Kuala Rompin, Pahang – 10 AUG 2016
After a full year waiting to be back in Kuala Rompin. Finally we kick off our Sailfish season in Kuala Rompin with the Lamborghini PR Team and Five55 Production team who has been the backbone of Lamborghini Racing Tour across Asia. We started our journey from KLIA, pickup Zhou and Alex who came all the way from China for a Lamborghini event in Malaysia. Chandra and Daniel are from Malaysia and they are the founder of Five55 Production.
I took us 5 dreadful hours to reach Rompin, Pahang haha. Driving past midnight can be tiring if you are not ready for it. Luckily a chat with Chandra about how it all started from a startup company to probably one of the best automobile content production team in Malaysia is really inspiring. To have a local Malaysian company to be handling a global supercar brand is just awesome. As we reach our homestay, we only have 2.5 hours to rest and be ready for our fishing trip.
Day 1 – Kuala Rompin
I wake up early and get the boys on their feet to start our fishing day. So Daniel and Chandra were first timer heading to their first ever deep sea fishing trip. Alex and Zhou are regulars and they have been here last year. As usual, we stop over for a quick breakfast and stop buy to buy balloons for the drifting, towels and tissue paper. We head off from the jetty around 9.00am and the first thing we need to do is to look for good quality bait for our Sailfish.
I took us an hour to reach our first Sabiki spot. The sea were a bit choppy and I’m a bit worried because Chandra and Daniel are newcomers and will probably struggle to standup on their feet due to the choppy water. No time to waste, we drop down our sabiki rig and we rack some good Kembung, Tamban and even number of Selar for our bait. Once we have a good number in the live tanks, we straight away head to our first Sailfish spot.
We start our Sailfish fishing, drifting live-bait around 11am. The wind was still a bit fast and furious and Chandra was feeling the pain haha. We ask him to sleep to get his head centered again and be ready for his first fight. Alex and Zhou voted to let the newcomer to taste first blood. One thing strange is that we didn’t get any bite the first few hours and it was not until 2.00pm when finally we hooked one Sailfish. Chandra was up to task and he is on his way to score his first Sailfish.
As Chandra were half way fighting the fish, the other rod sets off! and Boom!! Double strike! It was all to play for, the fish were getting closer to the boat. As we Chandra’s fish gets closer and closer, we try to land it in as fast possible. However the fish decided to give one last push and all the sudden, SNAPPED! it broke the 60lb leader! Arghhh! Gutted with that result but Daniel power his way through and land his first ever Sailfish.
In total, I think we get 5 strike and 2 good hookup and landed only 1. The fish were a bit finicky when taking the bait. It took them quite some time to really took the bait and this has been strange indeed. Zhou, who has been casting the whole day has been and manage to land 1 Tenggiri. The last attempt of the day made by yours truly, scores a table size grouper that will fit nicely for our dinner. it was a tough day chasin Sails but tomorrow we have another day to rack up some good score.
Day 2 – Kuala Rompin
Day 2 has it’s own twist to the outing, since Sailfish is not really around in numbers, we decided to source for other game fish and this time is the Barred Mackerel. Zhou really wanted to do some jigging as well as some SW Offshore casting, thus today we will concentrate on their requirements. As we travel away from the shore, the sea was quite calm. It was a smooth sailing for our first live bait stop. Caught a few good bait fish and decided to drift around the area, but sadly nothing is around. We switch spot several times in our quest to find our first score, but it was all too quite. Zhou has been trying casting the earlier on but no luck.
Jigging and even casting require a full dedication of endless tries and cast to make sure we increase our chance in scoring a fish. All of them tried jigging and casting the whole day, in a systematic rotation to give a chance of every possible chance. It was not until mid day when we finally score something. I ask Zhou to keep on casting, but he decided to take a nap and soon the others followed through. They need a little push, I picked up the 8 footer casting rod and cast the Jackson Pintail hoping a Tenggiri or Barred Mackerel is around.
The trick was always to cast as far as possible and let it sink all the way to the bottom. That means we can cover a wider range of area. Before we start crank it up, loosen your muscle and focus. Reel in as fast as you can without stopping! Let it ripped! After my second cast, BOOM! A hitter but was only on for few second. I cast again and let it sink all the down. Before I even started, the line felt weightless. The Tenggiri already cut the freakin line! Haha. I rigged a new Pintail and preparing for another run. As the pintail accelerate for the bottom of the sea and streak towards the boat, BOOM! Fish On! It was a small Tenggiri probably a good 2kg size and it wakes up all the people on deck and things start over again.
Chandra and Daniel started jigging after that. Daniel manage to get triple hook of tenggiri, one after another. Lucky first timer keeps on scoring haha. Chandra manage to get a Barracuda but still it was fun to watch them trying every single time. Dropping that jig hoping to score that big fish.
30 minutes before we hit the 4pm mark, dark cloud starts forming behind us and soon we know that we will be hit with a rain storm. It was typical rain storm with strong winds. Keeping the members calm is a primary objective at this hour. All members suit up their life jacket and we slowly maneuver away from the storm. It took 30 minutes for the storm to pass by and we are safe to head back to jetty. Overall second day was still a slow day. Not even a single fish caught on day 2 but we manage to land some Barred Mackerel that will go nicely for our dinner.
Thank you Zhou, Alex, Daniel and Chandra. I hoped it could have been a better result but that is fishing. Some days are excellent and some days are tough. For Daniel and Chandra, I hoped you guys are hooked for life and hopefully we will meet again 🙂
