MY first ever sailfish encounter came somewhat unexpectedly.
I was on board a charter boat on the South China Sea as part of a large Compleat Angler/Shimano group visiting what many consider to be the sailfish capital of the world: Rompin, Malaysia. The trip had been put together by Shimano Australia and had begun with a couple of nights in Singapore and a cross border bus trip to visit Shimano’s Malaysian reel factory. The state-of-the-art facility is where models like the exciting new Saragosa spin reel are produced. Such factory tours aren’t commonplace so we were privileged to get a look behind the scenes of one of the world’s most respected tackle brands. After arriving in Rompin, the Shimano team spent much of the night rigging new gear for the following day’s fishing teams – consisting of three or four anglers on board 11 boats.
Bait duty – Ash Darke (left) and Jason Stack fishing for the highly prized squid baits (below).
Phil Gee hooks up.
Exploding out of the water a hundred metres away in a series of leaps and tailwalking spins we whooped and hollered at our first sailfish of the trip. After a few minutes of dogged resistance Phil worked the sail to the boat and Blacky capably traced the fish and waited for the right moment to grasp its bill and remove the circle hook. That done, Phil readied himself for a quick photo with the sailfish atop the boat’s icebox. It was his first of four sails for the day and six for the boat – Shimano Australia’s Mark Dunphy also scored a sail, as did I, after a later double hook-up with Phil. The other angler on board, Brian, had unfortunately succumbed to a mystery virus and spent most of the day on his back, too weak to fish. I unfortunately fell to the same bug a couple of days later and am still suffering the symptoms as I write this…
Shimano’s Terry Dunphy leads a beaten sail to the boat (top) as Brent Kirk casts out another squid bait (above).
Rompin’s sailfish fishery is catch & release only and the effectiveness of this management policy is borne out by the numbers of sailfish we saw while offshore on this part of the Malaysian south-east coast. Look for birds – terns and the odd frigate – and sails are sure to be directly below, finning and cruising as they predate on fleeing baitfish. Free jumpers are also commonplace. At one stage, pods of sails popped up in all directions around our boat, their bills slicing through the slick surface as they slashed at schools of anchovies that were ruffling the sea surface like rain. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say our crew saw 150-200 free swimming or jumping sails on our first day alone.
Keep an eye out for birds and sails are sure to be not far away…
Our tour’s fishing co-ordinator, Hashim Yusof, said that at the time of our visit he knew of three groups of sailfish working the waters off Rompin. The groups probably held around 3000 sails, he said. Hashim also mentioned local charter boats had been catching up to 15 sails a day each. Boats on previous Shimano visits to Rompin had accounted for up to 27 sails a day. The highest catch recorded during our group’s visit was an impressive 14 sailfish. It’s not hard to see how daily double figure catches are possible. On the second and third days the boats I was on dropped several sailfish, mostly due to mistimed strikes. It became apparent that there’s a fine line between getting a solid hook-up, especially with the large squid baits commonly used. Giving the fish plenty of time to swallow the bait and run with it seems to be the best tactic for ensuring a solid hook set.
Mark Dunphy with a sail prior to release.
Calm days when pods of sails can be easily spotted, their bills, sail and tail often visible above the waterline, offer lure casters the best chance of hooking these majestic fighters. While our group had plenty of artillery to throw at the sails in the form of stickbaits and large soft plastics, most offerings were ignored. On Day 2, I was on board with keen lure caster Ian Loft who threw some Orca stickbaits at pods of working sails. Lofty had a number of follows and half-hearted hits, but overall the feeding sails we encountered were committed to their anchovy feasts and showed little interest in artificials. I did, however, hook a sail on a 190mm Flick Bait on Day One. The sail unfortunately wore through the 40lb leader shortly after a strong run – see HERE for the video footage.
Craig Norton travelled from Wangaratta to fish for Rompin sails.
A typical Malaysian charter boat (top) and a mackerel comes aboard (above).
I’d hoped to have a crack at a sail on fly on Day 3 but that plan changed as stormy weather conditions had the previously glassy South China Sea looking more like a typical day off Sydney during a blustery south-easter. Accordingly, there were virtually no sails to be seen.
Over three days of fishing there were many highlights for the group, which accounted for 134 sails caught & released. While the numbers were well down from the 300 plus figure of the previous Shimano tour group, a fantastic experience was had by all. Stay tuned for a full feature on Rompin sailfishing in Fisho’s summer-long issue.
Mick Fletoridis visited Rompin courtesy of Shimano Australia.
The author with a typical Rompin sail. Image: Neville Eathorne