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

Project Addictive - Rod Building

Rod-building which is also part of the fishing hobby can be really fun and addictive. The sense of achievement when the end product completed is priceless and angler's can make use of it's skill to design and built a fishing rod for his type or style of fishing. Besides, when one had landed a fishing with his own customize fishing rod, the feeling is absolutely wonderful. Since, i have some wooden blank from my old ikea furniture, i decided to DIY a Rod wrapping tool before i started to build my own fishing rod. As i'm more on light offshore fishing, my first self-customized fishing rod will be a PE1-2 rod to match my Abu 6000C multiplier.

Below are the Rod Wrapping Tool bench which i spent nearly 8 hours working on it. Although its not as nice as those that are sold in the tackleshop, but its my own masterpiece and i like it a lot :P

~~~ Some Close-up view to share with all ~~~


Detachable Motor


Slot to assemble the motor


Adjustable Rod holding Center Portion


Front Rod holding Portion meant for longer blank

My Pre-Birthday Celebration at Sedilli

Date: 06 Sept 08

Location: Sedilli

Time: 0300hr till 1800hr

Tide: 0303hr 2.3m High tide

1420hr 2.6m High tide

1613hr 1.2m Low tide

My best Birthday Present

Last two week, Joon informed that he has booked the Sedilli boat on the 6th Sept. Since i'm having my birthday on the 9th Sept, i informed my wife that i don't wanna have any birthday present for this year and all she need to do is to accompany me to this boat trip and of cos, everything and fees will be on me....really worthwhile for her. Seriously, this is a meaningful and the best present for me cos this is the very first time my wife is joining me to a offshore fishing trip.

Few weeks before this trip, i had a nightmare at Sedilli offshore where i puke throughout the trip and until today when i think of it, i still have the seasick phobia with me. As i have ample of offshore fishing experience beforehand and its impossible for me to throw out and eventually, it still happened to me on my last trip which is unbelievable. This time round with my wife accompany, i must make this trip a fruitful and a meaningful one. Hence, i went to the Pharmacy and get some seasick pills for the both of us which was meant to be very effective from my research in the fishing forum. Beside, i also brought some fresh ginger and cut it into slices to be consume on the boat.

On the 5th of Sept evening, we went into Johore using the woodland checkpoint and was caught in the infamous checkpoint jam. Fortunately, it took us around 40 minutes to clear the miserable jam. Since, we are earlier than what we have expected, my wife suggested to have a full body massage at JB to relax ourselves. After our dinner, we went back to our JB home at Setia Indah and have a early rest as we need to wake up very early on the next morning.

At 0300hr, we leave our home to meet at the Petrol station near to Tebrau Jusco to meet Joon, Chinlong, Frank and Louis. At the same time, we bought a few packs of ice as well as some drinks and bread for this trip which are meant to be our lunch on board as the malay boatman and the decky is on fasting month and no food is provided. After the puchasing the stuff, we headed off to KotaTinggi to collect our Live prawns for the trip whereby the boatman reminded us to brought it for this trip. Hmmm...looks like the boatman will be bringing us to tackle on some crimson snapper aka "Red chicken" , Grouper and of cos the Ebek.

Reaching the Sedilli Jetty at 0430hr

Our hardworking prawns


At 0430hr, we reached the Sedilli Jetty after 1.5hr of driving but was kind of disappointed when the sky started to drizzle but luckily it lasted for just 10minutes. At 0500hr, all of us were on the blue wooden boat setting off to our first fishing ground. Joon predicted that the wave for this trip will not be strong but he was wrong as our boat was rocking left and right non stop. I was kind of worried even though both me and my wife had taken the seaksick pills but in my mind, the "Merlion scene" on my last trip was growing heavily on me. As and when, i would be checking with my wife if she is alright....however, all my worries is too much as she replied me......"Dear, even though it's my 1st trip, don't worry as i wouldn't be as lousy as you"......hahahahahaaa!!!

C'mon don't shoot me when i'm sleeping

I wouldn't get any seasick

The 3 muskateers

Its time for breakfast

At around 0700hr, we reach our 1st fishing ground and all of us started to wet our lines. Most of us started bottom fishing where as Joon started doing Jigging. Soon, Louis and my wife landed their first fish of the day. It was an easy job for my wife as she was using the Shimano Aerlex8000 and Zeus Legend PE2-3 for this trip. Both of them landed the MonogrammedMonocle Bream if i'm not wrong. After 20 minutes later, i had a bite and it should be something big but after few minutes of struggling, the fish managed to escape sucessfully as my line was caught with the unjam rope. What a missed for me on my 1st bite!

Louis's first fish landed


Wifey caught a bream as well



Oh, it's not a small fish


On the 2nd fishing spot, Frank was jigging with his Sabiki for baitfish and out of sudden, a mackeral came near to his bait and snatched off his bait fish right infront of him. Joon and Chinlong who was doing the Sabiki jigging also saw the scene and was stunned at that evry instance...What a arrogant mackeral! After 5 minutes of bottom, another fishing boat came to our spot and fish just beside us. Seeing this, the boatman informed us to reel back our line and off we went to our next fishing spot.......very thoughful of our boatman indeed!

Grouper frenzy started

My Double hook-up

Crimson Snapper by Louis

Frank landed a Crimson as well


The third spot was fruitful for us as we managed to land a couple of grouper and crimson snapper. Although the coral spot is not very big but our boat managed to park quite near to it. My wife had a successful fishing luck whereby she landed around 4-5pcs of grouper on that spot. For me, i had the same luck as her as one of my biggest grouper which i had landed is almost 2kg. Most of us managed to landed a grouper except for our poor organizer, Joon. Hohohooo....He should have reached his quota for this year as he already caught a very big fish, a mermaid of cos to be exact. :P

Grouper for my wife

A good fight with my Aerlex8000

A Spanish flag snapper

Another Grouper for dinner


The biting frenzy on our 3rd spot lasted less than an hour and since then nothing was landed for all of us. Seeing this, i took out my Shimano Basstera rod matching with my Ryobi Zauber 2000 to jig for some small fish. Soon, somthing was landed and i thought that it would be a simple job to land this fish. To my surprised, my line suddenly burst out from my reel at an alarming speed and i was shocked to see my Basstera was bending to a horrifying angle. At that moment, i dared not reel in my line as the fish underneath is much bigger than i have expected. Moreover, i'm using light setup and my main leader is just 10lbs braided and its kind of impossible to play with this fish. After 5 minutes of struggling, the fish escaped at my expectation. Luckily, i'm able to recover all my lines and my Basstera is still in one pieces.......thanks god!

A good fight with light tackle

Its going home time


Our favorite Blue wooden boat

Overall catch for the day


The catch rate is not that good after our 3rd spot and nothing much was landed for everyone of us. We ceased our fishing trip at 6pm and everyone of us are happy to have some fish to bring back home and all of us enjoyed this trip. Although, our harvest is average and no big fish was landed, it was a pretty good trip for me. Both me and my wife was free from seasick throughout the trip and most importantly, i had my best birthday present ..............a priceless birthday present indeed.