Catch Report: Gone Sailing!

On any big holidays, the parties are always more exciting on the eve leading to the day. For example, Christmas and New Year’s eves, are always ‘bigger’ than the day itself.

Yesterday was no different to that, it was my birthday’s eve and I went out sailing with my buddy, Ian.

My wife thought I was turning gay, celebrating my BIG day with a guy!!!

She said ...... “I just lost my husband to another guy ... not even to a younger or sexier girl ..... but to a man, how more humiliating can this be”.

Getting ready

Met Ian after work at his office’s open air car park and we were greeted with a passing strange shower. Poured when we started loading his gears from his car to mine and magically stop when we finished!

A very wet start to a kayak fishing adventure.

The drive
We drove off to our fishing paradise in our wet cloths! The excitement built up as we were driving, especially when he recalled his last 'sailing' trip there.

We were on a holiday to one of the top 5 sailfish fishing destinations in the world and it is just a few hours drive away from Singapore.

23 September 2010

6am - Woke up and my buddy complained about my loud snoring through the night. How embarrassing can it be for me .... our first night together! I should have slept in a separate room! 


Sorry buddy.

7am - Breakfast, coffee and packed our meals for lunch.

8am - South China Sea.

8.20am - Jigged for bait fish. 

Bait fishes were really hard to come by for the day. We jigged and jigged at various locations and we managed to catch only a handful of prime bait fish. 
We decided not to miss out on the morning’s actions and headed straight out to the fishing ground, with whatever we had.

Strong wind and current

The water was choppy with the surface wind blowing across. It was hard work as we drifted over the coral reefs, a lot faster than we had anticipated.

Ian had the first sailfish ‘take' of the day. His balloon jiggled and wiggled before pulling the line away ... but it managed to steal the bait and returned him with an empty hook.

Shortly after, I had my first take of the day ... in similar fashion, just when a fishing boat sped pass my balloon. Zzzzzz ....  and the bait is gone!

Well educated sailfishes, probably!

11am 
My balloon suddenly went swimming against the flow of the current. I had got a ‘take’ happening then. .....  Within seconds, the sailfish leaped into the air just as I lifted the lever to strike position. Before I knew it ... the fish was gone! I had not even set the hook yet. I simply reeled back an empty line. The Berkley Gorilla braided main line had snapped like a dental floss. How could this be?

Big disappointment!!!

I could only attributed it to the line being damaged during my last outing about a year ago through abrasion. I had used the reel and line targeting mama groupers in rocky bottoms. 


I cut away another few meters of line ...... just to be sure.


Rescue Operation
The birds were now hovering just above our kayaks with sailfishes swimming around us, we could see the sails breaking gracefully on the surface.

Then we found a distressed sailfish floating lifelessly on the surface. It had been thrown back into the sea from a fishing trawler nearby. It was barely alive, the gills were still moving but it was on it’s side.

Ian held onto it’s beak, kept it upright while trying to get as much water running through the gills as possible, by gently swaying it from side to side.


The sailfish bounced back to life after a few minutes.

Wow! What an awesome sight ... it gave us a really good feeling, when we saw the beauty swimming away into the deep blue waters.

Sailfish Paradise - 1.30pm

We headed off to another spot after lunch. There were 3 commercial trawlers circling around, catching anchovies. The birds and sailfishes tends to concentrated around these trawlers.

We drifted quietly into the zone on our kayaks.

The wind had died down and the water was a lot calmer than in the morning. It was perfect for paddling around but it was blazing hot too!

We didn’t have to wait very long before we finally had the first sailfish of the day.

“Oooohhhhhhhhh...wweeeeeeee”, Ian screamed across.

The party had finally began .... Ian’s reel was screaming away. The sailfish was swimming up against the current and pulling his kayak along. He was on a ride .....!

I got my camera readied for a video take but I was just too far away. I paddled and chased him but by the time I was alongside ... the fight was already over. We took a quick photo of his trophy fish and it was quickly released back to the wild.

Birthday Present

After the release, we continued drifting on. There were a couple of fishing boats around us. A boat on my left had sailfish on and there were cheers all around, I was about 20m away, when I reel went crazy on a loose drag. A sailfish had taken off with my bait. I can see it leaping out of the water as it tries to get away. My line was peeling away. I was determined this time it was not getting away as I calmly timed my strike to perfection.

Tighten the drag, wait for the rod tip to bend, strike and as I lifted the rod I could feel the full power of the sailfish dashing away ........." Zzzzzzzzzzzz ...... ......... “.

“YES! I am on” ..... then ’tok’, the main line snapped AGAIN! 


Reeled in and I checked my drag ... it was working perfectly. Bloodly HELL! The line is “#@*XXXZ@@” . 
I screamed in my head as I paddled back towards the mothership and changed to my spare reel.

With the new reel and line ... I was all fired up.

I was actively scanning the horizon for sea birds and sailfish fins. I paddled towards a trawler that was pulling up it’s net, the birds were everywhere probably waiting for an easy meal.

Ian was nearby but I was drifting away from him ... he then shouted repeatedly across ... 'I had a fish on the take’.

His balloon was doing it’s dance routine and there were a couple of sails swimming around his kayak. Before we knew it, the fish was gone. No further action just the balloon dancing on the surface and stop.

Another potential catch was gone.

Step by Step

"It coming .. it coming" .. I was chanting silently in my mind ...........and hoping for the best, than my line went buzzing away!!! The balloon was released ..... the fish has taken the bait, hook, leader, swivel and line.

I told myself ...... I was not going to let this one get away again. No way!!!

Step 1 - ....... "Let the fish run”.
Step 2 - “Take a slow deep breath and count to 6”. 1 thousand, 2 thousand, 3 thousand ....... 6 thousand.
Step 3 - “Calmly set the lever to strike
Step 4 - Wait for the rod to takes the dip.
Step 5 - STRIKE ....
Step 6 - Scream to the world - "I am ON!" .....”FISH ON!”. I have a gotta a sailfish ON!"

The sailfish was pulling me towards Ian’s kayak. We both looked at each other .

"Er ..... I don’t think this is a good idea”, Ian said with the fear in his eyes.

It was a scary thought of 'what if' the sailfish were to take a leap just beside his kayak ...... where will it land?

Ian immediately did a reverse paddle and steered away from the fish. The sailfish jumped, leaped, tail walked above water for the longest time, over and over again! It was an amazing sight! 


Front row view from a VIP seat. Images of the actions that you could only find in fishing magazines, were right before my eyes.

What a sight! What a beauty! What an experience!

I went singing, “Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me  .... Happy birthday to me” as the fish towed me around. Ian and the captain sang along too!!!!

As the fish circled in, I put on my gloves, pulled the leader in and held onto it’s beak firmly before sliding it up along my leg and onto my lap. A technic I had learned from watching extreme kayak fishing adventures on YouTube. A couple of pictures and it was released.

Ian came alongside and gave me a high 5 before extending more greetings: “Happy Birthday, Buddy”.


I was ecstatic ....  It was the best birthday present, ever! 


By then, we had drifted away from the sailing zone. A long way away from the birds. I was determined to get another sailfish as I paddled inch by inch, towards the ‘bird park’. It took me a good 20 minutes of paddling to get back to the zone. 


Just as I was about to reach there, mothership came calling. "The fishes are over there!”, as he pointed over the horizon on my the right. 


I looked up and said, 'You must be kidding me, I just paddled here .. you want me to paddle towards there!!!!!” 


He smiled and we loaded our kayaks back onto the mothership and headed for the new zone.

3.40pm - Boiling Point

As we were closing into the zone ... we could see the surface boiling with actions and hundreds of birds flying around.

Ian was just setting up his balloon with his live bait when something took his bait from just under his kayak! The mono was leader and hook was gone! Spanish Mackerel? Barracuda? What ever it was ... it was definitely not shy.

Almost immediately, I had a take too. As I strike, it leaped out of the water. I looks like a baby sailfish but it turn out to be a big garfish. It was no fight against my heavy outfit.

Reloaded and another balloon into the water ... within a few minutes  ... a sailfish had took my bait ..... “zzzzzzzzz"... "here we go again". I was a little over confident this time. I failed to follow the instructions of Step 1-6 .... I just strike as soon as I felt the line peeling away. The fish splat out the hook and returned me a dead fish!

Shortly after, Ian had another take as his balloon went dancing again. Somehow the balloon did not release itself .... zzzz and the bait was gone, again!

The captain was right .... the fishes were here. Kudos to the captain!

We were running low in bait by then. The captain was busy jigging bait fish for us ..... and he had a sailfish hooked on his sabaki jig! It had leaped into the air before freeing itself, just beside the boat! Crazy sailfish actions form every angle.

I had zero bait left in my tank now, I paddled back to mothership to pick up the last live bait on board. I set it up just beside the boat ........ then ’tug’ and the balloon drifted off with the current, while my line went on a loose drag against it.

Deep breath. Step 1. Step 2...... Move lever to “Set”. Wait for the rod tip to dip - SET!!!!!! "Oooooo ... weeeeeee .......... finally another solid hook up, "FISH IS ON!!! ON! ON! ON!!!!”, I screamed again!"

It was a powerful fish as it made a couple of acrobatic leaps before diving deep and away, swimming towards the horizon and I was in another ride.

Then the fish made a sudden U-turn and swam towards me and I ended up collecting the loose lines; the fish was swimming faster than I could reel in!!!! It went under my kayak .... turn me around ..... and off to another direction.

It’s a big sailfish .... I was going everywhere! Towing me all over the place with highlights of leaps and there was this magical static moment, where the sailfish’s head and bill stayed above the water with my hook on, for a few seconds. It was another awesome. Picture that!

I went on an encore.... “Happy birthday to me ... “ ........ all over again!!!!

My arms were tired from the pressure of the fish swimming away, I had to stop and shake off the strain on my forearm. (probably due to the paddling too).

After a good long tug-of-war, I put on my gloves, adjusted my cap and lifted it up for yet another trophy shot. This sail was heavier and bigger than the first, I could hardly lifted it up. I struggled as I wanted to have the whole fish in the picture with me.

This will go into my record book. A beautiful picture taken that is worthy to be on my screensaver on my iPhone and iPad!

Simply fantastic!

4.40pm

No more bait! I paddled to Ian and begged him for the last live bait that he had in his bait tube. He gave it to me sportingly, a birthday present he said. 


And the stupidest thing had to happen .... it slipped out of my hand and swam away!

"BOHDOH ('Stupid' in malay) !!!!!" Everyone screamed at me.

I lowered my head and paddled back towards the mothership and sentenced myself to catching bait fish for the rest of the day. 


There was just about 15 minutes left of our fishing time.

The sailfishes had stop playing. We probably had drifted too far away from the boiling point.

We packed up and headed back to base.

This is surreal. This is addictive. This is my ultimate kayak fishing adventure!

Happy birthday to me!