sadly, no chance for me to have a photo with the toothy fish.

Sleeping time when Boat anchor stuck

At out 2nd spot, our poor boatman and his decky had a hard time retrieving the boat's anchor and had spent nearly an hour figuring out how to recover In the afternoon, our bottom fishing with live prawn was not very promising. No big fish was landed but many unwelcome nibbling from the small yellow snapper. In the end, most of us has already gave up on the bottom and have switched to using Sabiki on targeting big fat juicy Selar.

Bunch of Baby Queenfish landed by Darren

Our last spot was mainly for live bait but turned out to be the climax of our trip. There was a feeding frenzy around our boat which was a common scene for me. There was a school of Skip jack Tuna feeding on the small bait fish. Seeing this, our boatman told us to use live bait to target this Tuna and soon, all of us were waiting patiently for the fish to take our bait. 10 minutes later, a familiar scream from my Shimano Torium 30 was heard and it was a fast and powerful take from the fish. The line was peeling off from my reel at an alarming speed and my Zeus rod had a good bend with the hook securely set on the fish. The fight was not long as the fish was no match for my setup and shortly, the 3.5kg Tuna aka "Thongkol" was gaffed up by the boatman and a victory for me.

A good fight with the Skip Jack Tuna

A good shot with the"Thongkol"

Nice big Tuna

Our total catch for the day

Overall, everyone is happy to land some fishes on this trip especially the big Selar on the Sabiki which gave everyone a good fight with their light tackle. As for me, i'm pretty happy to land my first Tuna but the main objective for me is to make sure that Darren and Lu Cong were able to regain their confidence in offshore fishing and for sure it was a satisfied one indeed.

My very 1st Rompin Sailfish trip - Part 1

Date:8th Oct 08 till 10 Oct 08

Location: Rompin

Target: Sailfish/Billfish

Rompin has always been the most productive place for Sailfish fishing and the thrill on fighting a sailfish in the open sea is really fantastic and fun. The speed and strength of this monster can really test your endurance and one has to be physically and mentally prepared for the big fight under the hot sun. Once you got a hang of it, you will definetely love the challenge on the Sailfish and the awesome feeling of conquer this surface monster. In Rompin, there is plenty of Sailfish for all anglers to fight till you get boring.

On this trip, there are 12 anglers and we were divided into 2 groups of six. In our group, there is Michael, Winson, Cici, Sulin, Lam and me. After our American breakfast at the Seria Resort, we went back to our chalet for some freshening up, and soon we were on the way to the Jetty to board the speedboat whereby the Jetty is just 5minutes drive from our chalet.

Soon we were all speeding out from the estuary into the big sea. However, the weather is not pretty good as there's some drizzling and we can see some dark clouds hanging over our head. Luckily, after around 2 hours, the weather become better and the sea was just fine for fishing. During this time of the year, it is the peak season for sailfish fishing and we can see many fishing targeting Sailfish. Every stop we make, there will be some other fishing boats as well. After 45 minutes, we reach our first spot for bait fish and after changing a couple of spot targeting baitfish, we managed to land around 15 pieces of baitfish which is just ample for some Sailfish thrills.

Our first Sailfish spot, Winson managed to hook up a Sailfish with his PE1-3 rod pairing with a Caldia Kix4000 on a Trairao lure but sadly, due to the strength of the Sailfish and the gear used were quite under-powered, the main line snapped and the Sailfish managed to escape and not forgetting to take the lure with it as well. Soon, i managed to have a feel on the Sailfish fight. I was with my Zeus PE2-4 Red scorpion and my Torium 30 using live bait. It was a really awesome challenged and throughout the fight, the agony was clearly shown on my face. However, while the Sailfish was coming back to the boat, it made a final big jump and my hook was thrown out. I was totally speechless at that very moment. Sadly, my chance of landing it was diminshed.

Lam was the first person to land the Sailfish successfully but took him a long time to fight it. Due to his tackle was under-powered with not much drag on his Old school Penn multiplier, the fish was controlling the angler rather than the angler controlling the situation. On the last few minutes of fight, i helped Lam to land the fish onboard and both of us will happily posing with our victory catch. Both of us were actually first timer on catching Sailfish.





In total, all of us on our boat managed to land a few Sailfish on this trip. As for me, i caught the 5th and the 9th, which is the final Sailfish of the day all by myself. The last sailfish which i caught had the most fearsome and tiring fight. During my fight against the fish, everyone on board thought that it was a Blue Marlin. When it took my bait, it was dashing at a very fast pace and make a few jumping at the right of the boat and then making a split-second U-turn following by some surface dancing to the rear of the boat. Poor me have to run round the boat to make sure my line was still securely intact with the fish. At the very moment, i was like a crazy guy running and shouting around the boat as well as making sure no one will get hurt from my line. After going to the rear, the fish suddenly make a 150m sprint and i can see that my line from the Torium 30 was peeling off at an alarming speed. This mad fish definately had some steriod before taking my bait. It was a fight which no one had throughout the day. After approxiamtely 15-20 minutes later, the tamed fish was being reeled back. I had a cleared victory and this long and tough fight really makes me exhausted.

At around 6pm, we headed back to the Jetty and back to our chalet for some wash up. It was the best fishing experience i ever had and withour fail, i'll be back for more action in Rompin.

Rompin Preparation (8th Oct 08 -10th Oct 08)

Have been doing many night shift for the week and today will be the last night of my shift work before my Rompin trip. My Zeus Red ScorpionPE2-4 matching my Torium 30, Majorcraft Offblow Matching up with My Daiwa Caldia 4000 and last but not least, My new customize rod pairing up with my faithful workhorse Abu Ambassadeur 6000C. Although i'll be having just a few hours of rest before heading to Rompin, it really a golden opportunity for me to have my very first Sail fishing experience. The Rompin Fishing will be a 3Day 2 night event but fishing will only be from morning till late afternoon and then back to our chalet for a good rest. First day will be solely for sails and the next day will be bottom fishing and my favorite Squid jigging. Will update my trip as soon as possible with all the biggy landed and of cos, a photo of a Sailfish and me....hohohoooo :P

Another sneak preview on my 90% completed Rod

All the binding is done for this fellow and i'm just left with some epoxy coating onto the bindings and then last but not least attaching the butt cap and everything will be completed. Just in time for my offshore testing next week at Rompin :P



Aligning the guides before binding


Binding of Tip and 1st guide



My almost 3 hours job


Last check on the guides after binding completed



My Ambassadeur 6000C seating on the new rod

September trip to Ah Ngan Kelong

Date: 26th September - 27th September 08 (Fri- Sat)
Kelong: Ah Ngan Sibu Kelong
Pax: 4 (Kee, Darren, Lu Cong and me)

Hmmm....Nothing much to write about on this trip as the catch was not really good for us. Mostly small fish such as Miss Wong, Rabbit fish and small Bait fish. Luring and Squid jigging was a total failure without a single bite throughout the night. Thinking that at least some squid or Parang can be landed during the night but nothing was biting for everyone in the Kelong except for the Malay Kelong helper who keep on landing some decent size bait fish. However, the folks who went offshore had pretty good results. Overall, our fishing is not up to our expectation......we'll be back for some serious fishing soon!!!

Our breakfast at Sedilli

My favorite "Bak Kut Teh" (Pork Rib Soup)

Waiting at the Jetty

Where is the boatman?

Kee with his Todak

This Todak was released unharmed

Wow...a fruitful offshore

Big Parrot landed

Another Big parrot and reef shark

Nice Parang aka Sai-to

Our rooms at Kelong

Time to pack up

The Sneak Preview of my customize Light jigging and bottom Fishing Rod

Until today, i have almost completed more than half the process of my rod building journey. Although the fishing rod which i'm making is not that complicated but it takes time and lots of trial and errors to reach this stage. Through this few days of experience, i can concluded that the most important thing for rod building is to have lots of patience and building a rod is not that simple at all. The amount of time spent, the strained on my shoulder and the tiredness on my eyes has proven to me the reason why rod makers are charging a few hundred dollars for building the fishing rod. Oh boy!......it definately not an easy job.

Putting the EVA



Attaching the Fuji Reel seat




Putting the top EVA




Aligning the Fuji Guides

Although, this rod which i have built does not comes with very fanciful wrapping, 5-6 hours is still needed doing it with many trials and error in between and it was really a painful experience. However, the sense of satisfaction really made it worthwhile. Like most people has said "NO PAIN, NO GAIN" and it does applied to rod building as well.

Check on the guide Placement



Starting with the under-binding



9Fuji guides + 1 Tip




A simple Cross-Wrapping




Is it nice?


Currently, i have just completed with the under-binding of the guides. Soon, will start with all the guides binding as well as the final epoxy coating. If time permits, i will try to complete this rod for my Sail-fish testing at Rompin in early October...hohohohoooo!!!

Epoxy coating completed on the wrapping