Bintulu, Malaysia July 2015

My first experience to Southeast Asia left a memorable time and an appreciation to the light tackle and the micro jigging,
we get invited on this trip to Bintulu by Pin (Iron Man) from Malaysia to fish the oil rig offshore, the offshore rigs are well known to hold some monster GT’s and the fishing is mainly done at night time.

We took the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bintulu where the rest of the group was waiting for us at the boat and then out to sea for 10 hours ride to reach our first destination,
we get there at night time and the first couple of drops was accounted for major hook up that resulted with cut off at the structure of the oil rig, we ended up retying our leader till the bite faded away and all the guys switched to light tackle targeting small fish, a lot of fun for the first night.

We moved to a different oil rig during the day and the results was good with none stop action, however most of the guys went to sleep to save their energy for the night time, the plan was to hit one of the biggest oil rig that normally hold big GT’s, the run to the second spot was close to 4 hours and at midnight we finally made it.

The first drop off resulted on a GT followed by another one, and the boys managed to pull 2 fish on the first drift, there was couple of solid hits resulted with cut off at the bottom structure of the oil rig.
It is very hard to manage to pull a fish out of the structure as most of the big GT ‘s are holding in 80 to 90 meters and right off the bottom near structure, I had some solid hook up but again no luck to land.
I recall that I retied my leader 3 times on 3 drops, we stayed close to 1 hour before we were chased by the security boat, so here goes the night and we ended up moving to a different rig with close to 4 hours to reach, a lot of travelling time in between.

On the last day most of the guys switched to micro jigging and they had constant action with a lot of variety.
at night we headed on a 4 hours run but it was slow and we could not get a bite till Pin get a huge strikes on the OBX 500, he put up a fight and an awesome bend on the rod but lost the fish close to boat side.

All this happen while the security boat is watching and ordering us to leave the premises, however they enjoyed the show and gave Pin a thumps up and a big cheer for the fight.
With the order we got from the security boat we end up leaving the premises and headed back to Bintulu,

It was quite an experience but I would not recommended for somebody that is coming from overseas,
in my opinion the time and the hassle is not worth the trip.
the positive feedback is that I meet a lot of new friends and I sure learned couple of new tricks, the light tackle and micro jigging open up my eyes and made me a believer, I am even considering expanding our lines of rods in the shop and promote the Micro Jigging on all our overseas trips in the future.
I would like to thank Pin for organizing the trip and the guys for their hospitality!
Tomorrow will take off to Indonesia to target GT’s and Dogtooth tuna and hopefully we will be a bit luckier…

  Tight lines

    Sami

Cape Cod June 2015 BFT Season opening

The look on his face was a bit serious, he asked us to sit down and steered in full speed toward the east, things start to get brighter and brighter and all what I remember is seeing that acre of busting Bluefin tuna on the surface pushing and feeding in full force right on the front of our eyes.

Cape Cod Bluefin tuna bite normally start around the first week of June but due to cold unstable weather the fish arrived a bit late, as every year and for the past 8 years I normally start fishing on the first week of June so it was time to make the call and head up north,

My companion on this trip was Bogdan and Thomas, they both came in to the shop and we took the drive up north at night under heavy construction and delay on I 95 and route 15 in Connecticut, the usual frustration that we go through every year heading to the Cape.

We meet Captain Josh and launched at 4:30AM and headed offshore to be greeted with whales, sand eels, Porpoises and shearwater, the ocean was promising, alive and full of life.
We start casting into that life knowing that something is about to develop and it is going to happen on the right tide for a short period, the usual tuna hunt and behavior in Cape Cod.

Josh shouted that he saw a flash on the water and said it is a big fish, something positive to start the day with and a bit encouraging to keep on putting the time and effort, the whales were all over the place and Josh was looking for the right set up with Shearwater and this is where it all started.

He put us on that position with Bogdan and Thomas on the front and myself on the back, he positioned the boat to give every angler on board the ultimate shot and we all fired our lure into the feeding zone but knowing where the guys are going to cast, I casted 10 feet away and toward where the school of tuna are heading.

Bogdan get a miss and I can hear him yelling with full excitement, Thomas get tight while I am watching my lure entering the zone, I made one twitch and I stopped to come tight instantly.

The take was spectacular while Josh shouting double hook up, yes, yes!
Thomas used a sinking Tackle House Britt in pink but unfortunately he get spooled with full drag and we all watched the line disappearing into the water in less than 1 minutes, he surely hooked a bigger class fish.

After 12 minutes I landed my fish using the CB One prototype rod matched with a CB One Rodeo 210 in Green Mackerel, delighted and happy to open the season on Captain Josh’s boat, the fish measured at 69 inches and looked very healthy, while at the fight the stickboat get a glance at what we encounter and they all steamed in that direction only to see them sticking up fish after fish, awesome day on the water and yet we get another great shot with the whales in between with no takers.
We ended up the day happy and headed to the hotel to rest and prepare for the next day.

On our second day we meet at the same time and found the same life as the day before, but we could not get a bite.
we had 2 good shoots and we saw fish rolling on topwater, they looked bigger class fish than the day before and those are the one that are not easy to fool, they were rolling on topwater and they didn’t seems to be interested by our offering, even the stickboats on that day had problem as the fish were scattered, so we enjoyed the rest of the day whales watching and looking for something to irrupt and develop but it didn’t happen, all in all it was a great day and I have to thank Captain Josh for his great service and good time spend on board, we will see you soon Captain.

  Tackle used:

Rods: Saltywater Race Point 250, 200, 100, CB One Prototype, Ripple Fisher Big Game Tuna, MC Works
Reels: Shimano Stella SWB 18000 and 20000
Lures: Moutoukenmaru, CB One Rodeo, Tackle House Britt, Carpenter Gamma, Shimano Ocea
Line: Power Pro Hollow 130lb & 80lb, Jerry Brown 100lb & 80lb
Leader: Saltywater Tackle Twisted Leader
Belt: MC Works, Hot’s
Hooks: BKK Prototype sided hooks, Shout Kudako, Owner ST-66

  Tight lines

   Sami