A "No Fishing" day for me

Date:18th Jul 09
Location: Since "No Fishing", got to be at home....hohohooooo!!!

All the while, i have been very interested with cooking especially Japanese food. While i'm in Japan on my last trip in March, most of the time, i'm hunting for good food as well as eyeing on the shelving of the Japanese Supermart to see what i can bring back to Singapore and lay my hands on the cooking. As this dish is delicious and it is cooked with my Rompin squid, it will be nice to have it posted up. :)

Since my wife doesn't allowed me to do Fishing today and urging me to cook some Japanese food since i have so much Squid on my last Rompin Fishing trip, i decided to make the yummy Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) or Japanese fried Pancake for lunch.

The ingredient......i added some oyster to make it more yummy!!!



Nicely done

Almost ready to serve

The end product.....children will love this Okonomiyaki

An Exciting Rompin Fishing trip

Date: 11th July 09
Location: Malaysia Rompin
Anglers: Ah Tan and wife, Dickson, Shierly and me.

On the 10th July, Friday, i received a call from my friend, Desley, telling me that the weather at Rompin was bad and many anglers had to cancel their trip due to the stormy weather. Indeed, before his call, i had saw some recent Rompin catch report saying that the weather was pretty bad and during afternoon, the wave was around 3m high. Looking at such poor weather, our Saturday trip might not be promising. Oh dear, it might be a disappointing trip for me and my wife cos i really want her to try out fishing squid and Sailfish on this trip.

After much discussion with Dickson, both of us decided to proceed the trip regardless of the bad weather. If fishing were to be cancelled, we will book a Chalet and hunt for some good seafood restaurant at Rompin. So, on friday evening, we entered Johore for our dinner and then drive up to Rompin which took us nearly 3 hours to reach our destination.

As our Rompin offshore trip inclusive of a stay at the boatman house, it does make sure we have enough rest on our next day fishing. Moreover, If i gonna drive for a few hours and immediately going out for my fishing, i'm sure that i'll be a Singapore Merlion...puking all the way :P

The boatman house for a night at Rompin


Our single bed for the night

After our breakfast at the Rompin Restaurant, we proceded to the Rompin Jetty to meet up with our famous local boatman, Sky Chong. He owned a twin outboard Fishing boat and it took us just less than 30minutes to reached our first fishing spot which is the big reef squid den which all of us has requested.

Ah Tan and his wife


Dickson ready for the big fish


The Rompin Jetty


Me preparing for the fight


Sky Chong's battleship


Our first spot at the Reef squid den


Dickson with a big reef squid


A big squid for me as well...this are the common size

On our first few hours, we have lots of fun landing all those big squid and i mean a lot of this underneath our boat....its one after another and it seems never ending. Both Dickson and Ah Tan had so much fun on the squid as they spent the most time catching it. Seriously, it is really addictive using light tackle to land this big reef squid as the squid do give some resistance on the fight.

Beautiful squid landed by Shierly


Sweetlip landed by Tan

Leather Jacket landed by Shierly


A big sweetlip landed by Dickson

Man of the match who caught the smallest Grouper

During afternoon, we met a school of Cobia at our Diamond Trevally spot and Dickson has so much fun on fighting the Cobia with his Accurate 197. As there are not much Sailfish during July, Sky recommended us to go for Diamond Trevally as we had live prawn on board.


This Cobia really give Dickson some action


A small Cobia caught by me


Another Cobia landed by Dickson

The next highlight of our trip is when my wife, Shierly, who was fighting her way with the big Diamond trevally (Ebek). As she was on light tackle, it took her almost 30 minutes to land this big fish. Once the fish took the bait, it dashed into the deep at an alarming speed and we can hear the loud cry from the reel from start till the end and the bending of the rod with a "C" shape really scare the hell out of us. Whenever, the fish almost surfaced the water, it just dived into the water couple of time. Truely, the persistant of the fish really gave her a hard time fighting the fish. Fortunately with a gimble, the fight with the fish was much more easier for her and soon, the fish gave up the fight and it was a cleared victory for a newbie who caught her record big fish.....an almost 7kg Diamond Trevally.

The big fight for Shierly


The rod is dipping into the water...help..help!!!


A promising fight for Shierly


Its the Victory shot on the big Diamond


It's a big and heavy Diamond


Me posting with the Ebek

17kg of squid for us on this trip


Our total catch of the day

Overall, all of us had a very fun trip and lucky enough, there was no sign of raining throughout our fishing. All i can say is that this is one of the best Fishing trip i had in 2009. In total, we had caught nearly 20kg squid and many fish as well. Especially for Shierly, after the good fight with the Diamond, she was addicted to offshore fishing and was asking or should i put it as "urging" me when will be my next trip........Wahahahaa!!!

Kayaking at Punggol 03July09

Date: 3rd July 09 (Friday)

Had wanted to go for some Kayak fishing on the 2nd July afternoon but was disappointed by a heavy downpour. Therefore, i got to cancelled the trip and no chance to bring my Orange pearl for some outing. Eventually, i decided to have a few hours of kayaking on the next day as well as to test out my Garmin fish finder.


What a beauty..my Orange Pearl!

Me and wife reached Punggol end at around 4pm and the weather was still pretty hot. Setting up my Kayak was a sweating affair. This time round, i had my Double deck, Fish Finder and AEC backbone fixed into my Kayak.


Some modification on the rod holder with padded back support

With much consideration, it is more wise to have all my modification to be as simple as possible. It is quite a headache to carry so many things when going for my Kayak trip. Moreover, its really a pain in the neck if i'm alone setting everything all by myself.

My Fishfinder console

My objective of this trip is to test out my Garmin Fishfinder with the 12V AA size Battery holder. I used 8 brand new AA size Ikea Alkaline battery on my Garmin but sadly, it is not so ideal as it shows only 8.5V on my half hour testing even with brand new battery. Hence, maybe i'll be trying out with other type of batteries on this holder or maybe, it will be good to use those 12V Lead Acid Battery.

Backbone installed on my AEC

Backbone at the Bow

Backbone holding at the Stern

Shierly having much fun for the first time on my Kayak

Since it was Shierly's first trip on my Kayak and it was just purely a Kayaking trip, i must let her counter her fear first and to get use in Kayaking. Surprisingly, being a tandem, the 15ft AEC is a really stable Kayak even when we came across some wave created by those speed boat. With the AEC Backbone installed this time, i can feel the difference immediately as the Kayak can cut through the water effortlessly even with 2 person on it. From my personal point of view on the this hundred over dollars gadget, although it is not that easy installing into the Kayak especially positioning the backbone and the floor base for a first timer, the money spent on this upgrade is really worth it as it does improved the Kayak's performance by some great margin.


A happy trip for both of us


Its dinner time....time to back up

Overall all, my wife and i had a really fun 3 hours trip at Punggol before the sky gets dark. Anyway, I'ill be planning some more kayaking session with my wife in the future so that we can make full use of this Kayak. Last but not least, after the trip, there will be many cleaning and drying of stuff to do, and the best part is....i got to do it all by myself...Hahahaaaa!