First, this post is going to be text heavy. The fishing was good enough that we didn’t take photos of many of the fish we caught… and by caught, I mean those we bothered to land and/or not lose.
After Kiat helped me with my dead van battery on our last trip here, we had to expedite this expedition. So we set it for just 5 days later. The weather was the same as the last time we were here.
Rain in the morning. That equated to better fishing for us. We knew where all the fish were when it was raining and the colder the water was, the slower they moved out to hunt.
As usual, Nigel and me stepped back as we let the newbies to the area try their hand at the first lagoon and to get used to the weird casting positions. As expected, they had a few troubles getting used to the terrain but they caught on quick.
They had a few misses and by the time Nigel and I felt that they were ready, the fish had begun to move out.
We made the few customary casts at the usual spots and moved on quickly, eager to get to where we “knew” the fish were. Unfortunately for me, my lure decided to stay in the water at one of these spots and I had to go for a swim… again.
The pace was slow and I was worried we were getting further behind the fish, so Weiyee and I expedited our journey deeper along the path. Kiat was about to join us when Nigel took over his spot. For reasons I still do not understand, the fish that had headed out to hunt, then returned to their homes. On Nigel’s first few casts at the spot that Kiat, Weiyee and I were fishing at only moments before, Nigel connected with a beautiful Temensis.
Fortunately for Kiat, he hadn’t advanced as far as Weiyee and I so he was able to return to where Nigel was. Weiyee and I were already on the opposite bank.
As was the case with last week, getting them to bite took some doing. As soon as they were about to bite, we had run out of space to move the lure. Fortunately for Kiat and Nigel, they were much better positioned and managed to get quite a few fish. Weiyee and I were literally casting between tree trunks and under branches that were about 3 metres in front of us and only half a metre above the water. Weiyee and I did our best but it was not good enough.
They were two distinct schools of Temensis. One small group made regular trips in front of Weiyee and me. One larger and more aggresive group hovered in front of Nigel and Kiat.
Eventually though, I moved on.
Up next was the log spot but it was overgrown so I moved to the right of it. There were at least three Toman schools circling the area but the terrain made it extremely difficult to lure there. Branches sporadically rose and dove above the water line and the only real method to guarantee a hookup, was to change to artificial frogs, but I had none. I did almost get one mid sized Toman but my Yozuri Tobimaru snagged on one of the branches and the fish immediately turned away.
When the rest started catching up, I took the opportunity to skip the next few spots and headed straight to one of my favourite spots. There were always Temensis here.
I casted out the tobimaru, and immediately hooked up a beautiful and fairly large Temensis. Unfortunately, Nigel lost it when trying to land it. I don’t fault him though. He had to do some stunts just to try to land that baby, for which I am grateful.
With my polarised sunglasses, I could see all the fish in the water, and there were many! A number of schools of temensis and tomans were swimming about, some separate, some together. Others were sitting stoicly in the water. When I recovered, I casted out again and hooked up a toman! Unlike last week where a toman was trying to steal the lure out of the PB’s mouth, this time round, a PB was trying to get the lure out the toman’s mouth, all while another temensis kept a close eye on the events proceeding, barely a foot away.
I kept the fish in the water because Nigel had to do a stunt again to land that baby and also because it was keeping the school of tomans and PBs nearby. +1 for polarised glasses.
By the time Nigel had landed my toman, Kiat’s lure was in the water and he was quickly rewarded with yet another temmy.
When my toman had been released I casted out again while weiyee prepared his tackle. The fish were still here and chasing my lure (another toman and a few temmys). When I brought my lure out of the water, I didn’t cast again though to make space for weiyee but then he decided to change his lure. By the time weiyee casted out, the fish were gone.
Often times, in the angling world, there are heavy debates on lure presentation. Most agree that tying a Flurocarbon leader straight to the lure increases bite rate. I agree with it as well but I often favour my quicker method. I pretie leaders about a foot long, with a snap on one end, and a swivel on the other. I then use a simple overhand knot (but go through the loop 8 times) on my main line (braided line) and connect it all together. If it ever snaps, I simply make the overhand knot with what’s left of my main line, and connect another spare leader. It makes dealing with snaps and line cuts much easier and quicker. It also makes changing lures very quick and easy.
If ever the fishing gets so slow as to warrant better lure presentation, I can simply switch over with a simple snip of the scissors.
We eventually moved on to the estuary spot (while fishing on the way) where historically we almost never get any fish. This time though, the fish had apparently swum here. School after school of temensis came in (not unlike a wave defense game) and they bit everythying from lures to jigs, and even flies. They were taking them all but at the same time it wasn’t exactly a frenzy. I took the opportunity to break in quite a few new lures and was not disappointed.
Everyone was getting hits!
Kiats:
Nigel’s:
Nigel’s second
Even Weiyee was getting hits but he spent most of the time changing lures.
We couldn’t really be bothered with the camera after the first few fish.
Eventually, after overstaying our time at this place (Nigel had to head home early), we turned back as planned (despite the fish still biting) and we fished our way back.
Weiyee finally did land a Temensis though back at the spot where I caught my toman but he was alone and didn’t have a camera.
All in all, yet another great day of fishing at the aptly named, Sangraal.
CR: Countless!
need more freshwater. Got lures to test. ahem ahem.