Steamed

Karyn, Peng Peng and I enjoyed this for lunch today. :)

Another huge sicklefish in 2 weeks

Praise God. He has been good to me.

Another huge one landed this morning at Carl's Jr at 8 plus using frozen sea worms as bait (works every time). This one is slightly bigger then the one caught 2 weeks ago.

This guy did not put up much of a fight while I was reeling in, but struggled hard when it came right in front. For a few times, it just took the line and dived. I have to struggle with it for a while.

After lifting it off the waters, I secured it with a fish keeper hook and returned it into the waters to keep it alive. Because it was hooked on the lips, it was still very active and it remained alive all the while in the waters and even after I reached home!

One surprise was that I discovered the Daichi hook was broken at the tip! Thank God it did not escape. This lesson tells me always to keep the lines tight while fighting fishes!

I used kelong sotong too in this trip. But it did not yield anything. Instead it attracted puffers. I still have 3 packs in my fridge! Maybe will bring them along for the kelong trip that I'm likely to take with Thomas (a church member) later this month.

Big enough

Caught 2 silver biddy on Monday morning with sarong.

The bigger one is my biggest record for silver biddy.

This guy though smaller than other fishes, gave a better fight.

Anyway, steamed them on the same day. Definitely delicious.

At least something

Arrived at about 7am. Within a short time, the sky was pitch dark and the wind swept strongly. Thank God all my things are secured.

But I chose to battle on. I put on my trusty raincoat and got myself ready for the rain - which turned out to be only a drizzle.

I fished with left over baits of worms, prawns and a whiting. It is the whiting that yielded result.

This stingray bit my second serving of the fish fillet. But there was no ring. Only when I retrieved my line did I realised there was something heavy at the other end.

At first, it just felt like a piece of really heavy dead weight. So I just kept pumping it back. But as it was really heavy, like it was "scraping the bottom", I started suspecting that it might be a fish.

Finally, I felt some jerking. I started to get excited but stayed calm and kept on pumping back. At times, it felt like it got "sunken". But as I pulled hard, it gave way slowly.

Finally, I saw it! This "small" stingray! I thought it must be something bigger given the drag it produced.

Nonetheless, I'm grateful the trip yielded some excitement and some thing to bring home. :)

Steamed Cao-Xi

Looks ugly but taste alright. Not as good as grunter, but one should give thanks for fresh fish any time.

Way BIGGER Cao Xi :)

Caught a way bigger Cao-Xi this morning! Am I happy. :)

I picked David (Moser) up from his home at 6.30am and off we went to the Carl's Jr jetty - my favorite spot - for good reasons (nice sunrise, quiet and often serves up good fishes)!

We fished with sea worms. I didn't catch anything in the beginning. But David caught 2 whitings for me to use as baits.

But I pressed on with the worms with my 2 longer rods. Finally, the rod shaked slightly at around 9am - it was high tide (I think around 2m). I striked and realised there was something heavy on the other end.

As I retrieved it, it did not fight much but boy was it heavy. I was quite certain it was a sea creature because of its slight jerks. But as the "creature" came nearer to shore, it started to fight. Once, it managed to overcome the drag and swam away. But of course, it finally gave up and as it came closer, we realised it was a beautiful and huge cao-xi (or sicklefish).

As it was gut-hooked, I was more confident about lifting it out of the water by the string.

It was a beauty, we were both impressed and started taking pictures... Thank you GOD!

Now David is convinced that there are big fishes in our waters. :)

We finished the trip at 10am with a good breakfast at Old Town. The sharing was great and we managed to put in some prayers...

Cao Xi

Nice drizzling morning.
Came here to Carl's Jr Jetty at 7am and set out to fish with sea worms from Mark's. They were fat and juicy.
Caught 2 whitings. Fillet one for fishing (no catch) and kept the other for future trips.
By 9am, the bell on my 10ft rod rang. Not very violent but obvious enough.
So I striked and started retrieving. There was definitely something significant on the other end! :) But it did not fight like the other fishes. It gave short spurts.
Finally, I saw it! A beautiful Cao Xi (sicklefish).
1 or 2 weeks ago, I saw another man catching 2 of these at this same jetty - 1/2 hour apart.
So I set up for another bite.
But by 10am, when there was no more action, I went home satisfied.
I've seen this one being landed a few times, but never by me. I always wondered when it'll be my turn. Today happened to be my turn! :)