It all started when a good buddy of mine, Jason Lee called and asked me to join him for the Labuan IGFA Competition held from 29th April to 3rd May 2009. I instantly agreed upon the “home minister” approval. Last year, I had to withdraw from the team due to work commitments.

We met up at the Singapore Changi Airport 26th April 2009, with the other team members, Joseph & Ah Chai the individual participants and Marcus, Jason and me from the main team. We had an uneventful flight to KL and transit to Labuan. We were received by LT Colonel Raja Mohar - our 2nd In-Charge, Haji Ali and Jeff Chan and Abu Bakar (aka Burn), an individual participant. We quickly put up at the service apartment followed by a rigging session.

The next day, we inspected our boat and all necessary food and equipment were placed on board. That afternoon we went for registration and were greeted by Patrick Song the organizer. We met a number of old acquaintances but also noticed that a number of the usual suspect missing. After the thorough briefing by Patrick Song, we were introduced to our marshal – Paul, followed by a simple dinner. We slept early in anticipation for a busy morning tomorrow.

We load up all equipment, gears and basic necessity on the boat early in the morning. We board the boat and proceed to the Waterfront Bay where the flag off was to be held. We departed the Waterfront Bay at approximately 10:30am. We were the 2nd last boat to depart and the mother boat, Dive Master was the last. Half-way to Kuraman Island, the boat suddenly came to halt. This was the beginning of our “what can go wrong, goes wrong” for us.

The Boatman inspected the boat for about half an hour before delivering an ultimatum to us – there is no way his boat can reach Spratly without breaking down. The problem worsened now as the boat could only travel two to three knots at the very most. After a long discussion, Jason and Raja decided that, with our safety in mind, we should turn back to shore and try other options. Raja radioed the mother boat to inform them of our intentions. We received the confirmation and commence our slow journey back to shore. We reached the jetty at about 3.30pm. Jason and Raja immediately went to source for other boat. At that stage, most of us were already cursing inside. Glum and sullen faces showed it all. However, slim hope of finding a boat was revived with the smiling faces of Jason and Raja. They found a boat.

When the boat arrived at the side of the our boat, we then found out that it was a shrimp trawler complete with nets and other equipments as it has just cut short it’s daily trawling trip to accommodate us. And, the best surprise of it all, no enclosed toilet! From then on, it was all hard work. We shifted all our equipments and stores to the other boat. An emergency electrician was called upon to install lightings to the boat which obviously do not need one as they only trawl in the day. To top it all, the new captain and two other deckhands, who till date, none of us knew what their name was, seems to be not helpful and cooperative. Jason and Raja made one judgment that saved the whole trip – they instructed our previous boat captain, Zul to assist the new captain. We worked our socks off to transform the trawler boat into an angler friendly boat.

After all have been done, we proceed quickly to have our dinner and our customary visit to our last known toilets bearing in mind that the boat we are about to cramped for 5 days is without toilet. We depart at last about 9.30pm.

The cabin in the boat can only accommodate at most 5 persons. Some of us, including me had to sleep in the open. Luck has it that I managed to purchase a sleeping bag right after dinner. We slept throughout the night.

I woke up at around 10am and found out that Jason, Marcus and Raja were at the back tending the trolled rod. With the boat traveling at about 7 knots, we reached Layang Layang at around 3.30pm and there’s where we got the first hit. A wahoo hit the Yozuri Bonito and Haji Ali made a short work out of the approximately 11kg wahoo. Suddenly, things seem to brighten up.

We have no choice but to head to Dallas reef as we had to anchor before dusk. We reached Dallas at about 6pm and noticed that the mother boat-Dive Master, Sea Maiden and another participating boat was safely anchored at the reef. Zul assisted the captain and deckhand in anchoring the boat and that’s where we found out that the echo sounder we had on board is only effective until 100m deep. To add to our horror, the anchor on board is too small. Zul used all his experience as a captain to anchor the boat, finally.

I admitted I was feeling very downed by all the setbacks, but looking around, I see all my team mates joking around and making light of the situation, somehow make me feel much better. Even newbie’s to big game fishing like Joseph and Ah Chai was taking it in their stride. When the boat is stable, the engine is turned off and the generator is turned on. Would you believe it, the generator wouldn’t start. Jason, Raja and Burn made many attempts to “CPR” the generator without success. Jason then, made the captain to turn on the boat engine, which in turn gave us very minimal light.

Jason quickly instructed me to rig up the tackles for bottom fishing. One by one the rigs were dropped to the bottom. Without a proper sounder, we do not know how deep we are fishing in. Judging by the amount of lines left in the Tiagras, it is safe to say that we are definitely fishing at a depth of more that 270m. Lucky for us, the reels sponsored by Shimano are all either big game Tiagras and TLDs coupled with the ever dependable Triton Big Game Rods.

It did not take long before Joseph had the first strike. Joseph being very new to big game managed to subdue the 18+kg escolar, to our surprise, in a very short time. Jeff, being an addict photographer, took time in taking the pictures to ensure the all the best angle is captured. I was sitting down enjoying my coffee when my rod nodded gently. I immediately gave a few fast cranks and connected to something. After about 15 minutes, up came another escolar about 20kg. Marcus, then had a big hit, he fought the fish valiantly all the way. We were in anticipation of a worthy fish from the powerful runs of the fish. Unfortunately, before the fish surfaced, it gave Marcus a last powerful run which resulted in the fish broking free.. Everybody dropped their rigs immediately and never strayed far away from their tackles. When my rod nodded gently again, I gave a good crank and felt a small fish at the end of the line. Suddenly without warning, the rod double bent and line poured out without stopping. It took me a good 20 minutes to bring the fish up to the surface. It was a huge escolar. The gaff was ready when the fish swam underneath the boat. When I tried to force it out, I felt only a small resistant. There’s only a small baracoutta at the end of the line. By then, I realized that I had hooked up a small barracoutta before the escolar strike the barracoutta. From then on, everybody was catching heaps of escolars and barracouttas. We released a number of escolars as this year competition had changed on the fish submission rule. A team can only submit 1 species of fish. Therefore, we had only to keep 2 numbers of each of species for the team and individual submission which render a different ball game all together from the past competition.

We were full of spirit and determination by then. We were also spurred on by Jason. He has been an exemplary team captain. He’s never bossing the team member around and instead lead by example.

The barracouttas caught were instantly either used as bait whole or sliced up. Raja took the one of the smaller slice and rig on 2 nos of size 10/0 hooks. He was sitting down exchanging banters with others when something huge took his bait. He fought tooth and nail with the fish. Jason took out his flying gaff and gave it to me. That’s the disadvantage of growing fat and big like me. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion as the fish surface. Everyone shouted “Kao Tun” in unison. Raja slowly and carefully guided the fish to the boat. We were all amazed by the size of it. 2 smaller gaffs and the flying gaff immediately sank into the huge mouth of the grouper. Don’t ask me where I found the strength to lift the grouper on board but I did with the help of Zul and Burn. Everybody was exchanging high fives. Everybody now is fishing with a renew vigor especially Jason. He was everywhere, assisting in the re-bait and re-rigging the tackles as a result of barracottas cutting our line. Nothing worthy was caught thereafter..

Early next morning, we went alongside Sea Maiden for additional fuel. We took this opportunity to utilize their toilets. What a relieved. After the customary greeting, we set off to Mariveles Reef. We set out the trolling lines out along the way. We had a lot of hits along the way from small barracudas.

We reached Mariveles at noon and did bottom fishing at some shallow reef. We land lots of excellent reef fishes but non to the size we desired. Marcus went up to the roof to pop and managed to land a beautiful Blue Fin Trevelly and a Giant Trevelly, which is not so giant. We moved on to anchor early for bottom fishing late noon.

Bottom fishing produced the usual suspect – escolars, barracouttas. We were actually aiming for huge barracoutta of over 10kgs to add up to the team event. Unfortunately, non was over 4 kg. Jeff then, had a good tussle with a huge fish which turns out to be a 40+kg escolar. Jigging session lead by Jeff, Marcus, Jason and a few others produced a number of dogtooths of disappointing sizes except for one caught by Jeff which tip the scales at 11kg. There no more impressive catch that night except for a few one way train which resulted in bruise ego to the angler. We were very sure that we have nailed the top five finishes with our catches.

In the morning, Jason and Raja decided to proceed back to Dallas Reef to target for dogtooth and Ruby Snapper. Marcus, Raja, Paul Ah Chai and myself were at the back of the boat tending the trolled lines when heavy rain hit us. Out came the soaps and shampoos and we turned to being little children playing in the rain. I still smiled whenever I recalled the incident.

We reached Dallas at noon and received news that we all will be hit with storm of 30 knots wind tentatively tonight. We anchored for the night in the middle of huge waves although we supposed to be in the sheltered area. Suddenly, we were surrounded by darkness as our boat alternator broke down. While in darkness, we were hit by heavy rain and huge waves. Raja and Burn tried their very best to repair and rewire the alternator and succeeded about 45 minute later. During the dark hours, a couple of escolars were landed by Joseph and Raja. The non-stop fishing has taken a toll on me and I decided to take a short nap which ended my fishing for the night.

I woke up in the morning and found ourselves on the way to Layang Layang. I opened the ice-box and found a 7 kg Mangrove and a 6kg red bass lying. They’ve landed many fishes but non to the desired size..

The navy did the customary checks and we on our way back to Labuan minus 4 of us who hitched a ride back on Sea Maiden to free up some sheltered sleeping area on the boat in anticipation of the forecasted rough seas that lies ahead.

Marcus and Raja trolled 2 skirts and 2 bonitos along the way back. I was awakened from my sleep when the ratchet on one of the tiagras screamed. The moment I came out of the cabin, I saw Raja was onto the bent rod. The hooked marlin jumped twice before freeing itself. Maybe it was training for the battle with us next year. Who knows?

The ride back was uneventful except that we were tossed around in the middle of the night when the storm hit us. We reached our rendezvous point at Kuraman Island at day break. We proceed to the Labuan Marina Jetty to offload our catches. Jason and Raja went together with the smaller boat to certify the fishes and we made our way back to Waterfront Marina to check in our hotel.

Sitting at the lobby, I recollect on how the team went through thick and thin, and face adversity head on without even the slightest complain. We had to endure bad mannered captain and crews which did not cook meals for us but instead shared our cooked meals. However, our trust in our captain, Jason and Raja paid dividend when we were place 4th overall. To top it all, Jason and Raja even donated their share of the winnings to Zul, the captain of the broken down boat, as he was sacked when by his boss when reaching shore.

Anyway, the moral of the story – who says hard work doesn’t pay off………………

The above CR is written by my labuan Team Yumeya member Mod Yazid

Anchored by team captain - Jason Lee, Team Yumeya (Sponsored by Shimano (S) Pte Ltd managed to secure a respectable 4th placing (Team Event) during IGFA Labuan International Game Fishing Tournament 2009 held from 28th April to 3rd May 2009 at the shores around Pulau Layang Layang in the South China Sea. The feat was accomplished with hard work coupled with team work among the team members despite a broken down boat during part of the competition.

Mr Ong S.C , Sales and Marketing Manager from SHIMANO (S) PTE LTD , presenting a token of participation to team representative Mr Jason Lee H.C , Captain of Team Yumeya ,for their feat during IGFA Labuan International Game Fishing Tournament 2009.