Fishing off the boat!

Date: Dec 16, 2015

Trip #9
Weather: Sunny, and then overcast later 
Waters: Fairly flat
On board: C, A, J1, J2, KH, J and ZQ
New gear on board: Our fishing rods, courtesy of KH and J, and new hats from Black Tactical in Funan the IT Mall

Talk of Fishing 101.

KH and J came on board Little Wanderer with their 10-year-old son ZQ. All three are experienced anglers and were all set to introduce the "fishing virgins" to a new on-board activity. One can take a measure of the seriousness with which KH takes fishing from his box full of thingamajigs, including two types of pliers to remove hooks from fish.

They brought us a surprise - a pair of rods and reels for us, and KH set up the new gear with hooks, 30-pound lines, weights and bait (chopped prawns) as C pulled the boat out of the marina.

KH setting up our new rods. 

No stress, KH said. We are doing this just for fun, and if we do catch anything, it'd be a bonus.

We dropped anchor in the waterway a little beyond Puteri Cove, about 20 minutes from the marina, and hung around a red buoy named Sarimbun. We had slowed down nearer Puteri Cove at first, but a Police Coast Guard boat came along and the friendly fellows on board advised us to move further north, out of the Singapore Armed Forces' live-firing range.  I reckon we were just off Sungei Gedong, C's former army camp.

J2 just off the Sarimbun buoy, his first cast.

C looking absolutely the part with his military-grade 'tactical' hat.

J1 didn't land a catch, but it wasn't his first time
fishing. He did it while in National Service. 

KH and J broke open a bottle of champagne on board and we turned up 91.3FM.

KH and J with their son, ZQ. 

Turns out, we did catch fish - three little tiddlers and Jordan's remora-type critter, which was a good 25 cm long! Not quite Robson Green territory, but a good start nonetheless.

J2, extremely pleased with his catch. [KH sent us online info the following day,
showing it to be a sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates), from the remora
(Echeneidae) family. 

This was my catch. Looked like ikan selar or scad. KH called me out on it, saying
that if this was a fishing competition, my catch would have been 
disqualified because the hook caught the fish on its gill cover instead of its 
mouth. The bait was outside its mouth too, and it was a bloody mess on the 
side of the fish away from the camera.

C with his catch. He landed two of these! 

KH removing the fish from C's hook. We returned all our catches to the water.
They were too small to eat anyway. All the fish darted away quickly,
seemingly none the worse for having their lips torn by the hook. 

The sky above Johor Bahru in the distance turned dark, and we decided to make tracks for another fishing spot nearer the marina. We found an old jetty about 15 minutes from the marina, but J1 was feeling kind of barfy, so we decided to call it a day.

He had turned down the Blackmore's ginger tabs since they didn't work the last time. Sea Band didn't work for him either! The terry-towelling bands were uncomfortably tight for him and didn't stop the waves of nausea that set in when we were bobbing about near the jetty...

We returned to the marina for wine and a light meal after that.