Me and the Charcoal factory

We had a Pica gathering Sat and I could only squeeze a little time to fish before meeting them up. Since the meeting point was to be west coast Mac, a short fishing at labrador would have to do.

I reached there around 4pm and as usual, the place was quite comfortable. The weather was nice, but looked like rain anytime soon. I rigged up only 1 rod as I only wanted to do light fishing. But as per the last time, it was snag heaven here. I spent most of the time trying to unsnagged my rig, but luckily, I didn't lose much, except for 1 rig and 1 hook that became bent out of shape due to me pulling hard to unsnag it.

Barely half an hour into the fishing, rain came pouring and we ran for the shelther and I proceeded to pack and be done with it. Rain stopped eventually and we made it to west coast park early to wait out the others. So, it was to be another zero.

During the meet, Andrew told me that Labrador was actually quite a good spot, except that you would need to surfcast, beyond the rocky area. And upon retreive, would need to pull the line back fast to avoid the snaggy rocks. Well..

Today, I really really need to just catch something. From my chit chats with some people while fishing, they mentioned that the charcoal factory was a good spot. I had come over to recee the place before, but it looked quite uncomfortable. And further more, there were dogs around. I thought I would give it a try today and headed for the charcoal factory. As per last time, there was a barrier stating only authorized cars allowed/ no parking/trespassers will be prosecuted etc etc...Ignoring all that, I drove on and parked myself at the charcoal factory. Some other cars came by and it seemed to be ok to be fishing here. Surprising, the dogs didn't bother us and kept to themselves. It looked like they were quite used to people fishing around this area.



I setup only 2 rods, my rapala and my light tackle. A couple in a Merc came a little later and setup beside me. The water didn't look that great, kind of murky. Furthermore, there was the frequent wake boarders that would go up and down the river. Everytime it went by, the water would break up in waves of torrent water. Like this, didn't look like a good spot.





Nevertheless, luck was with me today and I managed to land a small ray on my light tackle about half hour later. It was an encouragement and I was happy that my record was improving. Another half hour, I landed another fish, this time a tripod, (aka helicopter). A while later, my rapala got a strike, and another small ray. I only kept the first ray for phototaking back home, and realized the other 2 back into the river. Couple in Merc got quite unhappy that they were not catching anything and went home shortly. :P



The bait that I got from Yishun wasn't that fresh and I had to throw most of it away. Someone came around and gave us quite a few Sillago (pasir pasir) from his catches. He seemed disappointed as if the sillagos to him was like not good catches. Seeing that I had already gotten something, I call it a day around 2pm and we went away looking for drinks.

We stopped by Downtown east for that, and D had her fun with some handicraft and we shopped a little. Thereafter, we drove out and couldn't decide where to go. A suggested going to collect top shells and we passed by this "secret spot" near changi coast road and thot of trying it again. (we collected lots the last time) A drove in and we made our way to the previous spot that we had gone to. There were a couple of cars around, I think for marriage photo taking. There were also some dirt bikes doing their practices and stunts.



Unfortunately the way in seemed to have changed due to somemore construction and we had to recee around a little before we could find the way to the sea. And we managed to come to this very nice spot where it was clean and there wasn't a soul in sight. It looked very fishable and I rigged up my rapala to try it out. Since I didn't have any worms, I cut up the pasir pasir that the guy at the charcoal factory had given us. So I cast away and waited. And the wait wasn't that long. It was like 10-15 minutes and I had a bite. The fight was fun and when I finally saw the fish at the other end, it was an Emperor.





Good. I rebaited and cast again. And not too long (another 10-15 minutes) later, I had another bite. But this one got away as my rig snagged on the rocks. The area was quite snaggy too. I lost 2 rigs here. I re rigged and tried again, and then another bite and after a brief fight, another Emperor. :). By that time, it was gradually getting dark and we packed and prepared to make our way out in the darkness.



This is a nice spot and I must really bring the Pica gang here for a picnic. Vinz called suddenly and we went down to Chong Pang Nasi Lemak for a kopi session and my fish stories of the big one that got away.