Tuas, Tanah Merah, Yishun Dam

Went to check out for any potential spots in the Tuas area. Armed with my trusty map, I drove to the Tuas end, near to the 2nd Link. Have never been here before. Surprisingly, it is a very very large place. However, all the beach area seems to be inaccessabile. There were fences all over and most of the areas are blocked by factories. Some places also blocked by police post and and ?giant cement cubes?. Legoland is here. Don't seem to have any place for fishing. Only thing interesting was that we spotted a Kingfisher perched on the railings. Nice bird.





Weather was kind of kooky today. A while rain, a while hot. Decided to go check out the Tanah Merah area. After a long drive from the west to the end side of Singapore, we arrived there around 3pm. The rain had stopped and not much people was around. However, the tide was low (I think at the lowest). Couldn't do any luring there. Walking to the canel mouth, the beach area looked bigger than when I was there the first time. 2 malay guys, a father and son team, were doing netcasting. D got excited collecting some sea snails and it occupied her for a while. I went to look around the area and discoved a big beach area on the right. There seemed to be some sort of club at the other end. The beach is kind of dirty with rubbish of water bottles, plastic bags etc.., but not as bad as places like Semb Park.



I tracked along the rocky shore and saw mudskippers running away. Me and D decided to try to catch one. But these buggers were too fast. They are actually quite nimble. We gave up and D went back to her snails collection. I walked to the other side where the 2 malay guys were doing netcasting. Saw them throwing away some unwanted fishes on the floor. They were scats, just like the one I "caught" last night. But poor things, they were left to die on the hot sand. I walked along the canel beach and found 2 small dead fishes. But still quite fresh as the color are still bright. I picked it up and went back to D. I told her that I caught the fishes with my hands. :).



She was excited and we took some pictures. She "buried" the 2 fishes after. We went back to the canal beach to look at the Malays casting net. On the way, we saw the 2 scats on the floor. I decided to try to help them get back to the water. However, due to the sharp spines on the back, it was dangerous to pick it up. With my slipper, I flipped it towards the water. With a few deft flips, they were back in the water and swimming hurriedly away. That felt good. Don't think it is good to kill unnecessarily.

When we returned to the car, I got a scare. The car wouldn't start. Turned the key and the electronics went funny. Not in the bermuda triangle right? I tried igniting a couple of times and even got out to look at my car engine (for the first time). Then I noticed that the lights were on. I realized that I had left the lights on and forgot to off it.(it was raining on the way here and at one point, I had turned it on) Due to that, the battery had drained out. Realizing what happened, I tried again. Thank goodness, after a few tries, the car roared to life. Phew!



On the way back, I stopped by Yishun Dam to check out the place. Seeing a car making a left turn into a dirt trail, I decided to follow. At the end of it was a small fishing village. There were boats parked there. Hm, interesting. Places like this hardly exists anymore. There was even a good old fashion well that someone was taking water from.

So fast. The weekend had ended. And the elusive saltwater fishes had still eluded me. Sea so big, but I couldn't even catch one tiny weeny one.