Sibu Kelong, HotBoys

I finally made my long awaited kelong trip in Sibu. This kelong is known as "HOTBOYS KELONG" in the forum and I later found out that it is only 1 of a series of kelongs in that area. And yes, it was definitely hot. In fact, I am now "chow tar" beyond recognition. The weather get pretty sizzling around noon and would not abate until about late afternoon. I had to fish only at the what precious shady areas they had, according to the position of the sun. But thereafter, the weather turned out to be very nice and there was even a little bit of rain around the evening period. Nothing pouring, but it got pretty windy and choppy at one stage.





I had driven all the way up to the Tanjung Leman Jetty starting out early in the morning from Singapore at around 6.30am. At this time, traffic was smooth and there were no jams whatsoever. The way there is rather easy, mainly straight road with a few turns here and there. However, I got a little lost at one point when I was nearing. I was just outside the Jetty carpark but I thot I had lost my way outside a resort. D went to the "toilet" around here (in the bushes). Along the way, there was a split in the road between a dirt track and a road on the right. I backtracked to the dirt road and went a little in but realized that it couldn't be the way. Found a few people to ask and it turned out that I was right afterall. Back to the "resort" entrance and got into the Jetty around 9am. I made a call to "ah meng" and was told that the boat would be on the way to pick me up.



The boat ride was about 30 minutes along with a few other people. They later turned out to be Eric and his family, a fishing family and their friends that I got to know. Swell people and also fantastic fishermen. In fact, Eric's father, a grandish looking old man was the first to land a fish once we were at the kelong. Throughout the trip, they quickly filled their big sized icebox with lots of nice looking edible fishes. He also got a few wolf herrings and garfishes, yellow tails etc etc.





Upon reaching the kelong, first thing to greet us was a sleeping black brown banded snake under the alighting area. The woman people got a little squemish but the snake didn't bother us at all, contended to just having a bit of an hot afternoon nap. We were shown to our sleeping quarters which was just in front of the eating area and was told to go right into fishing, before the lunch was to be ready. I quickly rigged up and was given some sotong as bait. In front of our beds, there was an opening sort of a well with lots of small bluish fishes with black stripes "hanging" around. (Scissortail Sergeant) We rigged a tamban jig and put bits of sotong on it and the fishes readily took the bait and we hooked up a few small fishes. We caught a few sergeants, kelong chi (Terapon Jarbua), puffers, filefish and a more respectable rabbit fish.

Scissortail Sergeant (Abudefduf Sexfasciatus)

Kelong chi (Terapon Jarbua)


Green Rough-backed Puffer


Filefish - Fan-bellied Leatherjacket


Rabbit fish - Streaked Spinefoot


My surf rod got no results whatsoever. The sotong were disappearing and later when I put live tamban, there were no takers too. With the rod holders, it was also quite hard to grab the rod to strike and usually by the time you do so, the fish would have gone. There was also the risk of the rod and people falling into the sea, so well.

During the hot afternoon, there was a sizable group of todaks (aka garfishes, sharp nosed looking fishes) swimming around. I tried to use a float with a tamban and cast it out far away from the kelong. The plan worked and the todak took my bait and made a run. I had freed my spool and the line was peeling out for about 10 secs. I locked the reel and strike but unfortunately, it didn't hook up. That was the closest I had with todaks for this trip.





Around the late afternoon, waves of tamban came to our kelong and had a fruitful tamban jigging season. Everyone was catching tambans and even D caught quite few and she was so proud of it. Sometimes, the tambans come out in a full string of 5 or 6s. Mixed with tamban, there were the occasional selar, kembong, big eye etc. For an unknown reason, we initially keep getting the kelong chi and strange looking slimy brown fish, even though we were using exactly the same jigs as Daphne (Eric's wife) and her friend, Jennifer and her daughter, Jamie. They would pull out tambans but we would pull out kelong chi and sergeants and others but no tambans. But later, A got her first tambans and from there on, it was tambans and more tambans.
(we later found out that the brown fishes were actually baby groupers. Wow o_o)



After a good dinner (the kelong served good food), I tried to cast with my surfrod with live tambans, from the ones that we jigged, but again no luck. My bells were ringing everytime someone walked by the rod due to the shaky platform. I soon gave up responding to it. Just leave it on the rod holder, you just may never know.

When the darkness set, Eric and family changed tactic and I saw him and his dad doing some jigs and lure. They caught a few wolf herrings, quite good size ones and dunno what others as they were on the other side of the kelong. I setup my sotong exori and shrimp hunder jigs and my white rabbit metal jig (which I read was good for wolf herring hunting. My sotong jig did nothing at all, even my $18 shrimp hunter, whereas the bald guy (which I found out was Gary) in the other group caught a few sotongs with his friends. (I counted around 10). The sotong was great fun as they would squirted powerful jets of water in order to try to escape. It looked like even their cheap cheap dunno what brand sotong jig was more powerful than my "shrimp hunter". I later chatted with Gary and found him to be a very fun and nice chap indeed. In fact, the whole group seems to be nice sorts of people. There was another group of people but I figured them to be malaysians and they didn't look too friendly. In fact, they looked kind of crude people, chain smoking, and throwing rubbish any old how, so we didn't mix with them.

The fish that got away - Dorab Wolf-Herring
http://www.handlinefishing.com/whatsthisfish/wolfherrings/dorabwolfherring.htm

Coming back to my jigs, my lumo metal jig was fantastic and true to its advertised value. I cast a few times and less than 5 casts later, I hooked a wolf herring. It was a very fierce fighter and did some aerial jumps from quite long distance away. I managed to pulled it back in everyone saw that it was quite a large one, around 1m. (even bigger than the one that the uncle had caught). As I had it below the kelong, I made foolish move. I underestimated the powerful fish and tried to pull it up with my line. (not so heavy, maybe about 2 kg). But it gave a fierce struggle and to my big disappointment, the line and the jig broke! OMG, I had lost the fish. Till now, I am still regretting the moment. I should have just let the fish tire out or get a net to lift it out of the water. Why why why????. The honour of catching such a fine fish would have to wait. (the fish is reputable for good porridge eating. chinese calls it SaiToh).



After losing the jig, I only had another but it was bigger. This didn't work and for rest of the night, no more wolf herrings for me. Also no sotong at all, while Gary's group were having good success in caught quite a few sotongs. I lost my only pink color (pioneer) one on the kelong stilts and that was it. The sotongs wouldn't go near my other 2 bluish sotong jigs at all. A tried her hand at sotong jigging but she got bored and jigged up a king crab instead with the sotong jig instead.



Also, the kelong was a nesting home to many swallows. You can actually see them just under the kelongs. A used her hands to creep up upon a sleeping pair and managed to catch one. :D. We let it go later unharmed.

Some of the ladies were still going at the tamban fishing till late at night, braving the slight drizzle while the others were bathing and cleaning up and having rounds of mahjong and karaoke. Around, 12am to 1am, most of us went to sleep. It had been a tiring day and despite the relatively uncomfortable place, I too fell into a sleep quite soon. (Actually, the bed was ok, not itchy or anything)

The next day, I got up pretty early. Not too sure what the time was but it was dark and everyone was still sleeping. There was a large group of todaks around the kelong and I hooked up a tamban and floated it near to them. But they were really smart fishes and wouldn't touch it. Somehow, they could detect the lines and eyed my bait with caution. I tried a bit of luring and also no success. I got a few bites, nothing hard and definitely no hook ups. I did a little sotong jigging, but no sotong luck for sure this time round.





The sun soon broke out of the morning sky and the others started fishing again. I stayed at the area near the boat landing and using tamban jig with bread, I caught a few fishes, one of which is a nice looking fish that even Eric couldn't ID.

There were a few large looking fishes (4 of them) circling our kelong. I couldn't see what they are but they are definitely big fishes. The todaks were also back in big groups. But funny, the fishes were not biting this morning. For a while, it was rather quiet. But the uncle managed to hook up a nice looking yellow tail.





The sun was rather hot and not very comfortable for fishing. We counted our catch and hey, not too bad indeed. Gary and friends were impressed. I guessed that they didn't do much of tamban jigging. I decided to clean up my gear and pack up. We left the place around 1pm and I said my farewells to some nice friends that I have met. Wonder if we would see each other again. During lunch, we found out that Eric's group vists kelong like once every month. Wow, they are definitely very siao about fishing. D wanted to come again to the keong next week. They all laughed and said that she can join the group already.

Drive back was very hot. The sun was really beating down on us and the aircon had to work doubly hard to get the car cooled down. The effects of having very little sleep started to hit me and while I was driving, I kept wanting to nod off. After a while, it was too dangerous to continue so and I asked A to take over the driving. The stretch here from Sibu to Johor was quite easy driving and she didn't have any trouble with that. For a while, I dozed off in the car till we stopped somewhere for a bite and refuel. Reached home around 5.30pm, and while A got busied with cleaning up all the fishes. I put this up together for good remembrance of a wonderful time that we had.

More pics of Hotboys Kelong:
Fishing well


Area I used my surf rod


Our sleeping quarters


Dinner and kitchen area


Washing area


Toilet

Ponggol 17th

Rallied up TC for a short session and went on to visit the Ponggol 17th avenue that I often read about. Ended up that the location was just next to the Marina at Ponggol. Place was quite clean, and there were like nicely paved walkway for parking our rods. Weather turned out to be quite nice with a strong breeze and overcast sky, although it got a little hotter when we were leaving. The forecast was for heavy rain, but looking at the clouds, not likely to happen anytime soon.



We placed ourselves away from the crowd at the other end. There were bunch of people fishing and I guessed that they had somehow found a way to drive in. So, the concentration of people were a bit further down where the cars were. One even had on his expensive HI-FI some nice chinese music while you fish.

Tide was coming up but high tide was to be around 1.30pm. We wouldn't stay so long, but water was high enough and the sea wall allowed access to deeper parts of the water. We spied a school of small fishes from the sea wall, but throughout the session, no catches or any bites at all. The prawns were either disappearing or not being biten at all.

We packed up after a while and went for some drinks at the Marina. Hm, thot that we were not allowed in. Good place to bring D and A for a visit in the near future. Well, place was nice, but no fish. Maybe another time.

Overseas Fishing, Ubin

It was the long weekend and I was itching to go to the kelong in Sibu. However, not a good timing as most of the project team members were Malaysia bounded. Someone had to stay back to hold the fort. So, I thot why not just dropped into Ubin for a spot of "overseas" fishing.



Ubin is just about 10 minutes by bumboat, costing $2 per passenger. However, getting back was the issue as I was planning to stay till the late evening. I checked around and the boating uncle said that you can get a boat back, around $12 for all. However, it turned out later that I had to pay $24 for a 10 minute boat ride back. But anyway, no choice.



We reached there around evening time and walked around a bit. There were sandflies at the beach area and we left it in a hurry. The jetty area looked ok and pretty comfy for night fishing. Clean cemented floors and lights around. I was wondering why no one was doing it there. There were people in and out with fishing rods, but I didn't see them doing it at the jetty. Maybe there are some other hotspots around. Anyway, being my first time, Jetty looked good, and also later when we needed to do a quick getaway back to Singapore, it would be easy. From here, I could observe the traffic of the place of the people coming and leaving.

There were some bites and the bells went off a few times. But everytime I reeled back, there was nothing. A few times, my rig got snagged and I had to cut it away. I set up my luring set and did some luring too. Things were quiet at the start and the people milling around lessen as the night settled.



I tried my luck at the berthing area and on one cast, I pulled up something strange looking. On closer look, it was a tiny sotong! D got very excited and so was I. Just the other day, I was wishing that I would be able to hook up a sotong, maybe at the Sibu kelong. Little did I know that I would actually get one so soon, and on a lure! Interestingly, it was making a sort of chirping sound, just like a tiny bird. When I dropped it into the container, it started squirting ink all over. Cool.



Shortly there after, the rods bell rang and we pulled up a crab (bait stealer). The other rod got a small fish. Checking from the Net, it ended up to be a Goatee Croaker. Haha, the tiny beard at the end of the mouth was cute. Not bad for a night. It was more fishes that I had caught in one session.

Some more luring got me into trouble. The lure got stuck on one of the boat's anchoring rope. It was a goner for sure as the lines were quite tangled up. Another lure lost. Luckily, this one was a fairly cheap one.

Checking the time, I realized that it was pretty late already. However, there wasn't any boatman around. I checked with a Malay family on how to get back to Singapore. They seemed like regulars here. Luckily, he had with him the boatman contact. I made a call and was told that the fare would be $24. Well, ok then. Packed up and left the place.

D, I think had a good time. Before she nodded off when we reached home and hit the bed, she asked to go there again next week. :)

Goatee Croaker
http://www.handlinefishing.com/whatsthisfish/croakers/goateecroaker.htm

Changi Car Park 6 (SAF ferry terminal)

Visited a new place today. Place kind of dark, but nevertheless, quite comfy as there wasn't many people around. Quite a bit of space I had to the next guy fishing. However, A and D seemed to have a problem with mosquitoes. Strange, I didn't get bitten though. Luckily I had my OFF with me.



The fishing spot is a seawall near to the SAF ferry terminal. Could see NS boys taking the ferry to book in back in tekong. Funny, don't they have a long weekend? Must be those that that got extra duty. :) Water was clean, though everything was pretty dark. The street lamps were more on the other parallel walking path. Quite a challenge to rig up and get everything right. There was a good view of the full moon and if you took the time to just admire it, it was quite a sight to behold, with the clouds clustered around the moon and the wide open sea. I told D to look for a rabbit in the moon and she was so surprised that there was indeed a picture of a Rabbit. Thot she would have known by now.

However, no fishes were biting. But funny, my rubber berkley gulp worm got bitten off at the tail. The prawns were also mysteriously disappearing. But no action on the rod tip. Must be small biat-stealers. Hang around for a while. I rigged up my lure set and I invented a new way to fish. Hook up a live prawn to a lure. Cast it out and wait. :) This way, no need to retrieve. The lure acts as a float and if any fishes go for the prawn, the lure will hook them.

After an hour or two, D got tired and wanted to go home. Bait also ran out. Decided to head back around 12.30am. Another fishless day. Where have they all gone?

To Catch a Blur Sotong

I am planning for a trip to a Sibu kelong sometime soon. Maybe the May/Jun holidays. Just a 2 hour drive across the causeway. Must try out fishing on a kelong. Should be lots of fun. Getting some things in preparation for the trip. Read these are good for sotong jigging. (eging).



My sotong and jigging set. Hope to get my first one soon.



The "shrimp hunter" was supposed to be a killer. But didn't have the right size. Anyway, all sold out. Even getting this is lucky. But sure was expensive. From Hot Spot, damage was almost $18 just for this alone.

BJT Once More and Incident

Friends of ours wanted to join us for a night fishing trip. Well, the most convenient place happened to be BJT. So, we headed there for a night of fishing. After the last memorable trip, hopes were high.

Got there 2 hours before high tide and managed to find a place pretty much to the end of the Jetty. Surprisingly, it wasn't very packed. And the air this time was not too bad. Didn't have too many a smokers around me. We set camp there and the children had their fun playing "camping". I put my things on two benches so as to mark an area for me to cast. Otherwise, everyone would be standing shoulder to shoulder and would make casting very difficult. Even so, I crossed lines a few times with the fellow next to me.



However, there wasn't much action. I tried all my baits at one go. Berkley Glup, Live prawns, and fresh Tamban. But surprisingly, no bite at all. Luring also didn't work. The womanfolks got their fun of jigging for Tamban and were quite successful. All in all, I think they managed to jigged about 7 of them. Some of these, I used as bait. I tried out my invention of "reverse cable car rig". The regular "cable car rig", you would cast out a line with weight and then use a clip to line another line with a float and a bait (usually little fish). I was thinking why not just clip the floating part together with my line, cast it out and let it float up instead? But it didn't work at all as the floating part of the cable car rig would get entangled with the main rig. So, it wouldn't float upwards after the cast. Well, so much for theory. Anyway, I would cast my regular apollog rig, and then slide down a float with bait. But on pulling up, very messy :), so many lines and hooks. :P.

Throughout the night, there was no bite. Not me or anyone along the Jetty. Not sure if it was due to the full moon today.

For the first time, I used up all my rods. Even my lucky rod didn't work today. I tried out my "Record" and well, Abu's stuff is no BS. It really felt very smooth. And no problems with "beehoon" or whatever. Every cast, you can hear the "whooosh" sound and can hit quite a decent distance.

Around 1.30am, I felt some droplets of rain. Not taking my chances, as we were quite far from any sizeable shelter, we decided to pack up and go.

I will be back. :)

[Afternote (please read after after note for happy ending): I read in shock about someone complaining about me in the forum. According to him, I had cut off his line when it crossed over to mine. It was quite clear it was me as he had described me in lurid details.(though he got the color of my t-shirt wrong.) I remembered that while I was fishing, I had pulled up this tangle of line and thinking that it was the usual rubbish of discarded lines from the sea, I snipped it off and threw it in the bin. Didn't realized that I have offended this guy. Think he was with the group of chinese looking students that were behind me at the Jetty. Dunno why he came over and cast on my side about 3-4 metres away. But he was pretty pissed and called me unprofessional and made petty remarks about my bells and my fishing methods, all very personal. Actually he should have confronted me there and then. I didn't even know that I offended him. He said that I "oei" at him and cut off his line. Strange, yeah, I did "oei/hey" at him but that was just to get his attention as my bell was ringing from his line crossing over. I walked over to lift my rod over his but for some reason, his line suddenly became no more. (probably had been snipped off by me by mistake earlier). I thought it was strange at that time also and walked back to my spot and forgot about the incident. Didn't know that it would cause such a misunderstanding. Can understand his anger if he had thought that I did it on purpose.

Wow, fishing people all very hot, especially young people. Haz, thought of explaining, but I think the correct move is to let the thing blow over. Next time, get pushed into the sea also dunno for what.

For this reason, I avoid fishing at crowded spots. In these places, fishing becomes very territorial, very easy to offend people.]

[After after note: I wrote to the moderator about the incident and we thought to let things cool down. But the situation became worst off when his group of friends started looking out for me. At this point, I thot it was better to clarify in the forum. Luckily, he was quite an understanding chap. We made peace and the issue was closed. Turned out later we became friends and he "jioed" me for a fishing session in future....haha, somehow, we were destined to meet. What a way to know someone :D]

My Rods, for Different Kinds of Fishing

My arsenal of rods. Didn't know rods are so ex, for just a wooden stick. Started with 2 general purpose 6ft rods (Shakespeare from Joe, Rapala from Riverland) and moved on to the Ryobi light tackle (SeaTackle) and then to the Loomis Biggame (Riverland)



General purpose luring/light bottom - Rapala Spinning rod 6ft M.Heavy/Line 12-25lb/Lure3.5g-14g





My Light Tackle for jigging, eging and light lure casting - Ryobi Spinning rod 5.54ft M.Soft?/Line 4-8lbs/Lure 3-10g





General purpose luring/light bottom - Shakespeare BC rod 6ft Heavy/Line 15-30lb





Light surfcasting - G.LOOMIS BigGame 9ft Heavy?





My H.G Fishing gear "FOX" rod bag. Bought from SM Tackle, Changi for #30+. Note the 9 footer that cannot fit into the bag. Now sticks out like an antenna. :P . If got lightning, I sure to get striked first..(:p) And oh, btw, the iron don't come with it. :)

My Lures, the Damages so Far :)

Just a stock take.


Yozuri Crystal minnow - Sinking/110mm/15g (I lost 2 of these, can you imagine?)-(SeaTackle ST)
Yozuri Crystal minnow - Floating/90mm/7.5g - (SeaTackle ST)
Yozuri Crystal minnow - Deep Diver 2-4m/90mm/9.5g - (ST)
Duel Live bait, Real minnow, - Floating/70mm/7.5g - (ST)
Luckycraft ESG series - Darter Floating/60mm/6.2g - (ST)

Seawater lures from SeaTackle. Minnows are fairly cheap (arnd $10,$11). The rest are ex. > $15.


River2Sea Middive - 0-2m/80mm/9g - (Sincere S)
River2Sea Humbug - 0.5-1.5m/65mm/8.5g - (S)
River2Sea Humbug - 0.5-1.5m/65mm/8.5g - (S)
My River2sea lures from Sincere. Effective, and cheap too. < $10 for the humbugs. Middive about $11-12. Got a fish each the day I bought it. But the purple one, not yet.


Yozuri ZZ popper Popper/70mm/7.5g - (Changi Pro? CP)
Rapala countdown Sinking/70mm/8g (lost one of these too) - (SM Tackle SM)
Rapala Glass FatRap 1.5-2.1m/50mm/11g - (Hot Spot Bait and Tackle HSBT)
Storm Chugbug F/60mm/7g - Sincere (S)
Duel 3D Quiet Wave Minnow Floating/70m/6.5g (CP)
Duel Aile magnet Floating/70mm/5.5g - (SeaTackle ST)

The ZZ popper was one of my very first lure. Almost lost it many times, but managed to get it back. Once casted out at Upper Seletar Reservoir and the line broke. It ended up floating in the middle of the reservior. I took another lure to cast out to try to hook it back and after many many tries, I managed to somehow hook it and pull it back to me. The guy fishing next to me gave a loud laugh and clapped when he saw that :)


Rapala skitter pop Popper/90mm/15g (Joe Tackle JT)
Rapala Huskey Jerk Suspend/70mm/7.5g (JT)
Rapala Tail Dancer 2m-5m/90mm/13g (SM)
Rapala skitter prop Popper/70mm/7.5g (HSBT)
Duel 3D shad Suspend/65mm/7g (CP)

I started out mainly with Rapalas, but so far, it had not been very successful in local waters. The only one that has gotten me something is the glass fatrap. (pic above)


Jigging lure for sotong - can't remember what brand (Pioneer?)
Polarfibre (CoHo CH)
Charlie (CH)
Clouser (CH)

Flies from COHO, fly fishing speciality shop. (Beach Road)


VANZ Grass Hopper Hook Size #10 (Angler's Pole AP)
VANZ Spider Hook Size #10 (AP)
VANZ Black Bee Hook Size #10 (AP)

Some VANFOOK/VANZ dry flies. Saw these in Angler's Pole. Quite nice, so got it on impulse. About $7 for a pack of twos.

New Stuff from Fishing Buddy/Sincere

Picked the Strike Pro Lure(red/white) up here. Cheap lure. Arnd $7. Never heard before but quality looked decent.

Got the Rapala X-Rap from Sincere in the evening.

My First "Record"

Just added a new arsenal to my bag of tackles.
Got my first "serious kick butt", "don't play play", Abu Garcia Reel tonight. A Record40. Henry was so impressed that I know about the record, didn't even needed him to intro to me. He gave a very good price. Very honest chap, this guy. From what I read, it was even lower than getting from Joe's. Guess he knows I am not the bargaining sort, so just 1 number, I happy, I get :).

Specifications:
Four ball bearings
Two roller clutch bearings for exceptionally smooth casts and retrieves
Stainless steel construction, with brass components for superior durability
New carbon matrix star drag system for total fish control
Six-pin centrifugal brake
Corrosion-resistant middle gear bearing
Lightweight vented spool
Swedish-cut, crowned brass gearing
Chemical nickel-coated levelwind
Thumbar line release
Over-sized handle paddles
Beveled edges
Soft rubber thumb rest
Laser-etched logos
Made in Sweden


Stock picture from the website.


Actual picture.

Review by tackletour:
http://www.tackletour.com/reviewabugarciarecord.html

Well, at 200+, this is certainly a record for my most "expensive" reel. All ye Fishes, beware.

Lucky Rod

After all the excitement the night before, I did not intend to do any serious fishing. Tide also not looking good. However, D wanted to cycle as she didn't get to cycle last night. So, for a user friendly spot, we decided to head for Elias Park again. We laid the mat away from the bridge, nearer to the breakwater. I just rigged out my loomis 9 footer for a bit of casting practice nearer to the river mouth. I hadn't been able to cast very far with it yet, so figured that I needed to practise a little. Might have been that my reel had been not well adjusted and wounded up too tightly. I tried it out without any bait and it did managed to go a decent distance (maybe 50-80 metres).



The area around there didn't look that clean and I stepped on something smelly. Must be some rotting leftover baits from some irresponsible fisherman. From the breakwater edge, I spied a few "fisherman" of another kind. Kingfisher Birds :). A bit of nature channel here. Tide was really low and the rocks were all protruding out. In fact, I lost a few rigs when I retreived and had to cut off the line. Luckily it wasn't any expensive lure. The water around the bridge area was so low that you could see the sandy shore.

Some people (a man and his boy) were casting to the left of me nearer to the beach area. His was a short rod and his cast could only hit about 10 - 20 metres from the beach. Like this, where got fish? I would really be surprised if they can catch anything. But then again, I remembered this funny incident. When I started picking up the hobby, I only had some old rods and handlines. During that time, I read that we could fish in Macritchie reservior. We went there and actually just throw the handline with some sotong bait about 5 metres from the ground and waited. Thinking about this, want to laugh. Where got fish so stupid to swim so near the edge to take our bait. Also then, I saw a notice board that said only can use artificial bait. At that time, I didn't even know what is artificial bait. I certainly have come a long way from those days. And, actually, it wasn't too long ago. :)





Anyway, I didnt pay too much attention to my rod as the conditions were all wrong. I had bought a bag of live prawns but was silly enough to have forgotten to bring my pump. The prawns would be dead soon enough without air. D went to borrow her bicycle and went off cycling on her own. Seeing the poor conditions, I decided to pack up after a short while and I reeled back. I now have this habit to yank before I pulled back. You never know what you could get sometimes, if you are lucky. Well, this time, I was. There was this little crab hooked on my line. Wow, not easy to get a crab on a fishing line you know. Amused by my "catch", I took some photos and later released it. Haha, that would be my first crab. My this Loomis rod is getting to be a very lucky rod indeed. Everytime I used it (so far), I had caught something.

I packed up and joined D with her cycling. I borrowed a bicycle myself and led her all the way to the end of the park and back again. Stopped for some icecream and then to the other end finishing at the maze. It was time well spent with my speedily growing daughter. Seeing that she was already so steady on the bicycle, couldn't help feeling proud about her as along the way, we past many a father trying to teach their children how to cycle. All in all, we had a fun day indeed.