Winds picked up in the late afternoon as the tide rises towards its peak and makes it rather difficult to have a good long cast with our lures into the strong wind facing the bank. Bob decided to cast with the wind and have his lure into the open section of the port side, a few cranks into his retrieve he was smashed and was already into the fight with what we knew was a beast. 25mins into the fight, we see the massive 1.2 metre long Barramundi surfaced for the first time. As soon as the image of the monster Barramundi registered into the brain of the tired angler, things changed and adrenaline levels rises. Fight changes with the anxiety of landing what might be a record size Barramundi. After some photos, the beast was landed for a couple more pictures before release after a quick revival. Because of the hard fight, both fish and angler needed to rest, the Barramundi was then released and swam away feeling defeated but yet relieved that it was not the kill we were after.
Tag: Sportfishing
Barramundi Fights Angler
Barramundi are not clean fighters…they don’t charge with just brute strength but often may shake its massive jaws to try to dislodge the hooked lure or even stretch them to break hooks. Leaping out of the surface to smash the lure across the surface of water and if all else fails will open its jagged blades on the side plates of its gill cover to cut the leaders which often are already frayed by its sandy-like lips.
Learn more of our decades long chase of this amazing sportfish School of Fish, Singapore
What’s a Catch Anything Lure?
School of Fish, Singapore with a random fishing session demonstrating that the DOA C.A.L range is indeed a catch anything lure. Ranging from predators like Fingermarks, Golden Snappers, Red Snappers, Mangrove Jacks and Barramundis, the DOA Shad Tails are favoured by a majority of lure eating fishes. Simply pick up some of your favourite colours of DOA 3″ Shad Tails or what you think might work and pair them with the DOA Jig Heads of various colours and weights. Simpler still is to just pick up one of those pre-selected sets and you should be on the right track to catching some of these targeted predators.
School of Fish, Singapore – Fishing Small Mouth Bass, Lake Erie, USA
May 2016 was almost Summer but it was not feeling warm. Fishing in Lake Erie, New York, USA off Niagara was in fact a sub-zero experience for Shawn and myself on our maiden fishing trip together. Our “nuts” were almost frozen but still we persevered as both of us did not want to dampened our spirits and of course this father-in-law/son-in-law trip. The start of the trip was just cold but it soon turned freezing with the fog moving and covering us as we progress in the trip. The bites from the small-mouth bass were thick and we were like taking turns getting hit on our drop-shot rigs and fighting these bass with our light spinning tackles on a 8lb leader. This was trophy season and was indeed a high season but it also mean’t that these larger spawning bass were less interested but only attack as our jigs drift pass their nest or eggs. Known as Smallmouth Bass in comparison to the Largemouth Bass simply because its got a smaller mouth. The upper jaw does not extend past the eye while the largemouth bass has its upper jaw extend past its eyes. Some other differences exist in their dorsal fin as the smallmouth has a shallow notch while the largemouth counterpart has a deep notch on its dorsal fin. There is no dark horizontal band on the body of those smallmouth we were hunting. What a chilling experience but we had a hot soup and fish & chips (haddock) to wrap up of father & son trip!
Fishing Lesson…Teach a man to Fish
This Fishing Lesson is a session of ~6 hours specialty-guided package, designed specifically for a child to learn correctly the “Art of Sport Fishing”. Our experts will provide guidance and use of our premium equipment to get him or her in sync with the specific sport fishing techniques required to kick-start them right into this lifetime sport.
Our instructors will illustrate with practical lessons from choosing fishing setup to learning how to cast the all-important bait-casting setup and also the all-time spinning tackle which is widely used. To make it also interesting, the session is an actual practical fishing session that will allow him or her to start fishing. They will learn to setup, cast, lure techniques, strike, hook-up, fight, land and handle the fish correctly. The instructors will always be at hand to educate the participant the A to Z of this sport. This is an intensive course to cover all aspects to groom them to acquire the right set of sport fishing skills and etiquette. With the techniques learnt, your child will be able to perform well in future fishing endeavors.
All the hassle of setting up is left to us. Lessons are conducted in safe location in our Singapore fishing parks. All you have to do is turn up or arrange our pickup service. In taking such lessons, your child can by-pass weeks or months of unsuccessful or frustrating outings and get right on with catching fish. We also offer you valuable advice on what to buy as soon as you are keen to take up the sport.
Fishing DOA Jerk Tails with School of Fish, Singapore
Fishing DOA Jerk Tails allows you as an angler to play a larger part in luring. The fact that the Jerk Tails need as much as you prefer or as little as it would entice a bite. The DOA Jerk Tail comes in 4″ or the 5.5″ to allow you to fish in accordance to the appetites of the predators. I usually prefer to fish these DOA Jerk baits with the DOA coloured Jig heads to create a contrast between the head and tail. Depending on my intention of contrast to increase or decrease presentation size or using red Jig head to present an injured bait, I would usually vary the choice of tails and Jig heads, also the weight of the Jig heads as well. Using a lighter Jig Head like the 1/16oz gives a good feel and you becomes in control of every movement of the Jerk Tail but it may compromise for those who wants a long cast. Variation is best to locate the strike zones or holding areas of fishes. My preferred presentation would be a cast into a fish holding area and allow the Jerk Tail to just fall erratically to the bottom. Leave the bait for 1-2 secs before I make a light jerk and allowing it to fall in case I am attracting the attention of predators near my bait, I want to allow time for the sneaky or hungry predator to hit me.
I would give it a couple of light twitch or light jerk upright and retrieve the slack line. Repeat this right up to the bank because you never know what predator is following this “sick” Jerk Bait. Always understand that you want to jerk to attract attention but not to run away from the target. I usually practice the “picture-it” techniques as if you can see through your lure…stay in contact. The jerks can also be side ways as if the bait is darting from rock to rock behaving like a scared bait, so worried bout being caught but we really want our bait to be caught so that we can strike our rods and have hook-on’s. The 6 colours set of 36pcs is a good way to start and get the 1/16oz, 1/8oz, 1/4oz Red or Chartreuse to create one of the most fun way I catch fish, like Barramundi, Snappers, Jacks. Think like a Fish…Tight Lines!
Barramundi in Jurassic Park
Over a few decades, we have been fishing off NT, Australia in specifically Barramundi Sportfishing Safaris provided by top guides in the region and in the area of Barramundi. We have had our fair share of hits, hookups, landings, misses and dropoffs of both large and small Barramundis. Fishing in runoffs in Mary River, Shady Camp to remote camps in Manigrada, remote islands in Endyalgout Island and on motherboats in the Groote regions. Continuous fishing pressures from commercial and recreational anglers have made the hunt for the “elusive” metre-sized Barramundi more and more difficult each season. Sometimes, we are faced with high seasons where many boats can congregate in small sections of the productive rivers and creeks. We decided to move away from the madding crowd and fish further into Queensland. We learn that these Barramundis are too found in good numbers and large sizes in this place. So here we are, in an almost Jurassic setting, the quiet waters with the mountain ranges and the Unesco Heritage Rainforest present us with an almost tranquil feel. At last, we don’t see another boat fishing alongside us or beating us to a favourite spot. It did not take long for Bob to hook onto his metre Barramundi, and also noticeably is the coolness of the guide in handling the fish. Instead of the urgency to net the fish, he did not even have a landing net…he was more ready with his camera to take footages for his Barra Basics course but then it is also he has landed almost 2000pcs of Metre-Sized Barramundi for his clients over his entire career as a sportfishing guide. Here’s a glimpse of one of the metre Barramundi. Enjoy!
AGONY Of Defeat
No matter how long you have been fishing and whether it is our intention to release our catch in the first place, losing a big fish or any fish can lead to some agony. In this video, Bob was casting with light 6-12lb G.Loomis/Shimano Alderbaraen tackle with 10lb braid on 40lb Flourocarbon leader…not expecting a metre Barramundi while casting into the shallow mud flats. Often you can get surprises as these predators too move in with the baitfish to feed on them on a low tide. No matter what it provided us with a shot of adrenaline on a wet day, armed with his camera, our guide was more into taking photos for his Barramundi lessons. Here is then the lesson…not to thumb the line unless you know it is the last resort. Often the excitement leads the angler to exert more thumb pressure on the spool far greater than the specified strength of the line. Anyway, its about fair fight and in this particular instant it is 1 up for the Barras!
Fishing with DOA Shrimps
The pleasure of luring is magnified by your selection of lure profile, colour and the strike zones at the right moments. This video of myself was made without much intention, I had my Go Pro with me and the recording could only last as long as the battery life. The fishes were caught within 1 short session and in less than 2 hours of recording. The variety of predators that love the DOA Shrimp is beyond imagination as some anglers believe that there is no fish that can refuse a Shrimp.
Use of the Shrimp lure comes with confidence of the lure, knowing the strike zones where predators would lurk or hunt, the variation of retrieval techniques can be an added advantage when action turns slow.
Be encouraged by the great catch with a single Shrimp lure and enjoy the hard hits you would experience with the DOA Shrimp lures. Tight Lines!
Catching Grouper with D.O.A Lures
We have our fair share of groupers when fishing with D.O.A soft plastics, whether it is the D.O.A ShadTails or D.O.A Shrimps we don’t specifically target these popular species.
Groupers are territorial but at the same time lazy and would attack only when we are able to bring our lures very close to their strike zones…ie. their line of sight. It is different when luring in a pond as compared to fishing over structures on a boat where the coordinates of the sunken structures clearly marked their location.
Fishing in commercial ponds which often releases groupers as it seems to be a prized catch is much of a different matter since we don’t use fish finders but requires a certain amount of common sense since groupers are not exactly keen on movement. Knowing the popular areas of landing groupers would help in locating your next catch because chances are the spots vacated by the caught fish gets occupied by the next fish. Luring for them is much of a slow retrieve with little jerks or movement since we need to bring the lure close to them.
Recently while fishing for barramundis in Hinchinbrook we saw a large grouper in very shallow water but seriously we don’t want to throw our lure into their feeding zone since we won’t want to spend our next hour fighting a fish we are not targeting. Many years our fellow angler spend 4 hours fighting a grouper we did not target in our fishing safari.
