Where the Fish? - LPR

Just went to LPR for a after lunch picnic. Didn't quite expect anything. Reaching there, weather was the "after the rain" sort. Field all muddy. I had never seen any PBs here, and today was no exception. The other catches I got were 2 tomans there some time ago.

Few people were there fishing as well. But the place was generally quite quiet. I cast about 20 times, and I gave up. Really like quite a bad spot for fishing here. Water quite shallow. No cover for fishes. So, the attempt was like quite fruitless.



There was an interesting episode of a bunch of monkeys coming down from the forest to steal the loaf of bread from the uncle beside me. When his back was turned, the leader rushed in and grabbed the bread and ran away. Man managed to chase after the monkeys to get his bread back. Quite funny actually.

Monkey came back and tried to target our bags. We had some fruits and durians that we brought to LPR. I took my rod and cast my lure at them to frighten them away. It worked and all scramble out of the path. Instead of fishing, I could have done luring for monkey :) If I really wanted, I believe should have been able to hit them. Might be fun. >:|.

Fishing the Low Tide - Six Pipes

It had been quite a boring day. I had to wait till 3pm before I could drive out with the car. But tide timing was quite wrong, and then was about the bottom of the low tide. I went Changi V for a quick bite, and to top up some fishing stuff. Driving towards east, since D wanted to cycle, we stop by Six pipes.

By the time we were there, the weather was already into the cool evening. After all, it was raining mostly in the afternoon. We picked a spot near some group of Malays and a chinese uncle. Chinese uncle packed up and left after a while. The place at that time was ready very nice for fishing, no hot sun and all that.

Since it was low tide, the pipes were all exposed. However, the water was still quite deep, as the jetty led out a distance from the beach, although not as long as Betty Jetty. I rigged up an apollo with small tiny hooks meant for whitings on prawn meat. That proved to be was quite a successful strategy for that time.





First cast, and I immediately got a hit with an spangled emperor. That lifted my confidence, and the fishing was looking not too bad. Few more cast, I had some bites, but no hook up. Then there was another catch of a tiny Pasir2.



15 minutes into the fishing, I got strong take, and even my line was pulling out of my Zauber a little. The fish surfaced and from the distance, it looked like a sicklefish. I was delighted, but on closer look, it was a very good sized Wahbee. (Silver Biddy). I had never seen a Silver biddy that big. So, it was really a good catch.

By then, the group of Malays were quite impressed and began chatting with me. One of them had earlier on had a catch of a good size Duri, and I helped him to remove the hook. After that, we were all quite friendly. I peeped into their pool of catches, and there were 2 1kg+ duri and some small catches of snappers and others.



I next got another good take with a strong pull. When it broke the surface, it was a small stingray. I snapped some pics and released it. They were all quite surprise that I would put it back. But it was a baby, and I thot the good thing to do was to let it go.



Fly past rehearsal during the fishing


After that, another Pasir2, and then that was it. Malay group had a very good catch of a Golden Trevally on Tamban Jig. Luckily I didn't comment on why they were using tamban jig. Quite a surprise that they were actually catching fishes by leaving it there.

My last catch was some branches, and since I had to go out with TC for another session, we packed and bidded the Malays goodbyes. From the looks of it, they would be camping there overnight.

TC came to pick me at 10pm and off we went to Ponggol Jetty to try out for squid. From my research, I "discoverd" that PJ was a squidding spot. Reaching there, I was quite shocked that the Jetty was filled with lots of people. There was even a big group right at the right end, completed with a ground sheet as a shelter. We picked a spot facing the bright light from the police spot shining into the water.

The water was clear, and from the strong MH light, we could see all the way to the bottom right to half the length of the Jetty itself. We rigged up and went about trying to hit some squids. But alas, the action wasn't there. Moved the jig left and right but nothing was touching it. I was using the Yamashita that I had just bought. Thinking to try some bottom fishing too, as I had some remaining prawn meat with me. I left the squidding rod with the squid jig in the water, and went about tying up an apollo at the lighted area, next to the police post. Not bad at all. There was even a table to work on :P.



After throwing out the line, I went back to attend to the squidding rod. When I reeled up the line, I thot that my jig had collected some rubbish at the end. Bringing it up halfway, I realized that it was in fact a very small squid. I let out a yell and happily landed the squid. Wanting to take some pics, I brought it to the lighted area. But the squid unsuspecting fired a load of water at me and caught me head on. Good thing I think it ran out of ink. (probably been caught for a while already). TC came over and snapped some photos, right next to the police post signage.

After a while, TC got bored and decided to call it a day. As my last attempt, I spied a mud crab crawling around the bottom and heading my way. I purposely located my squid jig on its path and when it went over it, I gave a jerk. Jig caught the crab squarely under it belly, and I managed to lift the crab out of the water. But alas, crab was too heavy and dropped back midway. Some folks saw it and gave a shout. At least I had witness. After that, I packed and we were out of the place around 12am. I thought that it was a promising place, except that perhaps the place was too noisy and crowded today, hence squids all hiding.

New Stuff - Yozuri squid jig

I mistaken this for a Yamashita, as they were laid side by side at the tackle shop. Only realized that it was a Yozuri upon closer examination. Not sure how this compare to the Shrimp Hunter series. But it did get me a tiny squid at PJ.



Also got myself a bigger sized white grub for more "shaky worms" experimentation.

Recce - Ponggol Right, and a First at Lab Park!

I had gotten tired of getting Peacocks, and didn't do my usual visit to LSR. Instead, after D's swimming, I went for a quick recce at Ponggol End. I had visited the Jetty before. But I heard that to the right side, there were lots of places to fish.

Ponggol Jetty. Hot hot hot


Beach front


Leading to the river mouth


At the river mouth


Desiree was here!


True enough, it was a big area on the right side. Some beach front, ending with some sea walls leading to a wide river into Singapore. Aha, this must be the way in to the river that I would past by on the TPE. Interesting. A found some petai, and went about collecting them. I trekked further in until it got quite far away. The whole stretch was indeed a big place. But the main problem was that this was quite a rough fishing area. The Sun, would be mightly hot, and getting fried was a sure thing.

No fishing at ECP


I next move on to East Coast Park to see if I could try fishing from a sea bund. But to my surprise, there was actually a No Fishing sign. I didn't know that there was No fishing at designated area. Must be a new ruling. The explanation was for the wind surfer's safety. Hm, I quite agreed that with fishing folks around (especially with long rods), it would be a safety hazard.

D had her lunch here and we waited till she was done before continuing the search for fishing ground. Singapore is just running out of fishable areas. With not much options, I headed for Lab Park again. I think to date, this would be my most friendly and comfortable fishing place.

Best Jigging corner


My first Lab Park Tamban!


Today, I tried the Jetty, being quite a cool day. The sun wasn't very hot today, and I was able to stand there for a couple of hours. My plan was to try some jigging for Tamban. So setting up the rod, I went in search for Tambans. After trying about 10 spots , moving from one to the another, it was always coming up empty. I got quite discouraged for a while, until there were some Malays at the other end started to hit some. Wow. Given the assurance that it was quite possible, I continued to jig and jig. I moved closer to the spot to improve my chance. There were 2 young boys (around pri5/6) who were jigging for tambans too. Their Dad was just standing one corner looking. They got quite a few of the Tambans and were very successful in the jigging. All the uncles there were put to shame. I was very impressed and commended them on the good job. I sneaked closer to their spot, and managed to hit my very FIRST fish at Lab Park. A Tamban. :). Great! That broke my Zero record here. I went on then to get a few more...ending with a total of 5. But what precious 5 they were.

Queenie!


The 2 boys got lucky again, and pulled up a nice fish. A Queenie! Wow...but it was a small one. They thot it was another Tamban. I went to them and told them that it was a Queen fish and was a good catch. With their permission, I took a photo. :)

After that, all the Tamban action went dead. I had enough and move back to the seats at the park. I tried to do some baiting. But even though I cast quite far, it was still snaggy and I lost 1 or 2 rigs. I also rigged my "shaky worms" and repeated casting again no effect. My bait rig got a small bite and I quickly took the rod and gave a strike. But the problem with this place is that you cannot retrieve the line slowly, else it would surely snag. So on my quick retrieve, I wasn't sure if there was a fish. But midway, My reel did a ziiiip for 3 secs, and then went dead. Argh! There was a fish and a strong one to pull out my line like this. (drag was quite high). Another one that got away.

After that, it was getting late. I packed up and went for a celebratory dinner for my Tambans. :)

Recce - RSYC

Not exactly a recce trip. But we were headed for lunch, led by a colleague. It was amazing how hidden this place is. Right in between the PSA containers and the old Macdonalds at West Coast, there was this marina.

I didn't think they would allow fishing here. A quick check on the water saw some schools of half beaks. Water was quite dirty due to the proximity to the big boats. But given the little fishing pressure here, it might be productive.

Lunch was not too bad, and quite inexpensive. Shall be back again.







Father & Son boat...how touching.

Miserable tryout again at Lab Park

I was hoping for a more fruitful trip, this being my 3rd attempt. But still, the grub was not working. There were less snags this time, as I retrieved it fairly quickly after the lure sank and hit the bottom. But tide timing was not too good. The water was already receding. I tried for a while and gave up. Things were definitely not lookin up. :(

Try out - Port Dickson

This was more of a driving trip than fishing. But I had formed the habit to always pack my light rod with me where I go. The plan was to hit Port Dickson town and drive down the coastal road, checking out all the tourist places. It being near the sea, there should be quite a bit of opportunity to fish.

On the way
Coming out from the Toll


Toll after coming out from the NSH


Exit to Port Dickson from NSH


I had driven up about 2 years back. But that time, being the first time, I was quite lost. Today, with the help of my trusty GPS, getting lost was a thing of the past. Where-ever I drive, I had the benefit of knowing exactly where I was.

Port Dickson Town
GPS said we were there


Boats parking


The ferry terminal


The town


Reaching there, Port Dickson town wasn't much to look at. I was stopped at a MY police spot check, but luckily, I was waved onwards. The ferry terminal itself looked quite run down. Water was dirty and partly due to the low tide, the rubbish was everywhere. I wasn't too sure if this is the actual Port of the Port Dickson. Couple of years back, I remembered I was on Star Cruise and we made a stop here. But this place didn't look like it could take a big ship. Might be some newer port elsewhere.

Bagan Pinang
PD Beach resort


Taking shelter


Fairly ok beach


I made my way next down south, stopping at a place called PD Beach resort. It was like still under final touches of construction, and most things were like quite new. But the beach wasn't too great. It was fairly clean, but again water level was low. There was a pack of dogs at one end, and it it didn't look safe to move around.

Regency Resort
The building


Sea horse statue


Flowers


Can climb?


Beautiful beach


Can go there?


Moving downwards, I next hit Regency resort. This was a very nice place, with a clean and well maintained beach. But unfortunately, I had arrived during the low tide. Nothing much to see then. The first trip here, we actually had lunch at this place. There were a couple of resort pools, and D wanted very much to swim in. But no, we were not guest of the resort. This place kind of looked upmarket, and the sand and beach here was like better than the earlier one. Beach and water was very clean and should be an enjoyable place to hang out.

Telok Kemang Beach
Common motif of Fish bone


Beach, right side


Beach, left side


Food court


Beach scooter


Shopping centre


Crossing the road to the centre of activity


shopping


Next was Telok Kemang public beach. This was to be our lunch place. The beach itself was very crowded. Food here was so so, with all the stalls selling the same thing. We ordered lunch. There were lots of flies buzzing around and eating wasn't that pleasant an experience. While D was trying to finish lunch, I moved around to have a look at the beach. This place was kind of like the equivalent of our East Coast Park. Lots of activities and people, complete with ice cream man.

Blue Lagoon (Tanjong Biru), Cape Recardo
Where I parked


Fun with catching crabs and small fishes


There were nestful of these


Looking inward, from the far end of the beach


Nice view of the left side of Blue Lagoon


The children having fun at the lagoon.


Car at blue lagoon


Blue Lagoon (later, when high tide)


Building my house.



Me with my light fishing outfit


Mad guy with rod at Blue Lagoon


Another view


After lunch, we finally reached the Cape, but I couldn't see the light house. It is an important landmark in Port Dickson, with some history to it. I think there was a war fought here, but I didn't quite read up on the history. The Blue Lagoon was also found here. Due to the low tide, the water was very far off. But there were lots of interesting sights walking along the sand. Lots of small fishes were trapped in pools of water. And the tiny red crabs were all crawling all over. Quite a breath taking sight when they were doing it en masse. Very much like tiny red ants. The children had a great time catching them and generally had fun. But it got a bit out of hand when they started throwing sand at each other. D and E had a good scolding after that.

I took out my rod and tried casting with my grub. The water was very shallow, and there wasn't any bite. But it was a great feeling to be able to do that, throwing out my lines towards the open sea. There was a malay family doing netting. They did catch some small fishes.

Teluk Pelandok
The Jetty


Great to be sitting here and having a sip at the local soft drinks


Soft drinks, old style. Need to return bottle, else 20cts more.


Me at Telok Pelandok


From there, we moved to Teluk Pelandok. From the internet, it looked like a nice place with a jetty. It mentioned that people come here to fish. But reaching there, it was just a small fishing house, with boats parking alongside it. A very small place indeed. But the jetty was there. An indeed, there was 1 person that was fishing. A bought some locally made soft drinks. The weather being very cooling, we sat there and enjoyed the breeze. Again I took out my rod to test the water. But no bites at all. Water was too murky and too rough for lures to work, I think.

Coastal road drive to Melaka






Melaka
Craving for Chicken rice ball


Alamak, the famous one is behind us. :P


From there, we drove down all the way along the coast to reach Melaka. We had a sumptous Melaka Chicken rice ball there. In our excitement, we missed out the "real" famous chicken rice stall just behind us. But no matter, the other one looked more expensive.

It was already dark after dinner. I took the NSH back all the way to Singapore via the 2nd link. We reached home at 11pm. A very tiring but fruitful trip indeed.