Rompin Sailfish

[Te Whiti]

Another weekend had rolled around and we were itching for a fish. Being based in Singapore I don’t get to fish the waters around Moreton Island as much as I would like, so over the years we have had to find good fishing that’s a bit closer to home than getting on a 7.5 hour flight….

So myself, Jeremy, Kiwi Steve (LittleBigRod) and the token Pom, Dog Jockey loaded the van and headed for the causeway that links Singapore to Malaysia.

Whilst not yet being the peak Sailfishing season of September/October, July/August is still a pretty good time of year to chase the Sails… This was confirmed again, when we met some blokes from Melbourne at our accommodation who informed us they had landed 8 the first day and 3 the second day, so our hopes were high.

Our time was split between catching livebait, fishing on the bottom for something for the table and of course, livebaiting for the Sailfish. After being cut off 3 or 4 times in the first half hour to either Spainish Mackerel or Barracuda we switched to wire traces under much protest from the Skipper, claiming it would decrease our chances of Sailfish strikes….

Well we disproved that theory with the following 5 Sailfish strikes all on wire traces.

We landed 4 Sails, including a double hookup and had a hook pull on a 5th one just as we were getting ready to swing him into the boat for a quick photo. The aerial displays were some of the best we had seen and one fish was tail walking so fast that he only stopped when he smacked into the boat! The sight of a billfish coming straight for you sent a few punters on the boat into a bit of a scurry!

Below are photos of the 4 Sails we landed and released and I couldn’t help but add a photo of Kiwi Steve in what you might agree has to be one of the most vulnerable positions a fisherman could get into!

He’s still hooked up to a Sailfish claiming he has “everything under control”

Thanks for reading.

Mark

[Spot82]

Sounds like an awesome day on the water and like there would have been plenty of laughs had as well! Thanks for the report from another destination.

Anthony

[Pistol_P]

Awesome.

Thats high on my 'to-do' list.

Any on poppers or stickbaits..?

Great report,
Pete

[Crunchy]

Cool...must say I'm surprised that you can catch such good fish in that region with the population, shipping traffic and pollution?

[GPB]

Pete !!!yor Avatar!, have Tak or Paul got you back???

[Plumb-Ezy74]

Great read Mark even better pics, the conditions look good, Looks like Kiwi Steve is doing it tuff. Thanks for the invite the other week on snapper origin maybe i can get there next time.
Cheers

[Pistol_P]

Pete !!!yor Avatar!, have Tak or Paul got you back???

Have you seen Tak's latest..

I may have had something to do with that one..

Pete

[Te Whiti]

Pete,

They do use poppers up there for the Sailfish. Dog Jockey on our boat had the occasional cast with the popper, he raised a Sailfish and also had a Spainish Mackerel charge it and breach the water close to the boat, but no hookups.... we do think the working of his popper helped raise the fish for the livebaits we had set however.

One of the Melbourne blokes from the other boat had a Sailfish hookup on a popper but he didnt land it.

I havent seen any stickbaits.

Mark

[Dave73]

I've fished Rompin and hooked sails on poppers and stickbaits. It's more of a challenge and can be done. Don't use trebles, must use a small assist hook.

Crunchy, The area is thick with sailfish, they congregate here in huge numbers and it's calm water fishing. The Malaysian govt has made it illegal to bring any sailfish ashore at Rompin, in order to protect the fishery.
So pollution, population and shipping traffic not a factor.

Cheers David

[Crunchy]

I pass through there on business from time to time so might have to "make an extra days appointment" next time through

Who do you guys recommend?

Cheers

[Te Whiti]

Crunchy,

I've stayed at a variety of accomodations at Rompin but my favourite these days is the Rompin River Chalet, the accomodation sits on a big river bend, so it has a nice outlook for post fishing beers...I've got the names and phone numbers of my 2 favourite skippers....send me a PM if you care for any more details.

Mark

[Crunchy]

cheers bro, will do closer to the time....

[Schuey]

Good report there brother. That'd be a good release from the weekly grind of singers. Be nice to make it up one year for a trip. Looking forward to fraser in a few weeks to meet some of these blokes.

Cheers Schuey.