This was a long awaited trip for me as after 2 fishing trips with Jamie and exceptionally good results, I had designated him my good luck charm. Also, I got to park for free at his place instead of having to pay expensive parking fees at Nigel’s.
Unfortunately, we ran over a very large rock that punctured the sump that meant our first day fishing was spent fretting over ways to patch it up and lazing around in the surprisingly spacious and comfy chalet.
We also watched the Singapore by-election on TV, where we all admitted that it was the first time that we were so happy to watch the news.
We woke up the next morning, had breakfast (if you could call it that), before heading straight to the launch point.
Being the “boat stabiliser” for so many previous trips meant I had to endure wet pants on those trips so I designated Nigel the point man for this trip. I think he understood “my pain” because he didn’t argue about it. +1. For this second day we also invited a fifth random stranger from FK to join us.
It looked like stabilising the boat was harder than Nigel had imagined.
First we headed out to Badol’s Tengirri spot but the catch was meager.
At about mid-day we moved to the famous TU lighthouse where we saw a lot of surface action but only managed solid hook ups with a few fish.
Jamie was back on form and landed 2 queenies.
Nigel was also getting into the “instant action” that TU was famous for.
He landed this cobia.
Ah Ger was mostly knocked out the whole trip.
But then it was my turn.
I casted out between my two favourite pillars, pillars which always produced when the fishing was winding down. I let the jig drop for about 10 seconds before I started reeling in. On the second revolution of the handle, it felt like I snagged something. I tried to jerk it free but it seemed stuck so I just started reeling in as hard as I could to try and yank it free. Imagine my surprise when it started to move. I thought it must be one big pile of trash that I snagged on.
Then I started feeling a bit of vibration. Immediately, I knew it was a fish.
Unfortunately, it still did not give much of a fight. It felt more like a submarine that was dead in the water. When it was finally near the boat, my friends and the boatman decided to help me have a little fun with my first Cobia. They splashed the water and tapped it with a gaff and sure enough, the guy took off.
Unfortunately, he didn’t take off far but it was still fun. In the end, we landed it and I took these photos.
We called it a day shortly after and headed out to dinner before heading home.
On the way out, we also saw this Singaporean car that had got stuck in the mud so we helped them out. They didn’t seem to watch a lot of top gear though as they were doing it all wrong.
We finally gave Badol a call who helped them out with his 4×4 with winch.
Watch the video, especially the second half!