Booked a trip with Capt. Aaron for a kayak trip to the Ubin mangroves for mangrove barras. Arrived at the launch area at 6.30am and Aaron was there all set up with two kayaks ready to go; i reckon he probably slept in the kayaks.
After a quick tutorial on using the fish finder and safety points, we were off. With the fish finder, locating bottom-feeder fishes was easy. The rod pulsed with bite; just got to know when to set the hook. However, I wasn’t prepared for aggressive fishes that took the bait and surged back to their hole. The underwater structures on-route to the mangrove were impenetrable fortresses for these aggressive fishes. Once they took the bait and settled back in their hole, the fight was over. After many failures and retying of knots and rigs, success came in one Goldband snapper that I managed to keep out of their fortress with a high rod tip and a higher drag setting. This little market size fish punched above his weight class as he kept making dives back to his hole and torturing the drag. The fight also loosened the reel from the rod, poor equipment management on my part, and it dropped into the sea with the bail open when handling the fiesty fish on the kayak. After this episode, we continued to the mangroves, the scenery was an absolute knock-out.
The green foliage and symphony of cicadas is an excellent break from the concrete jungle. Fishing for barras was uneventful as it seems they were shut down that day. Maybe they were well-fed from the recent rain bringing down insects from the trees. Nevertheless, its rejuvenating for the soul to experience nature from this perspective.
The day belonged to the fishes that day as we lost more fishes, rigs and bait to them than bringing them to the kayak. Aaron was a superb guide that day. From the photos, you can tell he wasn’t fishing much himself but out there to ensure his guest is having a great time. This guy is passionate about kayak fishing and he wants to share his experiences with his guest.
Thank you Aaron.
Booked a trip with Capt. Aaron for a kayak trip to the Ubin mangroves for mangrove barras. Arrived at the launch area at 6.30am...