After all the commotion, it was 1030am when we reached the second wreck which was further east from Eastern Bunker. As usual we drifted around the wreck, and we caught one golden snapper and a gu hood. There was another fishing boat anchored there but no catch from them was sighted. It seemed like drifting was a better option. Just when I decided that for the rest of the day, we would be drifting up and down the spots, my engines died. We had finished one 25 liters of fuel tank at our second spot early in the morning!
Ok changed of plans, we shall anchor instead of drifting. But after we anchored at the spot, everything became quiet. So we moved off to shallower waters. The third wreck is directly under a buoy, we had to anchor very closed to it. After a while and not even a nibble, we decided to have our lunch. Cold Japanese soba with water melon as desert. Priceless in the middle of the sea under the hot sun.
Our fourth spot was another wreck at angler bank but this time I couldn't find it on my sounder. So I just let the boat drift along the channel. There were no actions, and all my pre-planned spots had ran out. I took out my sea chart to survey for potential spots again. I found this nice coral patch at the back of Tekong facing Malaysia, maybe we could give it a try. Just when I asked everyone to lines up, a stray grouper decided to have his lunch. It was caught while we were retrieving our lines.
When I was starting to cruise towards our next destination, I saw a cluster of boats near the reclamation land area off Tekong. Since I had ran out of spots, and plenty of time to spare, no harm going over to see what's happening. By then it was 3pm.
We noticed that they were all fishing boats when we arrived. Without knowing anything, we just dropped our lines. While we were waiting for the fish to bite, we saw the other boats kept hoisting up fish like golden snapper and threadfin! My heart beat accelerated, and it didn't take long before we caught ours, then another, then another. Two groupers and two golden snappers were landed at this spot, no threadfin for us though. Among them was the biggest catch for this trip, a 2.3 kg golden snapper. This spot was really a lucky accidental find indeed.
I started to ponder about a few things because of this spot. I always believe that fish bite most during the change of tide, something that I learn from past experiences. But that day the high tide was at 6:30pm. The fish was biting like crazy at 3pm plus. Another abnormal occurrence was the colour of the sea water. It was brownish at certain portions and the usual blue at the other. The separation line was very well defined, it was not a gradual transition between the two sea colours. Is it because of this phenomena, that the fish was biting at weird hours?
Anyway we left the spot as it was getting late. On the way back, I was delayed when my cap flew into the water and I had to turn back to retrieve it. It didn't help when I ran over my cap the first time with the boat. Luckily it was not man overboard.
When we were turning into MCC, the second petrol tank emptied. Overall, we enjoyed this trip very much with a couple of hiccups here and there, and using lots of petrol. For me first time being the captain, though I didn't catch any fish, I was not disappointed at all. In fact I was very happy to see the delighted faces of the anglers when they had a fish at the end of their lines.
Here's the closed up view of our total catch. And while I was taking this photo, I was thinking of which spots to go for our next excursion.
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