Simon's New Fishing Rod, Reel and Lures

Thank to wonderful wife, Kim and friends from Singapore, Aaron & Albert for giving me this new overhead rod and reel as a birthday present.

Abu Ambassaduer 6600CL Reel

Lamiglas XC 665 6'6" long Graphite Overhead Rod

Of course, I went ahead to buy some new lures to go with this wonderful present from my wife and friends.

Storm SW Thuderstick (4 3/8" long - 14g)
Swimming Dept: 3 - 6'

Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow (Floating 5 1/4" Long - 18g)

Action: Tight Wiggling

Swimming Depth:

1' - 1.5' (Floating)

4' - 5' (Suspend)

Rapala Shad Rap SSR-9 (3 1/2" long - 12g)

Swimming Depth: 6'-8'

Rapala Magnum (4 3/8" long) Floating

SureCatch Lure Retriever Sinker 250gm (For emergency use only)

eupro rubber frog (floating)

No Catch Report for 9 May Luconia Fishing Trip

I managed to join one of the senior fishing kaki team for this Miri, Luconia Jigging Trip. We were all prepared to get the 40kg GTs and Amberjacks at 2 of the famous oil rigs.

However 1 week before our trip, the ship owner lost his smaller boat (was meant to get nearer to the oil rig platform for fishing) during the towing. So here was the 1st bad new to our trip - no more fishing at the oil rigs.

To add matter worse, mother nature decided to act up on the day we set sail. The tail of the Typhoon Matmo that will travelling along South China Sea toward Philipine wanted to pay us a visit.

The red circle indicated here was the location where we were fishing.

We met at least 1-2m swells along the way to Luconia. The 19 hours trip there was no joke even to the season anglers. We had a super old wooden fishing boat which could only travel at 9 knots again the swell. I puked twice along the way and had to lie down on my back all the way to feel better. Most of us will resting to conserve as much energy as we could before we reached our 1st spot.

So many equipments were being brought for this trip.

Rods - Sevenseas, Gensis, Shimano Jigwrex, Jigging Master.

Reels - Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000, 5000, Stella 20000, Twinpower 8000PG, Triton TSS4, Daiwa Saltiga.

Terminal Jigs - more than 100 pcs ranging from 250g to 600g (fishing depth: 100-200m)

Leader Line- 125 -200 lbs (1.0-1.5mm dia)

Upon reaching the 1st spot, Tony, Louis, Tiong and Mark dropped their 300g jigs down and hoping something would bite along the way. Nothing came out after trying for 15 mins at the 1st spot. We decided to go to another spot nearby to try.

All in all we tried 3 spots and only small bites were felt on the jigs, but no hook on. I think most of the fishes decided to stay home because of the Typhoon.

We decided to sail back 1 day earlier as multiple storms were brewing at the horizon and the swells were getting stronger and stronger. One of the Lao Chiao suggested to call it a day as it was too dangerous to jig on wooden platform without a safety railing and the swells did not make the jigging experience better. Better to be safe than sorry, I just followed their advice to turn back. I lied down most of the time to make myself felt better.

I am glad that I am back inshore safely after 30+ hrs of boat ride and only 30 mins + of jigging. When I got the news regarding the tychoon sweeping through the South China Sea, I thank God for his protection during this trip. After this trip, I will only go for shorter distance (nearer to the shore) to fish liao. No point of travelling so far and no fish would be caught.

1st BIG Catch Report (21 October 2007)

Finally I landed this big fellow (at least 2kg) after 4 months of fishing using different baits in Miri saltwater. It seems that the local fishes prefer live baits as compare to what I use in Singapore = fresh dead prawns.

Bought 8 nos. of live prawns that afternoon. Lost 7 of the prawns during casting. Ha ha! (Still dun know how to secure my prawn onto the hook properly). Only 1 prawn manage to secure onto the hook which landed this mangrove jack "a.k.a. "chiak Zhor" or "Brown Snapper".

This fish is famous for the very very strong 1st run but also known to get "pan chek" pretty fast (it uses up most of its energy during 1st run). Therefore it is also the famous culprit for broken rods and making fishing rods suddenly flew out from rod holder and become submarine. Luckily I spot my rod being pull at 90 degree just in time before it was too late.

So total damage for the day: 8 nos. Prawns = RM 4.00, 1 no pail & 3m nylon rope (lost my grip while trying to bring more seawater to my prawn pail).

Expensive hobby siah due to my carelessness. ha ha ha...