COD AND REDFISH

It's been some time since I last posted on the blog as I haven't been fishing alot until the recent month. But I did manage to sneak out once in a while when I have time.

Well, this trip is no different. Went back to my trustee Redfish hideout in search of some willing victims. Started the day as usual, spent the Saturday morning lazing around abit and taking the pre-noon ferry to my getaway.

But this day, I decided to do explore the surrounding area before I go looking for Mr Red. Whilst on my way to the rocks, I passed a spot that I read from a blog that had produced a nice john's snapper for the author... a nice place to go do some bait soaking. Moving along, I reached the rocks and started to look for a nice place where I could chuck a lure. I stationed myself where I could see a length of submerged rocks in about 2-3 feet of water and proceeded to cast the 3D minnow. Nothing fancy, just a straight retrieve.

And in about 10 mins, the lure got hit and I can't believe that there's still fish! Brought the cod up without fanfare for a few customary shots before returning him to grow a little bigger.... that's if the locals don't catch him first... they'd consider it a pretty good sized catch.



I continued casting for another 15mins without inquiry and headed off to Mr Red's. It was a good 45mins before I found myself in familiar territory. This time round, I decided to give the fly rod a go first. 15 minutes passed without any customers and it was time to break out the spin rod. Whipped on my trustee Berkley Powerbait and within 10 casts, I was in business. It was awesome... I can't believe that there's still some around!


But that was to be my one and only red of the trip as the tide signalled the end of happy hour. But all in all, still a very fruitful trip in overfished Hong Kong.

Seeing RED in Hong Kong

Hello there...I've finally got something to report from Hong Kong - the "kill every fish" drift net capital of the world.

Woke up at 6am and the sun was already beaming... but with some important work not finished, I decided to hack away at the PC till afternoon and maybe head out then if I made progress. Made some progress and there was no time to lose.... I only had about 2.5 hours of fishing time as I've a dinner appointment with my boss and some colleagues in the evening.

Decided to try out an area that I pinpointed on the good ol Google earth. The tide was low when I reached (don't know if it was the bottom or not though).... the wind wasn't too kind either . So I decided to rig up my trustee Berkeley 2-inch Grub on the spin rod to see how I'd do in the wind. First cast veered off to the right cos of the wind, compensated for the veering on the second cast, and was just doing a simple twitch-pause-twitch routine on the grub.

Then out of nowhere the line tightened and I realised something actually grabbed the lure And it felt like a nice fish too... and I'm obviously pretty stoked... There were a few close calls when it tried to swim towards some oyster encrusted rocks but a few rod-lefts and rod-rights saw it swim clear of them... although it felt weighty, the drag didn't have the opportunity to sing... By now I'm dead curious as to what's on the end of the line...not catfish I hope...as the bar of silver came near, the tell-tale spot on the tail gave the Redfish away. A few clicks on the camera and back into the brine it went.

Feeling that there could be more, rigged up another grubbie and flicked it out in the same direction...twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch.... FISH ON!! This time the rod began to bend deeply and the drag started to sing its song... definitely a bigger specimen this one... I grabbed the leader (bad move...) and tried to lift the bugger out... the 8lb fluro snapped as the fish shook its head in disapproval, and taunted me as it swam ever so slowly into the deep .... taking my last suitable jighead with it.

It's time to bring out the long wand... wind or no wind... tied on my Bentback Whistler and managed to put out 60ft in the menacing wind... took less than 10 casts for fly to get smashed. Pretty good sized one too from the way it pulled... Fought it carefully as I'd really like to get a shot of it... Finally rocked it, a few happy snaps, and released it.

Casted a few more times without luck as the bead chain eye on the fly had fallen off which resulted in the fly not being able to hold at the required depth... Decided to call it a day.

-Justin-

Rock Hopping- Many firsts in a day

The past 2 weeks have been rather fishless ever since My beloved Loop opti was snapped by a rampaging JEWie. So when time came for a fish, I decided to make the most of it. The arsenal this time was simple. 9Wt Green wand+ lots of sink tips+ lots of sinking flies.


Walsh bay proved to be quite a bad start for the morning as my fishing Companion Brandon landed our only fish for the session. A tailor. Dejected and wishing that my only fishing day for a while could have gone better, I was pleasantly surprised when My better half's uncle called me to ask if I'd like to join him for a fish. As I was in need of a serious hook up "Yes"was undoubtedly the reply and I was off.

Thinking that the harbor was not really producing the goods on this glorious day. I opted for an estuarine location. to keep things short. It was not good either and bush overgrowth made my casting a little hard.Then "Uncle" Suggested going to the moutain goat place (it's his favorite bait fishing spot). For those that have been following our blog, This is one tough fishing spot to get too. Climing rock face walls with wand in hand is no joke. But I had an itch to scratch and would happily have swam through lava if I was promised a chance at a decent fish.

this time I kept it simple. Just rod flies and some leader. The Simms sun-gloves doubled for climbing gloves and my first cast was made. "Uncle"was doing his usual bait thing as I started my retrieve. "slam" my fly was hit by a kingie. this came together with uncle shouting and waving as his rod was bent into a deep arc.

Smiling I thought "How Green tide is this ?" needless to say when fishing off the rocks and decent kingies are about, you loose a lot of shooting head. Fights were kept to minimum time with all Kings busting both of us off. When I say all it was about 4 of them with 2 a piece. My 4 inch deceivers were dissapearing at an alarming rate.

Convinced the kings were not to return for a bit. I swapped to a surf candy when I saw fishing chowing down on the burley trail uncle had set up. Casting and fast stripping trough the surf brought up Sea pikes of all hues with the biggest of the bunch kept for a bbq later that evening.As the Pikes were noting of a strain on the 9wt, I got negligent and forgot to check my tippet. The rocks we were fishing from made short work and I lost my favourite surf candy.

As the action quietened down. I thought I'd try to explore the rock outcrop with some sinking flies and proceeded to loose at least 5 clousers and 30 more feet of shooting head. This prompted a change of tactics and a 2 inch white deceiver was tied on to my 14th tippet of the day. first cast out saw boils and uncle's bait get smashed. Seeing that uncle was on a good fish, I re cast and was rewarded with my First Rocks based Australian Salmon (kahawi) on fly! it put on a great display jumping as it did in an attempt to free itself. Unfortunately, Uncle thought it was prime BBQ fish and killed it while Helping land it from the rocks.Asian Bait fishermen.. everything is a feed.

So on the salmon run went and I was having a ball till a fish of unknown description took my last deceiver and wrapped me on a rock bommie.having lost the last of my shooting head, I decided to give the clousers one more go and cast out a 1/4 weighted model. This day nothing could really go wrong. the last cast out(uncle reported no more bait and had already started cleaning the fish he wanted to keep which means everythiing). was smashed by my first legal Snapper on fly! what a way to end a glorious day swoffing around Sydney.

Actual time spent fishing (around 12 hrs)

time spent getting into fish (1 hour)

Unbelievable. It just goes to show that location plays a huge role in success or failure and I'm thankful for being able to fish such a remote part of Sydney and catch some of the most memorable fish in my Angling career.


PS: It was unfortunate that every fish that showed some size was killed and taken home by Uncle and some of the photos are only of those that had been cleaned. I'm trying to educate my old schooled companion but it is proving to be a long long road.Still I will try till he understands why we catch and release.













Till the next time

take a kind Fishing!

Justin (agent X) in Singapore

Hi all,

While I was stuck here in Sydney and the horrible low pressure system, weather,and fishing, Justin was happily off in Singapore. We are happy to report that he has broken the fishing draught (and the lack of Singaporean local food) on his last trip to the Sunny Garden City we call our Homeland.

Here is a copy of the Email sent to me while I was busily typing away at my desk.

See the pics =)

I actually wanted to just go to Sydney for 2 weeks in early Oct, but looking at the fishing, I'm gonna have to do a week in Sydney and the other in SG =D Wanna join me?


The 8 groupers and 1 ACK were caught at singapore river. They've sealed off the mouth of the SG river at Marina South and it'll become fresh water soon, so we went there to clear as much fish as we can. The small golden trev and fingermark were caught at the SAF yacht club where my fren - Jeffery has his boat parked. I hooked on to a runaway train on Mon night but it spat the hook. Jeff also told me that there are Giant Herrings and Milkfish on the calm mornings....bring the flyrod next time. The net of a neighbouring kelong broke a couple of weeks ago and they landed over 200 pcs of the escapees. The fingermarks are almost always around and 6 - 8 pcs per night is not uncommon. As the water isn't very deep, using the flyrod with live prawn is a very attractive and viable option... heheheh.

I was there at 3pm and fished till 530pm. Only found out that I left one section of my rod at home after I reached the place... but luckily, I had a spool of 10lb vanish and opted to do use it as a handline... good choice... hit an ACK before the rain came, and then the Goldie and another ACK after the rain... lost a pretty good sized one as well... all in less than 2hrs of fishing (discounting the rain). Went back there at 930pm - 12mn... lost one (line snapped) and dropped one (the runaway train).

Can't wait till Sept/Oct!!!!!!