Pop Goes The Weasel

Frankly, I have no idea what the above phrase means. Searching on the internet, it seems to be a term that is vague in meaning, and nobody is sure as well. But I thought it an apt name to title this for my exploration and learning in that luring technique: popping.

For those who are not familiar with fishing terminologies, popping is a technique that involves casting out a floating fish like plastic with a dish like mouth. The lurer (the person fishing) would jerk at it so that the dishy mouth would push against the surface water to make popping splashes, hence the term Popping. Apparently, this is enough to trigger a strike and to get fish! It sounds incredible, but it is a workable technique, and people do get fishes on them.

But personaly since I started luring few years ago, I had never thought that it was effective. As a matter of fact, one of my first lure to buy was a skitter pop after watching a very convincing Rapala video. After a few newbie casts, I thought I had been had and it had been relegated to my shelf of discarded fishing stuff and was never seen again.

However, of late, I started to experiment with Poppers again. Seeing that I had been consistently getting fishes on minnows and flies, I was wondering if it was possible with Poppers. I do know that many folks do use Poppers to target Tomans.

Starting with my Storm Chug Bug, I started to fish only with Poppers on my morning rounds with Pat and ZW. My initial attempts, did see some promising splashes that were after my popper. But for some reason, they missed! However, it was enough for me to pursue the technique and to keep trying.

I got a strong endorsement with we were fishing with YB, and he landed a 3kg Toman on Popper in 10 mins flat. ZW and I were shocked and that fueled me to keep trying and trying.

On a session with Pat, I finally got close in getting one when in the short hour session, I had 6 hits on my popper. 2 of which I was near to landing but unfortunately thrown the hook. 1 grabbed my Popper and disappeared with it into the inky depths.

Stamp of Victory (1st fish for my minipack as well)



1st fish on 3D Popper


KT against the beautiful rising sun


2nd fish on 3D Popper


This morning, on a session with KT, I finally passed my initiation, and managed to land one after losing the first 2 on the run. Seeing the PB thumping on the grass was stamp of victory. I was so successful with my technique now that I went on to land another 2, totalling 3. KT was impressed and he too started popping. And he did manage to get some bites, but was still in a daze when the PB struck and he never strike back. But he is getting there.

New Year Fishing

Kok kok head for the year


Fishing for us started fairly well for the new year. KT was free to join me for a recce on the first morning of the year. But the night before, we had a countdown at the Asian Civilisation Museum and by the time I hit the bed, it was already pretty late. But through some superhuman effort, I managed to wake up in time. To my surprise, KT brought along a friend who was a newbie in fishing. The fishing this morning was not the easy type and probably fall into the "hardcore" category. But friend was the sporty and cheerful type and gamely tagged along the morning reverie and trying his hands at fishing. His company did indeed cheered up the first day of the year.

As this was a new place, I wasn't quite sure where the exact location was. But we tried a few openings in the tall lalangs and managed to find a spot that was fishable. We were in our slippers and boy, did it got muddy. The fishing was also tough due to the terrain as there was some thick weedy growth in front of us before reaching the water. That meant that our lures would get snagged if we were not careful on the way up. I got a good strike a short while later but fish managed to
get away. Time was wasted as we had to retie a few times due to snagged lines. KT and friend wasn't doing well either and didn't even managed to get any strikes. But I was lucky to finally land one. Although a small one, this one was special as it had a Kok kok (a lump) head. First I ever caught. Unfortunately for KT and friend, they got nothing this time.

2 locals doing fishing, fly fishing style


While we were there, 2 groups came around. The first group consisted of 2 locals who went further down the banks, and to my amusement, waded into the water up to their waist level. They were doing luring and did have some catches. The second group turned out to be Alan buddies who frequent this area. Though I tried to chit chat with them, they were generally not that talkative, perhaps since we were encroaching on their regular fishing hole. But from their info, we realized that there was another place further up to do the fishing. Turned out that it was more comfy place.

One of the bags of fishes


But we saw the Thai workers on their bicycles hurling up bags of fishes that they had caught the night before. It was certainly alot alot of fishes.

Beautiful moon blessing ZW on his first catch


The second day, I took ZW to try out the place. Being a Sat, it was surprisingly quiet today. All the while we were there, there were no one else, not even the thai workers. That morning, it was productive. ZW quickly got his first catch for the day under the moonlit morning. And after that, we proceeded to have quite alot of fun catching PBs one after another. Although they were small, the PBs here do put up a good fight. I was having my fill of PBs and I decided to switch to lure to see if hard body lures were any better. Indeed it was and on my first cast, I was already catching one.

Beautiful tranquil waters (can't believe Singapore got such places)


Final moments before the leader broke


A few more cast later, I got a bite and hookup. At first, I thought it was a small one. But when my line suddenly started spooling out, we realized that I had a monster on my other end. The fish see-sawed with me for awhile as I tried to tire it out. But as it run from the left to the right, I could see that it was far from being tired. There was one moment that I almost caught a glimpse of it as my leader was already showing out from the water. But before I could do that, it ran again and this time shot to the right. It ran a few more times and I gingerly tried to hold on. But a sudden surge in force was too much for my 6lb leader to hold and it broke and took along with it my xrap. ZW mangaed to take some shots of the action but it was a waste that we couldn't ID the fellow. But from the fight, it felt like a big
Toman.

Anyway, fair is fair. The fish won this round. But I wished that I was able to have removed the lure as having it sticking in the mouth would probably be a death blow for it. After that, the sun came up and it got pretty hot. The fishes also all dispersed and and disappeared. But the fishing was enough and it certainly was a blessed start to the new year. A kick start for the all the good fishing to come.

What Happened To My Flies?

Last week, I had quite a number in the group going to LSR to test out my wonder flies that I was so lucky with. I had tied some flies before hand and handed it out to them in anticipation of them catching plenty of PBs. However, that time round the fishing was very poor. Unlike the previous week where we could see small PBs chasing the flies, this time the flies were just swimming and getting wet without any action. Water also didn't look as clear with kind of a murky look. However, there were some experts at the Jetty and they got some impressive catches of a big PB and later on a humongous Mummy Toman. Seemed that he was using Yozuri surface cruiser.



"I am taking video arh"


"How shall we cook this fish arh?"


This week, ZW and I went LSR again to try flies one more time. Unfortunately, again the water very bad. And it started to rain. We all moved to the Jetty shelter. Kind of repeat of last week. After the rain stopped a little, I cast out my clouser again and got a big take. Up came a good sized PB. So my flies still got a bit of juice and can still work. I noticed that the fishes would bite after the rain. ZW got some small ones and managed to bring back one to put into his aquarium.



A father and son team were fishing on our left side and the boy was very lucky today. They were casting out a float rig with a fly (white feather with bright yellow body). The boy caught a two palm sized PB and later topped it with another big PB. His father was certainly very proud of him.

So Many Fishes, So Little Time

My smallest PB ever


As planned, I met ZW for a short PB session. Pat had to work and couldn't join us. Objective was to help them get their very first PB in Singapore. A came along with his Dr Ng and a few other children. Naturally, the children all had great fun playing with each other.

His catches got bigger and bigger






Peering into the water, I was wondering if the small PBs were still around. After a few casts, my doubts disappered and we confirmed that they were still there in numbers. ZW soon landed his first ever PB, breaking the curse of the zero for Singapore fishing. Although small, it was already an achievement. We started counting the score but when I got to 4:3 or something, we totally lost count. There were too many catches, but small ones. A also managed to land one or two.

Urgh..so heavy


I gave my Papa power one to catch this


At the end of the session, I was a little disappointed that we didn't hit any large ones, as those would really put up a good fight. But given the effectiveness of the technique, it was only a matter of time.

The mischiveous Dr Ng


A beautiful fly that I need to learn how to make. It was very effective

1st PB at LPR and new friend

I was having quite a bad weekend with nothing much to show in terms of fishing. This morning short session at LSR yielded nothing. My favourite playground was undergoing some sort of construction and the usual left side of the fishing ground was sectioned off with construction panels, blocking the access. The middle part of the fishing area was rather unsuitable for fishing as it was smacked right in the kayaking training circuit. I was running the risk of hooking some bumbling kayakers at every throw. And fishes were not there despite some focused casting.

"Prawn" fishing


The rest of the day was rather hum drum, until I dropped by a aquarium shop to get a filter for my tank. I took the opportunity to get for D a fishing net and a small plastic container. Due to that, I decided to run by LPR at her request to do some "prawning" ie using net to catch those tiny prawns abundent in the reservoir.

Since I was already there, I did some casting as well to past the time. From 4.30 till 6pm, nothing was biting and I was feeling discouraged at such a unproductive ground. Out of the blue, I saw the man on bicycle again. I had met him last weekend, doing his fly fishing. This time round, we were more chatty and I got to know him quite well. Shah (his name) is quite a regular at CoHo, and in fact, he learnt his fly fishing from the famous Uncle Amin. O_O...wow. He was very knowledgable of the area here, and offered me to fish by his side. I was told that the fishes here would "arrived" once the sun has set. From his account, he caught about 4 yesterday evening at the same time.

Small L-minnow I was using on my soft ryobi bass love rod




His eyesight was very sharp and he spied a moving crowd of Toman babies shifting on the water. When it got into range, we both cast out our lines in an attempt to get them. He got a bite but lost it. I was luckier and managed to hit one tiny toman. D was excited and wanted to keep it at home. We put it into the tiny tank which could barely fit it.

By this time, I was happy that I had broken my "egg" that I had for some weeks.



True to his words, the PB arrived soon when it got a little darker. He landed a fairly good sized PB around 6.30pm. I was impressed and continued to cast out my tiny L-minnow. We weren't sure if the color of the L-minnow was suitable as PB tend to go more for orange/yellow combi. But my apprehension was unfounded and I soon got a hit and brought up a fair sized PB.



I had quite a bit of difficulty taking the pic, as it was thrashing quite strongly and threw out the L-minnow. Then it landed on a small puddle of water and splashed water all over me. Definitely a fiesty one.

It got dark and fishing was no longer possible. But thanks to my new found friend, I am more knowledgable about the fishing here, and would certainly be back for more.

It was a good weekend after all.

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

Lost Peacock - Kranji

It was a very hot day, and not suitable for any form of fishing. I took the opportunity to turn on my GPS and went recceing around Tuas. Following the map, I hugged all the places near to the sea. Unfortunately, most of the areas were blocked by industries and even fenced up at lots of places. But I came to this place around Tuas Ave 8, and there was a good opening where fishing was possible. Coming down from my car to have a look see, indeed there were lots of people fishing under the bloody hot sun. Quite interesting. However, I wasn't quite keen to fish in the West due to the heavily polluted waters. Didn't think I would want to eat any fishes that I might catch.



Heading towards home, I decided to detour to Kranji for a spot of luring exercise. It had been a while, and I need to refresh my skills. Reaching there, and hiding under the shade, it was good fun for a while.

I had rigged up my yellow middive and was casting like more than 10 times without any effect. Water was very green with algae, and visiblity must be terrible for the fish. Hence, I needed to use something bright. At the end of the reservoir where the weeds were, I thought it was the potential area for this place.

And true enough, on my 15th or so cast, something took my lure about 20 metres from the bank. My heart throttled into fast gear, and did a merry jig. I straighten the line to make a good strike. But before I could do that, the fish was faster. It swam forward and jumped out of the water like a little marlin and did a head thrash. And my lure was spat out and disconnected. Arggh! In that brief moment, I could see that it was a sizable specimen of more than a kilo and was all red and orangey all over. What a beauty!

With the fish gone, I quickly cast out again hoping to interest it once more. But fat hope, lure came in too slow and got snagged on the rocky bottom. What luck. I took out my lure retreiver and sent in down and jig the line together. But line somehow broke, and lure was history. With a line tied to the retreiver, I tried to sink it around that area hopefully to pick up the lure. But that was a bad idea. Lure retriever also got stuck and got swallowed by the rocks.

After that, I didn't have any more bright colors. I picked out my gold orange x-rap and tried a while. But somehow, that color was wrong. Meant more for clearer waters. I changed to a shakey worm on a charteuse color. But it didn't wrong either. Next to my salt water crystal minnow. Nope, didn't work.

Seeing the hopeless situation and time was up, I packed and proceeded home. However, I was thankful for that brief show of a catch. It was the first peacock I had seen around here. Too bad that I couldn't get a picture of that.

New place - Laman Tasik

Had to do car servicing today, and popped into JB before 7am, being a Sat. But strangely, the traffic was very heavy today, and I actually pass the checkpoint after 7am. Was worried that the police would start booking us for overshooting the allowed OPC timings. But there were lots of OPC cars in the same dilema.





Servicing was rather quick today, at my request. By 10+am, it was already done. I recced around Tm. Molek area for a little while, and chanced upon this "Laman Tasik". Tasik, I think was the malay term for pond or something. The area looked like a garden, and was quite nicely done up. We walked a little, and didn't see any "No fishing" sign. I eagerly grabbed my rods, and setup at the area far from the main crowd.



There were 2 children fishing. One with a cheap rod, and one with a wooden pole tied with string. They were using small worms, and in their pail, was a small peacock. They said it was a Jepun.

I thought that was quite promising and started to cast out my lures. Weather was overcast, but for some reasons, I was perspiring. The children must had been impressed with this uncle with his high tech fishing gear. But I cast after cast, nothng was biting. Quite embarassing. The children at least did better.
One cast, my lure got snagged on a wood branch and when I tighten the drag, the line snapped. But it was quite close to the banks, just about 3 metres away. I ignored it for a while and changed to my pink humbug. But that also didn't do any good.



After some 50-100 cast, I gave up. I did saw some small fishes chasing my lure, but they were too tiny. The idea of leaving my yellow middive here wasn't too acceptable, especially when it was within plain sight. I thought of the idea of tying my 2 rods together to get an effective length of more than 3m. I could just barely touch the lure with this filmsy rig. One attempt, the rod tip got stuck with the lure, and I was in this precarious position of not being able to move back, and not being able to move forward. But luckily, it disengaged and I got try again. After a few attempts, I managed to shake the lure free, and viola! I got it back. :)

We had some drinks and left the place to proceed for our JB shopping. Even though no luck, it was a good tryout in a brand new place. It just occured to me..I had been fishless for quite a long time already. My last catch was the squid at Dayang. Hmm...

Snow Wash on the way back

Peacock for Eric

I had promised to bring Eric and Dad for peacock fishing. This was to be that day and we met up at the MRT at an early 7.30am. But Eric's Dad was not able to make it and it was just him. He must had been quite a sight on the MRT with his rod.
We made it to LSR and Eric was all set with his 1 piece rod and specially made tamban jig look alike rig :).



The place at that time was quite empty though there were a couple of old hands on Peacock fishing on our side. Weather was fine in the morning, though it got a little hot around 9am. Water was very very clam. But the action was quite limited. However, Eric with his small hooks did work the magic and he got his first ever Peacock shortly after we started. It wasn't that big but it was encouraging nevertheless. In another 5 minutes, he got his second one. That was quite impressive given that he had never fished for PB before.

Me, I was trying out my brand new 8ft loomis and franklin DNA rod, with my clouser(correction, I thot it was charlie earlier on) flies, berkely gulp and river2sea lure. But all my "high" tech and expensive technic didn't work. Couldn't beat his little hooks with some tamban jig thread. :). As Eric had to go church that morning, we stop around 9am and called it a day.

Someone at the further end of the jetty did get a sizable one, I think 1-2kg. The bigger specimens were certainly very impressive looking with all the glittering colors on its body. Well, I hadn't landed one like that yet. Someday...someday.

So, at the end of the trip, total score then was Eric 2, me 0.



That afternoon, felt unsatisfied with the morning trip and wanted to have a go at it again. Even if no fish, it would be a good exercise and practise. We went home, took a rest and headed for LPR (Lower Pierce Reservoir) at around 4pm. Weather then was very hot, and A and D took refuge under a small tree. But sun was on the way down, and it gradually became cooler around 5 onwards.

There were quite a lot of people there having picnic and generally having a good time out with nature. I setup and tried casting at the legal area for a while. I used my red head but no action. I changed then to my pink gulp, since the packet was already opened. But the entire zone, was fishless. I thought that it was due to the commotion and the noise of people around. I moved further down and overshot the legal fishing zone. But I wasn't feeling too obedient today, and I thot there was no harm in fishing a little outside the fishing zone. The water there was a little deeper and looked more promising.

True enough, I got a few bites, but still nothing was connecting. But I felt more encouraged and eventually managed to pull up one tiny toman. However, it wasn't set too firmly and part way pulling up, it dropped. Since I was standing on some kind of hill, it rolled back into the water. Argh! But then things started to get interesting. I saw quite a few ripples around the area. It was indeed a whole school of toman. Some boys came around and saw my toman that I missed. They too started fishing around the area. I finally got lucky and connected one on the stomach. It was a foul hook. I brought it back to A and took some pics and then let it go. Those people around the park were quite impressed. I went to the area to continue fishing.



The boys too got some hits and finally one of them got one with his rubber worm. They had seen that I was using worm and made the change and it really did work. The trick was to do it like jigging. Somehow the tomans would attack wormy like things, even if it was PINK in color.



I got lucky again and connected one firmly. This time, it was on the lip. Again, trotted back to A, took some pics and went back. Again, I released the fish. The people there were like "ooh, another one." :). I was thinking of packing up and moved back to the legal area. But as I was going back, I spied another toman rise near the banks. So, out went my pinky lure and sure enough, there was a strong hit. But this time, the fish stripped my entire pinky lure and return the hook to me. Wow....might be qutie a big one. :). The boys further down saw the action and was quite amused.

Around six, I called it a day. A and D were quite tired and thirsty. Having "blessed" my rod today, it was ready there and then for more action in future.

Fish #3

Teng Chin pestering me to bring him fishing. Ok, arranged to go early (like 6.30am!). Don't even wake up this early for work.
Last week's fishing, got a fat 0.

No action in the morning. Bunch of overnighters using live bait got some pretty big fishes. (soon hock, tilapia). About 9am, suddenly everyone started hooking up peacocks. My lures not doing anything. Trying out my polarfibre fly but not working. Maybe battery flat or something. This 40ish man with bicycle came and hooked up fishes after fishes. The resident expert. We went to chat with him. Asked him how come mine don't work. He said my fly not fresh enough!!. Kena suan.

Kind of desparate. Not even a single catch. My BC reel jammed. Teng Chin passed me back my spinining rod. Ok, time for secret weapon. My red head yozuri. After a couple of throws, finally, got something. Haha! My 2nd PB. (peacock bass). But still very small. Nevertheless, felt good.

Fish #1

No pic here. Not prepared to get anything. This is fishing attempt #25. After getting flat zero all the time, don't dare to expect too much. Went to LSR to try try..read so much about it. On my 2nd cast with Yozuri red head...Wham...got a small PB. So surprised with the catch that I don't know what to do. Asked the young boy beside me to help unhook the fish and release it. But hooks got its gills. Can't survive. Ok, looked around for a small plastic bag to bring it home. Good feeling! Like just passed exams. 1st decent fish since I started! (The 3 little tamban from Bedok jetty don't count)