Fishing Adventures of NHF

The departure hall was quite empty when we were inside, we thought we were early but it turns out that most travelers were already at the jetty inside waiting.

As we moved toward the jetty our kind hearted KC offered help to the Drinks Aunties. WQ spotted two chicks and he was extremely keen on hooking them instead of the fishes at Pulau Ubin.

The wooden boat took some time to reach Pulau Ubin but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the journey. Pulau Ubin is around two kilometer away from the main land Singapore and the ride took around twenty minutes.

Upon arriving we all helped the Drinks Aunties to unload their goods before we continued our adventure. The Jetty at Pulau Ubin is quite small and I wondered how it handled the crowd on th busy weekend.

According to KC, who claimed he is very familiar with Pulau Ubin, Taxi is available as soon as we stepped out from the jetty. It turned out that there's only a few that's available and they were quite a distance away.

After some negotiation and queries, we managed to hop onto one of this Taxi Van and headed to Maman Beach Campsite, it was suggested by the chatty and humorous Taxi Uncle and endorsed by KC, he said he was there before.

We traveled through the narrow and whining road and about fifteen minutes later we arrived at our destination. I was quite disappointed at the first glance as there were many student camping here, on the second look we found that the perimeter of this area is fence up, we were going to fish inside a cell. As we proceed we saw the toilet, which they thought is very important was closed for renovation.

This trip was a fishing cum BBQ overnight camping trip at Pulau Ubin, it's my first time there and I wasn't sure what to expect. Heard a lot about this place and has been longing to set foot there.

We decided to utilized one vehicle for cost saving and convenience purposes. WQ drove his Nissan Presage MPV which has large seating cabin and storage area. It turns out KC brought almost his whole kitchen and the vehicle almost run out of space.

WQ and Colin came to pick me up at my place and we headed to the next rally point, Ang Mo Kio to pick up KC. We were told by KC he needed more time to settle his children, so we went on to settle our lunch without him.

As I understand how the Anti-Reverse works and I know where is the mechanism, the job was made simple and as soon as I removed the spool I detected the issues.

A tiny spring that latched on the stopper was broken, I removed it and it looked familiar. Over the years I collected many parts from spoiled fishing reels and some electronic gadgets. This tiny spring resembled those I stripped off from a old damaged Sony Camcorder.

After some search I found one which is identical and as soon as I placed the new spring onto the Surecatch Spinning reel, the Anti-Reverse is back to its working condition.

While doing the servicing and upgrading of the Daiwa Millionaire Proteus 300, I didn't bother to avoid touching the fishing line with my oily hand as I had the intention to get them replaced once I completed the job.

I got this Penn Tournament 18lbs fishing line which is IGFA Class, I bought this when the shop was having the sales, it was a steal. This fishing line is also being loaded on my Abu Garcia, I love the smoothness on casting as well as the toughness.

The old fishing line on the Daiwa Millionaire was stiff and was tainted with oil, this would reduce the chances of getting bite as fishes don't really like the smell of the oil.

When respooling the line we need to take note that due to the Multiplier/Baitcast reel has the horizontal spool, the drum of the new line need to be placed horizontally as well. This will greatly help on minimized fishing line from twisting and entangled during casting, the "Bird Nest" scenario is what we hate to faced when fishing. The theory is that we need to load the new fishing line according to it's memory. On a Spinning reel we need to place the drum vertically as it has a vertical spool.

This DIY Mono Mag require very few parts, the most important part being the Rare Earth Magnet. I bought them few years ago when I was trying out the Magnetic Coupling for my DIY Electric Trolling Motor project, which was failed eventually.

I gathered the necessary parts as follow, 1) 8mm stainless steel bolt x 1 2) 8mm stailess steel Nut   x 1 3) Rare Earth Magnet (6mm OD) x 4 4) Wheel Air Inlet Cap   x 1 5) Coil Spring (Customary)   x 1

Basic tools required and some Epoxy paste was used and it took around 3 hours to complete the project. (not including the drying time for the Epoxy)

As soon as I have done the Bearing servicing cum repair, I proceeded on on the cleaning of the gear parts that I removed. Many had dried grease and dirt stuck on them but with the help of some petrol and WD40, some Autosol as well, I managed to got them all clean up.

All parts were put back and new grease was apply on each moving mechanism. I made full use of the Rocket Fuel Red Label that I bought few years ago, have it on the Drag system.

I decided to go a step further and did the Ultimate Bearing Servicing that I had learned from a fishing blog many years ago. I did the trick onto my Abu Garcia's Bearing and it's performance was greatly improved.

The trick is to remove the Dust Cover of the Bearing and have the Ball Bearing inside cleaned. To do this the Retaining Clip on the Bearing have to be removed using a Needle. Carefully pry out the tiny Retaining Spring and lift up the Dust Cover with the help of that same Needle.

I skipped a few steps to save some time, in actual servicing the Ball Bearing can be pushed out and the Bearing Housing can be cleaned inside out. All parts should be soaked in Cleaning Solution over night before fixing them back.

Small hiccup forced me to paused for around half an hour as the Retaining Clip for the Bearing flew off to nowhere. Fortunately it was found and the Bearing was reinstalled properly.

The Clicker or Alarm was assembled after it was cleaned and greased. The Side Plate was placed aside and will be fitted with the Mono Mag later. There are two screws that's holding up the Main Gear Housing, upon removing the cover I found that the grease inside was almost fully dried, this explained the stiffness when cranking the reel.

Careful study was made before I proceed, even though the design is very similar to the Abu Garcia.  I slowly removed all parts and was faced with another tough nut. The base plate was 90% corroded and there's not much I could do about it.

Immediately I found that this Daiwa Millionaires Proteus 300 was in poor condition. The Star Drag System was stiff and the threads on the Drive Shaft was covered with dirt.

When I was removing the Main Gear Housing I could feel there was some resistance, it could be the Cast Control Bearing which holds the Spool Shaft had jammed.

My friend told me his multiplier is always having problem during casting, he always gets Bird's Nest if he didn't thumb down on the spool in time. It seems that the casting control has worn out and I told him my Abu Garcia C4 6600 doesn't have any breaking blocks in it, all thanks to the DIY Mono Mag I fitted on it.

So I agreed on helping him to fit the DIY Mono Mag on his Daiwa Millionaire Proteus 300. On top of that I even suggest to service the reel, it is really poor maintained. I told him that he will be having a smooth casting multiplier reel to do the surf casting at Pulau Ubin, we had organized a overnight fishing trip in two weeks time.

We reached the Fort Road Jetty at around 11pm and the tide was receding. We took our time to prepare our gears, my friend KC even brought his coffee maker there and made some nice coffee for us.

Cast net was brought to catch some fresh bait. Colin went on the first round and as soon as I done my set up I joined him for the hunt. Nothing significant was caught by the cast net, can't get any Tamban aka Greenbacks.

When Colin was exhausted by the 10 feet Braided Cast Net, I took over and started to walk around the Jetty to search for bait fishes. The results were disappointed until I spotted a dark shadow appearing on the surface, it was a good size Squid aka Greeneyes! I quickly retrieved the net but it submerge back into the deep before I can react.

I patiently waited at around that corner and after around 20 minutes it resurfaced. I was all ready for it and without much hesitation my 10 feet braided cast net flew out like a pan cake which covered all the exit path. I saw the Squid being covered inside the net, although excited but I kept my calm and let the cast net gradually sank to the bottom. I slowly drag the cast net back but I couldn't feel any movement, I thought I had missed it until the net was pulled up to the Jetty.

We continued on gathering bait and were aiming for Squids. Cast net was used but didn't manage to catch any. A few table sizes fishes swam pass but I was too slow to react.

It was closed to midnight that my friend, Colin had the first sign. The clicker on his Daiwa Sealine 30SH was triggered, it alarmed everyone to rush forward. At the end, it was just false alarm.

While I was away to make some coffee, Colin got the real bite and the fishing line was being stripped off in lightning pace. He fought for around 10 minutes and the fish was landed. Colin was disappointed on the catch, it is a Super Catfish that weigh 7kg!

Next in line was KC, he managed to hook up a 2kg Trevally. I returned to some action after the coffee break, only to have my fishing line entangled with a huge chunk of Sea Weed.

I did have a real strike but it escaped, it wasn't very strong and as I gently reeled in a bunch of sea weed tangled on my fishing line again. I took it for granted and the fishing line was slacked, that's when the fish made some struggle and broke free.

I stayed awake throughout the night when everyone else headed to their La La Land. I witnessed the St. John's Island sunrise but didn't have any strike.

As the sea water became clearer we paused the luring activities and focused on gathering bait fishes.

The Jetty is always surrounded by small fishes, namely Tamban(Greenbacks) and Selar(Yellow Scad). My friends used a small rod and the Sabiki rig while I took out my 5.5 footer cast net to hunt for those bait fish.

The Lucky Fish Finder played a part in locating the bait fish but after many attempts none was caught on the cast net. I was quite reluctant to let the cast net sank all the way to the bottom, the phobia of getting my cast net reduced to shorter length prevented me from doing so.

The original size of this cast net was 7 feet. On one fishing trip at St. John's Island here I snagged the cast net when I let it sank to the bottom, I did manage to force it out but it was reduced to less than 6 feet.

As we arrived at St.John's Island we quickly settled ourselves and were ready for some action. The rain eventually stopped but the aftermath of this rain was disastrous.

We mostly stationed at the Jetty here as other than the shelter, this is the only spot that can do bottom fishing without snagging your fishing line. The depth here is also another reason why we choose here, it is confirmed later with my Lucky Fish Finder that the deepest part is around 20 meter.

As usual we started something light, gathering some live bait fishes and toying with some lures. The sea was quite milky after the rain but as the tide receding it slowly clears up.

I never fancy luring but once in the blue moon I did force myself to spend sometimes trying out. I went around the area and after an hour of trying I gave up.

Been fishing at St John's Island since 2008, numerous fishes were caught and a few exciting encounter which almost stripped naked my friend's spool.

My friend organized a fishing trip to St. John's Island and I was invited. We set off at around 2pm via ferry to St. John's Island. At around 3pm we arrived the destination.

St. John's Island is always a fascinating spot for fishing, the depth here ranges from 30 meter to the deepest part at 50 meter. Traveling time to here is around 20 minutes from the Marina South Pier, a round ticket cost $18 today.

On this formally Quarantine Station for Cholera patients back in the early 19th Century and Leprosy patients in the 1930's. Not many activities can be done here except to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Visitors mostly take the morning ferry and return to the main land in the afternoon. It is a great place to relax and unwind, somewhere to get you out from the hectic city life momentarily.

When doing the surf casting at the beach, sometimes we face the problem of your sinker being flushed away by the strong current. This added DIY feature on to the normal sinker we use helps a lot.

Back then there were not many commercial Sand Grib Sinker available  here and sometimes you might not be able to find one. The price is also an obstacle as we all knew that this sinker might ended up deep in the sea due to snag line.

When this post came up on a fishing forum it immediately caught my attention. it's easy to make and it's low cost, it can be done on any surf casting sinker as well.

The construction of this Sand Grib Sinker require minimum materials. You only need basic tools like Plier, Nail Clipper, some Scotch Tape and some Fishing Line. Some basic knotting skill and you are good to go.