WARNING....THE PICTURES ARE NOT IN ORDER COZ ITS GETTING LATE AND I REALLY WANT TO POST THIS UP SOONEST COZ I WONT HAVE TIME TO DO IT...ENJOYS!
45KG YELLOW FIN TUNA BY YOURS TRULY!!
GIPANG, STELLA SW8000HG, VARIVAS 40LBS LINE = THIS BABY!
SPANGLI - TRULY WORTH IT....45KGS....WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR! "SOMETIMES CAN" ANGLERS...WE FUCKING ROCK!
This was a trip that I have been wanting to go ever since I saw the 40kg class dogtooth landed by the legendary Colin Soh. I never had the time to go for a trip like this because it would require me to take at least 5 days off work and that would be really difficult to get approvals from my bosses.
Then one fine day in August 2008, Khian called and said D D and the gang are organizing a trip to Spratly Islands ( A.K.A SPANGLI by ‘SOMETIMES CAN’ Anglers akakakakakak ) next year April. That sounded really promising as its almost a year away, and if I let my bosses know 9 months in advance that im going on leave, I think I stand a chance!!! I told Khian to give me a day or 2 to speak to my bosses first.
MR MICHAEL MENG WHO MADE IT ALL HAPPEN!!!
The very next day, I received an SMS from Khian, “ Your Ticket booked liau to Labuan, 17th of April 2009.” I was like dude, I haven’t even spoke to my bosses yet!!!! Khian just said to me….youre going, FINAL. I knew right then, that I sangkut already. There is no way I can get myself outta this trip. It is a must go. After much persuading, my boss gave me the nod, and then it was like EUPHORIA for me….
The most exciting part after the approval of my leave….GEARING UP akakakakakakakakaa. I needed a PE5 – 8 rods, so I went on to buy the following rods in the next few months:
Hots’s GIPANG 83H PE 5 - 8
Hot’s Fake Lez 50H PE 5 - 8
Hot’s Wei World PE8 (Thanks to the HANTU Khian I bought this FANTASTIC rod)
Shimano Blue Rose PE 8 Full-Gene
Shimano Blue Rose PE 8 Inbreed
I know I got a bit carried away but hey, who the hell complains about having too much gear! Akakakakakakaka. A lot of other stuff which I don’t think I can remember were bought specifically for this trip especially crazily expensive Jigs and Poppers, line, hooks and the whole works.
SSSSSKKKKKKIIIIIIIPPPPPPP…..
Ok here we go, the write up on the trip. Get ready for some RECORD breaking results from the trip and pay attention to the smile’s of ALL the ‘SOMETIMES CAN’ Anglers on this trip because this time….EVERYONE CAN akakakakakakkaka!
16th April 2009, Thursday
Alan arrived at my place in the evening. We took hours to pack our stuff. I had Khian pick up more poppers for me from Darren’s and I gave him a budget of 1k to spend as I had no time to go myself. When I got back and opened the package…there were only 7 items. 3 poppers and 4 jigs. 1k….oh what the hell, its SPANGLI man!
17th April 2009, Friday
Me and Alan tried VERY hard to sleep but the excitement is just unbearable! We packed, and un packed, and packed, and un packed and before we know it, its time to be on our way to LCCT. Luckily my brother was kind enough to take us to LCCT coz or items will NOT fit into a normal LIMO. THANKS NIC! You ROCK!
We arrived at the airport just in time as everyone was already checking in. this was it…..we are on our way to SPANGLI!!!! I was soooooo excited I boarded the plane so fast the whole world was looking for me thinking that I missed the flight!!!
When we arrived at Labuan, Michael Meng was there to receive us. I must say, the guy is a pretty damn good organizer. He knew exactly what to prepare for us and everything was planned out professionally. Plus he is a nice guy despite that “You Wanna Piece of Me” look. We went straight to a convenient store to buy more food and necessities. Spent a good 30 minutes there, then we were off to lunch. Lunch was so so, maybe not too used to the local food but that didn’t matter….we were here for SPANGLI akakakakakakakak….Our T-Shirts ROCKED big time as some of the other anglers who were on the same trip was asking for it. ‘SOMETIMES CAN’ Anglers….WE ROCKED BIG TIME!
45KG MAFAKKA!
ALAN "BARRACUDA KING".....30KG NO KIDDING!
After lunch, we were off to the boat. Well its isn’t really what I imagined having been on Crystal Coral….well who cares, as long as the place I sleep in had air conditioning and clean. As we left the Waterfront, I dropped 2 Happy Happy and went into LA LA LAND for a good 20 hours, waking up occasionally eat and piss.
18th April 2009, Saturday – KHIAN & ANDREW’s DAY
We arrived at the first reef. Ok, don’t ask me what reef it was as I was stoned out to the max. spent most my time lying in bed, occasionally looking out the window to see if anyone caught anything.
Then at 3pm, Michael said it was time to take the small boats out to the atolls to do some popping. Getting all excited, we packed our gear and hopped on the small boats. Me, Alan and Ng got onto an orange boat…with no name….Khian, D D, Naely and Johnson was on Sea baby…trust me, you would wanna remember this name.
Our boat guy was taking us to all the wrong places. We could hear screams on Sea Baby but ours was a you look at me I look at you kinda situation .The boatman had no idea how to drift the boat and had no idea where to look for fishes…in the end, we just asked the guy to take us back to mother boat.
Sea Baby on the other hand, had MULTIPLE hook ups of GT’s of various sizes and KHIAN landed a 30kg plus shark on a POPPER! CONGRATULATIONS to Khian the “SHARK KING”!
5pm, it was time for the second batch to hit the atolls. And proven once again that only Sea Baby produced some good sized GT’s and the other…lets call it Sea Kayu for easy reference, ZERO. When I say good size GT’s, I mean like a 20kg one! Landed by our new team member Andrew from Melaka. It was his first trip out popping and I can tell you this guy has CRAZY luck! 20kg class on his first trip out! CONGRATULATIONS Andrew!....after that, we knew that this guy SANGKUT already…he will become one of us, GEAR FREAK’s! ahahahahahahahaha ….after landing the fish, he vowed to invest in some REAL GEAR ahahahhahahahhahah, welcome onboard!
Dinner was ok, we had soup, curry chicken, and some fried vegetable. Soon after that, I adjourned to my small cubicle for a meeting which lasted about 6 hours. I missed out quite a lot of action during that 6 hour meeting, there were hook ups on doggies which were like 3 – 5kg’s, Barracouta’s, Alan’s idiotic cousins and some Kerisi’s big enough to feed 13 people.
19th April 2009, Sunday – ALAN’s DAY
On this day, the unstoppable happened. D D was jigging non stop the WHOLE night with Alan when suddenly there was an unstoppable run on D D’s Stella 20000 even at FULL drag. EVERYONE on the boat was watching him fight this TORPEDO. Lines on his Stella 20000, which was about 500m were nearly STRIPPED!!, Khian had to help him out as he was really tiring out then the line snapped! It was Alan’s farking cousins, the BARRACOUTA’s!...they chews on the mainline! That was REALLY disappointing and ANNOYING.
Soon after, another unstoppable run was heard and this time, it was on Alan’s Accurate + Tenryu Oceania PE1 – 4 set up. After a good 30 minute fight all around the boat, Alan landed a record Barracuda!....this is why he is the Barracuda King. 30kg’s!. it was just INSANE! I have never in my life seen a barracuda of that size! Alan’s luck with Barracuda’s is proven time and time again. He never fails to land one on ANY trip. They are like family to him. Anyways, CONGRATULATIONS to Alan the “BARRACUDA KING”!
On this night, the fishing was just CRAZY! Andrew who landed the 20kg GT was rewarded with another doggie of 22kg on jig!!!!! talk about luck! This guy’s luck is like a dream come through for MANY people…
20th April 2009, Monday – G.T KING’s DAY
Having not caught anything sizeable since we got to SPANGLI, I thought, ok la, at least I caught a few doggies of 2-3kgs and tons of Barracouta’s and have met a group of really cool anglers, this trip was well worth it. Record breaking fishes by our very own “SOMETIMES CAN” Anglers, what more can I ask for..and then………….
The guys wanted to take the boat out to the atolls again, and I was actually quite reluctant to go. After much persuasion from the guys, I went on board Sea Baby…this is where history was made…
We were popping for about 20 minutes when the 45kg YELLOW FIN TUNA strike on the popper. Fighting my MONSTER with a Stella SW8000HG with 40lbs VARIVAS line was no joke…..when I say no joke means that the drag was locked to the maximum and the fight….. lasted for at least on hour. The small boat was pulled so far away from where the strike happened that we couldn’t even see the mother boat! My arms and fingers were cramping but I said to myself, this fish I have to see it no matter what…I needed to know what the hell it was!
When the fish surfaced, Andrew screamed “YELLOW FIN!”, the fish must have heard his name and gave one last dive….it was one of the hardest dive I have felt in my entire life….all I could do was hold on to my GIPANG until the fish tired out. Ng was pushing me to crank the reel but I told him, it aint gonna happen as the tension of the pull was too strong for me to crank anything! Short pumps, didn’t work either so all I could do was engage myself in a game of tug of war with the beast.
When the tuna was finally landed, the gaff was straightened, I was completely out and my face was green. There were a feeling of euphoria on board sea baby and we told the boatman to head straight back to Sea Maiden 1.
The tuna was weighted, CONFIRMED at 45kgs. I was pretty upset because i left my camera in the room, and when I brought it out to have pictures of me taken with the tuna, m lens were actually fogged up and the settings wasn’t right!!!! What a waste…Hopefully I can get better shots from Michael Meng as he took quite a few shots too.
To sum it up, the Yellow Fin Tuna, is the strongest fish I have ever fought and the biggest I have ever landed in my life. It was just magical, but I still prefer the way a GT fights. They fight dirty and they never seem to surprise you with crazy runs after runs after runs. Thats why, I would still want to remain as GT King as GT is the love of my fish akakakakkakkakakaka.
21st April 2009, Tuesday – BAD WEATHER DAY
Sea Baby went out again but the weather was not too good. Still Khian and a few others were landing GT’s after GT’s. I was looking at them from Sea Maiden and was observing the waves that were pounding on the reef’s. I was actually klinda worried for them but they seemed ok.
When Sea baby returned, then only I found out that they nearly over turned. They didn’t realize that the waves were coming at them. It was a really scary moment for everyone and from then on…the fishing stopped…the rain and storm came. Fishing was over from then on.
22nd April 2009, Wednesday – GILBERT DAY
The whole day, the weather was just BAD. Waves of up to 3 – 4 meters, the boat was rocking till everyone crawled back into their rooms and tried to avoid getting seasick. Even with the help of my HAPPY friends, I was feeling kinda off! But the most steady guy, JOHNSON. He could still eat when NONE of us could, he watched movies and fished during those kinda weather. You gotta give it to the guy, he is farking HARDCORE!
We suggested to the captain to head back he said to us “ Errr….i don’t think it’s such a good idea. The weather is REALLY bad out there, we might not even be able to leave the reef tomorrow.” Ok, this was getting a bit too serious. I crawled back into my little cubicle, prayed abit and tried to sleep it off…
When it was dinner time, only 3 people were eating. The rest…well….they were resting. Suddenly, a beautiful bird flew into the boat! This bird, is the most friendly bird I have ever encountered. He lets you pet him, place him on your head, your shoulder and was just chilling with us throughout the whole time! Nicknamed GILBERT akakakakakakak. He watched us eat, chilled with us as we were playing cards on board and pooped into one of the caps we placed him on.
23rd April 2009, Thursday – HOMESICK DAY
We headed back as soon as the weather got slightly better. I was getting really home sick. I miss my wife, my bed and family. I was looking through the photo’s of my wife and family which I saved on my laptop and all I wanted to do was just GET HOME.
We reached Labuan at about 3am in the morning. All I wanted to do was check into a proper hotel, get a proper shower, lie on a proper bed with a proper ceiling, have a burger and get proper sleep. Guess what, ALL the hotels were full!
We ended up chilling at a mamak stall outside the hotel we were supposed to spend the night in and talked cock until 10am. It was still fun as we got to know the Melaka crew better and it was actually nice to have a proper mamak meal on land akakakkakakakaka.
THE GIPANG WHICH TAMED THE TUNA....
Michael Meng arranged for us to stay in the Waterfront Hotel, very decent place. He took us for a FANTASTIC lunch and brought us for a much needed full body massage. Dinner was fantastic also…Michael Meng really knows everything about Labuan.
Alan, Ng, Andrew, Jimmy, Khian and myself were playing poker in Ng’s room till 2 in the morning and yes we had room service after room service.
24th April 2009, Friday – BALIK DAY
TO DROP....OR NOT TO DROP...
Well this is the end of the trip. We arrived KL at about 1pm and headed home. To sum it up, this trip ROCKED big time for me. RECORD breaking trip for us “SOMETIMES CAN” Anglers. To all my new friends, we shall meet again and it was ROCKIN to be fishing with you guys. To all the “SOMETIMES CAN” Anglers…..this time….WE REALLY CAN! Akakakakakakkakakak.
GT / YELLOW FIN TUNA KING
…the title is a bit too long, so I’ll just stick to GT KING akakakkakak and I will still be in search of a bigger GT. If ANYONE has any trip planned that might just have the slightest chance for me to land a 30 – 40kg GT, please please please please let me know…
