Fishing Trip 2 ~ Fishing Kims

Hello Hello, Ghetto Fisherman Ong Reporting for duty!

Good day starshine, it has been a while since yours truly has posted, and I regret my tardiness. It has been a long exciting time since I last post. Lots of things have been happening, and as you all can see we have been doing more interesting things day by day.

So less nonsense, and back to the main gist of today's entry... Our 2nd Boat trip!!!!

This time round, we had decided on a Southern Island Boat Trip, getting up early in the morning to head down to Clementi Mrt to catch a bus down to West Coast. Everybody was in high spirits, all looking forward to the monster fishes that the Southern islands are famous for.
Everybody was super energetic, talking about catching batang and giant Groupers. Talking about mermaids and dewgongs. super random stuffs.

Upon reaching West Coast Macs, we gave our friendly boatman Ah Chong a call,
" Hey, Ah Chong! We is here you is where?"
" I is here you is where?"
" We at Mac, you is where?"
" You from Mac walk straight to the water, I is there!"
"OK can, see you there"

walk walk walk, whoa look at that guys super low tide gg!!! we were abit late.. just abit... but the tide was low..
We saw the beach and to the left a giant marina, so we were thinking wha, this boat so zhai from marina launch? (as was my experience in my Covert Boating Trip)
We saw an old uncle trodding in the knee deep water, manning his tiny boat, and we began to kid..
See la. so cheap. means tiny boat liao lor.
You see where this is going... we started laughing and making alot of noise, he looks up and waves!
OH MAN REALLY OUR BOAT AR?!!!
He starts shouting something pointing at the beach something something something, nobody has a clue to what he was saying.. so we just follow where he pointed.
Apparently he wanted us to walk to him from the beach, and as we got closer to the water, he started shouting at us again. We had to walk to him down a specific path between two stranded boats on the beach.
Dread was beginning to build up in our hearts, doubt in our heads, sand in our shoes..
We really had to walk to him in knee deep water, and the sand...... wasnt sand.. it was like clayish mud. which is like mud... and we were sinking all over.
Again he starts shouting at us to walk on the path he pointed.. cause that path the ground was more firm, compared to the mud we were standing on. Spoilt mud he called it. "Lan Ni" in mandarin
Finally arriving at his tiny little boat, we were all smiles, unsure of what we had gotten ourselves into. He greets us and said it was gonna be an exciting day.
Don't believe us? Photo break!

Beach front!

Emo faces cause walk wrong path

Wrong marina D:

Boat we were supposed to walk next to..

Humble Transport

To board, please step on plank!

Anxious smiles!

So back to our journey...
a simple hop to our bigger boat, which was berthed out in deeper waters, and our journey has begun!!
He piloted the boat with great skill, dodging all the bigger boats in the marina, and after about an hours journey, he declared fishing session open!!

everybody excitedly hooked their prawns on and started lowering lines into the water.
Whoa rocky bottom, someone mentioned.... ROCKY BOTTOM INDEED!!!
we had to be careful, rocky bottom= sungkok kingdom. and we weren't very prepared... this trip caught us at a time when everybody had commitments.
Oh wells, as we were staring at our lines and concentrating very hard on making sure we wouldn't sungkok, we heard somebody yell, I think I got something.
Immediately everybody got abit of energy, lots of catcalling and booing was had. people started saying things like I bet its a 64kg Grouper, nop its my Cobia, and nopnopnop its my Queenie..
but lo and behold.... it was a grouper... A TINY PINK COLOURED GROUPER.. no bigger then my palm... and it ate a WHOLE PRAWN?!!!!! IMPOSSIBRU....

That bugger of a grouper... we thought to ourselves, so small... see if can release it not... We tried to no avail.. and it ended up floating on the surface, and we couldn't net it back, cause of the stronk currents..
well no biggy, and everybody settled back into their general routine..

Suddenly, the familiar nerve wrecking sound of line running out could be heard. Alphonso Alphabet Alphaeus's rod was bending over. oh man, what could it be???? again jeering and name calling were had. ITS NOT REALLY A FISH, CONFIRM hook fall out la!!! It was very sluggish, heavy pull, with not much line running out, just heavy to pull. CONFIRM GAOOOO.
Sure enough, WHOAAAAAA nice 2kg GROUPERRRR

Look at that happy face!

Super happy Alphaeus, from last min fighter, to First major catch of the day!!!!

In between, we were catching alot of tiny groupers.. those pink ones, which we later found out are some chocolate Indian something groupers.. and they really only grew up to about that size.. so annoying..

Some time passed, some beer was drunk, food was consumed, more annoying groupers.. (never thought i would call groupers annoying)

ANDDD SZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE the gut wrenching sound. Nikolai Ned Nicholas grabbed his rod and fought it like a pro. wrangling that rod this way and that, pulling with all his might, (which btw was huge.. look at dem muskles.) Finally WHOAA whats that paddlepop in the water!!! Our very First PARROT FISH!!!

Woooooooo!

Its tusk was huge, super interesting fish, and we were super excited. We heard lots of stories about how parrot fish was super dope. meat super good. saliva was coming out of our mouths just talking about it.

By then Ah Chong helped us move a couple of spots, but the current was really bad, and the rocks kept eating our sinkers.

Tragedy struck.... Jupiter Jewel Jerome line snagged.. onto mine!!! zz max! I opened my bail, and left it on the deck.. went over to him and help him get the line unstuck.. he was on the opposite side of the boat, so it was stuck underneath the boat. Finally managed to release the lines from each other, when someone shouted Barry your rod!!! i turned around and made a dash for it as it was inching off the boat... my line... had run out. a whole spool of my braided line.. gone just like that... that really took the steam out of my sails... luckily i came prepared, and loaded my spare reel.. but alas, mono line... that feeling ain't the same.. I couldn't tell if I was touching the bottom or not.. the line was just so springy..

Oh well, it happens.. but to lighten the mood, suddenly Abe Abba Abel made a weird noise, and we looked at him. Furiously fighting with his rod. After a while, Whoop! another PARROTTT!!

This one came up with its "tongue all bulging out of its mouth... I thought it had some sort of huge fish in its mouth or something... really insane stuff..

By this time, every body was kinda demoralized.. lots of weights have been lost.. we were scavenging for bits and pieces to McGyver into decent weights.. I was pretty emo too.. no fish, no weights, no braided line.. So i began using my madai.. Not sure if i was doing it right though, and I got soo out of it... when suddenly SZZEEEEEE I could feel it.. Something was pulling at my line.. It wasn't very heavy though, and soon it stopped fighting apart from that initial quick burst. I was wrangling it this way and that. man handling and squeezing, swaying with the boat. what a rush. I was riding this tiger, and I cannot hope to dismount. the fight was my ecstasy, and i was it's slave. it almost felt like a ritual, as i bent over backwards, cranking my reel.

Its probably just a rock.... maybe a grouper, about 1kg... but when it broke the surface... I was grinning from ear to ear..

The biggest parrot of the day.. and well she was a real beaut.. her colors were so striking, and vivid. I could almost lick her.. and there she was, my beautiful red madai, with a nice solid hook set into the side of the mouth. really went in right through.

I was the happiest person at that moment. finally getting my own Parrot fish, which was my first of its species, and getting it on a madai! really exciting stuffs.

I talked about losing weights.. we only just hit 5pm when our final few fighters lost their weights as well.. tough luck everybody.. but yeh lost a whole bunch of weights, madais spark plugs, pieces of metal, running ball sinkers. anything that was heavy... All finally gone, and we told Ah Chong happily that we were good to go. Hello fishing kims to all stations. Paradise. It was time to go.

Oh before I forget! in between while all this was happening.. it was our very own Master of Comeback's Birthday!! Happy birthday Abel! we sang a quick song, gave him a very nice sarah lee cake. and before the celebration even happened, went back to our lines. hahaha. guys cant throw birthday parties....

So here are a couple more pictures of our Journey, and I hope you enjoyed sharing our experiences with us.

We look forward to the next trip as always, and wish everybody tight lines!

Fish On and Good Luck!

Ghetto Fisherman Ong

Ghetto Pro Tip #29: He who rides the tiger, can never dismount