Sg Layang 2

After my last week's good catch of a 2kg Grunter, PT and TC naturally wanted to try out the place after reading my blog. So it was that we arranged to go over this Friday to get some more promising catches.

There was a slight mis-coordination that morning, and we were waiting for each other at different places. PT at FishingLine and TC and I at the Grandpa coffee Shop. But we eventually met and were on the way to Rakit Layang at around 8.30am.

I was very hopeful that I could do better than last week's visit. Hence, I also brough along my big ice box, just in case. So much for confidence. :) Reaching there, TC and PT were impressed with the location. As usual, the boy came over to pick us and we were soon on the boat to the floating farm.

Squirrel


Weather was windy with some hint of dark clouds. But luckily for us, the rain did not really come. But the water around was choppy and wind was strong. We found also later that due to the rain, the month of Nov and Dec were not good times for fishing here.

Our shelter


Hmm..where the siakaps and arapaima?


View of the "Kelong" from one end


The owners sleeping quarters


When we stepped onto the "Kelong", we found ourselves the only people there. Another group was to come a little later, but left earlier than us. Everyone was starting out with high hopes, and proceeded to rig up our many rods. We got a pail of live prawns and started casting out.

Rock a bye baby


Monopoly time!


All the Property gurus


PT First catch. A slimy eel


While waiting, we had a game of Monopoly that D had brought along. Due to the choppy waters, my bell was going "trring trring" from the rocking of the platform. But it was mainly false alarm. The water felt different from last week when I was here. Previously, there were even Todaks around. But today, not a single sighting of them. But pulling up the rig, the prawns would have died or gone missing. It seemed like lots of small fishes below.

After 2 hours into the fishing, our hopes started waning. Worst thing was, we ran out of live prawns. We asked for some more but it seemed that the whole "Kelong" had ran out of live prawns. The boy said he would get it from the other Kelong.

My first catch, a roughback puffer


Roughing it up


At last, something decent. A Pasir2


This, not bad too. Gelama


In the meantime, we were lucky that TC brought along some sotongs that he had swiped from Ah Fatt. Else without it, we would really not catch anything. Since no action from our heavy rod, we started using light tackle to get small fishes.

I landed a total of 3 puffers, 1 pasir2 and 1 Gelama. TC landed 1 Duri, 1 Gelama and some other small fishes. I couldn't quite remember what PT landed as he wasn't quite targetting small fishes.

Where my big fish??


Clams, lots of it here


Lunch came very late, and with it still no live prawns. I was feeling quite unhappy that they were taking so long to provide us with live prawns. Already, the tide window was closing. Without live prawns, our chances of big catches were quite slim on sotong bait and fish meat. But we were to learn that they had some problems with the prawns as their stock had died due to the rough waters. Well, too bad.

My Grouper!




But just as we were packing, I heard PT calling out to me. Turning around, we were all plesantly surprised to see him with a good size Grouper. :). He had innovatively used the Puffer meat as bait. After skinning it, it really looked like a piece of chicken meat. With his Grouper, at least not too bad for him today.

After that, we packed and left the place. Overall, I was quite disappointed with the catches. What happened to the 5kg fish I was expecting? And not having live prawns to fish with was quite a bummer. But from what we see, I think it was true that the monsoon months were not very condusive for fishing here. Perhaps we would try it after the Monsoon again. Till then, we probably have to give this place a miss for now.

Closing number


D's friends






The rope that claimed my lure last week

Sg Layang

I had told PT that I might just try out fishing at Danga. I had seen before many people trying over there. So came early morning, we shuttled over. But to my surprise, the traffic was rather heavy at the checkpoint at 6.30am.

Reaching Danga Bay, we found all the food stalls closed. Last time, there would still be some early bird stalls. But they might have figured that it wasn't worth their while. Lately, my observation was that Danga Bay was lacking in maintenance and was beginning to show signs of neglect. Not what the hype used to be.

Water there was quite dirty, though there was a good population of half beaks. But there were also quite plentiful of rubbish floating around. I decided against fishing here, and moved to Permas to find breakfast.

Family of dogs


Shop just around FishingLine


Nice deco


Yummy breakfast


We checked out a pretty new coffee shop which turned out to be quite good and cheap. It was renovated in the style of Yak Kun and quite well managed. After that, I decided to recce the place that was mentioned in the motoring forum, about the todak restaurant.

Todak Restuarant


View from the car park (can see Sembawang)


Eating by the seaside


The waypoint was found on my GPS and it was a simple matter of plotting the route. Reaching there, we found that the restaurants were closed. Apparently, it was only active in the night. Sure enough, we could see Sembawang shipyard at a rather close range. I walked around to check out the fishing conditions. Verdict was, not a good place. Murky water, floating rubbish. Couldn't be any better than Sembawang just across the river.

Next try was this little icon of a fish on my GPS. From the map, it was slightly above Kong Kong, and looked to be a out of the way place. My interest was piqued, and since I had nothing much to do, I decided to drive there to look see.

Kong Kong road


From the turn, it was a 9km track


Along the 9km way


Reaching


The spot on my fish icon


The route was an interesting one, and at some points, very rough and 4wd terrain. But luckily most of it were quite decent roads. At one stretch, it was a 10km road in, and I was doing mostly 10km/h at the beginning due to the rough road. At that rate, it would take me 1 hour to reach there. But to our good fortune, after 5 mins of the bumpy road, the road turned out quite good and was doable at 60km/h.

All the charges and contact here


Their Marina


Someone was fishing here for free


Reaching my "fishing spot" destination, we found ourselves at a small village. And true enough, there were people carrying tackles. I was wondering where to. A talked to the locals and found out that just in the middle of the river were some floating fishing farms. We were told that the fishing was over there. Interesting, and from the prices on the sign board, only at RM10 per pax! We were told to call the farm itself to come pick us.

We found out the info from this house. This double as a food and tibit shop for the floating farm


View of the floating fish farm


King crab


I was immediately game to try out the fishing and unloaded all my fishing gear. We called the farm and very soon, a young chap on a motorised boat came over. The distance was very near, barely a couple of minutes. We boarded and was soon on our way to the floating farm.

Nice and clean environment




They were selling small arapaimas and siakaps


Reaching there, it was indeed a nice and comfy place for fishing. There wasn't much people and we had ample space to fish around. Furthermore, there was shelter, food and drinks, and even live baits. I think ice could be provided too, but I already had ice in my icebox.

We settled down and I started fishing. At that time, it was the turning tide, and water current was quite slow. I rigged up a bottom apollo rig and did luring with my other rods. I got some live prawns at RM.50 each (cheap). But since I didn't have a pump, my prawns didn't last long. My bottom rig on my black rose got a strike and I was hanging on for dear life. It felt heavy and ran under the platform with my line rubbing against the edge. Not good, and I lost control of the fish. Fish did a strong run and my line snapped at the main. Arg and that "f" word came out of me. I had been getting this situation consecutively and was cursing at myself for not loosening the drag to let the fish run. The rest of the fishing folks were looking at me, and was dismayed at my loss.

My Zauber


Trying luring


No choice, re-rigged and down went my apollo again. On my luring, I was thinking no fish. But on one cast, the all too familiar tap was felt, and then a couple more times. It was confirmed when I saw a todak following my lure right up the platform until it saw me on the horizon and turned away.

I was just telling A that this place not possible to lose lure. But me and my big mouth, lure unknowingly got stuck on the rope that was holding the platform. Ropes are lure killer as it was closed to impossible to disgourge a lure from a rope. Rocks maybe, but rope, never.

Fish surfacing


Finally!




Just as I was luring, my black rose took a bent again. YeeHa! Fish on again. This time round, I had changed to a 20lb leader and my drag wasn't too tight. And fish this time, didn't make any niffy trick of running under the platform. It was mostly diving down. Yet it felt like a good one, and my line was spooling out quite frequently. About 3 minutes later, it did a final 10 sec run and after that, my guess was that it was tired. I slowly cranked the fish up from the deep and finally when it broke water, I was a nice sized Grunter. Not wanting to lose the fish, I asked the helper for a net to land it safely. Soon Grunter was on deck, and I had broken my recent line snapping curse. Grunter was weighed to be 2kg.

The rest of the folks were happy for me and after the fish, I was receiving smiles from people that I don't know. :) Most of the others were not getting anything and the only other fish that I saw was a Duri.

Packet lunch. (not bad)


Sons of the owner? They were enjoying fishing as well


We ordered lunch and it was pretty decent. But after lunch, the fishing took a different turn. The current became very strong (new moon) and even clipping on a size 5 sinker couldn't hit bottom. This was to go on until about 3+pm, when I decided to leave. It was quite hard to fish was such current. My guess was that this place would be productive when the current is slow.

The other blue patch on my map is the reservoir.


Leaving the farm


The total bill came up to only, RM20. This must be the cheapest kind of fishing that I had. And furthermore, no limit to how long to fish. I was wondering what if we were to stay for 2 days? And the service here was definitely friendly, and all the facilities well thot of.

Way to another floating farm. But ground was too challenging here


Oil Palm plantation


We drove out and I headed for my usual rest stop at Jusco before heading home. It was an interesting day, with an unexpected chance to fish at a "kelong" type of place. I would definitley be back, with couple of my fishing gang.

Yummy! Grunter fish head curry

Secret Place Reroute

Flagpost all ready


I was wondering where to fish today when PT suddenly called me out of the blue. He said to try out the H place. But to my knowledge, all entrances to this place had been closed, very much to my disappointment. The few times I had been there, the route was always changing. Going in was like a driving into a labyrinth.

Anyway, we said to try out regardless. PT had been there many times, and may have had a few tricks up his sleeve. Sure enough, as we cruised down Changi coast road, the usual entrances were blocked. But PT rerouted to his special way and lo and behold, we were back in Fishing Wonderland once more.

I was elated at this finding, and definitely want to revisit it, before things changed again. This area had been under construction since god knows when, and was likely to be opened to public very soon. When that happens, it was likely that fishing would be prohibited.

Impassable


We drove around, with PT aiming to get to his favourite spot. But try as we might, there was no possible route to it, and we frequently ended up in some rocky dead end. Some parts of the road was tough and undulating, and PT car really took a beating. And to make things worse, day light was dimming. Once it got dark, finding the way out would surely be quite challenging.

And indeed this was what happened. We were nearly lost in the sandy maze and couldn't find the way out. So no fishing for us, and even getting out was a problem. By then it was already 7pm, and it was not easy to recognise which way we had come by. But with some good luck, we finally managed to navigate back to a familiar bridge landmark. And from there, we were safe.

By the time we got out, it was already 7.30pm, just nice for a dinner at CV. A and D drove out the car and met us there. We decided then to just go for our familiar Broadwalk place for simple fishing.

PT had been there few days back and had gone back empty handed. Today we all tried out SP, with me on my usual lucky grub. But for some strange reason, nothing was biting at all that day. It might have been the brief rain that made the water cold and fishes moved deeper to the sea. Even on apollo with prawn meat, there were no takers. I felt some light taps, and that was it. PT had the unfortunate incident of losing his favourite lure again.

Seeing no action, we packed at 11.30pm and returned home defeated. Kind of a strange night, and the first for me to return with not even a catfish.

Way in




Interesting canal


We were the first few to drive on this road


It rained a little


Nope, not bumblebee the transformer


Construction everywhere


The new aerospace location?


Some kind of control tower

Kelong Paradise

This Kelong, was introduced by Eric. Searching on the net, indeed there is a kelong made of concrete somewhere in the far reaches of Selangor. The distance from Singapore to it, was not trivial. Driving there itself would pose a challenge.

The way there


In comes my trusty GPS to the rescue. But when I first tried, entering "Bagan Nakhota", it gave me no result. Sabak Bernam, I found. But by itself, was quite a large place. I couldn't quite pin point where about the jetty was. From the website, the map was totally useless. Probably only the locals would understand it.

But finally I found a point that was called "Bandar Nakhota Omar". Close enough. And indeed it was near to the jetty itself. It fact, it is also known as BNO, short form of the long name. Once armed with this little dot, going there should not be a problem.

Eric messaged me to fish at Sibu last week. I proposed trying out KP instead. He was interested and plans were made to head for it this sat, with his Dad. But in the end, Dad backed out. Actually I too was quite worried about the long distance for him. I estimated that the travelling time to be in the region of 6-7 hours. A and D then came along to keep me company.

4am in the morning


On the way


Thinking that leaving Sat morning would likely to be jammed, we decided to meet early and leave at about 4am. Eric came slightly late, missing his phone. Once loaded, we all set off for Paradise.

Almost there


Leaving early was a good plan, as indeed the drive there was long. Having a clear traffic in the early morning helped me to clear the North South Highway in a good enough time. By 7+ or so, we made it pass the highway and made the Sungei Buloh turning. I had to refuel and we made a stop at a Shell station. E went on to get his morning papers. After that, we moved to complete the remaining 2 hours to get to the jetty. But about half hour into the drive, E discovered his wallet missing. In it, was all his cash money for the kelong trip. I immediately did a 2 point turn, and sped all the way back to the Shell station. Actually, we were all thinking that finding the wallet would be quite slim chance. Any finders would simply just pocket the wallet and walked away.

Honest people here


The lucky wallet


Reaching the Station, we were all elated that the wallet was found and in safe keeping by the counter staff. The people there was certainly honest good people, and even refused any reward. It was a huge relief for E, otherwise it would be tough to proceed for the kelong. I didn't think I had enough money to pay for him.

We are finally here


After that episode, we retracked our route and inched towards our destination. Around 11.30am, we had finally arrived. I had told the girl over the phone that I would be there at 12pm. So, we were just in time.

How much?


Talking to the staff at the recept, indeed the package was RM211 per pax, after promo discount which starts on Sat itself. Along with it, children was charged only RM50. Luckily the total was still managable. But we later found out that actually, we didn't need to book the rooms. Most of the patrons here actually just camp overnight.

Safe parking




Spare boat


At the Jetty


Markers for the boat passage


Trolley skating


Scenic mangrove


Guys, follow me


That's how to drive a boat


Passing fishing boat


KP Staff


Dreaming of big fish


At the door step


The boat came to picked us up, and very soon, we were riding on a speedboat to the concrete paradise. The sea around us looked good, overlooking a wide expanse of water, with nothing in sight. The view was quite breathtaking. Even though the kelong looked quite far from the shore, the water was actually not too deep. We were all excited in good anticipation for the good fishing to come.

Our room on the highest deck


But E was quite absent minded this trip, and discovered he left his bag at the jetty. He had to go back with the boatman back to the Jetty to get back his stuff. Meanwhile, we went about to check in and settled down in our room on the 3rd floor

Our dorm


Where is lunch?!


Daddy, I take your picture


Mr handsome. haha


When he arrived, we all had lunch. But lunch affair was a badly organised one. We had to queue for the kitchen staff to recook after all the food ran out. By that time, it was already like 1.30pm and everyone was dead hungry. A got quite mad with them about their slow manner in which they were asking us to wait without informing us anything. Ended up that the staff were scolded by her for their poor service.

Lots of these unwelcome critters


Our fishing corner (the blue icebox)


Thereafter, we got a spot at the bottom deck and went about trying to fish. Water was the very murky type, and visibility was bad. Furthermore, there were lots of Jelly fishes floating around. Over here, it was a different ball game, and jigging for bait fish didn't seem to work. We finally decided that we had to get prawn meat otherwise, we probably wouldn't get anything at all.

Live prawns were charged at RM1 per piece. But those that died in the box cost RM.20 per piece. We just got the dead ones then. After getting bait, down went our lines. E got lucky and was first to hit a pretty big Gelama. Gelama seemd plentiful here, and some people were catching it by the styrofoam boxload of them.

1st fish, nice Gelama


Pretty fish


Someone left the ribbons here


Wow, Selar!


Finally, my Scat


So heavy!


A was next to hit on a Scat. And this was another plentiful fish. Scat were good fighters, very much like Leng Chiam (Emperors). Another time, A got a double hookup with two scats on a line. It certainly gave the rod a good bend.

Tiniest Todak


I was the last to break the egg, and my first was a tiny little todak, caught on my float. We had seen many surface fish when I had thought were half beaks. But it turned out to be school of small todaks. Therefore, I had a floater out trying to get them.

2nd floor fishing. Quite breezy


Darn it, got a cat


Another one!


The tambans here looked like this


E on a roll


Nice specimen


By evening, we all had some fair share Gelamas and Scats. E tried jigging and was suprprisely successful enough to catch some tambans and some selars. The tambans here looked like a different sort of variety.

I had very strong take on my Blackrose around the evening. I was using a size 8 hook on 8lbs leader. Fish at the other felt very strong and E could see my rod bending. All the other folks were also looking my way. I tussled with it for a while and it felt liked I was winning as I managed to inch the fish nearer the surface. But it gave a strong run and line burst at the hook. Wow, whatever that was, it should have been big. What a waste! And I didn't even manage to see what it was.

E rod also had a strong take. But his tackle and leader was light, and it snapped within 5 secs. Rod took a U bent and line burst. There were definitely some monster fishes down there.

Dinner by moonlight


Group pic


Night came and after dinner, the fishing took on a different feel. For some reason, there were fishes leaping around the water. I finally manged to see it clearly to know that they were small ribbons. Probably trying to not become the food for the ever present todaks.



Also, to my surprise, there were cuttlefish swimming around. A got lucky and managed to catch one with my squid jig. The rest of the people, didn't even bothered with squid jigs. They were using the landing nets and scooping them up.

Where where?


Landed!


Fish was foul hooked


This man took to pose pose


The real hero


Around 9pm, while the rest were bathing, someone at my side suddenly scrambled for the landing net. I was wondering what was happening. It dawned on me soon after that they had a big fish at the other end. I could hear the reel zipping out. By then, a crowd had gathered. His friend was ready with the landing net while the other guy was trying to position it. They finally did succeed and was soon had it in the net and was levering it over. Someone said it was a Pari. But when it finally landed on the Kelong, we saw it to be a gigantic Batfish, the diameter completely covering the landing net. I was thinking that this Kelong was a lousy "no fish" type, but that zipped my mouth and proved me wrong.

E, A and D came around shortly after and I told them what they missed. Luckily I had the photos to share with them. It was certainly impressive. People had taken turns to pose pose with this prized catch.

What we came for


My prize!


Good size Gelama


So pretty


E later was to do a hat trick on his own. He was quietly luring at one corner and what good luck he had to get a Threadfin on lure! We were all naturally happy for him. It was a very good catch, and made the 467km journey here worthwhile. For him, this trip had 3 first for him. A Gelama, a Scat and a prized Threadfin.

After that, I took out my trusty L-minnow and lured too. Someone else was there doing the same with a popper. But lured and lured, nothing, except to get a Jelly fish swim over to attack my lure. I soon got quite tired, after having drove so many kms in 1 day. I bathed and went to bed around 12am. By then, the rest had already retired.

Got a monster!


My poor L-minnow


Kelong sunrise


Daddy, play with me


Morning catches of tambans


Breakfast


The pipe was the catfish spot


The next day, I woke up at 6.30am despite setting the alarm to 6am. Guessed I must had been quite tired not to hear it. Back to the fishing in the morning, but nothing for me. I did some morning luring exercise, and caught a giant crane. No way to save it, and had to snap the line.

The rest of the morning was quite uneventful. I did a little bottom with fish meat, and only managed to catch 2 Gelamas. But nothing fanciful. Given that I couldn't keep the fish fresh, I wasn't motivated to get more. I soon packed and cleaned up all the things, ready to return.

So hungry


My car still there


Low tide


Sir, want drinks?


Cooked on the spot


Paddy field


Mango season? Whole stretch of stalls along the road




Reaching the Jetty at around 12+pm, we walked around the place a little. There was a makeshift food and drinks stall. We all charged up on some food as it would be some time before we could grab a proper lunch.

Parking at Kapar


Nice sign


Let's order lots of food


We were here


Around Kapar, we settled for Pizza Hut. E gave a treat and by then, we were all famished. Lunch was pretty decent and having freshened up, we moved ahead to drive back to Singapore.

The journey told a little longer than we expected due to the search for packed ice. We finally made it back to singapore by 9.30pm, ending a 2 day >1000km trek up half of Malaysia. Although the fishing wasn't too good for me, I was happy to have finally made it there and back. I was nearing my attempt to try out all the Kelong grounds around Singapore.

Kelong Paradise, by itself was quite a different kind of Kelong althogether. Being used to Kelongs in Sibu, IMO, there are a few problems with this place.

1st problem was the way it was built, fishing was quite trying. Our room was on the 3rd story, and we had to move to the bottom deck to fish. Hence, there was lots of climbing up and down. We tried to overcome this problem by moving most of our fishing stuff to the bottom deck. And also due to the pillars and multi-story concept, casting was quite problematic. It was not uncommon to cross someone's line from the top floor. But this must be a first to be able to fish from 3 storeys high.

2nd problem was that the water, was quite murky. Not the kind of deep blue sea, teeming with fishes that we expected. Water was like the estuary kind, and not clear. However, there was a good school of todaks floating around waiting to catch some free food. But still, there were fishes, and also monsters lurking.

3rd problem was that the service itself was quite bad. A got quite angry with them as by 1.30pm, our lunch was still not ready. And no one told us how to get lunch and so on. By the time the food came, the staff got a good scolding from A. The room itself was quite dirty, and we were expected to take off our slippers at the door. Quite nonsensical. We largely ignored the signs.

4th problem was, we had to buy the baits. There was no tambans or baitfishes to talk about. But resourceful E managed to get some tambans and selar in the evening. He probably was the first to do so.

Last problem and the worst was, the Kelong didn't provide ice. We had to collect our catches, give it to them to put in the freezer. Collect it back from them when we are leaving. And it was up to us to go find ice from 7-11 or petrol station. I felt that our catches by then wasn't too fresh.

Yet, I think it has it's own following of regulars. From the looks of it, those people at the kelong then couldn't have been there the first time. They looked experienced enough to be prepared with live baits, camping equipment, location etc. And peeping into some of their boxes, there were plentiful of catches. Our group was like newbies to this new kind of fishing methods. I thought there must be some tricks that enable to get Threadfin consistently here. E spied someone with 4-5 good size Threadfins in the box. Strange that we didn't hear any commotion for their catches.

It probably would be the last of us coming here. Given the steep fee and the so so fishing, it was just simply too far to worth our effort. Maybe if we were locals, revisting this place would be quite likely then. Nevertheless, it was a good trip and we did see a new perspective to fishing. It was a good try and a good adventure, and I did enjoy myself despite the unfriendly fishing environment. I was always game to try things out at least once, good or bad.

A posing with the long landing net


Our dorm


Food area


Steps from 2nd floor to the fishing corner


Aisle to the dorm. Dark as power was not on during the day


Toilet


Steps from 3rd floor to the 2nd


Two storeys from here


Where the prawns were kept


School of todaks


Stylish deco


Strange pipes. We were wondering why not build a jetty to here?


Outdoor dining


Projection TV


Secret trap door in our dorm that leads to the water tank


The charges


Solid pillar. Tsunami, no problem


Group leaving before us


The lower deck, so called open space fishing area


Biggies were expected here


See, I so tall


Let's squeeze her


Embarking platform


My friend, Dinah


Departure view


Speeding away


Reaching the BNO Jetty


The locals having a swim here


He too, was fishing


View of the drive back




Some kind of stadium?


At the messy KL highway intersection




Nice ECO park here

Recce - Pandan Reservoir

Andrew suggested to lure at LSR before proceeding for our PF meet at 12.30am. I didn't mind a warming up luring practise and said to meet at LSR at 11am. Reaching there, an old man told me while crossing the traffic light that fishing was bad due to the boaters. An hour later, I was to confirm his observation.

Indeed, the boaters were all over the fishing ground at LSR. Few times, they came dangerously close to being plummeted by flying lures. I also noticed that the boating area was very weedless. Some clearing must have been done by the authorities to facilitate the boating activity. No weeds = no fish, as fishes are attracted by safe cover provided by weeds.

We tried for about an hour without any bites. Just as we were about to leave, I changed to my white grub for experimentation and managed to attract a tap just 10m from me. I tried moving my lure in the area and got another confirmation tap. However after that, it went away.

In the evening, I happened to be in the west area and wanted to check out Pandan reservoir. It was not legal to fish at this reservoir, but I had seen some postings from this place, and it looked like the catch was pretty good here.

Coming out of the carpark, the canel to the sea


Big pipes for carrying all the water


We were here


The elevated reservoir with HDB as backdrop


There was a canel running by the side of the reservoir with a giant pipe running along it. To my dismay, also no fishing. My guess was that this was the outlet for the excess water from the reservoir to lead into the sea. My GPS seemed to confirm this was so. Water in the canel could only be said to be brownish in a teh tarik tinge. Even if fishable, I wouldn't hope for anything good.

The park area round the reservoir was quite nice, and was clearly a running/jogging track for the residents here. But air in Jurong west had a funny taste to it, and I didn't think deep breathing around here was good for health.

Small one


I took a stroll around the reservoir to have a look at the water. The perimeter of the reservoir was quite huge, and it would take more than an hour, I guess, to walk around it. Just from my 30 minutes of walking near the banks, I already spied a few fishes. And what shocked me was I saw the biggest PB I had ever seen alive that was in the 2-3kg region. Wow. If only it is fishable here.

Nice wild plants




Sunset view

Grouper Streak

I had a whole day of company teambuilding event, and coming back from Sentosa, Andrew messaged me to ask if I was fishing. In fact, I had not been doing it for the past few days, although it was a long weekend. Definitely some fishing had to be done, the only question being where.

Since Andrew had not tried out the boardwalk place, I suggested for him to pay that area a visit. However, being a weekend, I was expecting it to be crowded.

Reaching there, it was truely quite crowded at the main boardwalk area. But walking in, the crowd became lesser, but the place was occupied by 3 chinese students. Andrew politely asked if they could spare a spot. They friendily agreed, even though in their heart, they should be telling us to get lost. Still, there wasn't much casting place, and AD and I had to stand side by side to share what little space we had. The 3 young fellow were doing distance fishing, and was using live prawns and worms.

Instant grouper. Drop bait, wait 3 mins, and it is ready


I had gotten a pack of prawn meat from CV before coming here. I had not yet tried baiting here, and was curious what baiting could achieve. I rigged an apollo with size 4 hooks on half a prawn meat. AD tried out using his small hooks. Fishing just in front of the walkway, my first drop had a strong tap barely just 2 minutes into the fishing. Instinctively, I jerked the rod and felt a strong vibration at the other end. Lifting it up, it was a nice grouper. That was like my quickest catch ever.

I want to eat it!


The students were impressed that I had almost instantenously gotten a catch. After that, they became quite friendly with us. I was hoping that my grouper catch would continue, but it seemed that it was the one and only one. Andrew got a couple of glass fish, and landed 2 cats. Baiting here, taps were plentiful, but mostly due to the glass fish.

Seeing that the prawn meat was limited, I left AD to do the baiting and did some luring and trying out with the grubs. But stupid me had left my bigger size white grubs at home, and all I had were the smaller ones. The chartreuse colored grub was bigger, but the color was not effective in the cover of the night.

The students apparently had been here quite a while. We were told that they lost 2 good bites. During the time while we were there, they landed some cats, 1 eel and finally when they were leaving, a good Gelama.

Finally, they packed to leave, to my delight. Tide at that time was just about the peak and on the way down. After the students left, I brought AD to try out for groupers at the place deeper in.

First we tried out the chartreuse grubs. But after many cast, I felt that it was not working. I decided to change to a white grub albit smaller one. True enough, I started feeling some bites.

That boosted my confidence, and I kept trying until I landed a small grouper finally. It was a relief to me, and proved that this spot was still quite unspoilt. I too change the grub for AD into a white one. AD being the first time using a grub, was hoping to land a grouper for himself.

However, that again seemed to be the one and only one tonight on grub. There were many taps for AD and I, and I actually dropped 2 groupers on the way up. For some unknown reasons, the fish just couldn't connect with the hooks. My thinking was that the small grubs were too light and didn't have the momentum to drive the hook into the mouth. Furthermore, AD was using a light rod, not enough fast action to react instantly.

At 1am, we gave up as it was getting late. By now, another group of 5-6 malays came to settle at our place. Given the action tonight, I would say it was still a very good spot. We just needed to think about using the correct tools. Tonight was quite a learning point.

Newbie Fishing - Lesson 2

After some pondering, I decided that last night Rapala might be too stiff, especially for a lady. I had seen Jennifer (Eric's friend) with a connoisseur, and felt that it was just nice for light fishing. I called up the shop and asked if they had connoisseur, and to my delight, they do carry. They kindly agreed to make an exchange.

We met up at CV today, and shop did the swap, no questions asked. However, shakespeare connoisseur cost a little more, and we had to top up $6 for the price of $51. I had never seen it up close, and I was quite impressed with the quality. Fuji guides somemore. I might even get one myself to replace my ultra flexy Basslove.





So today was for lesson 2, to guide WC and J on how to manage their own rods. Before meeting them, I drove past by a newly renovated part at Car park 6. I had spied some cars inside some dirt road and was curious to check out the place. Turning in just after car park 7, there it was. With D's camera, I trekked into the dirt road to come to this opening. From the rubbish there, it was clear that people had been fishing here. The spot leads out to the opening of the canel, just starting into secret spot.

For lesson 2, we headed back to 6 pipes for another round of training. I wasn't too hopeful of other spots in Singapore, and 6 pipes was still on top of my good fishing spot list. We were there earlier than yesterday and was there from about 4+pm. However, weather was quite fine due to the cloudy sky. At some times, it could really be scorching hot here, as there was nary a shade. But wind was tremendously strong, and all our cast would get blown to the left. Due to that, water current was also strong, and there were times, I wasn't even sure if the sinker was hitting bottom.

After guiding WC and J on how to setup their rod, I cast out my line to the left side of the Jetty as usual.



Today however, due to the strong current, it was not easy to feel the taps of the fishes. Furthermore, the newbies were now using mono. So for a good part of the session, there were hardly any catches. I broke the ice by hauling in a nice grouper. This was my first grouper on regular apollo. Not too bad, I would say. I later got lucky again and hit a fair size Pasir2.

J got some luck, and landed a small Pasir Pasir without even feeling it. Nevertheless, it was an opening catch for her new rod. It was now left to WC to get one for himeself. However, time past rather quickly and soon light got dimmer. I took over the rod from WC and tried to at least get a fish to "bless" his new rod.

There was a strong tap, but I missed the hookup. Uncle on my right suddenly got a strong fight where he was trying just in front of the Jetty. It looked like a good fish from the way the rod was bending and trembling. When fish surfaced, it was a catfish, but I think close to a kilo one. Uncle grinned and said "tosat" meaning catfish in malay.



Just as I was losing my hope of hitting one, there was a strong tap, and I struck. Fish connected and it felt like a decent one. When fish landed on the ground, we saw it to be another eel tail catfish. Well, better than nothing. :). At least rod got something the first time. Since we don't really eat catfish amongst us, it was released.

By then it was already dark. Good thing I brought my torch this time round. Fishing wasn't too good, but that's what makes fishing interesting. There are good days, and there are bad days. After a bad day, one could always look forward to a better one.

Newbie Fishing - Lesson 1

I had promised a friend of mine Wei Chen to bring him fishing. I had racked my brain for a good starting off place. For newbies, going back with nothing would be a bad start. I had thought of Lab Park at first, but later found out that it was closed for renovation. I next thought of Six Pipes as the alternate venue. Perhaps it was just as well, as Six Pipes had more potential than Lab Park in the first place.

We met as planned rather punctually. WC came with wifey Jeanette, who turned out to be quite an enthusiatic student. :). They brought along their rod, and as I expected, nothing else. I had come prepared with 4 rods just in case such a thing were to happen. Being newbies, they were entirely new to this fishing thing, and it was no surprise.

I setup my short basslove for J, and my president for WC. Taking a tamban jigging line, I divided it into 2 to minimise the number of hooks that they had to bait with. Being quite a shallow area, jigging was not possible. Hence to maximise the chance, I baited the hooks with prawn meat.

After a quick casting lesson, J threw out her line. And within the first cast, she landed something. Wow, talk about luck. Fish turned out to be a good one, a Wrasse. Hm, these buggers not usually easy to catch due to their minuscule mouths. J was naturally all excited and did a cart wheel. After the customary photo taking, fishing proceeded on. WC cast out his line and then also on the first cast, got a tamban! Holy tornado. These students were good. I had never before gotten a tamban at Six Pipes.

Since the 2 of them had gotten the swing of things, I too rigged up my Black rose and cast out. I had wanted a slightly bigger catch, and rigged mine on a size 8 owner hooks, baited with about 1/2 a prawn meat. A while into the waiting, rod dipped and I got a decent fish on the other end. Reeling back, fish ran into the pipes and I was snagged. Argh...but I could feel the fish still struggling despite not being able to reel back the line. I played the waiting game, and finally fish ran out again, and was soon on the losing end. When it broke the surface, it turned out to be a slightly larger than my palm Silver Biddy (WuaBee). Hmm, I was expecting a larger fish. Not a bad fighter.

By this time, WC got another fish, and it was another wrasse. But they kept complaining that fishes were eating up their bait. I see, must be loads of Wrasse below. These are quick nibblers, and to catch them, one needed to have fast reflexes. J was having a dry spell after the first catch.

I threw out my line again, and took some time to help rig up an apollo rig with Gamakutsa hooks for her. But I didn't think I did a very good job as rig was a little too long on the bite leader. But seeing the darkening sky, it had to do. Out she cast and hoped for the best. But despite some bites, she was still not getting any. It might be my soft basslove rod. This rod, not easy to use due to the flexy backbone.

I took another take on my rod, and this one felt quite strong initially. When it broke surface, we all saw it to be a small brown ray. Just a baby. I took some photos and decided to release it. The moment it landed into the water again, it swam away happily.

WC now got another successful take and out came a Catfish. This one the eel tail variety. Not bad, but we decided to let it go. I too, not a fan of catfishes.

By now, sky was getting dark and we had to pack. To celebrate our success, we went CV for dinner which WC paid for, as a treat to me. But dinner came up to $75 just for some of the dishes from the zhi char, excluding the other side plates. Wah, felt bad that he had to pay so much. :P. After dinner, my 2 new students decided to get 2 new setups for their future fishing trips. I did my best to recommend them some decent outfit for about $200 for 2 sets. I narrowed it down to a Rapala and a Berkley Cherry wood. Well, starting out always quite hefty for any hobby...but still, some of my reels, already more than $200 per piece. :P. Hopefully they would continue to make full use of it and not give up. I had a hunch, they would be following me around quite often. :)

We shall meet for lesson 2 tomorrow.

Fishes we caught
1. Diamond Wrasse x2
2. Silver Biddy x1
3. Eeltail catfish x1
4. Brown stingray x1
5. Tamban x1

Sembawang Jetty - Gamakatsu

Sembawang Jetty


Today's tide was really lousy, and by the time I got move about with my car, tide was already on the way down. Nevertheless, I decided to head for Sembawang Jetty to try out my new Gamakutsa.

Even though I had fished at Sembawang before, I had never tried the Jetty. It was usually very crowded, full of crabbers with crabnets all over. However, tonight seemed quite fishable, and we settled down at the BBQ table just beside the Jetty.

I rigged up a single rod, not planning to stay long. Again, tied my apollo rig and cast out. I tried a few spots here and there. Water didn't look very good, but it was dark and hard to see. However, I could see dirty foam around the jetty.

Two decent fish




I kept getting Glass fishes, altogether about 5 or 6 of it, all of which were released. It was quite indicative that the water was rather bad. However, I did manage to get 2 good fishes, a Gelema and a Grunter. Took some pics and released them.

There was a family at the Jetty entrance, and 2 little boys that was rather excited with my catches. I think Dad was targetting big fishes, but from the looks of it, wait long long. One of the boys asked me "dead or alive". I thot it a strange question, and replied, "fish is jumping right?". But he replied, "Dead prawn or live prawn?" Hmm....looks like this little guys knew a thing or two about fishing. Later when I got the Grunter, he asked, "how come you catch all small fishes?" Well, that was a thoughtful question :)

Only after fishing about 1 hour, I left the place having completed checking out the water. Conclusion was as expected: not a good fishing ground.

The renovated restaurant


The Naval Shipyard

Admiralty - Gamakatsu

Gamakutsa hooks


The last time, I saw lots of fishes (unknown) gathering at a squarish rock. I was quite curious to find out what they were. As I was using grubs that time, not possible to get them. Today, I came mainly to try out my new Gamakutsa hooks that I just got, and hence will be targetting small fishes.

Causeway jam


Weird birthday sign from "enemy"


A dropped me off after sending D to school. That was about 7am. Water then had gone down a little (tide: 4am), but still fairly high enough. I parked myself in front of that squarish rock again. But this time, I couldn't see any fishes there. Actually for the whole morning, I spied only a few fishes, todaks, glass fishes, a chromide. Somehow, perhaps due to the down going tide, all the fishes all gone.

I rigged a float, as well as an apollo on my Gamakutsa. This was the first time tying spaded hooks for me, and after some practices, I managed to get the hang of it.

Cast here and there, pretty quiet all around. Until I finally got a small glass fish near the edge. Well, thankful for this fellow, at least I got something today. Also, there were 2 times when the rod tip dipped quite strongly, but didn't connect ie fish got away.



After that, all quiet on the western front. As usual, some joggers would come over to look see and ask "got fish or not" type of questions. Water start to get quite dirty with some oil slicks generally at the edge. I decided to pack, and reeled up my bottom rig and was surprise to see a flower crab. Quite a fiesty fellow. Took some pics and released it.