2005-09-28

"Fish at 120M, start jigging!!!"



After I blanked for the first night, my mood was terrible...

For the past 36hrs, I didnt feel a bite (although my jigs were scarred badly) at all. Something must be seriously wrong with me... I didnt know what and I was desperate.

While I was in the cabin, my mind kept spinning and revolving... thinking what did I do wrong.

"Why am I blanking?"

"Bingo!!!"

I dug through my luggage and tossed my favourite fishing t-shirt on the bed. Then I returned my luggage back to the original state and quickly, I changed into my 'lucky charm'. Feeling confident once more, I went up to the deck and got myself ready to 'chiong' again!

"Hook up!!!" Uncle Chang shouted loud from far. Adernaline started rushing through me! The fish have arrived!!!

Suddenly, one after another, "HOOK UP!!! HOOK UP!!! HOOK UP!!!"

All except me... everyone along the railings hooked up a fish and those below me on the dive platform too(I was jigging from the diving cage). Immediately, lots of thoughts rushed through my already conjested mind and suddenly I switched my position and started jigging among the anglers who were fighting their fish... Call me kiasu or desperate, I AM!!! kekeke

I dropped my jig and from my colored line, I had about 140m of line out in the depths. Once the jig hit the bottom, I started jigging as hard as I could.

Suddenly, I felt a jam! My jig got stuck..... On no!!! Then I could feel my rod being pulled downwards... wth!!! Immediately, I knew I am on a fish! I set hard, super hard and I felt something struggling beneath there deep in the water.

"HOOK UP!!!" I shouted excitedly and Meryvn was right there encouraging me.

Meanwhile, all deckies were occuppied as we were landing fish after fish.

I caught my very first fish, a red ruby snapper.

I broke the zero and went on to hook up 2 more rubies in the night.

After all the actions died down, many went back to the cabins to rest for the night. Me too.

From then on, I know that I am hooked into bluewater fishing. Jigging is tough but very fun to me.

The next morning, while I was still sleeping, I heard some tumbling noise on the upper deck. OMG! It must be a fish!!!

Quickly, I got my semi-consious body up and started fishing at about 0630hrs. When I got onto the deck, I saw Mr Chang landed a bonito tuna. Nice!

My mind was still asleep but my eyes could still catch a glimpse of a Ryobi Safari hanging above me. Thinking that it was mine, I took it and dropped the jig into the water. Suddenly when I touched the handle, the knob was different! OMG!!! It was not my outfit at all!!!

I was definitely wide awake and damn! The jig had already reached 120m and touched down at the bottom... Oh well, just jigged it up all the way then and swap lor...

Just when I started to jig, I felt a hit and I set as hard as I could. "Hook up!" The reel screamed for a while like 3s and stopped. I landed a decent ruby snapper around the 10kg mark on a PE2-4 Genesis rod.

Seriously, ruby snapper are beautiful fish but they just dont fight well at all.

After the deckie helped me to land the fish, I went on to find my outfit and I did find it this time. Just some luck I got there man... I caught a fish using somebody's rod and reel and jig... thank goodness that it didnt snap.

Feeling better to have my gear in my hands, I dropped MY jig. There wasn't much current at all and I could see the 230g jig just went straight down into the sea. In my heart, I was counting... 100m, 110m, 120m (yeah, should touch down soon), 130m, 140m..... (WTF!!!) 150M!!!

OMG!!! I quickly closed the bail arm and I felt myself being pulled!!! At 7kg drag, I set as hard as I could once more. I thought that it just might be another red ruby. After setting hard, I only pumped twice. I couldnt lift the rod at all when I went on to pump the third time. The next thing I remembered is hearing the reel screaming hard... a BIGGIE!!!

"HOOK UP!!!"

The reel screamed for about 5s and suddenly it stopped... I couldnt feel anything at all... the line went limp and the jig was missing... WTH!!!

While I was retrieving my line, I feared that a barracOda might have snipped me off at mid water. I was very fortunate, I lost only my leader near the knot. The 100lbs leader just got cut cleanly across at 45 degree angle. It still had a little piece of fish skin at the end of it too... black in color... damn CODA!!! I lost a big one due to these pest in the water...

I went on to learn my lesson about bluewater angling later on by being stripped bare by a est. 200-300kg marlin. I lost my line, my friend's trolling skirt... everything cost around $120. All within a minute.

Bluewater angling, I will be back!

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