30th April 2011 - Happy Fishing Day

Finally, my army buddy, Max managed to steal some time to join me for this weekend trip. I was pretty worried about the trip as Jurong area was raining cats and dogs during my way to Max's place. Quickly called Anand and he updated that the weather at NE was ok. Heng arh!


Captain: Anand
Crew: Anand's wife, Lawrence, Ariel (Hope I got that right), Max and myself.
AO: Tekong, Ubin, Tanah Merah


1st Stop - Tanah Merah
We were greeted by the 'Eastern Sea Dragon's breath' and it was an wet affair. Parked beside Anand's usual boatman, James' boat and try for groupers. Maybe the rain and thunder frightened away the fishes and we had zero bites in the rain. Luckily the wind blew away the  dark clouds and cleared the sky for our 2nd stop.


2nd Stop - Still Tanah Merah
It was another grouper stop (fish finder confirmed the potential) and true enough, we got many many hits - johnsons and sunk-kuts... Very dangerous ground...


3rd Stop - Tekong
Drift-fishing time! Very shallow waters but many many actions! This was where we landed all the ACKs, including my prized catch. Very good fight, brought me from bow to the stern and finally landed it. One of my proud catches on board North Star V! 


We also explored around the area and had a funny incident where Lawrence got a strong take and we all thought it was another biggie. While fighting, the 'fish' started to travel towards the bow and he quickly passed me the rod to bring up the bugger. While reeling up the bugger, and to our disappointment with lots of laughter, it was a stone with corals!!! The amazing thing was that it acted like a big fish... 


Then during trolling, Ariel hooked up a queenie.
Shortly after that, Lawrence brought up a baby octopus. Super weird animal...it would sacrifice its limps just to escape from our pliers as we tried to clamp its legs...


4th Stop - Tanah Merah
Queenie spot. Guessed the fishes took afternoon nap with Lawrence and Max each got a catfish.


5th Stop - Ubin
Tried for KBLs and Lawrence got a nice size flathead.


Last stop - Punggol.
Met David and James (again) at the kelong. Another danger ground with zero bites and sunk-kuts.


Felt really bad for Anand and it somehow triple confirmed my hypothesis: The Captain can only drive and not 'allowed' to fish as he had a very unlucky day. This was somehow validated by all of the previous trips with the other captains. And this is the reason why I am still unmotivated to take the boat license...


Catch Report
Total: 19 (including octopus), see the pictures below.
Misses: at least 3-4
Great company and fun times.

Finally, hardworking Anand taking a break.

A Date with the '4 Heavenly Kings' - 23 April 2011

We have our old friend, Alex joining us in North Star V today...a chance for him to 'skip' his usual kayak fishing routine...


CPT: Dave
'Co-pilot': Robin (illegally)
Crew: Nichole, Alex and Myself
Area of Ops: Ubin and Tekong
Weather: Another fr***ing hot day with strange flash showers 


The day started out brightly with the lucky me getting a very decent size MJ. A lot of respect for her cause she put up a good fight with me...hence, she deserved a different menu recipe at dinner...


We lost all the luck near Tekong area and almost got crushed by a giant tanker. We anchored at the channel to chase some biggies and the next thing we knew was that we were in the course of a tanker. Adding to our misery, the anchor winch gave way again and by now, the tanker was honking at us.We scrambled to pull the anchor up as fast as we could...and we are all safe at home now.


Returned to the MJ spot and lady luck followed us. We landed all the fishes here and CR:
1 x MJ (James);
1 x ACK (Alex);
1 x Wild KBL (Dave struck, QC by Robin and brought up by Nichole)
1 x Cuttlefish (Nichole)
3 x Cat fish (Alex)


Alex was the overall lucky man of the day with 4 fishes. 
Dave and Robin, dun give up...I'm sure luck would return for u in the next trip...
Another back-breaking workout today with the anchor winch giving way again but compensated with great company with friends on board North Star V.

She deserved a kiss for being a good fighter!

Nice Sea Pen 

                                                                             Happy Alex

Nichole's first wild KBL

                                                                     Nice 'Family' Photo
                                                    

                                                       Awesome Assam MJ (Must try)

My trusted friend whenever my ageing back is throwing temper...

                                     Tough workout at North Star V today with undesirable outcome.

HOT date with North Star V - 9 April 2011

The sun was unbelievably unforgiving today...
Extremely hot and thirsty...

Captain: Anand

Crew: Anand's wife, Uncle and his nephew, My wife (first time out finally)

It was my first time out with North Star V without the usual crew and captain.
Luckily found Cpt Anand in FK last Tues and he kept me busy with so many phone calls and sms-es to iron out the trip's safety plan, fishing route, bait, boat engines...etc [But I must say he is pretty professional (he was working at a yacht club previously)]. I was even more impressed when he appeared with a briefcase with parallel rulers, map and other barang barang for any emergency out in the sea.

We made our way to get some live prawns @Flower Auntie kelong and headed towards Johor Shoal. Anchored and zero fish. Guessed we were too early before high tide(3pm).

Then we made our way to the Uncle Chong's playground and play drift fishing. Corals everywhere and calm waters - Perfect!!! Found Uncle Chong there as well and that's went all the actions took place.

Total catches:
2 x Bamboo sharks (CnR)
2 x gao he
1 x Queenie
1 x Snapper (dunno the species)
2 x Cuttlefish

Great company and fun!

Pic taken with Xperia Arc

Pic taken with compact camera. Which one is better?

27 Mar 2011: Shark-oholic Attack

After MIA for sometime, we finally found some time to make this trip.


Captains: Chee Wai & Dave
Crew: Boon San, Liang Fong and James


Another bloody hot day with North Star V at sea today.
Finally a chance to test out my new weapon - xZoga TakaSi, Type S, a nice birthday gift from my beautiful colls.

In summary, we had many surprises today:


1) Shark Attack!!!
The day started slow and we caught 4 sharks in a row!!! It just came one after another (not sure if it was a same one we released though), and stole our prawns. Poor Chee Wai got 2...

2) Cat Attack!!!
The second wave of attack was launched by Ah Seng battalion. And Poorer Chee Wai got 2 hits... He was the 'Cat-Man' of the day...

3) Ambushed!!!
I was the lucky man. After patiently waited under the scorching sun, my prize was a wild KBL. My first wild KBL too...I think this front scout was darn unlucky and got ambushed.

4) Ambushed 2!!!
Dave was even luckier. Somehow managed to hook this Spanish Mackerel without a bait. Simply brilliant!!!

Final Report:
4 coral sharks (I think this is the right species) - CnR
2 Ah Sengs - CnR
2 baby grunter - CnR
1 KBL
1 ACK
1 Spanish Mackerel


Last but not least, a short video of Cpt CW in action today, steering North Star V...

6th March 2011 - North Star's 'post surgery' test

After MIA for more than 2 months due to festive and work commitments, I have managed to find some time out to test North Star after her 'surgery'. She had some minor problems with the engine and we finally got it fixed.

It was supposed to be just a test run, but Boon San brought along a newly purchased rang-gong double hooks to test out.

North Star seemed to be back in shape and we anchored at one of the old spot to test out the rang-gong.

Boon San was the man with 4 fishes (1 x double hook up) in less than 30 minutes:
2 x ACK
1 x Stone fish
1 x ah seng

The rang-gong worked beautifully!

Just a short CR to share with everyone...