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

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