Singapore River

It had been quite a while since I fished due to the busy weekend. Today, I had a off day and needed to scratch the itch. I was actually planning to head down early to tanah merah but due to D having to see the teacher in school, by the time we set off, it was already past the high tide. I thot to do a simple session at Api Api again, since the last time wasn't too good.

We packed lunch and got there around 1pm. By that time, the water was already receding. Nevertheless, I setup the rods and casted away with some prawn meat that I got from the market. (no choice, didn't want to run to changi v to get live prawns).
Today being a Friday, the place was really quite empty except for a man doing crabbing. But just a few minutes into the fishing, the sky turned dark and was threathening to rain. Remembering the last incident, I decided to pack and go. Anyway, the mood wasn't there.

So, the plan was changed to fish at night. From the forum, saw that someone had caught a nice grouper at Singapore River. Hm, that sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try.



Reaching there, I parked at the OUB carpark. I was dressed in my usual shorts and certainly looked out of place in such a up market area. We went for dinner at the hawker centre nearby and proceeded to get the gear to fish by the big iron bird.





The place was nice, with many a couple walking around, sitting on the sea wall, enjoying the atmosphere and the scenery. Everyone stared at me, the funny guy with a fishing rod. Well, that was understandable, as I was the only one fishing there.
When I first cast off my float with my lighted stick, the people around cheered, having never seen such a sight before. :)

The water was pretty choppy due to the boats coming and going. I was sure that my live prawns got a headache from all the see sawing waves. Once I almost fished a boat as I threw too close to a boat within my path of my projectile. Luckily, it just landed right beside the boat. :P The boats stopped operating around 11pm and from then, the water was calmer and more condusive for fishing. However, throughout the whole session, I didn't even feel a bite. The prawns that I throw in, after half hour later, they were still there, alive and kicking. Didn't even have bait stealer (small fishes) to kill them.

There was this bunch of chinese national just next to me. I really couldn't believe one of the guy. After every sentence he uttered, he would spit on the floor. He would say "blah blah blah..." and then "spit spit spit..." and then "blah blah blah..." and "spit spit spit...". Goodness. And again, smoke smoke and throw the butt on the floor. Actually, I wonder how the river can be so clean. Must be alot of workers doing area cleaning everyday.

While I was fishing, there was this bald headed ang moh who came to sit down and talked to me. We chatted a little and I found out that he was into fly fishing. I recommended him to go check out the CoHo shop at beach road. After a while, he said his byes byes and left.

Around 12pm, D began to feel sleepy from the medication that she took for her persistent cough. Well, ok. I packed up and proceeded home. Good experience here. I was thinking that the security would come chase me away, but it seemed that it was ok to fish. But no matter, there wasn't much fishes in this river, otherwise, you would see a long queue a long time ago.

When I left the carpark, I found that the parking costed me $6.40! Wow, not cheap at all. Must be another per entry charge when passed midnight.

Another fishless day. :(

New lures - Crystal Minnows

After selling some of my not-so-good-to-use lures, I needed to restock. Since I had success with the yozuri floating lures, I popped down to SeaTackle to add these to my collection.

Yozuri crystal minnows - 90mm/7.5g/Floating 12-18 inches.

Kranji, My Lure Graveyard

Set off to kranji for a revenge, since I didn't get anything last week.
Reaching there, there was only 1 other guy fishing, so almost had the whole place to ourselves. That is becos the weather didn't look good, looking like it was about to rain. We parked ourselves under a shelter for good measure.

I throw my newly aquired weighted float with my berkley gulp to see if any fishes will take it. From the advert, it was supposed to be made from fish food, blended into this plastic jelly like material. Few occasions, I actually saw that the tail was bitten off, so maybe it might work.

I did some luring for a while and didn't get anything again. The conditions didn't seem right. Windy, choppy waters. Not sure if I am right, but conditions like this, fishes run into deeper waters. And then the worst thing happened again. My middive got stuck in the rocks. This place had already "consumed" 4 of my lures. This looked like another casualty. Damn! I pulled left, pulled right, but it was stuck solid. In desparation, I waded into the water as the spot wasn't too far off the bank. This is the second time I had waded into a public reservoir. First was in Bedok reservoir. The place was pretty dangerous, as the rocks were extremely slippery. But thanks heavens, but a few attempts at poking at it with my rod, the lure got loosen and was recovered. Heng! After this, I decided not to risk it anymore. Decided to pack up and go.

At this point, big groups of chinese nationals came and started setting up rods _everywhere_. And smoking too. Good thing I was packing, sure wouldn't enjoy the fishing from then on.

Go back to sleep better.

Ribbon for Mother's Day

I finally made it to Marina Promenade today, after all the procastinations. Anyway, it was about time for dinner and the Makansutra Hawker centre was there. I had never tried it before, so today was a good time. But we were there too early and all the stalls were still yet to open. So, we walked around, enjoying the scenary of couples and students buzzing around the esplanade. It was a very young and trendy place completed with a Durian Building. I explored a little further down and saw a lone man fishing below the sea wall. Not sure what he was using, but he didn't seem to have much luck. I was tempted to run back to Marina Square carpark to grab my rod and try to do some luring. The place didn't look that bad, even though it was low tide. There was some kind of water breaker below the sea wall that enabled you to stand on to cast. But it looked very rocky, must be sangkot heaven. After walking around, and the hawker centre being not ready and all, I decided to do that and went back to the carpark to get my rod and stuff.



Tried for a little while and true enough my lure got snagged. The place was really rocky and my x-rap lure was stuck for quite a while. I though that's it. But after some pulling and jerking (and swearing), it managed to free itself and was in business again. I casted a few more times, and what did you know? It got snagged again. Jeez..but this time, no matter how I yanked and pulled, it would'nt come loose. In the end, I had to sniped off the line. [Place: 1 Lure/Me: 0] :(. Undaunted, I retied the line with my yozuri crystal minnow this time. I figured that the place could only use floating lure. Any divers would surely be a goner. My crystal minnow seemed to work without getting too low into the rocks. I used it walking up and down the water breaker trying out different spots. Few times, the Duck tour boat went past and I must had been an ususual sight for those "ang mohs" tourists.

A and D were by this time very hungry and so I ended my session when they stopped believing me about my "5 mins". May come here to try again. Parking is ok on a weekday. $2 per entry after 6pm.

After a good (BUT expensive) dinner, I drove up to changi village to do some night fishing, which was my original intention. I had wanted very much to get a decent KBL and that night before, we saw this uncle catching one. So, confirmed this place will have KBL. I got about 200 gms of prawns as I was intenting to focus on floating only. I setup one rod, rigged a float and casted away. But I realized that my floating setup was not good enough. Hmm, I then went to Changi Pro to get a decent float and light stick. (This is the good thing about fishing here. Want anything, the shop is just round the corner. Maybe can SMS and they will deliver...keke). After fixing up, the setup looked more professional. With the heavy weighted float, I could cast pretty far, quite near to the boats. The logic is that KBL is a fish that will hide along structures to ambush its prey. The bridge was the best location, but it was really packed up there and also quite narrow. I was limited to trying my luck around the boats area. But the heavy traffic of the boats coming and going was not too good for catching a fish.

After parking my rod, I would usually play around with my lures to try my luck. However, so far, it had not been very fruitful. Today should not be any exception. So, I was just casting, pulling back, casting, pulling without expecting anything when out of the blue, WHAM, something took my lure! Wow, it wasn't too heavy and I quickly managed to pull it out of the water. When I looked, there it was a longish fish that was pretty big. (for me). After some hesitation, I lifted the fish and swung it over the fence. Haha, got it. So, rounds of pictures and some of the fishing folks came over to see my prize.



The fish looked really fierce, with sharp fine teeth. It struggled hard for a while. When I tried to unhook it, I found that the hooks were deeply embedded in its throat. Any attempts to unhook it, it would struggle hard, wildy flapping its long shiny tail. I decided that it was too difficult to do it and went on to put the fish in the icebox, together with the lure. But very strange, when we next opened the icebox, the fish somehow managed to spit out the lure. *??*. But by then, it died already.

After that, no more action from anyone. And definitely no KBL. A bit disappointed, but at least I had a prize. And on lure too. :)

Small "LongKang" Fishes

Was still thinking of running down to check out Marina Promenade...but parking there is a problem. Went yishun for breakfast and got quite bit of bait. Live prawns, sorong worms, fishmeat (dunno what fish). On the way there, the traffic to CTE seemed quite heavy. Decided to make a detour and ended up in Tanah Merah Canal instead. To my surprise, there wasn't much people. Not sure if it was due to today being Vesak Day. Might be all the fishing people all buddhist. No killing for the day, I supposed.



Anyway, found a cool spot and I parked my car there. Too bad, the better spot near the canal mouth was taken up by a group of boys. So, decided just to fish at the bridge area, where the car is parked. Very convenient..and actually quite comfortable too. There was shade to hide away from the hot sun, and not much problems from insects. D also found the place quite fun as she busied herself collecting wood to make a tree house. (ambitous).







I setup 3 rods together, 1 with small sabiki hooks, 1 with size 16 sabiki hooks and 1 with size 3 hooks for floating (with live prawns). First, I concentrated on the light tackle and just get some fishes before trying others. The result not bad. Throw, 30 secs, you can feel bites. At the start, I kept getting bites, but couldn't manage to hook up anything. But lately, it got better, I started with a small Pink Ear Emperor (Leng Jiam), and caught a few more later. They seemed to like the fish meat bait that I was using. With my medium rod (better hooks), I baited with sarong worms. With that, I got some kelong chi (tigerperch) and again, some Oriental Salligo, just like the ones I caught the last time. In total, D "caught" 2, and I the rest.

Midway, as the tide was dropping, I spied a snake swimming to the sea. Wow, cool...and I quickly called D to take a picture. I had half a mind to try to foul hook it, but what would I do with a snake? Too bad the picture didn't turn out, with D's lousy photographing skill.

The floating with Live prawns no luck again. All these live prawns, so far, only got me a big catfish, that's all. Need to read up more on this rig. As I was pulling up once, I saw the small fishes attacking the prawns. Hm, like this, maybe luring would work.

Again, I was abruptly interrupted when it started dropping rain. But good thing that I was just beside the car. We quickly packed and moved off. Driving out, it really started to pour heavily...hm, lucky. I had a good mind to run down to Marina Promenade later in the evening, but after some shopping, it started to drizzle again. Oh well, a bit tired anyway. Headed for home.

Catches of the day to fill a dinner plate

Crabby day

Wanted to try out Marina Promenade actually, but alas, forgot the air pump. Anyway, figured that the area there would be packed. The traffic, I meant. So, detoured to Changi Village for dinner and thereafter, to get some dead bait meat. I was thinking perphaps to try out the changi carparks, the ones that I have not been to. But as I was crossing the bridge of Changi Ferry Pt Terminal to the carpark, we saw someone fishing on the bridge (as usual, there were quite a lot of people). And this fellow, he caught a KBL (seabass). Wow, seeing that, saliva dripping. I had not the good fortune to land one of these yet. So, ended up, decided to fish around the area. Not on the bridge, but on the opposite side of the ferry terminal.

Like the last time, there wasn't much people. Actually, I quite like this place. It is pleasant, clean, well lighted and best still, not much fishing people around. Across the park on the terminal side, there is a sort of a beer garden that played nice sentimental music. This, you wouldn't get it anywhere else. To have "piped-in" music while fishing. Nice.



I setup and quickly baited my hooks with dead prawn meat. After casting, barely 1 minute, I felt a bite. So, I struck hard, but upon reeling up, didn't get anything. This happened a few times. Quite strange, was my hooks too big? After a few attempts, there was one time that I struck quite hard. And well, well, well...I got a flower crab. The crab looked quite unusual as it had live barnacles on it. :)...5 minutes later, I got another one. And this one is quite big. Almost the size that you would get from the market for a flower crab. I left the 2 crabs together in the icebox, and when I next looked, the bigger crab actually attacked the smaller crab and sniped off its pinchers. Must be an angry crab.

Suddenly, the place started dizzling. Decided to pack up and tried to make a run for the car. But after packing, the rain kind of subsided. Haz, but already packed, so headed for home. Still fishless...but at least, got something.

Fishes All Gone for Election

Quite a bad weekend. Yesterday wanted to try Changi Boardwalk but upon reaching there, packed like sardine. All people standing shoulder to shoulder. I walked one round with everyone staring and decided that the vibe was not right. Is this place really that so good? Saw someone double hooked croakers. (Just like the one I had)Actually quite hard to get to. Parking also a problem. The boardwalk distance to the sea, is not very much better than from the beach. On the way out, an old malay man asked me if I am going as he had saw me just arrived. "Yeah", I said.

And weather was bad. Rained a little when we got back in the car. Decided to move on to Api Api, my "SureCatch" location so far. No one was there, as clouds were darken and threatening to rain. But that couldn't be, I thot, as the floor was wet from an earlier rainfall. So, took my chances and setup. Weather improved a little and a big group of chinese nationals came to fish around me. They were quite irritating as some were smoking and talking very loudly. And the bells on the their rod kept ringing. That's one problem with using bells. I have since put some blue tack on mine to make it softer. It does get on other fishos' nerve. But their luck was quite good as they landed a few fishes, but I think all "ah sengs". Luck for mine was rock bottom, couldn't even get a single bite even though I was holding on to the rod. Quite unusual...Could it be something wrong with the sotong that I got? But to make things worst, it started pouring without warning. Those "run for cover even 100 m dash cannot make it" type. I had to pack in a hurry and was all soaking wet by the time we ran back to the car. The things were all wet and messy as there wasn't any time to pack up properly. Truely one of the very worst day of fishing ever. :(





Today, wanted to try somewhere new. I had not been fishing at reservoir for a long time and today, tide was not favourable. So, I decided to check out a new place at Ponggol Pond to do luring. The pond is at Ponggol Park, beside Hougang Ave 10. Upon reaching there, the place was quite nice actually, with a upmarket kind of coffee shop at one end. Despite a very hot afternoon, there were shady places along the pond to hide away from the heat. However, after staying for a while, it was clear that this was a fishless place. Saw some uncle baiting, but even they also gave up and cycled off shortly.

Tried all my lures but not even a single bite. D went to the bank to use net to scoop up some little fishes and prawn. But at the end, she only brought home 1 tiny prawn in a BIG plastic bag. We went to have some drinks to cool down and later headed for Kranji reservoir. After the little toman I caught the last time, I was hopely for some catches here today.



The whole range of my weaponary that I tried today


I think I was there from 4pm till around 6.30pm. All these time, I used up all my weaponary of lures..from cheap cheap river2sea one to very expensive Megabass one..but what would you know, not even a tiny fish. I think I felt only 1 bite attempt after casting for a few hundred times.

"Lurer" that lost to the "netter"


There was a group of ah laus using bait and managed to catch 1 (I think PB). D kept catching tiny fishes and prawns with her net. Feeling very confident, she started boasting and challenged me with her catches. She would say, "Oh, I have 17 prawns already", "Oh, I have 18 prawns already, Daddy, you zero!". "Don't use your rod lah, must use net to catch fishes". 8-|...Kena suan by her. Seeing the sun setting and daylight dimming, I decided to pack up and go. Well, a total blank this weekend. What the Fish!

Flat fish in Tanah Merah

I must be getting better. Today, I visited Tanah Merah Canal and managed to get a decent catch (according to my standard) in a short time. I had long wanted to fish at this spot, but due to the unfriendly enviroment, had not come here till now. The place was quite ok actually, except that fishing in the night here would really be roughing it out. No lights, no toilet, far away from anyone and probably haunted too. For today, we went to the other side for shaded area near the mouth of the canal as it was quite a hot day.

I didn't bring much bait today as I didn't intend to do fishing for long. Weather was pretty hot and while I was there, I was perspiring profusely. Good for losing weight. So, all I got was just a small pack of sarong worms when I got from changi village on the way there.



This time, I only setup two rods, as I wanted to concentrate more on getting small fishes. The other rod, I used big size 3 hooks and primed it with full length of sarong worms. It got a few bites but I was too late to set the hook. For the smaller rod with the jigging hooks that I reused from yesterday, I cut up the sarong worms into small parts and baited the hooks. I held on the small rod most of the time and there were indeed quite a few bites. On 2 occasions, I managed to hook up small silver fishes. It was just like the Pasir Pasir that I got yesterday, but it had some spots on the body. They were later IDed as Oriental Sillago.

Oriental Sillago (Sillago Aeolus)


Midway, D got bored and wanted to fish. I told her to hold the smaller rod and I went to tend to the 9 footer. I had run out of bait and since one of the sillago died (it got pierced in the head by my 9 footer), I cutted it up and used it as bait. D played with the rod for a while and later said she wanted to put a bell on it. I got quite annoyed and told her to just leave the rod there. Shortly after she had placed the rod on the railings, to my surprise the rod tip started to shake quite strongly. I shouted and asked her to pick up the rod to strike. She did, but her strike was quite weak, so it probably didn't do any good. But when we reeled in, there it was, our 3rd sillago. haha, not bad.



Side view of the flounder. Too bad this is not an electronic product.


Largetooth Flounder (Pseudorhombus Arsius)


Later, I felt a bite on my 9 footer and I pulled back. But thereafter, I didn't feel anything. To my surprise, when I reeled in, I saw this flounder at the end of the line. Wow, quite excited since I had never caught a flounder before. I just saw this fish yesterday when the uncle caught it. But mine was bigger. I took some pics of it in the water and when I pulled it out of the water, it struggled quite violently. Not a bad figher. I tried to extract the hook but the hook was setted quite deeply. It actually swallowed the whole hook (size 3!). I could't qet it out and I think it died while I was trying to. Too bad, it would be interesting to have it in the aquarium. Interestingly, this fish has got 2 eyes on one side of the body. The eyes were on the top side, quite close together. If that is so, why would it need 2 eyes, I wondered? Salligo meat I read somewhere is a good bait for stringrays. Well, this fish is quite close to a stringray. :)





After this, I had run out of bait and also A and D were not too comfortable due to the mosquitos. Well, enough for today, so I packed up to go. I later read somewhere in the forum that someone caught a Queenie in tanah merah. Wow, I want...

Pasir Pasir at Pasir Ris

Sun was pretty hot today and a comfortable place to be fishing would be Elias Park, sungei api api again. This place, didn't seem to have much people fishing, except for an uncle and his wife. His wife was doing crabing while he was fishing. There was lots of space and along the whole bridge, so it was ok. He was quite good, caught quite a fair bit of small fishes. Got some Catfishes, Grunters and even a small Flounder (solefish). For me, I also setup some small hooks with prawn meat. One thing I had improved on was to try out different hook sizes. I realized that I used to just use large size hooks. But it is not everyday that you will encounter big fishes. So, small hooks for small fishes will improve the catch rate.

At the start, I mostly parked the rods and couldn't catch anything but the baits kept getting eaten. I floated a rig with dead prawns in big hooks and later, dead fish bait, but no action there. I concluded that this area was good for small fishes only.

D busied herself with blading and doing a bit of cycling later. Well, at least my girl knew how to keep herself entertained while her mad fishing daddy is doing the same thing every weekend. :P





There was this malay boy that had a very interesting rod. He took a tree branch and tied some strings and voila, it became his fishing rod. Very inventive. :)





A bit discouraged, I decided to keep all my other rods and hold on to the light tackle with the tamban jig. This way, I could strike the moment I could feel a bite. The strategy worked. Actually, there were alot of bites. I got lucky 2 times and managed to get 2 small fishes. Well, it was a relief. After the big fat zero yesterday, my confidence was going down. Today, it was good to be getting some fishes again. And this time, no more ah sengs. The two fishes were Silver Sillago (in local terms, known as pasir pasir or in Hokkien, swa jiam. Good start to be catching something different in our waters.

Before I packed and go, there came along a group of chinese teens. They had with them a bag of live prawns. (probably bought from the fishing pond nearby). To our amusement, they took the prawns out and beheaded it for bait. ?? I saw them hooked up the prawn head (the poor prawn got decapitated!) and using a handline, lowered it down to the river, in the hope of catching a fish. Well, they will have to wait long long. Some kind fishing uncle went to tell them that they were supposed to just hook the prawns and would be able to catch KBL (seabass) if they do so. I went over to teach them how to do it on the tail. Cute students. They said it was their first time. :)

East Coast Park Area C1 Canal Jetty

This is the first Singapore fishing after the one in the kelong. Decided to check out a new place at East Coast Park. Strange thing was that, I had often bladed around that area, but never knew that there was a Jetty there. Only got to know about it from the net.

Upon reaching there, the area looked good and we were the only one fishing around. The area was clean but there were not a single lamp post around, the nearest being the BBQ area. So, when the night fell, the place was quite dark indeed.

We went right to the end of the Jetty for the furthest reach out to the sea. The Jetty was much shorter than the bedok Jetty, I think only about 1/3 of it, maybe around 100 m long. Today, I got quite a lot of bait, as I expected to fish till the high tide, which was to be around 12.30am. I setup my rods and started casting at around 7.30pm. It was already getting dark by then.

D wanted to cycle and they went to look for a bicycle kiosk. But it turned out that the kiosk was very far away indeed. Furthermore, the whole area at the area was very dark, so not very good to be leaving her alone to cycle.



About fishing about half hour later, it seemed that fishes were not around today. When I checked my prawns one time, there was a bite. But other than that, the prawns were mostly untouched. Small hooks with prawn meat also went untouched. Hmm, the area didn't look that good.

I tried out the D5. Ok, I guess. Quite dark, couldn't quite see how it performed. But no whoosing sound like my record :) I think it quite suit my contender better. Currently, looking for another rod for my record. The contender is too stiff for luring purposes.

Around 8pm, another guy came and setup his 12-13 ft surf casting rod beside me. Well, there was plenty of space, so I moved a little for him to take the left side of the small Jetty. He had with him a radio and it was playing some nice music from an english channel. But about an hour later, another group turned up consisiting of 2 boys. They squeezed themselves between me and the other fellow, by setting up in the middle. Woah, it was beginning to feel very crampy. And to my irritation, he started coming to my side and cast around my area. The way he threw his floating rig, it was cutting into my line which I parked on the railings. I was quite irritated. But the boy didn't seem to care. A short while later, god knows for what reason, lots of people started coming to the jetty to fish. I told myself enough is enough and decided to pack up. I really don't enjoy fishing when I had to fight for space. I still had lots of prawns left and I gave it to the 2nd guy with the radio on the Jetty.

First time, I didn't enjoy the night out fishing. Don't think I would ever come here again.

New Lure - Buy and buy

Just got new lure to replace the one I lost in Ubin. This luring poison, hard to shake off. Up till now, not very fruitful, but still buy and buy *haz*. Never heard of Daiwa lure before, but it looked quite life-like (quite like a real fish). Needed a deep diver. Actually kind of missed the watermelon deep diver from Yozuri. (maybe I will get another one). Currently quite short of salt water divers.



Also got a pink color exori sotong jig. The other time at the kelong, color seems wrong. Pink is the color that worked. Getting ready for my next kelong trip.

exori sotong jig 2.5inch (HSBT $5)
Team Daiwa Crank scouter f-G 1075F-G DD4.5+m/73mm/18g (HSBT $12.50)

New stuff - 5600 D5 SW and more jigs

Just got this from a forumer. Very good deal as the reel was brand new. According to the seller, his friend got it for him in US but it was too big for his kind of fishing. Market selling for > $250 and he only selling for around $150. Actually didn't want to get this reel even though I had been eyeing it for some time. Thot to just use my SureCatch bc reel for the time being. Good fortune to have gotten this good deal. I was surprised that no one in the forum grabbed it as I saw it up on Friday. When I returned, it was still available.

Specifications:
Model : 5600 D5 SW
Type : Built For Tough Saltwater Conditions
Construction : Solid Aluminum Case With Totally Sealed Housing.
Bearing : 5 Stainless Steel Ball Bearings
Brake : Adjustable Smart Mag Brake
Size : Large Capacity & Compact Design.
Handle : Power Handle With Single Counter Balanced Level.
Control : Thump Press Line Release.
Line Speed : 5.3 to 1 Gear Ratio
Line Capacity : 12 lbs / 205 yards
Weighs : 9.6 ounces (274 gms)
Packing : Box, Oil, Tools and paperwork included
Origin : Made in Sweden



I also got myself more jigs today. The rabbit and technics brands were cheap (around $3 each). After my "success" at using them at the kelong, I was sold. I stock up on a few more for more attempts in the future.

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