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Pekan Fishing with Rickey Tay On My Birthday!

It has been a very happening open season for my fishingkakis and me. It has been fishing trips all the way after the monsoon and Typhoon Pakhar had cleared. Every weekend saw us fishing various coasts in Malaysia like Pekan, Desaru etc. One kaki Shawn even went Rompin March and caught some decent Sailfish.

This was a a kind of new season for me in the sense that it was almost purely jigging and artificial baits for me during the few trips. The fishingkakis obliged as well and sometimes we did not even have baits. I think it shows that 4 anglers jigging together is definitely more effective than 2 jigging, 2 baiting. This may also be because that most of the time we will be drift fishing

This trip saw us head back to Pekan Pahang, a quiet sleepy fishing town which is 1 hour further than Rompin. We will be taking Rickey's boat again as he is my usual boatman and Pekan and I had been with him for many years. The last trip in March 2012 in Pekan was for the Ebeks and we had so much fun with jigs that we did not even buy live prawns for fishing. Back then the winds were very strong and we could not head to Karang Laus reef or Jubilee reef. But now... we can... hehehe...

And the best thing? Well it was my Birthday! So off to Pekan we went on Friday the 13 of April... And i guess it was really a black Friday because our group of 5 pax, 2 vehicles became 3 pax, 2 vehicles due to a minor accident while along Mersing. What to do... the rest of us push on... We reached Rickey's house at 5am in the morning and had an hour or two sleep before heading out to buy breakfast and lunch. It was always a sacrifice to drive up on Friday night, fish sat, sun and then drive back on Sunday night but for working people like us, this was the best arrangement. Always advisable to have at least two drivers in the car so one can take over if the other is feeling sleepy.

We brought live crabs and live prawns up as Rickey warned that the wind may still be there and that now is a good time for catching parrot fish or eng ko. But... as we cruised along the sea... NO WIND?! And it was off to Jubilee Reef, the main target being ang gao or coral trout...

Asari cast fighter 40g was the champion here as we drifted along the big jubilee reef. Whether you are doing casting and horizontal vertical jigging, action is fast when you passby a "hole". The usual pelagics like Golden Trevally also hit the jig.

Coral trout hitting the jigs



Golden Trevally hitting the jigs as well



The starting was lukewarm as we hit a few coral trout and the sorts. But as afternoon approached, hell broke loose as baitfish were pushed up from below. There were at least 5 big schools of baby rainbow runner being attacked by predator fish constantly. We could see the big fish go in from the side every few seconds and smash the baitfish! On certain occasions, even spanish mackeral could be seen fleeing. Cobia, big GTs were around!

A good decent spanish mackeral



Great barracuda



Ah Yong was leaning over the boat when an estimated 200kg Tiger shark swam right up to him! He backed away immediatley only to see the shark swim pass the boat over to the other side! What an experience!
 
Popping the baitfish schools was a fun experience and Rickey had many hits and misses. Very soon, we got the hang of it... You cannot cast the popper right on top of the school as it will scare the baitfish and predators. Rather, you must cast at the side of the bait ball and present your bait as "seperated" from the school. Big fish love this and takes are usually hard and fast.

We had fun with the big Rainbow runners, spotted trevally (Jembudok) as they came for our poppers. On one occasion we could see a school of GT including some black ones following the popper! Asari Pinktails and Jackson Pintail and Pintail Tune were also working and by day 1 we probably used up all our casting minnnows! We were undergunned and bullied most of the time with rogue GT taking us for a run. I had an unstoppable fish which took me from the front of the boat to the back in a matter of seconds. It was a one way ticket on max drag! Mind you, my Shimano Bassterra 10-20lbs, 6'6 paired with a Daiwa Certate 2500R Hyper Custom can dish out alot of firepower but it simply gave up with this beast on the line! It took away my Asari Pinktail as it went round the boat and the line got cut off by the propellor.

Rainbow runner on halco popper



Spotted trevally aka cembudok on popper



Spotted trevally aka cembudok on Asari Pinktail



Emperor on jackson pintail tune



We were so frustrated at one point of time with the Spanish Macks grabbing our jigs and slicing the leader that we trolled a few rounds with Rapala Magnum CD14... hit a few good macks... They were hit on the Calstar GF600XL 10-25lbs and Accurate 197 with YGK PE2.5. Crazy stuff if you ask me!
Day 2 was similar except that now we were more prepared and got bullied less often although there were one way tickets as well. A 100kg Tiger Shark followed Rickey's asari pink tail. At first, he thought it was a Cobia and reeled slowly so that the Cobia could grab the lure but afterawhile he panicked as he realised it was a shark! As he reeled faster, the shark also came in quick! Alas, it missed! And at that moment, you see the funny side when 4 anglers casted jigs towards the shark, looked at each other and then regretted it. Ball shrinking moment!

Day 2 also saw me finally get my birthday present with a beautiful rainbow runner after many missed and thrown attempts. The fight was awefully strong for such a small fish. Tackle used was Goldenmean Sabel Dance PE 1 version 2 with Daiwa Exist 2500 on max drag! Popper was a Chugbug and stockhooks! But this day also saw Ah Yong cast his popper into my favourite bassterra and smash it to pieces. A rod well used for 4 years finally retiring it seems...






Terence landed a peach of a GT too on the jackson pintail tune... and some cute stuff as well...



Total catch


Well that's almost about all, next trip would be Desaru on 12 May... at a new place that I hope to introduce to all...

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