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.

Fly by Night

My first attempt in the proper tying of flies using the correct techniques, after spending an obscene amount of tuition fee. However my skills are still far off. Hopefully, it will improve with time. I am seriously lacking a proper pair of good scissors. Couldn't snip off the tiny strands of streamers at the joint. >:(

Work in progress


Accident! The vise "kelp" me. Don't play play. Fly tying is dangerous


My Fly tying bible (by Peter Gathercole). Look like the picture?


A charlie using pink mono scrape lines

Return to LSR

Of late, I hadn't been productive in LSR ever since the construction started. Thinking that the construction had affected the water, I didn't try very hard in PB fishing. The few times that I brought ZW for fresh water fishing, we didn't get anything.

But just last week when the sun was shining brightly, I discovered to my utmost surprise that there were indeed plently of baby PBs around. From the clear water, I could see them zooming into my lure. But since the lure was much bigger than them, there wasn't any hookup. Intrigued, I decided to come back this morning to try again.

Knowing that PBs are best gotten on flies, I decided to swap my lures for flies. Since they are small, the hookup chances might be better. Indeed in a 40 minutes session, I got quite a number of bites, and even gotten a small PB. Later, the fly got stuck onto a rock and I burst my line.



I returned home and decided to put my long acquired fly tying vise to use. It had been sitting in my cupboard for the longest time since I bought it last year. Following some instruction from the internet, I tied 2 poorly done charlie. One even was not knotted properly and the lines came loose. Nevertheless, I was eager to put them to the water to test test. Wife was displeased and give me just a window of half an hour or else.

It was raining earlier on, but when I reached LSR, the rain had stopped. But the seats were rather wet. I hastily setup my rod (and I even missed one guide). Water was not as clear as before in the morning. Out when my fly #1 and in 10 minutes, I had a hookup. However on the way up, I dropped it. Guy fishing next to me gave me a smile. I noted that he was doing bottom as well as doing some casting with a yellow fly once a while.







I tried again and in yet another 10 minutes, I had an electrifying hit. WHAM! Something that I hadn't experienced for a long time. The hookup was solid as the fish was big. Enjoying the fight, I eventually subdued it on my 6lb line/8lb leader and brought it up to the grass patch for some photo taking. All these within the allocated wife allowed time. The rest of the folks fishing were so stunned to see this guy coming, and leaving with a catch in 20 minutes flat, while they were still tossing out their lures. Above fishes all returned back to the water to fight another day.

My girl was so impressed and asked me to tie more flies to sell on the internet. haha.