Three old man and a Queen

22nd May 2012, a planned trip to St John island to do some fishing, the tide is right to do some todak hunting and I have some other stuff to do, namely to take some pics for an article for a fellow fisho, and test out the new lines that I have spooled in.

Upon reaching, I immediately start to jig for tamban, on previous trips, they are pretty easy to get, however on this trip it is tough, before long we know what happen, there is a queenie whacking baits fishes just around the area. DesT hooked up a live tamban and managed to get a hit, but failed to set the hook. He is so hyped up that he refuse to move his butt until much later. With a predator in the area, tambans are hard to come by, finally we have no choice but to get some glass fish on top of the few precious tamban we get.

Mediacorp Film Crew

Before we move off to the linkway to hunt for todak, we notice that there is some sort of film crew that came to this island as well, only much later that I learned that they are from Mediacorp, filming the 2nd installment of a drama serial, Vettai. Apparently they are shooting some dramatic stuff given that the supporting cast are wearing SWAT uniform and carrying automatic weapons.

Felt pic is too nice to miss, no relation to article

DesT and myself are very surprised to find that the linkway are almost deserted, there only a small handful of anglers. Given that the tide peaks at noon, this place should be swamping with anglers, do they know something that we don't? As the current is flowing towards the jetty, not a good time to hunt for todak, so decided to hunt for queenie instead. With zero live bait, I know it is tough to get the queenie interested, while DesT simply hooked up a large dead tamban and dump into the water, I on the other hand went to try to get some live bait fish. Under the blazing hot sun for an extended period of time can really affect a person thinking, I am so hot and bothered that I didn't think twice to use a live wrasse that is unwanted by another angler when I couldn't get anything in 5 minutes.

Hooked up the wrasse, and took I took a break. DesT spotted halfbeaks, but the numbers are too few to him excited. Then we all heard a large splash, yes the Queen is knocking on our door, teasing us as she swims past. Immediately we are in battle station, standing up and holding the rods in our hands. DesT wanted revenge on the miss he had earlier in the day, while I wanted seek redemption on the 3 miss I had at this same location. With eyes transfixed on our baits, we started trash talking, I teased DesT that Queenie like food that is alive and he responded with wrasse is not worth checking out. And damn as if to prove that DesT is right, a short while later the queenie actually took my bait, but before my heart rate have the chance to increase from excitement, the wrasse is spit out in a split second. Okay, now I am in desperate needed for some new live baits, tried to get some halfbeaks while leaving the wrasse in the water. Tried as I might but I just can't get a single half beak, luckily Mr. Lau (an angler whom DesT knew) offered us with some half beak that he caught, so we changed our baits and the waiting game begins.....

Queenie on Power Run; Noodle rod load close to the max.

The baits are positioned at different location and distance from linkway, because each of us have our own theory where is the best place to station our bait to entice the queenie to whack. After a long wait, it finally happens, a loud splash and a screaming reel, it is my reel!!  As I am doing some light bottom at the time, I practically threw my rod and reel onto the grass patch and and run to open the bail arm. My reel is on extreme low drag at the moment, so quickly adjust the drag with line peeling off the spool, close the bail arm and set the hook. I wanted to extremely sure that I have a firm hooked up, I resort to set the hook 3 times.

The humble Shimano Alivio body (Modified) with C3000 spool

The queenie goes on a power run for the first 5 minute, make two mighty leaps, once inside the buoy area and once outside with my line running below the line of buoy and float that whichever organization put there. In the frantic early minutes of the fight, Mr. Lau is composed enough to start recording a video of the entire process.

What follows is long fight with the queenie on noodle rod and light drag, at times I needed to finger the spool (instead of palming) to just slightly increase the drag to allow me to gain some line, this is extremely stressful and I needed to concentrate hard as I felt that I am at the edge of the breaking strain of my 12lbs leader. When the queenie start to exert more pressure for a run, I need to release my finger to prevent breakage. What helps are the 3 of us are having a friendly banter while I am fighting the fish.

Close but still in deep waters

At one stage the queenie is bullied till it is just below the linkway, it is close but it is still in the deep water, after a short while it sense extreme danger and start another one of it's power run, that pull itself beyond the line of buoy again.

Then the inevitable happens, I felt my line rubbing against something, DesT is pretty sure it is the anchor ropes of the buoys, this goes on for a good minute or 2 before it happens. My entire line goes slack, zero pressure at the other end, and a string of children unfriendly languages came out of my mouth. A twenty minute battle ended with the queen emerges victorious. The entire rig comes back complete with hook with just two or three inches of fray above the hook. I am frustrated and annoyed, DesT reckon that there's nothing else I or we could do as the anchor rope acts as a pivot point for the queenie to dislodge itself from the hook, credit to the fish for using it's wits, experience and using the environment to win this battle.

Bend of the noodle rod.

When we took a break from fishing when the film crew need us to clear the area for some shots, DesT consoled me that I have done everything right during the fight on the noodle rod. That from my mentor on noodle rod, means a lot to me, this time round the queenie won and I should respect it.

The rest of the day, we spend the time bullying some todaks, we caught some unusually huge night todak, but I am in no mood to feel great about it. Slightly after 3pm, the film crew needed us to clear the linkway as they are shooting their finale shot for the series. Thus we move to another location for some fishing, DesT still trying for the queenie while I hunt for some rabbits.

By the time we took the ferry back, I am glad that I have accomplished what I needed to do for this trip, took the necessary pictures required, and the queenie definitely gave my new lines a good workout. Having read some bad reviews on the internet about the line, I am glad it holds out well what I intended to do with it. I know 10lbs is overkill for noodle rod usage, but overtime the line will degrades, thus I hope that I will not need to change the top section of the line anything soon.


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Tackle used
Rod - GLoomis GL2 NR1382
Reel - Shimano Alivio 2500 body (Modified) with AernosXT C3000 spool
Line - Spiderwire EZ Braid 10lbs, with 12lbs Surecatch leader
Rig - Float with 15lbs line and Aji 10 hook

Here's the edited video, simply just cut and delete. If you prefer to watch on youtube site, link here.