A Hefty Queenie off Pulau Hantu

( A 5kg Queenfish caught off Pulau Hantu)
As luck would have it, I landed a 5 kg queenie with the help of an old friend of mine, Stephen Lau onboard his Albacore 310HT. We had earlier fished about 100 pcs of selar & tamban off the Yellow buoys south of Jurong Island. They were the largest I had seen in Singapore. Some as big as the ones you would catch off the Unjungs at Tg Pinang. I was glad Queenie took the live tamban offering and gave such a spectacular aerial display, you would think, she was the blood cousin of the sailfish. As usual we divided the fish in half. For those who do not already know, the queenfish makes the most delicious fish & chips. There is none better, I assure you. The taboo about Queenie as a good eating fish is unfounded. The supposed finger markings on its body, are hardly the prints any human can make and it usually numbers more than the 4 fingers and a thimb. The Aussies have been savouring its succelent meat for decades. So next time you land a Queenie, head for the supermarket & compliment the catch with a large bag of frozen fries.

John Lee, a special breed of Angler

(Picture of John with a 3kg local grouper)
I recently had the pleasure to go fishing with John Lee, whom I met at the RSYC. John is happily "retired" and is a superb angler. He owns an Albacore 28' and charters it out for fun. What impressed me most about John is his knowledge of the peculiar eating habits of our local fish. He knows when they feed and is very skilled at anchoring the boat so precisely, he sends the bait right into their homes. It's no small wonder, John always catches the fish. Another remarkable feat is, he hardly travels far to the happy hunting grounds. Many are within visual distance of his base camp. Whatever will John catch next, when the season opens in mid March.

Dogfish at HW

Cyrus with a juvenile Dogfish caught off Sudong at 2100 (HW) last night, 23 Oct 2007. It was released unharmed back into the water. We were looking forward to landing some squid, unfortunately the windy conditions & bright moonlight did little to help. I'm looking forward to the NE monsoon this year, as I intend to search for new & productive spots in our local waters. Many experineced fisherman tell me, the rougher the seas out there, the more motivated the fish will come into our waters to seek shelter & find food. Well lets see what the monsoon brings this year.

Golden Snappers off Sudong

My 12 year old son Cyrus with a 4kg golden snapper

I brought my 2 boys to Sudong last night & came home with 2 lovely Golden Snappers, about 2 & 4kg each. We caught them on fresh dead squid and live prawns, about 3 hours after the lowest tide. These two came in fast & furious and were caught about 5 miins apart. We also caught lots of small squid for bait.

I finally got back from a long work trip in the US.

Time to fish, I told myself when I got back. We took the Grady TigerCat to the inlet at Sultan Shoal Lighthouse and spent the whole afternoon at a popular spot. Score: 2 juvenile snappers & 1 Queenie. Not a thrilling result. But then a though struck me. I should be catching fish that are there and not hoping for the ones that are long gone. Let me explain. There are plently of small selars at buoys moored at the 10-20 meter sounding line and at the Rigs off Tuas. I have no problem catching those. Its fun too. There are also pleantly of small reef fish off the Southern Islands, I should also start specializing in that field. Too often I wait for that big one to be hooked only to be disapointed. So on the next trip in S'pore, I'll check out who's eating the bait fish and look for new reef spots off the beaten track. As for the big ones, I'll leave that till the Tioman trip. Till then....

I was told by my old friend Francis Olsen, the Marina Manager of Nongsa Marina and the Marina at Keppel Bay, that Nongsa Marina will undergo a major facelift this year. The old pontoons that you see in the picture will be dismantled and replaced and the break-water extended to give fuller protection during the NE monsoon months from late Nov-early March. Olsen told me about the sailfish season off Mapor in Sept & Oct. During these months, squid are abundant and attract the pelagics, including mackerel, dolphin fish and sailfish. Well, I've decided to make a trip first week of Oct onboard the Grady TigerCat. If I do catch any sailfish, it would be the first time outside Tioman & Phuket. Stay tuned for the news of that trip.

Tioman Adventure 22-24 Aug 2007

Map of Pulau Tioman & Dive Sites


The first thing we did when we arrived at Tioman was to stock up on live bait-fish in our 20gal bait-well. It took just an hour to catch about 100 baits, mostly kembong & selar, whilst anchored 30 meters upstream of the unjangs. Thereafter we concentrated on bottom fishing & live-baiting downstream. Bonitos were in season and we found it was easier to catch them on the same jigs than using spinners. The best jigs were the Sabiki no 12 hooks with white fish skin and green reflectors. For bottom fishing, we use self-tied apollo rigs with bonito sliced into "cubes" as bait. They will catch almost anything.


The first Marlin of the day, a frisky 30kg juvenile Black, caught on live bait,
Pictured, Alex Tan, Quincy, Ngak Hoe, Fred Chua, WF
Location: Unjung 5.5nm SSE of Tioman at N 02 39.820 E 104 15.620
PS: We practise catch & release of all bill-fish, & we always ask permission from the locals before fishing at their unjangs whenever we meet them there. As far as possible anchor upstream of the unjangs and avoid tying up to them, to prevent them drifting.

Here's the Video of me with the Marlin

Nothing beats a dive off the many fringing reefs & islands just off Salang. WF seen here at Tulai Canyon. The best dive spot was at Pu Chebeh. Good news, the big fish are back. We saw numerous Trevallies, Coral Trout & giant Barracudas. Both the hard & soft corals are thriving. As always we would moor the boat at the many mooring buoys laid by the locals. (Never anchor your boat at the dive sites, as it will cause heavy damage to the reef).




Black Marlin caught on live kembong bait, off the local unjangs in the evening, just when the bonitos were boiling on the surface. There was an abundant of bait-fish, mostly kembong, selar,
scad and good sized bonitos. We went back to the unjangs at about 3am for bottom fishing and caught lots of "angkoli", red-bream. We were hoping to catch some action on mahi-mahi in the morning, but a pod of dolphins visiting the unjuang must have scared them off.


S'pore's prominent sailor Yeo Ngak Hoe onboard the Riviera 51 at Tioman Marina. We took shelter there on the 2nd night. The Marina is a welcome facility at Tioman and a short car ride to Berjaya Resort for dinner. Currently the only facilities are the walk-on, walk-off berthing, shore supply & water. Fuel is sadly not available yet. The Marina does however change the way we fish at Tioman. Its possible to leave a boat there for a season and just fly up to Tioman for weekend fishing. It saves lots of time & fuel too.