Ubin - Wild Wild Wet

Moon over Singapore from Ubin


It was back to our playground, when Jess wanted to do Ubin again. I didn't have anything better to do and hence decided to join them. Jess, Shawn and Ah Mao were already there at 5pm when we SMSed. We joined them almost on the the last ferry.

1st attempt at Handlining


Today, it was only just us. Copying what those "bloody experts" did, Jess and Co had plenty of rods this time. And on top of that, handlines too. I brought along only 2 rods. But I did the handline thing as well with my leaders. It was the first time doing handlining for me.

We were ready, but the fishes didn't appear


But the fishing throughout the night was pretty bad. I did mostly baiting with prawns as with the others. I lured a little, but it was largely ineffective. Mao and Shawn kept getting Catfishes, which I attributed to his rig. He was using a bottom feeder rig, and hence his baits were always on the bottom, where the cat fishes were. Prawns were used up pretty fast, and we ended up with the same situation of running out of baits. End of the day, we didn't even get any grouper.

Weird thing I caught. Known as a Sea Pen


I chanced to meet the friendly man that I had met on my early trips. Seemed that he was doing crabbing again. Regular pastime for him. He didn't quite remember me, but after chatting, there were some recollections.

Howling rain


Forces of nature


Around 5am, it started raining. I had thought that rain should not be a problem since we had shelter. But it turned out to be a very cold and wet night. The wind was devil howling strong, with frequent lightning and thunder. Definitely very uncomfortable. We huddled together to keep warm, but the rain was blowing in and we were all quite wet.

Ubin happy meal


Good thing the rain subsided around 6.30am, and we quickly moved to the nearby coffee shop. It was much warmer there, and we could get food and drinks. Quite an experience to be caught in such a bad weather, especially for the children.

Pulau Ubin - Big fish parade

It was the long the weekend, and it seemed like a good time to revisit Ubin for another try. I checked with Jess and Shawn and they were equally keen to try out. Therefore, come 5pm, we all met at Changi for quick bite and purchases of bite and fishign barungs and off we went. Jess came with a friend Stella, her tenant Ah Mao, her brother and Shawn.

Some sort of religious festival going on


Nice chinesey lanterns


Unfortunately, other people also had the same idea. Upon reaching the jetty, we were shocked to find it already occupied by some "camping" overnite folks with rods lining the whole of the Jetty. I am not very keen to be fighting for space for fishing, and I proposed to the rest how about trying an overniter at Mamam beach?

Our mini bus ride


From the Jetty, it will cost $10 for a mini bus to bring us here. Considering that there wer 8 of us, $10 was fair. So all of us bundled together and went cross country to the other end of Ubin. It was beginning to feel like quite an adventure, and frankly, I was quite excited about trying Mamam Beach overnight. It should be something to write about.

Imagine to my horrors upon reaching there, we found the entire beach lined up with campers. It felt like Bedok Jetty on Mainland Singapore. Singapore must indeed be running out of space to fish for folks to take the trouble to come all the way here.

The other end was packed. (Forgot to take a picture)
This is what fishing should be. An adventure :)


This guy is a good angler


The best place that we could park ourselves was quite away from the main spot facing the river opening. Nevertheless, we placed our mats, and gingerly setup all our equipment before the sky started to get dark soon. From the looks of it, it would indeed be very dark, with hardly any light source nearby.

A slimy Eel


There were fishes indeed, but we were catching stuff like puffers, eels, and catfishes on our live prawns. After about half an hour or so and with the sky getting dark, we felt that it was such a waste and decide to head back to the Jetty for better prospects.

That's a calcutta, a chio looking rod and a rod holder


Therefore, a quick call and soon we were on the mini bus headed back for the Jetty. Reaching there, immediately the Jetty felt windy and cool and it was a much better spot. The other group was there. We eventually found out that they were just 3 persons, but had a total of about 10 rods and many more handlines. These people meant serious business indeed. I spied high ended equipment like calcuttas, ultegras, rapala, shimano axis, G4 etc etc that I couldn't quite ID. The rods were all held on with rod holders clamping on the jetty railings, each with a light stick. They also had this long fishing net to scoop up catches. For bait, they had a big styrofoam box with neverending supply of live prawns. When the day broke, they still had prawns to be fishing. :O

Our group starting out in good spirts


So, we huddled to the opposite corner, and started our fishing. Again we were catching catfishes and eels on our live prawns. Just as were were getting dismay at this Ubin, when our neighbour caught a very big grouper. It was a 2 pounder catch. That certainly proved to us "right in the face" that there were good catches here. They went on catch a few more groupers when the tide was coming up. On our end, we were all faring very badly and our live prawns ran out. We had spent about half of our supply at Mamam and quite a number died on the way. Our neighbour had a never ending supply of live prawns. For each rods and handlines that they had, it was baited with live prawns all over. Fishing for us with dead prawn meat was getting catfishes one after the other. Ah Mao had some interesting small catches, one of which was an angel fish that I promptly asked to bring home to stock in my aquarium :).

The first grouper. 2 lbs


Only 1 word to describe this. POWER


The final blow to our egos was when our neighbour caught a dastardly big Baramundi!. I was at one corner doing my luring and missed all the action. When I caught on the commotion, I was looking with my jaws wide open at a whopping 8 pounder of a KBL thrashing on the floor. Holy toledo! At this time, my assessment of the trio had shot up to "bloodly experts", and they were to top it off with a very nice catch of a ACK around 1am. I was standing beside the rod and saw the line spooling out beautifully, something that had not happen to mine for a long time already.

Ah Mao with his many varied catches


Very nice ACK


Jess with the Angel fish that I was trying to keep


Ah Mao with his crab


The biggest eel that shawn caught


2 monkeys


Throughout the night, even though I tried and tried with hardly enough sleep, I was getting zilch with my luring. I tried big squid jig, small squid jig, surface lures, diver lures, big lures, small lures, dark color, plastic grub - All nothing. Luring was certainly very tough here.

The biggest grouper did a prison break


3 of the biggest catch


On the way back



The tide became so low that fishing started to be meaningless. We waited till the daybreak and caught the first ferry back. Today, we were all shamed (especially me) by a threesome. From what I could see, they had lots of things. But once they were packed, it was all compressed into a haversack, a trolly with 2 boxes and a rod bag. These chaps were the pros indeed.

Ubin Half Beaks

I had been returning empty handed for the past 2 sessions, and vowed to at least get something today. Andrew asked where to fish, and I suggested Ubin. The last trip there, was a luring cum recce one. Though it was a zero trip, nevertheless, I spied many spots that was promising for regular fishing.

We took the boat over after a hearty meal at CV hawker center. Being Sunday, it was alot more people going to and fro. With us on the boat, were a big bunch of serious cyclist going over to Ubin for some x-country adventure.

D bicycle. Chain kept slipping out.


Coming out from the Jetty, we walked to the left side of Ubin where the four poles are. Someone in the forum said that casting near the poles was a good spot. I got a bicycle for D, in case she gets tired walking.

Weather at that time was rather hot. Reaching there, we saw a malay family camping there, obviously since last night. They even got their laundry laid out across a line on a tree. We moved a little further down, and starting rigging up.

But 30 minutes into the fishing. No bites at all, even though we were throwing juicy live prawns. I downgraded to a smaller hook and used prawn meat. And still nothing at all. Looked like even small fishes not around to at least gobble it up.

I told Andrew then to change spot. I had a vow to keep, and this wasn't helping.

I led them to the bridge area, where PT once had a close shave with a todak after a whole morning of luring. From what I could see then, fishes were plenty here. Just whether we could get them.

Brisk business


Settling down on the tables and bench at the shelter, we prepared our rods to start fishing. The little hut was opened for business selling drinks and coconuts, and lots of people were coming and going. The auntie was nice enough not to shoo us away and instead left us to our doings.

Nice Orh herr


Andrew, as usual, was first to land a fish. And amazing, a mullet on prawn meat. Even Auntie was surprised. It was a nice specimen, and spelled good times ahead. That was to be the only Mullet to be landed.

Double hookup of Glassfish


Andrew's special hook with magical prowess


My first fish was a Glass fish. Not great, but at least I kept my vow. However, fish was released. Andrew was next on a roll with half beaks. He had this special niffy hook that was superb for small fishes. He had introduced it before, and I had many times witness the power of this special hook. Again today, my bite rate was alot worse than his. He gamely rigged one up for me, and thereafter, I was hitting half beaks one after the other.

How's this for adaptability?


Puff puff


It rained a little. This kept it away


D fishing for half beaks


I got it!


Even A and D got into the fishing with just holding out the leader (minus rod). Earlier on, they fashioned a net out of a plastic bag and a twig. But that didn't work very well. From our left over rigs, they took it to play fishing, and even managed to catch some funny gobies. Even D managed to land something. I later pass my rod to her to try catch some half beaks. And succeed she did.

Andrew with a todak


Scrawny fellow


We caught some other assortment of fishes like todaks, mudskipper, gobies, puffer etc.

Selecting the strong ones to keep alive


Andrew caught a beautiful specimen of an Archer fish. We decided to try keep it alive to see if I could rear it in my aquarium. After that, all fishes went into our "live" bait well.

It rained cats and dogs


About 2pm, we decided we had enough. We already had an icebox full of around 30 half beaks and others. From the shelter, we called for an Ubin taxi. Charge was a fiver. But weather started to rain, and it was necessary. Van came in 5 mintues time and we pointed it to bring us to the seafood garden. From there, we had lunch and waited out the heavy rain.

Tough fishes


Around 4pm, we touched down on Changi and concluded an eventful and fruitful day. This was the first time I had landed so many half beaks, and rather effortlessly. Reaching home, I "tuned" my salt water tank to make it less saline as first half beak I dropped in, turned topsy turvey. After some water changes, fishes were more comfortable. However, some of the half beaks wasn't looking too good. I went for dinner and returned, only to find all the half beaks had died. But the archers were still going strong.

Ubin Walkabout

I had wanted to do this for a long time, and today seemed like an opportune time. Nothing fanciful, but just a luring recce trip, to check out the various spots in Ubin. From some pictures that I had seen, Ubin should be full of places good for luring practises. Patrick was off that day and agreed to join me. We both reached CV quite early to have a simple breakfast of prata, and off we went to the Jetty to wait for the boat over to Ubin.

Being quite early, there were only a few others waiting for the boat. We had to wait about half an hour, before sufficient people came over to take the boat. Withing 10 minutes, we touched down on the Jetty that I now was quite familiar with.

Just like a video game


First thing to do was to get our transportation ie a bicycle. Bicycle during weekdays was like quite cheap, going at $4 for the whole day. Good deal! Unfortunately, Patrick's bicycle was not working too good and quite cranky (literally, making "crank" "crank" sounds). But he had to make do until we next past the bicycle shop again.

Scenic spot (right of Jetty)


Further up the river


Aiming for the pole


Some algae here


First spot, was just to the right of the Jetty, via a dirt road from the police post. Neither of us had been that way before, so I was just blindy heading towards the sea. Luckily, the road indeed did ended up in next to the sea. The place looked promising as the water was calm, and full of splashes, indicating some fish activities.

I was to slip on this rock later. Good thing it was quite flat and smooth


Some cuts


We setup quickly and proceeded to lure. I was sending out my Angel Kiss, as I wanted really to get a KBL. This lure was like a KBL killer. (according to the forum). But cast and cast, nothing was touching it. Patrick also didn't have any luck. I slipped on a piece of rock, but luckily the damage was just superficial. I just bought this pair of sandals, and boy, were they slippery. About 20 mins later, no bites, we decided to move on.

What is the cookie monster doing on Ubin?


Mamam Beach




By now, you would surely be interested in this.


Map of Ubin


Pic of my TD Scouter. Lost it later at the 4 poles


My Maria! (Lost it later. First casualty)


Next was to Mamam Beach. This place, I had been before. With the right equipment, full of whitings could be gotten here. But today, we were after bigger things. Out went my maria again, trying near to the fence, to the right, to the left. Patrick's rod gave some problems with the reel seat?, and I passed him my black rose, which I had brought as a spare. The unlucky thing was, at this place, my Maria hit a snag. It had happened a few times before, and to Patrick as well. Some places, had some rocks underneath. But this time, try as I might, it just wouldn't let up. I took the desparate measure to wade into the stream to get nearer. But the water was higher than my knee to make me want to dive in to get it. So, pull and pull, and then it snapped. Argh! This was not just any lure. To replace it, neither Sin or Malaysia would have it now.

On the way. Nice lilies


Close up


Friendly Nordin Beach doggy


Dirty waters




"Fly fishing" style..getting into the water


We next moved to the other Beach, Nordin. But reaching there after a tiring stretch of uphill and downhills, the place was a sore eye. The whole beach was full of litter. But nevertheless, we tried for a while, and then gave up. I sent out my L-minnow this time, but no luck at all.

Quarry. It was fenced up


Moving down then to the Jetty area, Patrick took the opportunity to complain about his bicycle and got a replacement. We had a drink here to cool off, before proceeding to the next spot.

Place landscaped. Some development going on


Nice plants


Spot left of Jetty




Next spot was to be the left side of the Jetty, where the four protruding wooden poles were. According to the forum, around the poles would be a fruitful spot. I was now trying my TD scouter. This was a deep diver, and would hit the bottom. Seeing that this place was rather kind of sandy beach, I took the chance. But luck again wasn't with me. TD scouter got snagged and couldn't be freed. Pulling the line left and right and guitaring it didn't help. And finally the line gave way, and 1 more lure down. After that, I just shot out my L-minnow around the poles. On few occasions, I even hit the poles itself. But no matter how accurate my casting, no bites at all. Weather by now was a blazing hot day.

Cold drinks sold here


Working bench


My L-Minnow resting place


Patrick communicating with the todaks here


Watch the speed limit


Very thirsty. Anything also can


View of a short Jetty here


This is a dam here


Strong current. No kidding


We moved further down on the bicycle and reach the bridge. Beside the bridge, there was some kind of hut, apparently selling cold drinks. But being weekdays, it wasn't opened. It was quite comfortable, and even had a table for us to work on. This area, I thought was the most promising of all. Cos, when we looked into the water, we could see todaks, archer, mullets etc...Boy oh boy....we quickly sent out our lures. I was trying again on my L-minnow, but dunno what luck was with me, L-minnow flew onto a plant, and got snagged! Yanked a few times, the leader at the lure gave way. Argh! A total of 3 lures lost here in this Ulu island. But this L-minnow had served me well and deserved a rest. I next took out my other white maria, and then my gold x-rap. Neither got change the fat zero that I was getting.

Patrick was a little better. Using his newly acquired L-minnow (small), he got a bite from todak, which thrashed in the water a little. Well, given the day's result, this was like the most exciting moment ever. But after that, no more, and he too returned 0 handed. By now, the weather was a screaming hot, and I was really getting burned.

This place found on the food map


Food was delicious


Gateway to Ubin


Familiar scene


Rhino rock


Ain't she a beauty?


Waiting for the 12 pax.


We decided to call it a day, and proceeded to have lunch at one of the restaurants. Food was pretty decent, and Patrick generously paid for it. After lunch, we waited at the Jetty to fill up the 12 pax to get back. We didn't wait long, as a big group of foreigners came along, and we were soon back to Motherland, with no stories of big KBL to tell.

We did some tackle shopping before going home. On the way, it started to rain heavily. As if to cry for us, "where are our KBLs?". *sob sob*.