Huge Prawns + Drum

It’s been awhile since I last launch. Which I reckon was during the family retreat. Anyway my regular partner Don is unable to launch today as he had some MAJOR LIFE TURNING EVENT happening! Congrats bro! Nonetheless, Jeff and myself headed out to sea to reccee new spots.

We grab our baits 500grms worth of life prawns and realized that we had limited ammo due to the size of the prawns!

Monster prawn at PALM SIZE! Wonder if they would sell this at $20bucks per prawn at Newton!

It was at least 2 times the normal bait size prawns that we normally used. I reckon due to that alot of the smaller fishes were apprehensive into taking the bait.

As we were reccee and moving off.. My sounder showed a nice 5 ft drop. Instantly as I passed it. I used my Mark 4 capability of a trackback function to lock down it’s exact GPS location so that I return to the spot later. However we tested the drop for a mere 5mins and we had little nicks here and there.

My Emotion Spitfire9 setup.

We pushed on and wasted about 1hr with no fish or spots and headed back to the new drop.. Down went the prawns and almost quiet immediately, I had a slight knock but nothing positive. I looked over to Jeff and notice that his tip had dip 3 significant times before he set the hook. This time, his yak was been towed. We realized that it was a big one!

I shouted from a distance.. “Maybe it’s a big SENG!!” and laughed away evilly..
After a short tug a war. It was showing some color. Brown/Chrome and long! The horrible image of a big seng came to Jeff’s mind. Then!!! We spotted a nice black spot at it’s tail! WHAT!! Jeff shouted “Taiwan Ngor!”

Carefully playing and landing it. In all it’s glory. A massive 5lb Taiwan Ngor was landed. The first I’ve seen landed in Singapore Waters. The fight was intense even as a by-stander point of view.

Here’s the happy angler of the day!

Jeff out at sea with his fish!

Taiwan NGor at the banks. Compared to my hands.

Jeff with his trophy.

Happy days!! At least we managed to lock down a new wreck location and the new drop all thanks to my new underwater eyes!

Tightlines
Mathew

When I’m not Yak Fishing I do Pond Fishing!

At times, when I’m free and I’m not yak fishing, I do go to ponds with my friends and brothers. Here are a few shots of pond fishing that was done recently.

Fishing at BTP making use of the $55 for 2 rods – 12hrs promo via coupon.

Here’s some shot of my brother enjoying his birthday rod gift that was ordered by his wife. Custom by me 🙂 We managed to give Dave’s GT & Barra pond a go on his birthday.

The Tan’s Family Retreat

This year was a special one as my brother decided to hold a family retreat chalet at the SAF Chalets at Changi. Apart from spending quality time with the families which was quite a blessing for me as I was in the midst of retrenchment also let me ease my mind off the working world.

Our kids at work doing what they best at – PLAY!

We managed to load up our kayaks for the expedition on the 2nd day in hopes for a fish or 2 for our BBQ later that night.

My yak all prepared for the next day.

After a fun filled first day with the kids. My brother and myself were looking forward to the trip next day. The expedition would see us covering about 6kms in total. From the Chalet to Ubin, back to chalet and then to changi broadwalk rocks and back to the chalet. What a great way to just be out at the sea.

First in was me with my first fish on my kayak a aramugun and then it was pretty much quiet throughout the whole trip for me.

My first fish on the yak!

Ubin was a disappointment for me and my brother but at least I managed to give my new sounder a good which was good! The trackback function was definitely a good choice!! Am looking forward to finding many more hidden holding grounds.

At the last spot.. my brother and myself spotted a huge drop from 8ft to 20ft to 40ft. The current was just nice pushing us.. leading us to drift from 40ft upwards. Covering the hotspots where fishes might be holding out. Playing with the current it wasn’t long before my Brother hit a decent fish that ended up for our BBQ. A decent 3lb-4lb Ang Cho!

Mark with his nice AngCho!

Soon it was time to head back and relax. Before long, it was time to dig in to some outback style BBQ Fish as shown to me via Chef Bob! Woot!! POWER!

Fish been prepared!

BBQ by Chef Mathew inspired by Chef Bob!

Tightlines

Mathew

Import – Awaiting my new sounder

Been fishing blindly and the results are poor. 😦 Can’t wait for my sounder, Lowrance Mark 4 to arrive to Singapore. Hope it can arrive before the 6th of July so I can start to use it during my family retreat with my brother’s family.

The Lowrance Mark 4 quality… I hope as it was from a review site 😛

Screenshot of the Mark 4.

Though the Mark 4 doesn’t have the DSI function. But still packs a pack with it’s inbuilt GPS function + most importantly for me, the track back function. Which means, if one were to paddle pass a nice drop or structure, I could just scroll back the feature on the screen and lock directly down the GPS co-ordinates! How cool is that!!

Tightlines!

Import – The Blue Messiah

Recently, Don and myself collected our new kayaks. The Emotion Spitfire 9. Going at a really decent price that won’t really break the bank and performs decently for it’s price. You can get more information of Emotion Kayaks from our local dealer Jack. He has an online site with information which can be found here – http://kayak-project-shop.blogspot.sg/

Anyway last week we both blanked big time and we got to admit, we were going through a patch of dry spells. During the week, Don and ourselves, named our yaks, The Blue Messiah & M.A.S.K respectively. A couple of icons were created to stick on the side of our yaks.

The Blue Messiah.

M.A.S.K

Anyways, today we launched early morning. A long long time friend of mine, Jeff, which we lost contact for almost 8yrs or more decided to pick up the sport as well.. First into a fish was Don. Which landed him a plate size snapper.

Don with his snapper.

However, it seems that he would carry on catching fish with 3 Snappers for him.. And none of us caught anything. Jeff missed his first fish on the Yak as it’s spit the hook while fighting.

Here’s Jeff on the feelfree 🙂

Darks clouds then seems to close down on us fast and we headed back to shore. I managed to take some photos of the Snapper underwater 🙂 Happy Days.

Snapper.

Snapper Underwater.

Thus, concluded our week’s of fishing. Hopefully next week, it would be a better week for us to go fishing.
Awaiting for my new fishfinder the Lowrance Mark 4 fishfinder/chartplotter series. Can’t wait for the track back ability function. That should help quite abit on securing spots that we pass by unintentionally. Happy Days!

Tightlines,
Mathew

Import – Emotion Kayak Day Out

Yesterday I had the privilege to help a friend out with his new range of Kayaks that he brought into Singapore. Emotion Kayaks. We held a small demo at Pasir Ris Carpark E. A total of 4 kayaks were on Demo. The Stealth Angler, Spitfire9, Comet 8 and lastly the Glide Angler.

People from all ages came to test the kayak out. Think we had bout 20-30 participant yesterday. All were having good fun on the kayaks.

Here are my person comments on the kayaks that I’ve tested out yesterday.
Of all 4, the best yak within them has to be the Stealth Angler. Cuts water like a dream and tracks amazing. Quite Stable and you will feel it the moment you sit it in. Comes with 2 built in Rod Holders and a scotty rod holder in front of ya.

The SpitFire 9, has decent tracking and stability. Though it doesn’t track as straight as the Stealth, but it’s still bearable.
Quite Ample space behind the seat to hold a nice size cooler box for your friend or milk-crate DIY rod holders etc. It also comes with a storage hatch. However it lacked, the rod holders else it would be perfect for it’s price range.

The Glide Angler. A Sit In Kayak with 2 rod holders inbuilt. Tracks slightly better then the SpitFire. Fast as well. If you are into Sit in Types, this might be worth a look. So much more spacious compare to the AE Frame.

On all 3 kayaks, Huss Bear or Imran has stand up on them. Which was amazing cos I’ve yet to stand on any kayaks of my own. One Major Plus point for the Emotion Range Kayaks is that they all come with an amazing incorporated backrest. Which is really really comfortable.

All 3 kayaks are reasonably priced that won’t really break the bank. For more information please contact Kayak Project – SG on Emotion Kayaks. In anycase, here are the photos for the day.

Imported – After a 1-2mths absence from yak fishing…

I finally headed out to sea with a few merry man!! We all met up at our launch site at about 8am and launched at about 830.
We had 6 yaks out today trying out a new spot.. A good mixture of AE Frame, Point65 Tequlia, AE StraitEdge Angler, FeelFree & Hobie Kayaks… Manning their vessels would be the following, Jack, James, Winston, Mark, Don and myself.

It was an easy paddle to our spot but we soon found ourselves drifting quite abit over the place.. I believe first in was Winston with a Huge Grunter for the keeps 🙂 Followed by James with a table size Grouper. Then, it was my turn, the first barramundi for the day 🙂 A good table sized fish for the keeps.

My Barramundi.

Don unfortunately, had a couple of hug takes and misses..
Soon after my brother managed to land his first fish of the day.
A nice silvery Chermin!

James then backed up his previous Grouper with another Seabass!

Then Winston got into action with another Chermin to boot!

And the hero of the day was James once again!! With another Barrmundi!!

Don came back with at least 6 groupers of which 1 was kept as the rest were abit small.

Soon darks cloud decided to cover the sky above us and time was running out. Therefore, Mark, Don and myself decided to head off first as we had some committments. Nonetheless it was a cool day out at sea.

Had updates later on in the day that Winston landed another 2 more chermins. Which brought our total catch of the day to
3kims, 7Groupers, 1 Grunter, 3 Chermin, 1 Flathead and a couple of small ACK which were released for another day.

Happy times are here.. Wooo!

Tightlines to all.
Mathew Tan

Re-Activating my blog again.

I will be porting over my fishing reports over back to this blog as I’m getting more hits here. Please bear with me as I update my reports over here.

Thanks so much for all of your support to keep this site going and for me to keep on blogging.

Tightlines all.

Regards,
Mathew