Went and fish for an hour or so at Likas Bay, Kota Kinabalu. Didn't catch anything worth taking home.

I am not sure what fish is the one below, occasionally I will land one or two of them a day (C&R) as usual. I asked som eof the local here and they only say the fish name is Ikan Batu!??


Hmmm other fish that I caught and released is called a Bigeye Snapper (Lutjanus Lutjanus)

Tiny fish but looks quiet beautiful, yellow tail with yellow stripe. I never seems to catch them any bigger than the size of my hand from the shore. Maybe they move to deeper water once they grow bigger or either that the local anglers here just fished them faster than they can grow, either that or my fishing kung fu not strong enough :)

The saddest thing to me about fishing in Kota Kinabalu is the attitude of some of the local anglers out here. Quite a few of which not only willing keep the tiniest of fish but they actually went out there to target these baby fishes.

Shown above is a beautiful grouper the size of a hand, these would probably be considered a prized catch by some of those sad anglers. This grouper is caught using a size 1, Gamakatsu hook with a bottom rig with a 30g ball sinker.

Another fish that I caught and released is a tiny trevally about the size of a hand. As you can see the fish got hooked in the mouth which is what a circle hook typically do. I usually target bigger trevally but a lot times I got GT the size of a hand. That day alone I caught myself about 8 of these beautiful fish all hooked in the lips. They are too small to keep so release them to hopefully grow up and give me a chance to catch them when they are bigger.

Few days later I managed to catch a bigger size fish. It is about 600gram using my portable mini weighing scale. It is nearly 30cm long, caught it with a 10 lb mono line with a 20 lb fluorocarbon leader with a running 30 gram ball sinker. Typically I will only get trevally when the water is a bit murky. My SKL theory is that when the water is too clear, the other fishes especially the grouper will get to the bait first. Also when the water is murky the trevally being a very careful fish will be less likely to see the line. I am a firm believer of fluorocarbon leader. I did not catch that many fish previously before I use them.

Anway I am a bit sad now because I ordered some items over the net and so far I only received one item which is a soft plastic bait. My polarized sunglasses, my 2km 8lb long distance casting line and my 15 lb fluorocarbon line are missing. I contacted the online merchant and they say sometimes it takes about 6-8 weeks. I am now into the 6th week, hopefully it will arrive in time for chrismas. That would be a perfect christmas gift :).