Dismay Grouper Hunt at Jurong Park, Lab Park

Jetty at Jurong Lake


Tortoise caught by the Malay Uncle


Another dismay attempt today to get my first grouper on lure. But due to the tide timings, I had popped by Jurong Lake for an early exercise first. I had been here quite long ago, and didn't get any fish then. So, I thought given my improved skills, maybe today would be different.

I setup a Texas rig with my while grub. The Jetty was already filled with 2 other people. One was an malay uncle with 3 rods. He was using bread and doing baiting. In his keepnet, he already had some Tilapia looking fishes. I couldn't possibly get Tilapias on lure, so was hoping for a toman or PB. But this place, didn't look like a PB location. But I spied quite a number of rises, and wasn't too sure it was Toman. Throwing my rigs there didn't do anything. Throughout the whole time, I didn't see any PBs, even the tiny ones.

I cast and cast and was quite hopeless. All I got for during the 2 hours there was 2 bites, and that was it. I gave up and decided to move to Labrador again, to try for Groupers.

Reaching there, we parked ourselves at the other end, nearer to the Jetty. The weather, while being hot at Jurong Lake, turned into a very nice, all windy and cooling. That sort of weather before a rain with leaves rustling and dropping kind. But the best thing was, the rain didn't come. At least not in the Park. I thought the rainclouds moved somewhere else north.

Lab Park


Terrible Bird Nest


I was still getting snags despite all my attempts to make the grub snagless. I lost quite a bit of "shaky" worms, with hooks and sinkers in the process. The rocks in Lab Park were totally no joke. It literally eats up hooks and sinkers. All short rodders beware. This time round, the bites were totally not there. Even the tails were intact. I tried out my 7' Bass Power worms, but it wasn't too effective for salt water I think. Things turned a little better when the tide came up around 5pm. I felt quite a number of bites, but had no luck in getting a hook up. During my last cast, my rig hit onto the railings and my reel spun into a terrible birdnest. So much so that I had to snip off quite a fair bit of my firelines. After that, totally no mood. Futhermore, a big group of about 4 youngster came to my corner and took up the whole place. Once they started smoking, it was time to go. So defeated and back to the drawing board, I packed and left.