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Archives for April 2020

Trip Report | Roughing It Out In Luxury from Tioman Island

kuala rompin

Rain and choppy seas greeted us right from the first morning when our liveaboard yacht Sea Urchin collected this group from Australia in Tunamaya Resort Tioman Island.

This was a 3-day fishing trip in July 2019 based out of Tioman Island, which is about 40nm from Kuala Rompin.

Watch the trip video
The Sea Urchin moored at the Rompin river before heading over to Tioman island
The Sea Urchin moored at the Rompin river before heading over to Tioman island
The Sea Urchin berthed in Tioman island marina
The Sea Urchin berthed in Tioman island marina

We headed straight out to where the sailfish were biting the day before only to find with very few birds in the skies and hardly any sailfish sighted. 

Fishing was tough and the sea was rough but thankfully Jason managed to land a beautiful fish. 

JW helping Jason to get a quick photo with his catch
JW helping Jason to get a quick photo with his catch

When The Going Gets Tougher

Day two the wind picked up and sea even choppier than the first day. The morning was very quiet and wasn’t until after lunch did we see any birds and action.

We dropped three fish today with George the only one landing a beautiful good size sailfish that gave him a good workout.

Unlike most sailfish that make jumps early in the fight, this fish only made jumps towards the end and put on a spectacular show close to the boat for all aboard to watch.

A nice queenfish added some variety to the catch
A nice queenfish added some variety to the catch
George with his sailfish
George with his sailfish

It Gets Bumpier

Day three was near impossible to fish. Wind was around 15 knots with gusts around 20 knots making progress tough.

The highlight of the day was a monster cobia caught by Johnny who happen to be on his first ever fishing trip! Difficult to top that expectation in his future fishing trips.

Another suspected big cobia was hooked just before but lost into the F.A.D.

The sea got really rough that day and we called it a day at around noon.

Johnny's first fishing trip and he lands a huge cobia
Johnny’s first fishing trip and he lands a huge cobia
Something you don’t see everyday! A notice distributed by the Royal Malaysian Navy notifying boats of live missile firing exercise being conducted at a certain location. A huge armada of navy ships was anchored off Tioman Island one evening.
Admiring the sunset from the Sea Urchin berthed in the Tioman Island marina
Admiring the sunset from the Sea Urchin berthed in the Tioman Island marina

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Are you a Worrier or a Warrior? Making Good Use of Our Time During a Crisis

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Eddie shared an article in our WhatsApp group. A BBC News article titled – How boredom can inspire adventure

It’s about how in 1942, Felice Benuzzi hatched a plan that would become one of the purest adventure tales in history: break out of a POW camp in British Kenya, climb Mt Kenya, and break back in again.

It is a good read.

Stay Safe and Stay Sane

Hundreds of millions around the world must be going through some form of lockdown, stay-at-home order of some sort. Social distancing is the new norm as I write this.

Myself and fellow Malaysians are into our 4th lockdown week now. 2 more weeks to go (till end April 2020) and that is if the virus spread is brought under control.

Everyone must be spending their downtime differently. 

Some of you may be catching up on much needed rest from a brutal work schedule. Some using the opportunity to bond with the family. Some still need to work from home. And maybe some just doing nothing?

One or two weeks will past quickly but if you have to endure four weeks or longer just staying in the house, there’s only so much of the sleeping a person can take.

While some of us may be mulling over what is going to happen next, we should be grateful of where we are as there are many others that are in dire straits, without food or shelter.

So what have you guys been doing with your (precious) time?

Let’s share some stories…

This is me…

Like many businesses all over, there is zero income and only expenses.

While I’m very worried about Sport Fishing Asia (all our coming bookings for this year have been either rolled over to next year or cancelled), there’s no point just being worried though. I try to do what I can with one thing that I have more of, time. Stuck at home and with a lot less traveling on the cards – I took the opportunity to do something that I’ve been sitting on for the longest time, starting the merchandise business and e-commerce shop.

I spent a lot of time drawing, designing various merchandise, quietly setting up the online shop (while propagating it with custom merchandise), editing videos, updating our websites… I think that’s mostly it.

Juan Wei

Here are what some of my fishing buddies have been up to (perhaps you may even be able to guess who they are!)…

As you may expect, i have been building muscles…clearing jungle, planting crops, doing a makover of my vege patch (80x 40ft). Some afternoons i go fishing. Got a few of my rods here, luckily. 

Night time i try to write, to complete my 2 new books. 

But ebay is a bloody dangerous virus. All those classy bamboo n glass rods, Ryall n Teton reels…?

There are 5 packages at the guardhouse in KL…?

Buddy #1

I have been working from home (Iegal) and spend a lot of time on casting.

Buddy #2

I’ve been catching up on some reading on a few books given to me,  tying flies, watching videos on nymphing and researching rivers and shores to fish and stay in NZ.

….15 mins workout in morning and evening n casting to cats after evening work outs.

Buddy #3

Do you know who they are?

What About You? Let’s hear your story in the comment section below.

A message from Sport Fishing Asia

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Are you one of those who received this message from us? For those of you who did not (are not subscribing to our newsletter), you can read my message below.

To our valued customers and friends,

This is unlike anything any of us have ever experienced. The current virus pandemic has thrown the world in disarray and everyone is impacted one way or another.

As I write this, we here in Malaysia are one week into a nationwide partial lockdown.

The everyday routine of people around the world and daily operations have either been disrupted, or come to an abrupt stop – affecting our livelihoods, no less those of us involved in the travel and hospitality related industries. Business for us has fallen off the cliff and come to an abrupt halt since the start of 2020.

This unprecedented event remind us of how lucky we are of being part of a supportive community of anglers, and how thankful we are for each and everyone of you. We need to stay positive, persevere and make it to the other side of this crisis.

We at Sport Fishing Asia look forward to seeing you sooner rather than later but we are aware that due to safety, various travel restrictions and the ever changing situation, flexibility is what our upcoming guests are looking for right now. We wish to thank all our loyal customers for their patience and understanding while we anticipate the likelihood of your directive to reschedule trips for 2020 into 2021.

Many of us have found ourselves with more downtime now than we are typically used to having. Make the most out of it – spend time with the kids and family, learn new skills, service your gears, crank out some flies, watch some fishing videos, tie some leaders,… Get ready for when this proverbial cloud lifts and we can fish all the waters of our choosing!

Sport Fishing Asia remains open, do stay in touch and follow our updates in:

• Facebook

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• YouTube

We hope this virus threat will be over soon. In the meantime, we wish your family to be safe and healthy, now more so than ever.

Kind regards,

Juan Wei and the entire Sport Fishing Asia team

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