Our boat sank!

We received word on Wednesday that the boat we took to the Similan Islands, which is also the one we were supposed to take for the Andaman Islands, had sank!

The boat that 'blindly' struck some rocks.




The Blindstrike is a charter boat based in Phuket, Thailand. Apparently, the boat was out on a fishing trip at the Similan Islands when it struck some shallow rocks, and the damage to the hull was enough to sink the ship.

The first thought that entered my mind was... Heng ah! I mean, we were there just a couple of weeks ago, and it could have happened to us! *Shudder*  When I bought travel insurance for the trip, it was to guard against the possible scenario of missing or damaged luggage more than anything else! So people, remember to purchase travel insurance when you go fishing to protect yourselves! *Touches wood*

MFF T-shirts Clearance Sale!

Hey all! MyFishingFrenzy is holding a year-end clearance sale with discounts up to 60%! Everything, and I mean everything, is going at $8* each!

Go to our website www.myfishingfrenzy.com and take a look at the short-sleeved and long-sleeved T-shirts, and caps. Act fast, as sizes are limited hor!

*Delivery/postage charges not included.

Similan Islands - AOB

The Similan Islands trip was 3D4N, but our fishing time was only about 30 hours (not including the almost 20 hours of travelling on the boat). So what did we do the rest of the time? Here's some of the more interesting things we came across.

As it is next to impossible for us to ever have a chance to fire a real gun in Singapore, the guys were eager to practise what they learnt in NS at the Phuket shooting range. At 890 baht (S$38), they get to fire 10 bullets.

Wind direction, check. Wind speed, check. FIRE!

The sharpshooter of the group, yeah!





As we were strolling down the street of Phuket, I spotted this on the menu of the local McDonalds and bought one to try. Not bad!

Broccoli, mushrooms and cheese instead of apples in the pie.



Last but not least, check out this photo of a pushcart selling plush toys. Something special's in there that's definitely not for sale!

'Woof woof! I'm much cuter than all these toys!'

Similan Islands - The action

The journey was much longer and tougher than expected, we felt a little seasick but recovered once we reached the first jigging spot. It was a 8 plus hour journey before we had a chance to wet our lines. Very soon, the first fish of the trip, a red grouper, was landed... yes, by me.  :)

JM blue/silver Alien 150g

Our favourite sashimi fish - the yellow finned tuna. Tasted really tender and went well with the super strong China-made wasabi. Simply superb! 

Shibuki 186mm 80g sinking

Appetiser for our dinner that day!



The terrorist on the left, who worked hard to strike terror into the hearts of the local fish population, was rewarded with this 10kg GT. It whacked the lure 3 times, following all the way till it was finally hooked!

Gunz Tailwalk



Having caught the appetiser, it's time to catch the main dish for dinner...

Shout Stay blue/pink 130g



Another fish on the Shout Stay, this time a baby amberjack.

Shout Stay blue/pink 130g (again!)



The other terrorist on board also caught a baby amberjack.

Jigace



The above mentioned terrorist was the one who caught this poisonous lionfish, which nobody dared to pose with. Hehe...

Lionfish on jig!





The jig fell out when this fish was landed, so we can't share what it was that tempted this fish  to bite.

Green Jobfish



Another green Jobfish.

JM Alien silver 150g



There were times when the screen of the fishfinder lifted our hopes and renewed our jigging enthusiasm, only to be disappointed.

Characters straight out of Sherman's Lagoon!




That was when I finally caved in and tried baiting with leftover tuna on tamban jigs to see what fish were swimming down there but didn't like the taste of metal.

Lo jiak, lo jiak... but it was a trigger fish spot.  :(

Luckily, a couple of Potato fish came up too.  :)



The hardworking crew transformed our catch into these tasty dishes.

Potato fish with sweet and sour sauce, yumz!

Deep-fried grouper with Thai chilli sauce.




Disclaimer: The fish that were sacrificed on this trip were the 2 groupers, 2 potato fish and the YFT. All other fish were released immediately after photo-taking.  :p

Similan Islands - The Prelude

Hehehe... I know I took a longer rest than originally intended, but finally, here's the 1st installment of the Similans CR.  :)

Similan is a chain of 9 islands off Khao Lak, home to the best diving and snorkeling sites in Thailand. As it was made into a national park in 1982 and fishing was banned within the boundaries, we had to fish a distance away. That certainly did not discourage us, as we were sure that some fish will definitely be swimming around the area right?

We arrived in Phuket Saturday evening. While our luggage made their way to the boat, we made our way to a restaurant for dinner.

Entrance of the restaurant




The food that was ordered were the usual seafood dishes, but one was worthy of mention - the oysters!

Oysters cost 30 baht each.



The oysters were pretty fat and juicy, but what made an impression was the condiments they served the oysters with. Other than the usual lemon (in this case it was green), there was salt, garlic slices, chilli paste, cut chilli padi, pepper, fried shallots and this green plant as seen in the photo!

I nibbled a stalk of the green plant to see how it tastes like... and... it tasted... green? Err... I know this sounds lame, but there really wasn't anything special about it... it's just like eating tender grass shoots! Maybe there's some medicinal quality? If you know, please tell me. Cos I was too shy to ask the waitresses!

Anyway, despite the options available, I chickened out and ate the oysters with lemon and salt only. Kekeke...

After the dinner, we were ferried to the boat and our long journey to the fishing spots started... (To be continued!  :p)

Am I really on dry land?

The boat docked Monday evening and Tuesday was spent getting massages and shopping in Phuket. So why am I still woozy??? Sorry peeps, comes back another day. I'm suffering from post-voyage seasickness...  :(

Please, no more rubbish in the sea...

Just want to leave our readers with some food for thought till our next CR, which will probably appear on the 18th or 19th of November!

I try my very best not to litter, especially when I'm out at sea. Of course, there are times when I have no control over the rubbish I created - like when a boatman or a kelong staff dumps the rubbish we carefully bagged... into the sea.

Picture of plastic confetti from www.nytimes.com



I personally feel that biodegradable stuff like unfinished food is ok, but not plastic. Instead of decomposing, plastic will only breakdown into smaller and smaller pieces. Evidence of trash causing harm to sea creatures is well documented, but did you know that the tissue of certain fish contain some of the same chemicals as plastic?

Imagine these toxins being transfered to larger and larger fish and then back to ourselves!

Our luggage for the Similans

If you look over at the countdown timer on the left, you would notice that it's less than 24 hours to the Similans trip. Woohoo! Obviously, we had to have packed our luggage by now.

In view of this upcoming trip and the Andamans next year, we decided to splurge a little and thus purchased 2 new Carlton suitcases with hard shells. They were bought at the Robinson's Expo Sale and the total cost was S$369. (Supposedly at a discount, though I am not sure if I believe they are really sold at an original price of £255 = S$590 according to their website!

The 75cm purple and 82cm lime green posing with the rod-tube.



We put all the reels into those big waterproof plastic storage boxes before loading them into the suitcases, hoping that they will arrive safe and sound (Fingers crossed for gentle handling by the airport staff...)! The suitcases each weigh almost 20kg, thanks to the reels, jigs and assorted fishing barang barang we are bringing, so any shopping would have to be hand-carried on our way back!

Cheaper SC eging lure in SG

Haiz... just found out the other day when we were at Changi that the Surecatch eging lure is selling at $1.40 in Singapore... and I went all the way to Permas Jaya to pay RM5 = S$2!

Hahaha...

Well, but we did save quite a bit on the Rapala lures which are a couple bucks cheaper each... so it's not that bad.

Lovely dinner at Jaan

This post has nothing to do with fishing, but I just have to talk about the lovely fish dishes we had Saturday evening at Jaan par Andre! We liked almost everything, but the otoro and the marbled goby were exceptional. Here are the photos to drool over...

Our dinner menu.

Free house wine for card members' on their birthdays!

Squid ink and parmesan twigs with eggplant dip.

Amaebi on raspberry sangria sorbet, with lemongrass jelly.

'Forgotten vegetables' - eating this was really like wondering through a secret garden!

Melt-in-your-mouth grilled otoro with charcoal powder, with what I think was shoyu jelly... my favourite dish of all!

Foie gras mousse and sandwich.

Marbled goby with crab wonton.



The fish was baked till just cooked, which made it incredibly tender yet not fishy at all. A mouthful of the fish with some amaebi and caviar... heavenly! Easily the best soon hock I've ever eaten.

Roasted saddle of lamb with puffed wild rice carbonara.

Dessert!

Coffee, tea and petit fours.

Complimentary birthday cake!





Getting the Amex credit card that gives you Feed-at-Raffles privileges of 50% discount was a superb deal! We'll definitely be back...

A comparison of 3 eging lures

As mentioned in my previous post, we went Permas Jaya on Sunday to stock up on lures (Hehe... guess where we'll be using them?). While browsing the eging lures section in Fishingline, one of the friendly sales staff recommended the SureCatch WuHuang Squid (舞皇 - Dancing King). He actually singled out the one that came with a light that flashed when the lure touched water, but the smallest size for that design was 2.5, so I didn't like it as much. My favourite to use at the kelongs is size 2, as this catches even the smaller squid that we sometimes hook alive and throw out as bait.

The size 2 without lights.


I did, however, buy the size 2 version. I already have lots of eging lures at home, but decided to give this a try as it looks quite like a Yamashita! When I reached home, I immediately took out the different lures for a comparison.

3 lures in ascending prices from top to bottom.


The very first one is the Surecatch (S$2), the middle one is the Yamashita that comes in a plastic pouch (around S$10) and the bottom is the Yamashita packaged in a plastic box (around S$15). Let's take a closer look at the differences in the lures.

Prawn A

Prawn B

Prawn C (sorry, no new piece!)




The first obvious difference is in the eyes - C has a better quality red coloured eye while A and B uses tacky looking plastic stick-ons. I have no idea if better eyes attract more squid, but I suppose the overall aesthetics is definitely more pleasing to the angler!

The second difference is in the sinker - C has a more aerodynamic shaped sinker that most probably has a subtle effect on the way the lure sinks. A has a similar looking one that maybe 'borrowed' from the original, but B's sinker looks... er... like a small metal tombstone?

Thirdly, the feathers. Despite having caught 20 over squid, C has still quite a bit of feathers remaining. A has a big bunch, and B has one lonely feather. The fluttering of the feathers in the water is meant to simulate the feelers of the prawns and also create a little resistance in the water when the lure is pulled forward. So... I guess it's quite essential.

Fourth in this list is the body. Notice that the shape of B and C is pretty similar, while A is different (probably modelled after the Yozuris?) More importantly, notice that the brightly coloured reflective backing is present in the entire lure for A and C, but only partially for B.

Finally, the spikes at the end. All 3 lures come with a double set of spikes, but only B has plastic tubing round the middle. Also, B's spikes are more vertical, pointing towards the top of the lure, while the other 2 point at a wider angle outwards. A's spikes are smaller among all, and feels also weaker. However, even C's spikes actually opened a couple of times when bigger squid were landed so checking for 'structural integrity' is a must whichever lure you use.

To sum up, there is usually a direct correlation between price and quality, as you can see from the appearance of these lures. Nevertheless, some cheaper lures may work pretty well too. My personal take on this issue is that - experience and technique are still the most important factors, but good lures do give you an edge over others using those of average quality.

I am already convinced that the Yamashita that comes in a box is worth paying for, I shall try the others during my next kelong trip and then report on their effectiveness. Stay tuned!  :p

Prawning in JB?

Saw this flyer when we were at the Permas Jaya Fisherman Tackle shop. There was another one for the fishing pond there, but I didn't take it.

4 hours = RM36



If the price is converted to Singapore dollars, it would be only $15 for 4 hours. Wow... Judging from what is written, there are 4 types of prawns/lobster in the pond - salt water prawns (grey prawns?), tiger prawns, white prawns (?) and small lobsters. You will even get a chance to recoup the price of your ticket if you catch a lobster, or even better - a lobster with a clip!

I am really keen to check this place out, but it depends on whether WT wants to drive me in...  :)

Rainy day at Bottle Tree

We were there today yesterday at Bottle Tree waiting out a heavy thunderstorm. There is no doubt at all that the monsoon season is here! Time to chiong the kelongs, people!

Anyway, the reason for our presence was not the fishing, nor the prawning, but paintball. WT joined Desmond and Neil for a paintball session at Red Dynasty in Bottle Tree. The three of them all play Counterstrike, so it is not surprising that that they would be interested in this somewhat similar activity.

Bang, bang!



However, being someone who hates confrontations and 'violence' in any form, I had no choice but wait outside. I did consider prawning for the duration of their game, and went to check the prawn pond out. I saw that they had an 1 hour package for $14.50, but when I noticed that the prawns caught were rather small compared to the usual ponds I frequent, I decided against it and ended up feeding the local population of mosquitoes.

A word of caution for anyone who is coming over to this paintball place as spectator - bring lots of strong insect repellant! I donated quite a bit of my blood to the voracious mosquitoes there! :(