My first Offshore Trip at Sedili, Malaysia
Date: 23th Feb 2008
Chinese Calander: 一月十七日
Tide:
23-Feb 0050 2.7
23-Feb 0630 1.0
23-Feb 1228 3.1
23-Feb 1903 0.5
Since the first time I met Joon in Germany, Mannheim University in year 2003, we been talking about finding one fine day to go Malaysia offshore fishing together. All this while, It is unrealistic until recently when he informed me that on 23rd, there’s an available slot for me to Sedili Malaysia. It finally came true.
On the 22nd, Joon and I entered Johore the night before the trip as the next morning; we need to be early in order to reach the Sedili Jetty before 8am. It will be better to rest in JB and get prepared our tomorrow’s arsenal at his place. We took more than 1 hour to get off from the infamous Jam at the Causeway and I can see that many drivers and riders are getting very impatient by cutting queue everywhere in the jam in order to get out of this nightmare. At 2345, we reached his house and started our fishing conversation and doing the trip preparation until 2am. We hardly have a good sleep due to the reason that we need to wake up by 0430. It’s really unbelievable that I can still wake up with less than 2 hours of sleep.
Sun Rising soon at the Sedili Jetty
A quick breakfast at the Malay stall
At 0600, after meeting up Edmund, Leshoe and Ah Kok for the first time at the Carrefour MacDonald, we headed off to a nearby 7-11 store to purchase our drinks, Ice which we need for our cooler box and some bread for our Lunch. The road to Sedili was pretty dark without much lighting and it was awfully dangerous if you are not experience in traveling at such hours. At about 0700, we reached the Sedili Jetty...."Safely at last". As it was still early, Joon and I had a quick bite at a Malay food store before we board the boat. Hohohohooo....Come to think of it, I shouldn’t have taken the breakfast at the first place.
Finally, the sun came out
Ah Kok, Leshoe, Edmund(Organizer) and Joon
It's Malaysia Election time
Before the trip, Joon informed me that he had some experience with this boatman whereby not landing any fish for the whole day and hence he did not have any good feeling and I was told to prepare for the worst as well. Besides, there were some interesting things which Joon has mentioned earlier to me was that his friends will be trying out light-jigging and for Joon, he will try to do some Popping. For me, who have never ever tried jigging or popping, it was a pretty good experience for me to see them doing it.
The boat ride to our first fishing spot was pretty promising whereby it was near to a deserted island. It took us nearly 2 hours to reach our destination. And during the ride, Joon and friend managed to get some nap. As for me, I was not feeling well due to not having enough sleep the night before and the uncomfortable bumpy ride caused by the choppy sea. In the end, the Nasi-Lemak (Coconut Rice) which I had for my breakfast was all thrown out. After being a Merlion, I felt very much better than before. Seriously, never consume any thing before boat ride unless it was taken sometime before or else, you will be suffering like me.
The boat ride to our first fishing spot was pretty promising whereby it was near to a deserted island. It took us nearly 2 hours to reach our destination. And during the ride, Joon and friend managed to get some nap. As for me, I was not feeling well due to not having enough sleep the night before and the uncomfortable bumpy ride caused by the choppy sea. In the end, the Nasi-Lemak (Coconut Rice) which I had for my breakfast was all thrown out. After being a Merlion, I felt very much better than before. Seriously, never consume any thing before boat ride unless it was taken sometime before or else, you will be suffering like me.
Leshoe and Ah kok started setting up their gears
Loading our stuff on the boat
Leshoe, who is doing Jigging managed to catch the first grouper on this trip using his salty rubber jig. However, on the second cast, the effective proven jig got stuck on the coral reef underneath and it was unable to retrieve back. Leshoe, who is using Majorcraft Offblow Spinning PE 1-3, Daiwa Certate 3500HD with 20lbs braided Line continued with his jigging. Unfortunately, the result for the first half was pretty pathetic for the 5 of us. Despite of the poor result, one of the decky managed to land an approximately 1.5kg Jemuduk (Blue Trevally) with his Sabiki handline setup and Joon managed to land a decent size Chencharu (Torpedo Scad) with the Worm Jig.
No chance to use the Popper
Edmund's RM$300 plus rod holder
Our destination
Grouper caught on Salty rubber jig
The Blue trevally landed by the decky
The unknown fish caught by Joon
Torpedo Scad landed by Joon
During the second half of the day, after changing to a few spot, the boatman decided to return back to his first promising fishing spot whereby we have no result before that. Surprisingly, many variety fishes were landed one after another such as Sekla, Chencharu, Grouper and Crimson Snapper. A school of hungry Crimson Snapper were around our area but sadly, the size of these fishes is not very big which were ranging from 600g to a kilo. Leshoe, who is still concentrating on his jigging suddenly, got a strong pull on his jig. With a two forceful strike to set the jig hook on the fish tightly, the fight began. The line was exploding out from the Daiwa reel and the Majorcraft was trying to dig into the water with a very nice bending. Light jigging setup to fight a big fish was extremely challenging and thrilling. It is also a poison to any angler as one can get addicted to this sport once you get the feel out of it. After fighting for a minute or so, Leshoe passed his rod to Edmund for a try. The fight was really strong and pretty tough too. After couple of minutes later, the fish surfaced and up came a nearly 5kg Jemuduk. After a round of photo-taking session, the fish was released back into the water unharmed. Leshoe, a gentleman whom I met for the first time looks quite familiar to me as if I have met him before. After browsing through a popular Malaysia fishing magazine, I then realized that his fishing photo was published in the Feburary08 issue on GT popping.
The biggest fish caught on our trip with jig
Trying to Grip the fish for weighing
Off goes the big one
Edmund waiting for another big one
The feeding frenzy
My Shimano Aerlex 8000 for Sedili trip
Time to change to another bigger cooler box
Our total catch..many variety
Wow...so red
At 1600, all of us decided to call it a day as traveling back to the Jetty needs roughly 2 hours since the fish had stopped biting. After our dinner at a JB restaurant with lots of jokes and laughter, all of us headed back where we came from. The trip was really fun and enjoyable with very good company. It was a very fruitful trip for me with 101% satisfactory as I have learnt a lot of fishing knowledge during my conversation with the 4 of them. Although not many big fish landed, all of us are pretty contended at the end of the day. Really hope to have a chance to fish with all the guys again.
At 1600, all of us decided to call it a day as traveling back to the Jetty needs roughly 2 hours since the fish had stopped biting. After our dinner at a JB restaurant with lots of jokes and laughter, all of us headed back where we came from. The trip was really fun and enjoyable with very good company. It was a very fruitful trip for me with 101% satisfactory as I have learnt a lot of fishing knowledge during my conversation with the 4 of them. Although not many big fish landed, all of us are pretty contended at the end of the day. Really hope to have a chance to fish with all the guys again.
The Sedili Port at the town area
Yummy....My favorite steam fish
