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 skyHmmm..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 dayOverall, 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.
