Crabby Day

I had wanted to try ponggol again today, but the weather was rather hot. I only just recovered from the previous sun burn and didn't want to get myself chow tar again. It had been awhile since the last secret spot trip, and today seemed like a good time.

Unfortunately, driving up to the gate, it was blocked with a "no entry" sign displayed prominently. Gate was also closed. Haiz. Not sure if this was just temporary, else another good spot gone. I drove up to tanah merah canel and found that there was a small space to park the car. Happily, I turned right into the canel amidst all the construction. But just as I was taking out my rod, a small lorry came over and horned at me. The man in the car signalled about a no parking and no fishing combo. He kept an eagle eye until I packed everything and drove out of that place.

Next, I tried Safra resort. Luckily, the single lot there was unoccupied. I shared the space with another car belonging to the malay family around there. They seemed to have camped overnight here evident from the extensive tentage and number of rods around the area. Few more people came over to fish and the place was really getting quite crowded.

I rigged up and managed to score a little fish within the minute. Unfortunately, it was a puffer. I was to pull up another 2. They were quite irritating as their strong beak would destroy the rig if they swallowed the hook deeply. I had to change one of the rig due to this.



The tide by then was dropping and my lemax rod with big hooks and prawn got no action. I lost one live prawn one time and I hooked up a dead prawn to replace that hook. I thought due to that, a crab came to steal the bait. Seeing the rod tip dipping, I gave a yank and pull it in. At first, it felt like a rubbish bag as there was no fight. But I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a decent size crab out of the water. It tried to right itself on the land to run off but I managed to subdue it and flipped it over again. A came over and got some strings to tie its powerful claws. A chinese guy came over to help us to tie it up. He seemed to know a thing or two, teaching us how to "deactivate" the claws and the proper way of tying it up.



Around 2+pm, there was totally no action even on my small rod. Tide had went down and all the fishes had gone. I packed up to go. Quite an uninspiring fishing day, but then again, at least got a decent crab meal tonight.

Ponggol 17 and Safra Club

Went back to Ponggol 17 today to try my luck again. Got there around 11.30am, after D's swimming. Seemed to have lesser people today, and high tide was to be at 3pm. Weather was hot like hell, and I got a very lobster red tan after about 3 hours there. Fishing was poor and there was no action at all, for everyone along the row. At 2.30pm, I had enough of the dosage of UV, and decided to move somewhere else.

I drove back to Changi V to replenish my bait. Get got another pack of sarong worms for convenience. From there, I was thinking of fishing around the area, but the place was packed with the sunday crowd. I drove away and thought maybe I should try tanah merah canal again. But when I got there, there was this stupid car parked right in front of the entrance. Seeing that there were cars behind me, and I was then blocking the whole road, I drove away and tried another place.

Near to the the canal, there was another road into some sort of club (safra club). I had never tried that place before. I went in to take a look, and the place looked great. But problem was, there wasn't any place to park. I turned out and drove away, maybe heading for East coast area. But half way, just next to the laguna club, there was another canal that looked good. But there was already a malay couple fishing there, and the space was limited. I decided to turn back to the safra club and see if there was any chance of a parking space.

When I was there again, an earlier space taken by another car was empty just near to the gate to the club. I tried my luck and parked there. I was testing to see if the guard would come and shoo me away. But he didn't. So, I unloaded all the stuff and went about trying the place.







The place was very cooling was lots of shade. By the canal, there was another family fishing. But from the looks of it, they didn't have any luck. The water was very choppy due to the strong wind. I didn't think that the fishing would be good. When I got my rod up, I could see it moving alot, but it was due to the strong current. D found the place rather fun, as there was a "sand mountain" and sea shells for her to pick.

Beside my light tackle, I rigged up a bottom rig with my rapala. But still no luck. I took out my luring rod (the shakespeare) and tried some luring. It had been awhile since I lured. I had these minnows that I got the last time that I hadn't gotten it wet yet. But no luck with luring too.





Midway, I got lucky and my light tackle was jerking strongly. I reeled in, and there was this tripod fish (Short-nosed Tripodfish). What a relief, broke my zero. After another 15 minutes, the rod jerked a little. I reeled in and found a plastic bag...and beside it, a small tiny pink ear emperor (but this one got a black spot..not so sure) [edit:Spangled Emperor]. Both fish were released after photos. But the pink ear, it got hooked in the eye, poor thing.

I left the place about 6.30pm. By that time, already very exhausted from a long day of fishing. Not good catch, but at least, no zero.