1st Offshore Trip on 17 MAY 2009

After weeks of endless preparations and discussions, we were finally on our maiden's voyage via the so called 'big boat with 3 beds'.

Date: 17 May Sunday
Time: 7pm to 7am
Venue: Southern Islands
Participants: Hanming, Miss Anki, Kelvin & Xiaoyan, Wayne & Dell, Louis & Yida and lastly me. (total strength 9 ppl) plus Abu and the boatman.

We arrived late and boarded the SZ 7953 around 7.30pm and off we go on our 1st offshore trip!

An hour was the boat's journey to our 1st spot of the night and by then all equipment geared up for battle oradi but to our dismay all of us couldn't really get used to the rocking and shaking of the bumboat. After an hour of fruitless fishing, boatman decided to change spot juz then Dell shouted got fish!!



First fish of the night! A shark! First time holding 1 in my hands! Wonder if its edible? Anyway off we go to our 2nd spot and 3rd and 4th and 5th and 6th...........
What happened? No fish and no squid! Oh no, no baits left, Abu still asked us not to bring baits luckily we brought some dead prawns along.



Forgot which spot Wayne got this Port Dickson shark and also this was shark number what we caught. Total we got about 5 or 6 sharks, biggest shark on Miss Anki line weighed around 2kg. A highly anticipated offshore trip had turned out to be a boring trip as no other decent catches besides sharks.....Gradually one by one slept on the rocky boat.



Finally at the 7th last spot, Abu caught something using handline. A 2kg Grouper! That's we have been waiting for the whole night man! Morale boosted and remaning anglers Hanming, Louis, Yida and me continued the battle. I copied Abu using handline and shortly later Hanming got another grouper......



This was a bigger grouper weighing around 2.5kg and moments later i got my very own grouper on hand line! Finally break zero liao! Another main factor that we underestimated was the super strong under current, Kelvin, Wayne and my gear couldn't stand a chance aginst it at all.....However lucky that the 7th spot worked out well!



This super VIP arrived at about 5am plus, this 15kg (estimated) leopard ray was pulled up by the boatman on hand line! Best catch of the night man! I was there witnessing the whole process and all i could say was it was a test of strength and might.....



Total catches of the night, i would say its quite a not bad harvest considering that till 4am then we got our 1st decent catch.



Closed up view of the leopard ray and Gaos, Louis took the ray home and i wonder how it taste like? Actually i wanted to tapao a piece of it home but got to cut up the ray a bit troublesome.



This shark should be Miss Anki's 2kg catch, imagine now its 200kg, Miss Anki would be in serious shit man!



Closed up on the fatty yummy Gaos, snapper and deep sea Kim Bah Lors. The grouper was yummy as i took 1 home, Miss Anki took the snapper and commented delicious. I think all deep sea fishes are tasty by nature. We decided on a second trip somewhere end of June and hopefully we can get a big harvest!