Chermin Fever On Ah Fong Boat

Just few days back, I got a message from Salleh asking if I would like to join them for a boat trip this Sat. I had fished with him some time back, and that was where I got to meet Patrick and people like DesT and Nimo from FK. Salleh himself is an easy-going fatherly person. A pleasant fishing companion. For the past few times that he invited me, I had turned it down as they mainly fish only on Ah Fong's Boat due to the block booking system. But this time, I thought it was good to catch up again and meet a friend.

Just yesterday, it rained dogs and cats. And even on the morning itself, it was raining relentlessly. I woke up rather late and had to rush to catch a cab in the rain to make my way to CV. But reaching there, the rain miraclously stopped.

My Black Rose - Changi Fishing Light Boat Tackle


And we indeed had very pleasant and cool weather for the entire trip. We had all thought that this time round, the fishing should be quite bad as the water was quite cold due to all the rain since yesterday. To our surprise, it wasn't true.

Ah Fong netting the catch


Jeff was the first to hit


Ah Fong a member of FishingNewsRoom?


Ah Fong for this trip, took us out from the usual route around Ubin/Tekong and headed for the deeper waters near Changi Naval Base. Along the way, we made a first stop at a Chermin spot. I hadn't ever caught any Chermin for all the boat trips that I had made before, so I wasn't too hopeful. But Jeff was the first to hit on a good size Chermin and that woke up everyone to full battle alert.

My First for the day


2nd Chermin


3rd Chermin. Smallest but fought the hardest


Then I got lucky and hit the 2nd Chermin. Ah Fong with his skilled hands got about 3 chermins, while I totaled 3 chermins too. And all these at around 10am! I landed another small grouper. For this spot, the current wasn't strong and the water wasn't too deep. With my light tackle, I had an advantage over the rest with their heavier gears with my sensitivity. Those 3 chermins really put up a jolly good fight on my Black Rose.

Jerry's ACK that broke his zero


Jeff's nice ACK that was fouled hook. (Prawn in mouth, but hook on body)


Joseph's catches




Salleh's two Groupers




But luck for me changed and improved for the others when they moved on to the next spot. At the new location, the water was very deep so much so that I ran out of braided lines and went into my backing mono. And due to the strong current, I couldn't bring my bait down to the bottom with a size 2 weight. I tried putting heavier weights at Ah Fong instructions but my rod was bending too much to be of much use. Even keeping the lines to check on the prawns took a hell lot of effort. I gave up the idea and didn't fish seriously. After all, I had already gotten pretty good results within the first two hours, so there wasn't any stress to get any more fishes.

The entire afternoon, they stayed at the spot. Those with heavier tackles did manage got get some ACK and some groupers. Jeff landed a beautiful Parrot. Jerry had a good catch of a small KBL.

Big Grouper!


Around 2pm, I too got lucky when I was reeling up my line. My reel suddenly went "zzzzzzzippp" out and I was stumped for the moment. Did I hit a rock? But the boat was moving too slow for the lines to pull out so strongly. The others all cried out and said it's a fish and shouted for me to start pumping. Coming out of my stupor, I began to gain control on the runaway fish. But the water was deep and getting the fish up took a rather long way and a lot of my strength. It did multiple runs on the entire way up. When it finally surfaced, I was shocked to see a Grouper. The way the fish fought and see sawing with me on the way up, it wasn't like any Groupers that I had caught before. And the initial run, it should have slammed itself into a rock and snag my lines. My guess was that when I was keeping my lines, the bait itself was already some distance from the bottom and therefore, it couldn't reach the safe haven of the rocky bottom.

The Grouper looked about 2kg to me, and when I returned home and boga it, it was indeed about 2.1kg. It should weigh a little more when it was fresh out of the sea with the water content in the body.

On the way back, we visited the Chermin spot again. But this time, they were not around anymore. We fished till around 5pm and then made our way back.

Total catch


All in all, a very surprising trip for me. I never expected to have such good catches in our local waters. But I guess, it still hold some surprises from time to time. If only I had a heavier rod for the deeper waters. A lesson learnt never to underestimate the fishing that might be possible here.

Strangely, it started to rain again at about 6pm. It was amazing how we managed to stay dry for the fishing period during this rainy season. :)

Pontian Again

This is my 3rd visit here. So far, the fishing hasn't been that great, but there had been a few surprises. The original plan was to go Sibu but due to some constraints, we decided to head for a day trip instead. Pontian Kelong was just right and since most haven't been there, it was worth a trip there again.

We met up early that morning and headed down to Kukup for breakfast. After that, it was a quick tour of Kukup for some tidbits shopping. From there, it was about half hour to the Jetty. As we wanted to try out the fishing with some live prawns, Eric and I headed to the nearby fishing pond at Parit Sikom to buy some live prawns. It was quite expensive here at RM1 per piece.

TC and Friend finally arrived after being lost on the way. We touched down at the Kelong at around 11am, on the up-coming tide. Everyone was quite impressed that the Kelong was quite big and well designed for fishing.

TC lucky catch of a small Kurau


Just within 5 minutes, TC had a catch of a Kurau on his smelly prawn meat. Not bad a catch and that fueled us with high expectations for this trip. But the fishing from then didn't improve. Andrew's rod did have quite a number of ringing strikes but the fish always got away.

KT preparing hammock for afternoon siesta


The half-beaks were out here again in big numbers. I tried my luck to see if I could get one on a tiny Altima spoon. It wasn't easy but I finally managed one. But the fellow slipped away before I could take a picture. We saw a large todak (should be a metre in length) circling the Kelong, but it was smart and didn't want to take our offerings of live bait, even when right in front of him.

Z first half-beak


Z first Queen


Lucky Flounder on live prawns


Bait fishes were sparse but it was fairly easy to get them after some tries. Zu got her first half-beak, and later on, got her first Queenie. The bait fishes seemed to come out in numbers during the late afternoon and the guys had some fun filling up the pail with them. I had a lucky fish of a flounder on live prawn. An unusual catch at a Kelong.

Lau's string of catch


Just as we were about to leave the place, the baitfishes came in numbers. To my surprise, there were plenty of juvenile Queens that were being caught. Andrew's rod had a strong take that saw his stiff rod bending a U. But alas, today wasn't his day and the fish got away again. From the bend, it must have been a fairly good sized fellow.

On the way back, we headed for Permas for a good johor style street food for dinner and after that, visited FishingLine for some tackle shopping. As expected, the causeway wasn't that jammed and we arrived home at quite an early time of about 10pm or so.

LSR Little Friend

A structure is being built on the left side of LSR


I was back at LSR this evening for a short session. This is the place where it all started for me. It has been a while since I have come here since D didn't have to go for swimming anymore. Wifey wanted to eat Chong Pang Nasi Lemak and we were too early. So I went there to try my luck to see if I can get a small one for my aquarium. My last attempt was thwarted by mr blue man, and I had to release it back.

My little LSR friend


Reached there, a friendly face came from my back and said "hello uncle". I turned around and it was that little boy that is like there every weekend. The last time, he wanted to buy "cloth string" from me? I was like "huh?" How much you need, can take from me, no need to buy. Today, he looked at my things and asked me what I am using. I showed him the char bee hoon fly. He said why I didn't bring cat fish. O_o....haha. This boy is a trained baiter. His rod was rigged to a float with two large hooks. Probably targetting toman. I asked him got fish or not, he didn't reply. I asked if he needed anything and told him to feel free to take from whatever I have. Very cute and well mannered boy. Next time, must take a proper picture with him.

My precious


Char Bee Hoon Fly


I went on to try spin flying. Water was fairly clear, but it was pretty sterile. Cannot see any fishes, big or even tiny ones. I covered every angle and cast out scanning the water around. Just as I was about to give up, a tiny fellow took my fly and vibrated my line. I quickly lifted it up and tried to fling it over to the grass patch. But it fell short and hit the rocks. Ouch. Luckily it wasn't badly hurt and I managed to put it into my pail and filled it with water. After that, went back to the water and hit another one. This time a little bigger. But it's thrashing got it off the hook and it escaped. But the one that I have was enough.

After that, packed up and went for yum yum Nasi Lemak.

When there is something strange, in the neighbourhood, who you gonna call?

Are We At Changi Boardwalk?

Asked the spunky P2. In fact, we were just there minutes ago but his mind was affixed with D's PSP that everything other thing else was just a blur. We had planned to do some squidding and met up at Changi Boardwalk. But upon reaching there, the water was dreadfully low that any fishing was dead impossible. We decided then to detour for FW3 to just do some quick fishing for an hour.

The fishing was just $10 for an hour at the C&R pond. It was KT's first time there and it would be good experience for him to get something bigger than the usual PB. Andrew and I were quite surprised that he wanted to lure instead of the customary baiting over here. But that turned out to be a good decision.

Luring is allowed but with single debarbed hooks. He had with him some spoons that were armed with single hooks, so it was all right. We quickly setup to make full use of the hour. The children had a good time over there continuing feeding their pet animals on the PSP.

For us baiting, the action was rather slow. Andrew had some small bites but got away. About half hour into the fishing, we heard a reel sing beside us and it was kt's. Amazingly, he had a fish and it was a mightly strong one. Seeing his expression, he was thoroughly enjoying it.





The fish was landed with the help of one of the worker. Fish was foul hooked at the tail end. He said, "not cat, not patin", but good fish. He wanted to have the picture to display on the wall. But I was on my camera and couldn't bluetooth to him.

The silver green spoon was the one


After that, KT got another one but lost it on it's way back. Andrew got a strike just minutes before we packed. It was a small cat, but it gave a very fiesty fight on his very light celebas tackle.

Very quickly, the hour was up. Not bad for just a short session, and a good first for KT, the tireless lurer.

We Got Caught

Well, I had been thinking to post this or not...but my principle in life, the good, will take it, the bad, will also take it. Part of living a life worth living is to take living to the edge, and challenge boundaries. But of cos, I am not talking about bungee jumping or doing prison break or diving out of a plane. I am probably too old for that, and will get a heart attack if I try. Yet, life is meant to be lived, and never try, never know.

Some lot of us have been doing fishing that is considered less than legal in the eyes of the law. Sadly, in Singapore, places with fishes are always out of bounds. Well, but we have been careful to adhere to the principle of the rules that we are breaking. The purpose of the ruling was to ensure that our water is free from litter and to preserve our aquatic heritage. From what we had seen, the rules are there for a good purpose. We had come across many places that had been littered by inconsiderate baiters with rubbish and lunchboxes, as well as nets and fishing tackles. We also have seen people that harvest the fishes in our reservoir so much so that the water gets depleted of life. For what it is worth, we have been careful in the aspects of maintaining the lifestock and keeping the places clean. And also not to disturb other park users as well.

But yet for some strange reason, people are allowed to bait freely in the legal spot. Well, aren't they all breaking the law too? Somehow, there is a double standard here. I have been to LSR some early mornings and found the entire jetty filled with lines and rods and catches from the night from baiting. At kranji (a legal spot), it can be so full of baiters that I couldn't even find a place to cast. And sometimes cross their lines, they have the cheek to frown on me. :O

Unfortunately, some of us got caught on Sunday while fishing at LPR by a sting operation. I should have recognised the people in blue as they came in noisily from the legal side. But I was telling myself, hmm, they can't be that early. But to cut a long story short, we were surrounded CID style...and was approached by a guy holding up his badge and we were asked to surrender our ICs. They even asked me if I am Singaporean!? Well, I probably looked like a terrorist since I didn't shave that morning. No negotiation is allowed until we gave our ICs to the rangers. Although they soften after we did that and tried to reason with them, I don't think we will be let off easily. We are now expecting a letter from our PUB this few days. Somehow this compared to a speeding ticket, has a more serious tone to it. Like feeding monkeys, I guess. Apparently, someone has tipped off the rangers and complained about us. We were shown an SMS from the public about our illegal fishing activity.

I think our mood has been quite affected by this happening. Sometimes, I wonder if they are catching the right people? For us who enjoy the sport and are matured enough to preserve our environment, we get caught and got treated like criminals. While people are freely throwing out baits into our clean water and littering the legal spots all over. Even at the illegal spots, there are plenty of illegal fisherman that harms the environment and the water by fishing from floating platforms and bringing back all their catches. I mean, what are the people on the floating platform collecting weeds doing!? While they have not broken any rule, they are destroying the habitat and dirtying the water.

I thought I need to let this out, and not wallow in the inevitable. In my conscious, while I know that we have broken the law but have done so knowing that we did not harm anything. Tell me, don't we break the law everyday? Jay walking, illegal parking, speeding (don't speed 100km/h how to overtake???), illegal car mod, pirate DVD etc etc...The thing is, while the law is meant for the good of the people, it cannot cover all instances for everyone. But Singaporeans tend to be very obedient after years of living under PAP rule that we usually are scared to voice out and challenge boundaries.

End of the day, it is just a probably just a fine for a small offence. But maybe I will need to do a jail break if I got sent to jail....haha. Watch out for the next episode. :))

Kelong Limat Once Again

First time for him to go under the Tuas custom bridge


Hey, a new Kelong here


Patrick happened to be free today and we decided to pay a visit to the Tuas Kelong as he hadn't been there before. To my surprise when I called to book it, I was informed that it was empty. It used to be rather crowded as there was a group that frequent there every weekend. Previously, the catch rate here was pretty impressive, and there were some photos of some past catches of big fishes.

I mis-stepped and almost fell into this hole. Unluckily my arm hit the wooden pole and stablised me


Nobody here


When we arrived there, indeed it was. The fishing was very relaxing given that we had the kelong to ourselves. However, the fishes weren't there. Even getting Tamban was a rather difficult affair. I tried to do some luring and did manage to get some bites from the todaks but couldn't get a firm hookup. As Todaks here was rather small and hence, the hookup wasn't easy.



Yay! Her first todak


Time slowed down


She got another one




Seeing not much action, I decided to throw out some glass fishes for todak fun. I let D have a go at handling the fish herself and landing it. She managed to get 2 of them, all by herself.

Good pic to make into jigsaw puzzle


Moon came out


Dog int the dog house


Leaving the Kelong


However, that was about it for the fishing here. No encounters with any other biggies. Even using bait on tamban jigs was not easy although Patrick's wife did get some wrasse and small leatherjacket. We packed around 5.30pm and got the boatman to bring us back.

Although not much in terms of fishing, it was a relaxing outing. We had a good dinner at the famous Tien Lai restaurant before heading back to JB town for some shopping and then back home.

Patrick checking on his pics


We couldn't even fill up this tiny icebox


Reaching the Jetty

KFC - Hot Boys Kelong Fishing

We arrived at Sibu rather early, after meeting up and having breakfast at the usual haunt of Mac near Carrefour. Going via the Sedili route, the going was rather speedy despite having to navigate over some bomb craters on the otherwise nice-to-drive road. Within 1.5 hours, we reached the Jetty. We would have been earlier if not for the detour fo find the fishing pond for live prawns. We saw a huge sign, but asking the locals, none of them knew where the pond was. :(

We exceeded the limit. There were 15 of us on board. :)

At the Jetty, we had to wait a little for the other group that was a little bit late. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that there were only the 6 other people in the kelong. That makes a total of 17 pax for the trip and the fishing was very relaxing indeed. Probably due to the exam period and also the fear of fishing during the ghosty month. Also, the malay folks were fasting, so fishing was too exerting for them. :)

Only 2 tables for meals
f

Therefore, we almost had the whole kelong to ourselves. I had not been to Hot Boys for the longest time. In fact, in all my trips to kelongs in Sibu, this would be only the 3rd time that I would have set foot here. Although the beds were not that clean, generally they were quite comparable with the other 3 kelongs. The main reason for me not going is the advertised price on their website which was rather steep compared to the other 3.

fThe 3 rascals that bullied my little cherrywood!

Double hookup of 3 in a row of Snooks

Got a basket of these

We had the cook prepared it for dinner

The other group, were just doing recreational type of fishing. so there weren't any long rods around to impede casting in any direction. Unfortunately, the bait fishes today weren't too cooperative and it was rather difficult to get bait fishes to throw out for live baiting. We hit on a school of baby barras and we kept getting them enough to fill up a basket. We decided to have the cook prepare it for us for our dinner. Occasionally, we would also hit on some big selars which ready put up a good fish. Once, I had 3 of them on the same line and my cherrywood rod was bent to the max.:O

The food for this trip was rather good, I should say. For lunch, we had a table sized chermin. For dinner, we had steamboat. For the lunch the next day, we had 3 pieces of Kurau. With the good eating fare, we were rather worried that the trip would indeed cost us. :S

Ros's first todak

For the day fishing, due to the limited live baits, I didn't manage to help KT get his first todak. With one of the lucky live bait, Ros managed to land one under my guidance. Andrew was getting them with dead prawn meat which worked quite effectively. Except that those that came up were rather small. But it was better than nothing and KT had a few go at it. However, all the strikes thrown the hook when they thrashed and leaped out of the water. That impressed KT quite a bit having tasted the powerful of the acrobats of the sea. Still, none was landed for him.

Jetty to Sibu Island

A Beetle came a visiting KT's hat to give a dose of good luck

They certainly had fun

Hmm...hot boys?

We were relaxing one corner. All missing is bacardi and rum and maybe some bikini girls to give us backrubs :P

That afternoon, the children said that they wanted to go to the Sibu island. Seeing that Dezi and Ely hadn't been there, we decided to make a trip. Andrew, KT and I took our luring rods there thinking to try out some luring. But the island wasn't too suitable for luring and we just sat there relaxing instead while the children had fun burying each other in sand. On the way back, while waiting for the boat, we did some luring at the jetty. There was some activity and a few times, we see splashes and some reaction on the lures. But we didn't have enough time and had to stop when the boat arrived.

Pat looked like an escape convict

It rained for half hour for so around 6. But nothing serious. It was back to fishing after the rain stopped.

Hoho! The green squid jig was a killer

Eric is now on a squidding row

Night came and we went on to do some squidding. Eric had with him a new green squid jig which worked very well. He was first to haul up a very good size squid around 6+pm, when it wasn't even dark yet. KT got excited and tried it out himself and was rewarded with one. There after, he was grinning to himself the whole night (Ha! Say me some more).

Nice evening. Hungry ghosts coming out

Elyn admiring the sunset

I set off to test the water for parangs as it was the intention to help Pat and KT land their very first. Indeed they were around, but not alot. I got a number of strikes but didn't manage to connect. My lumi SS minnow wasn't working well. That I reviewed logically that it was due to the rather tall height that we were from the water. For some reasons, the water level this trip was rather low. SS minnow was a super shallow runner and with too steep an angle from the lurer, it couldn't run well. So I changed to my standard L-minnow and that was better.

KT's first squid! See how wide the grin

KT helping to land Eric's fiesty parang

One for the album

Dal also had a squid (again on the green thing)

Eric was on a roll this trip and got 4 parangs in a space of a short time which impressed the parang newbies of Pat and KT. KT was trying out with his x-rap at one corner when I passed him and asked him to try for parangs. But he told me that he had gotten a todak and was in the midst of fighting it. I was shocked and stood around to see his todak. As he was reeling in, the fish at the other end decided to take a leap. That moment, I saw that it was a parang instead. Not bad at all. But parang swam too close to the stilts and the line got entangled with it. Then parang was lost thereafter. After that, he went on to use his other lures which I think wasn't quite suitable.

After so many misses, finally a good size one

Elyn was fishing the whole night till late

Andrew was too tired from the trip and knocked out quite early. Therefore, not much action from him during the night. That night, I only managed to land 1 parang. Elyn was sleeping mostly in the day and fished till rather late at night. She managed to get some interesting variety of fishes that I seldom seen. I too was rather tired and went to sleep. But the bed was rather warm and I sneaked off to sleep at the karaOke room on the sofa. It was rather comfy and I really slept tight till the alarm woke me at 5am. I heard that there was a 2hr manhunt for me when they saw that I was not on my bed and might had fallen into the water fighting off a 15kg barracuda. :D

Early morning luring, and a small consolation catch

That morning at 5am, the parangs were more cooperative and I hit 3 parangs and lost quite a number. Pat and KT too joined me. But alas, Pat was using the SS minnow too and I didn't realise till it was rather late. I passed him an L-minnow. But for some reasons, he had no bites at all. It might be due to the strong current and his weights were not enough. Once the morning arrived, the parangs would be gone.

Hmm..this should qualify for the Guiness book of record!

Elyn got a fierce fighter of a Leatherjacket

Alien looking fish

Fresh catches from the sea

Again, the bait fishes were hard to get that morning. But very interestingly, Andrew and I saw a big cobia circling around the kelong. We tried hard to target it. But there wasn't any live bait and we settled for a dead one. We saw the cobia coming near to the bait and took a sniff at it and turn away. Andrew and I were holding our breaths when that happened. What a waste! If that had been a live bait, we should have a good fight with it. We tried couple of times until time ran out and we had to pack.

Although the fishing wasn't spectacular, it was relaxing indeed. It was also nice to see big fishes circling round the kelong. It was such a pity about the poor availability of bait fishes. But parangs and squid were also there to entertain us for the trip. All in all, a rather good kelong family fishing trip. Definitely a relaxing one :))

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KFC - Tampines Quarry

We went Tampines Quarry this morning. I think this is not an illegal spot. Well, I don't see any no fishing sign here. In fact, there were plenty of rubbish and litter on the floor that indicated that there were lots of fishing activities here. We cast for a while and caught nothing. This place was a far cry from most of the shh spots that we go to. But there were occasional splashes from some big monsters in the water. Some quite near to us.

The char bee hoon fly


Tiny 4-5 cm fingerling. Got foul hooked on the body


I was trying out the char-bee-hoon fly and got the smallest fish ever in my life on artificial. It was a tiny PB fingerling. Probably only about 4-5 cm. But it was foul hooked on the body. I quickly took out the hook w/o any pics. I had wanted to catch a small PB to put into my tank. But this fellow didn't seem to be in good health after having the hook impale the middle of its body. But it was still alive as I put it into a plastic bag.

My 2nd PB. A more respectable catch


Tapao for my aquarium


My second fish on the char-bee-hoon fly was a more respectable small PB. It gave a good fight as I guided it in to avoid the many branches. Fish was nicely hooked on the lips. With my debarbed hooks, it was removed easily. I quickly find a bigger plastic bag from the trash around and have it nicely bagged/tapao for my aquarium. The other tiny one, I released hoping that it would recover.

Uncle stood behind me doing nothing for 15 mins until I moved to another spot. Must be I took his favourite spot


Pat and KT got nothing on both sides of me. After a while, some people came with bicycles to do baiting. Seeing what they were carrying, they were fully equipped to target the bigger monsters here. One uncle waited at my spot until I moved away. Probably his favourite bottom spot. Quite cool. His bicycle is a modified rod stand.

Here no fish, but plenty of rubbish :(
Please, if you fish, take care not to litter the area.

KFC - Why Legal Fishing Spots has no fish

We discovered a spot lately that was very productive. The last time we went, we were quite late and there was already a crowd fishing at the corner. Not wanting to crash the party, we did some fishing along the banks and only managed to hit one small fish. KT almost lost his vibe but was lucky again to save it back.

This morning, I brought Pat back to the same spot. But this time, despite all the difficult-to-walk terrain, we braved the muddy ground and trod along to reach the river mouth. Already at 6.40am on a Thursday morning, there were around 4 or 5 or so chinese foreign workers with 1 or 2 locals fishing there. Mind you, they were not only using little bait fishes, but were also on feathers and lures. Quite sophiscated this bunch. Squeezing ourselves on a narrow side, we did our casting.

Pat has reached the place earlier on while I was assembling my gear. When I joined him, he already got a big momma PB. The area here was simply amazing. There was water movement all over. At some places, it was almost boiling from all the feeding frenzy. The group beside us was on a roll. They were pulling up PBs every minute. Looking around, I saw that they were certainly not the Catch & Release type and the fishes were meant to be "tapaoed" back. From my estimate, there were already like 20+ PBs in 2 keepnets. Overhearing their conversation, they had gotten 70+ the day before. I wouldn't be surprised if they were here everyday and catching them at this rate. With some mental calculations, this would work out to about 2000 odd PBs per month. Can they really eat all that?

I can understand that they might want it for food as eating in Singapore is not cheap, and what more to have live fish for food. But shoudn't there be a limit of what they can eat? The bagging limit in this case would probably be how much they can carry back before giving up. There was no other word for it. The PBs here were simply waiting to be massacred.

That morning, my fly wasn't tied quite well and didn't swim naturally. Due to that, I only had 2 hits. Pat had 3 hits and some escaped ones. But given the crowded location, I wasn't quite in the mood to fish that much. It was just an eye opening to see how greedy people can get. When we toss the PB back to the water, one chap even got the cheek to chide us for putting it back into the same fishing area saying that it would spook all the other fishes away.

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KFC - Hit By Double Silver Bullets

Waking up early this morning, Pat and I visited the famous river. Getting there was not so easy, but after some monkey swings and leopard crawls, we arrived at the location in the dark. Setting up our gear was getting quite challenging but after some fumblings with our touchlights, we managed to start our first cast before the sun comes up.

But after 10 cast or so, nothing was biting yet. I was at the rocky area doing when Pat suddenly came behind me like a ghost and showed me his first big catch of a PB. It was his biggest so far. Strange that I didn't hear any splashes but he said it was so noisy. Hmm, the sound might have been blocked by the big tree in between us.

For me, nothing was biting my furry friend and I was starting to wonder about this location when something swooped up and hit the fly with a mighty force. My braided lines were peeling off and when the fish got close, it was another surprise of a Sebarau. Woot woot. This is my 2nd in such a short time. And bigger this time. Again congratulary rounds of photo takings for the sweet memories and then Sebarau went back home.

Pat went further up the river and missed a strong take. I saw him bending back to form a nice arc with his rod. I was about to take out my camera to video it when the fish was lost. From the initial fight, it was definitely a prize one. Too bad.

Next fish for me was a PB. Although not big, this fellow was in the prime of health and gave me a thumping good fight. After that, things started to quieten down after that. This morning, the river was rather still and the water not flowing. That might have affected the catch rate.

Times was almost up when my final few cast got on to a solid take again. This time, my reel again sung as the lines peeled out. It was noticably longer and the fish fought harder. Fish went left and right. When it surfaced, I was elated to see another silvery bullet. This one was the biggest and a beautiful specimen with a clear black mark cover the silvery scales. I tire it out and then it was hoisted to the grassy ground for photo taking. My biggest ever.

Although not very high catch rate here today, but the quality of the catch was remarkable. Good morning exercise for me and Pat. After that, it was to the SHH coffee shop. Indeed the aroma of the coffee there is better. AFter a decent breakfast and chit chat about the fruitful morning, we went home after a beautiful start to the day.

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KFC - My Birthday Present

Looks very NZ isn't it?

We almost didn't go this trip as ZW wasn't sure if the trip was confirmed. SMS was sent to me at 12am to ask if the trip was on. But that time, I was already in ZZ land and only woke up to check for time at 1am. That was when I saw the message. That morning, seeing no reply to my SMS wake up call, I called in only to find him sleepily on the other side of the phone. "Trip is on", I said. With that, he hastily got his things together and came around to pick me.

First PB that fell for my shrimpy

He was so hasty that when we reached the location, he discovered that he had forgotten his reel. Alamak! Therefore he ended becoming my fishing ahmad and helped me with my photo shooting. It was still quite dark when we arrived. To our surprise, the spot seemed very quiet and still and there wasn't any disturbance on the water that would excite us. I tried around a few places and didn't get any reaction. But thinking that the place near the canal would be best, we parked ourselves at that area to keep casting.

This one has a golden sheen

How to look cool while fighting a fish

Unusual greyish tone PB



The sun keep came up quite shortly and soon it was bright as day. Quite a number of early morning joggers came by and there was even a woman sitting there meditating. Then, we saw some fly fishermen coming to our location. I recognised one of them from my last trip to NSLK. But this bunch were rather experienced and only a few cast later, they had big splashes on the water. I was impressed and tried to edge nearer to them to get to the fishing zone where they got the fishes. But actually that didn't matter. It seemed that the PBs all just woke up and started coming out for breakfast. I soon started to hit on one after another all over, as good as the fly fishermen were doing. PBs here are no smallies, and quite a number are of decent size.

Ho Ho...I finally got you!

Hee Hee...Hee...Hee...

It felt like holding a pure silver ingot

When are you done with the photos? Asked the Sebby

I was doing like about 6 PBs already when my next fish hit on my shrimpy fly and pulled out my reel for a few seconds. Wow, that was certainly a fish on steriods. To my surprise then, when it surfaced, it had the characteristc black mark on the centre of the boday over its silvery gleaming scales. It was a Sebarau! I had quite a bit of difficulty to land it as it's thrashing was quite uncontrollable and I was most fearful of losing the prize catch of a lifetime. Seeing the danger, I quickly held on to the leader and lifted the fish up high on the ground away from the water. It was securely landed. Gleaming gleefully, I couldn't believe my good luck that I had finally had this rare specimen of a catch in Singapore waters. This was the best birthday present I have had. "Take a few more pics!", I told ZW. It was definitely not an everyday reservoir catch.

Last one for the road

AR, the fly fishermen that I recognised came over to talk to me and fish along side after that. He finally recalled seeing me at NSLK few weeks back. It was fun to make new friends when one goes fishing. We have a common goal and that is what make us ticked together.

I totalled 9 fishes that morning before I decided to leave. It was certainly an exhilarating morning. Well worth all the trouble to wake up early and deprive ourselves of our warm beds. Every once a while if you try hard enough, you would be rewarded with a catch to remember for a lifetime. This is just a moment. More stories for my grandchildren and my fishing buddies. ZW was so full of regret that he had forgotten his reel. However with results like this, we will be back.

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KFC - Fishing at Semenyih

Hazy days are back

We passed through some town

Sukida Resort came to my knowledge after reading some posts by people who has been there. This place has been well visited by fly fisherman, including the famous Uncle Amin. From their catch reports, all very nice catches. Since I picked up fly fishing, I started to go catch and release pond to train myself in this new fishing art form. All I had caught now, were just the various PBs from our reservoir. So, with the long weekend coming up, I planned a trip to Semenyih (Sir-men-nee) for some Malaysian style pond fishing. For this trip, it was just my family and TC that came along. I started the trip at 4am (ungodly hour) due to the expectation that the checkpoints would be jammed. Indeed it was, and at 4.30am, we were stuck in the jam for half an hour. Not too bad. From woodlands checkpoint, it was all the way to the NSH, and then a direct drive to Machap for breakfast.

We are here in Semenyih

Arriving at Tan Sri Haneco

Dirt road to what we thought was Sukida. (Turn out to be Fish Valley)

Nearing the entrance

The food at Machap was downright terrible, and the other Yakun-styled Kopitiam was not open (which was more decent). I threw away my first plate of rice as the chilli tasted too sourly to be edible. The second food, was unpleasant and I pushed it away too. I finally had some simple sandwiches and be done with it. From there, our 2nd stop was at the Ayer Keroh KFC reststop. There, the food was better and we had some waffles. And then from there, we went the remaining portion of the drive then we hit the GPS spot for Sukida Resort. We reached there arould 11am.

The route that my GPS indicated was a rather longish way. My maps were not updated, and the GPS didn't know about a new expressway that could have shorten the driving distance. On the way back, I relied more on TC's GPS as the routing was better. In fact, all the way up, my GPS went bonkers and it was showing my car driving in reverse gear. And at every exit, it would recalculate. Later at Ayer Keroh reststop, I did a restart of the phone and it was fine. When we arrived at the place, after talking to the owner, we found that the place we were at was Fish Valley instead and not Sukida. The rates here, RM20 for fly fishing, and RM30 for bottom fishing. From 12pm, Bottom was RM20. Cost was for 2 rods. They open only till 7pm, and don't have resorts for overnighters. In fact, they are constructing it now. The owner was downright friendly and didn't mind that we were going Sukida instead. In fact, he directed us the way there. [This month rod & line, it was said that Fish Valley had plabuks (the cat fishes similar to those in Bangkok Bungsumran.)

Lunch at a Construction site coffee shop

We followed the instructions but didn't manage to find it at the 5km distance mark that the Fishing Valley guy told us. Along the way, we had to passed by a row of Cemetaries, called Nirvana or something. It seemed that this was an area designated for this memorial purposes. We backtracked and decide to do lunch at a coffee shop built next to a construction site. It was big and clean and we also found the food to be not bad. We managed to get further directions from another group of customer who thought that we were Taiwan tourist. (Hm!).

Some kind of waterfall park here. Once we see this, we have overshot Sukida

At Sukida Resort. No Signage here

Badly maintained Signage

All the fishing cost

Tentage for functions

Scenic view to sip Kopi at the main pond

Another angle

The toilet

We finally did find Sukida Resort and it wasn't like what we expected. It was a little run- down, but the pond were quite big and natural looking. Even the signage was a smallish one, and not very visible from the road. There were a total of 3 ponds that were fishable. There was another pond where the water was full of weeds but very clear waters. I did try a little there but looks like no fishes at all. But the place was nicely layout and it didn't feel too Pondish. Fishing was only RM10 per rod. We asked for fishing dough or bait but they only had bread. (Surprise). The man said that they only encourage natural fishing here. The chalets were at RM70 and RM100, but it was fully taken as there was function going on. The lady said we could try Sri Bayu which was next door. The rooms there were at RM40 each.

A Hut near the 2nd pond

View of the 2nd pond

Sukida Ponies

We parked ourselves here

Me doing fly fishing

A wooly bugger that no fish was interested in

So we were kind of upsetted with our plans. We could fish here but was wondering how to settle the accomodation problem. Anyway, we left that aside and decided to just fish and worry about that later. My recce around the pond, I did see some small haruans at the edge of the ponds. There were some occasional big swirls in the water, going after the loose pieces of bread that others have left over. TC went on to do baiting, whereas I setup my fly rod and went about casting here and there. Despite all my efforts, there were totally no bites at all. Even dangling the fly right in front of the small haruans elicited no response! They probably showed me their haruan middle finger before swimming away. Good thing though was that my fly casting has improved. Over there, it was quite spacious at some spots and I could extend the full reach of my fly line. I tried all over the ponds, but didn't manage to get any reaction. The bread fly that I had tied at home didn't work well as it was sinking. Back to the drawing board!

TC was sitting one corner and doing boring bread fishing. The results were bad and he caught nothing as well. But the malay guy on our left side did score a small Patin. He has some kind of rig that could toss a good chunk of bread (which wasn't bought from the resort) quite a distance away. TC had some red thread multi-hooks contraption and he copied his method. But it didn't work as well probaby due to our in house brand bread. Around 4pm, I gave up my fly fishing and setup my sakura and joined him in bread fishing as well. We sat there for the next hours, and to our exasperation, nothing at all. The fishes here seemed well fed from all the loose bread and were quite smart in discerning what is edible and what's not.

Ponies liked the bananas

D scared to go near to the Ponies

Next time bring me more bananas ok?

Later in the afternoon, the resort Ponies were let our for a walk. D had some fun with the ponies that kind of roamed freely around the resort. They like the bananas that TC had, and even accepted our bread and leafy grass. Actually, for the bad fishing, they were quite entertaining us quite a bit.

Opposite side, a whole stretch of cemetary ground

Around 6pm, we decided to call it quits. From there, we aimed to look for a cheap motel/hotel to spend the night. Since we are already here, we planned to just spend the night somewhere and return to Fish Valley to give it a try. But for some unknown reasons, all the hotels/motels were fully booked. We found one that was zero star one but decided against it as it was run by an indian (got smell) and didn't look too clean. We broke off the search and went to Metro Point, a shopping mall, to have dinner first. Dinner was done at a place called Noodle house and it was quite good actually. After that, we did a spot of quick shopping and I managed to buy a car charger for my phone that worked just for RM8. Wah, my dopod has a special requirement for high current at 1000mA and most charger wouldn't even work.

We went into the wrong entrance for Sri Bayu and ended up in a construction site

A Semenyih ghost in white

After that, it was more searching for places to sleep. Finally, we decide to go back and find Sri Bayu as the Sudika owners had suggested. But the problem was that the road sign for Sri Bayu lead us through a cross-road terrain into a deserted location. But we passed by a makeshift sort of coffee-shop. We tried to ask for directions but couldn't quite understand what the people were saying. We made some wrong turns and was skirting a new looking fishing pond that had nobody and some wild dogs. We made a second pass at the coffee-shop from nowhere and had A to ask this time. We were then told that the entrance was from another side.

Backtracking to the entrance, we went to explore another way and ended up seeing excavators and bulldozers and long haired woman in white. That couldn't be right and then we went back to the signage to see if there was anyone to call. Indeed which we manged to reach them, we were told that that entrance was to a new branch and not ready yet. In the middle of the, a long convoy of vehicles came out of the darkness. TC and I were shocked and we thought we were just there and it looked pretty deserted! The old Sri Bayu as further down the road at another 5km away. We were also told that there was one last room available and we could have it. Whew, that seemed to solve our problem with a place to stay.

Finally! Found Sri Bayu

We finally arrived at Sri Bayu and found it to be more crowded than Sukida and there were plenty of people having fun fishing there. The room was paid and we were given the keys to the chalet. But when we reached there, it was just a small room with a double deck bed inside. That was quite alright but the place was quite dirty and smelled of bird droppings from the dough that people used for fishing. And all around us, were people fishing just in front of the chalet. They were smoking and making a lot of noise. How then can we sleep in such a place. While A and D went to have a bath, TC and I discussed and decided to return the room. We will then make our way back to Singapore. Problem was that I was already dead tired. The night before, I only had 2 hours of sleep. And after a hectic day, I wasn't too sure if I could last for the 4 hours drive.

All the fishing cost. This is not catch and release pond

Looks nice, but the chalet interior was stinky

The chalet

Someone caught a Patin next to our chalet

Anyway, that seemed the best course of action, and we then made our way back to Singapore. During the drive, indeed I almost dozed off while driving. Even gulging down a can of Red Bull didn't help this time. It was so bad that I was hallucinating from the lights in front of me. Sensing the danger, I decided to ask A to take over the wheels. Good thing was that she had been sleeping the whole day and did mange to let me sleep for an hour or so. The NSH at that time wasn't too busy and was managable for her.

We arrived in Singapore and by the time I sent TC back home, it was about 4am. That concluded a 24 hours drive up to Semenyih and a visit to 3 fishing ponds, all in a day. It was a bad fishing day, but a rather adventerous drive up to Malaysia Pond fishing Central for this trip.

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KFC - Nanyang Fish Farm 3rd Visit

My car servicing was up and I had to run into JB to visit my workshop. Pat had a stretch of leaves and joined me for the trip. We were planning to do some simple fishing after my servicing. I thought to go to Kulai Nanyang Fish Farm again. The last two times there, I had returned with a substantial zero. And it wasn't that the place has no fish. They are there in fact, and will sneer at me every once a while with some big splashes in the water. The local folks there seemed to know how to catch them and they were landing them quite frequently, right under my nose.

The last time, someone was doing fly fishing and was pretty successful, I must say. The short two hours there, I saw him landing about 4-5 Patins on fly. At that time, I wasn't into fly fishing and didn't think to observe how he was doing it and what fly he was using. Today, I had packed along my fly rod and gave it a try. As the farm wasn't too crowded, I had ample space to do my casting. All the flies I brought along, I tried. But all I caught were some branches behind me once a while.

Pat wasn't doing too well for his float fishing either. When we arrived, the man only gave us bread to fish as he didn't have the kng then. Although there were some bites, the fish quickly released them before we could react. But the local certainly know how to catch the fishes and was regularly bringing them up. It might be due to their customised concoction of the kng they had prepared.

After an hour plus or so, the ladies got bored and gave us another half an hour to fish. I admitted defeat for my fly rod and switch to my Sakura for some float fishing. I had a brief bite on the last minute but the fish was smart and released it quickly. Pat too had a nugde but again didn't connect. We left the place defeated. But while chatting with a local chinese guy beside us, we were told that there is another catch and release pond nearby. When we heard the word "arapamai", we all dripped saliva uncontrollably. On the way back, we did a detour to find the place but missed it. But with a carload of unhappy ladies, we better head for shopping and food else we won't be able to return in 1 piece.

Information about the fishing pond

He should be a teacher, with a whip like this

All the magic flies that I tried. None worked

With my fly rod

Back to baiting...guys opposite us having a field day



Com'on....bite please

Serene pond

People beside us got one

Took a while to coax it into the net

About 5 kg


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KFC - River Fishing At Sg Lebam

Finallly, we arrived at Sg Lebam Jetty to commence our river fishing trip. After discovering the place for quite a while, we didn't have the chance to fish this place till now. This trip, we have a couple of new friends, tan and his daughter Yali and kelvin and zu. We had met in the morning as usual under my block and had the usual breakfast fare at Carrefour Mac. TC surprisely turned up very early. So we were right on time.

Inside the forest, got lots of monkeys

You shoot, I shoot

Here got pirates or not?

The collect money lady pai kai boss

All our live prawns that KBLs can't resist

Driving up the wap to the Lebam Jetty was uneventful this time round. The friendly Buang was there preparing the boat. After some logistics of fuelling and getting baits, we were on the way. Tide at that point was rather low. Quite perfect timing for the day's trip. Howver, water wasn't clear due to the rain for the past few days.

A row of houses on the river. Fish where you live

Can have BBQ here

Setting up

Another boat polluting the air

That's how an anaconda boat would look like

Hey, a rainbow!

Everyone was pleased with the boat as it was big and comfy with ample fishing space. The weather today was cloudy and not blazing hot. We even saw a rainbow, before it drizzled a little. But nothing too wet. The various spots that Bujang brought us, didn't produce anything. We tried luring, bottom fishing with dead prawn, bottom fishing with live prawns and even trolling. But nothing was biting. The boat had a fishfinder, and occasionally we would past by some big blips on the device indicating some monster fishes at the bottom of the boat.

The white divider is where the fresh water comes from

Nice shady spot. Great for an afternoon nap

If only these were durians

Hardworking lurer

Captain of the boat

See, got toilet here

And cooking utensils

And tap for washing hands

The spot I missed my 2 KBLs!

The children playing like monkeys

We came to a spot that another boat was fishing. Bujang asked if they had anything and indeed they did. Bujang anchored the boat on the opposite side of the branch. At his instruction, we tossed out a live prawns on float. And I was elated to get a strike. But my fumblings didn't get me a hook up and prawn was gone. I tried another time and yet again another strike. But before I could do anything, a splash and it was gone. Boat at the other end got a KBL just in front of us. We couldn't see it clearly but could hear the flapping of the fish on the boat's bottom. Bujang at that time said that he would prepare lunch and said to go another place where it was windier to have lunch. I reluctantly agreed.

Can watch TV

D trying her soft rubber lure

Lunch time!

Sg Lebam River restaurant

This ninja caught a Catty

Wah! This fish so ugly!

Say I ugly, I bite you

No worry, this fish can hold

And cook to eat

Yummilicious!

At the new spot, TC had a brief excitement with a bending rod. But up came a kitty, due to his smelly prawns approach. Zu had numerous fights with a good size crab that kept trying to steal her baits. It got away but she finally landed another fellow, a Kuku (toadfish). It was a rather good size one, and Bujang said that it was good eating. He cooked it on the spot and indeed, the meat was tasty and sweet. After lunch, we went to various spots but there were no fish. I lost a lure and kelvin almost lost one, but was manged to be rescued. At 3pm, we took the slow boat back to the Jetty. The children had fun piloting the boat. Not something they can do everyday.

Find finder says got biggie below

Argh, my lure got stucked

Kel-Kar-ying on a river boat

Driving a boat is fun

Nice river view, with a smoking chimmy

The Sg Lebam Fishing Team

As fishy as it can get

For children, can rent this

Ok, shopping and eating time!

Despite the poor fishing, I did managed to inch closer to my tiresome quest to land a wild KBL. As for luring, the closest I had was to see a half beak chasing my x-rap. Beyond that, it was a risky exercise to lose the lure on some mangrove trees. But the trip was great fun. To fish in a river like this was a nice change from sea fishing. And on a boat like this, it was downright luxurious. We had good company today as well and the 2 children got along quite well. Bujang said that the boat can be used for fishing at night too, at the same cost. That sounded interesting and we might just give it a try.

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KFC - Pulau Semakau, Rubbish Island

To be honest, I was thinking that I should be catching some decent specimens for the Semakau Trip. Given the unique and un-spoilt location, there should be plenty of fishes there. Therefore, I was pretty much looking forward to it. After all the neccesary registrations and paper work, we all met at West Coast Mac to have a good breakfast before roughing it out for the day. The gathering point was at West Coast Pier, which I almost mistaken for the Marina Ferry Terminal.

We are going Semakau

Die lah, got number like this!

At West Coast Pier

On the boat (a 15 mins ride)

At the Pier, all the other anglers arrived rather punctually. We met our friendly guide, Aw, who was to take us there for the event. Aw is a very seasoned angler and have done decades of fishing, his perference being freshwater/river type of fishing. He is also one of the pioneering fly fisherman in S'pore. We also met up with tanwh, who was a friendly guy and a father of 2. In total, there were only about 10 of us. Our group already made up half of it. We were allocated number tags which double up as mearsuring tapes. In the event of catching fish, a photo of the catch was required to log it for the competition. We were not exactly there for the competition and any catch is good enough for us. I was given the number 144, which pretty much sums up the luck I have had that day.

Welcome to rubbish island

Ok, make sure you guys catch some fishes today and don't anyhow throw rubbish

Let's go!

Reaching Semakau, we were given a short briefing by Aw, before boarding a van to bring us to the southern tip. It was customary of the guide to start at this location, which according to Aw, should be good for a couple of catches. Later we will adjourned to the inner series of water enclosure at Cell 3. But the tide timing was not good, and furthermore this particular tide was not strong, and the water flow was weak.

Arriving at the Southern tip

On your mark, get set, go!

Clear water, fishing the channel

tan was definitely hardworking at luring

By the time we started fishing, it was already high tide. We had missed the incoming tide completely. Pat had some early bites on his minnow and surface cruisers. But that was it. Upon retrospection, we realized that all the other anglers disappeared from the southern tip and went off fishing in other locations. We were later to realize that the fishes by that time should be at Cell 3, which was an inner section of the area. It was percisely there that the 2 expert anglers landed 4 GTs and 2 Queens. I don't have any pictures with me, as we didn't see them in action and only know of it after the fishing from the photos from their camera.

Change Spot! Cell 3

Alex getting some Kelong Chi

Some of us trying at the opposite side of the pipes

the stretch there, rather rocky

We changed location from the southern tip to Cell 3 at around 11am. By the time we arrived there, the tide was already going out. So again, we missed the fishing at Cell 3. The place there was like some esturary area, and an angler said that there were Tarpons. For this competition, Tarpons have the highest score and he was trying to get them on Tamban jigs, but got Kelong Chis instead.

Marcus landed the catch of the day

I am 146

Marcus landed a Flathead here on his $3 lure. Not a bad catch considering what the rest of us were catching, which is nothing. ZW and I explored further into the other cells (which was supposedly out of bounds). However, it was difficult to fish there and I lost a lure, and ZW got his lure stuck there twice. We gave up and went back to the Cell 3 area. The weather got hot and we all waited at the shelter for the van to bring us back.

Evan, the angmoh landed a small Parrot fish which he felt not worth logging it for the competition. He seemed like a very experienced angler and was dressed head to toe with professional fishing attire. From his previous trip here, he had gotten a slot in the championship league from previous catches.

Going to the other Cell

Haiyo, Sangkot my Sasuke

Give up...

Back at HQ

Champion lurer

At the NEA building (which was thankfully A.C), there was a short informal ceremony of giving out the prize to the winner, which was the champion lurer for this trip and a few previous trip. I think he won himself a $150 voucher.

Boat came rather late, and we were soon back in mainland ending a failed attempt for our debut trip to Semakau. I think we should be trying this again, and hopefully recover from our mistakes and start catching something.

It was a rather disappointing day for me, but it goes to show half of the success of fishing is to know the behavior of the place. Getting to the right place at the right time is the other half of using the correct equipment and technique. We were all expecting biggies and was using a bit heavier tackle. Myself, I was casting my larger lures. I think now that smaller ones should work better. Next trip here, we should all be better experienced to get something. Till then!

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KFC - Bedok Reservoir Surprise

This weekend, there wasn't much in the way of fishing. But Andrew messaged me asking if I was doing anything. I suggested to try-out fishing at bedok reservoir as it was near his place. Even though he is staying very near to it, he had not been there before. Another reason for us not going there often is due to the insufficient parking lots. Getting a lot there is quite impossible at times. But today, we were surprised that there were free lots around. From the car park, it was a short walk to the boardwalk. We settled down at the bench.

As the boardwalk was rather crowded with quite a number of people fishing, we went to the right side of and fished on the rocky banks instead. Lots of people were baiting quite openly. We fished for about half and hour and there wasn't any action. Water was clear and I couldn't even see a tiny fish. From past experience, this wasn't a productive spot. However, someone on the boardwalk left on his bicycle and we were shocked to see him holding on to 3 large PBs. I ran to him and asked for some photos which he gamely obliged.

We were almost on the verge of giving up and returned to the bench for some snacks and drinks. Andrew said to try the middle of the boardwalk and I agreed. From the high vantage there, we could see some blurry image of a fish deep in the water. We identified it as Tilapia from the white/pinkish body. To our greatest surprise, the fish reacted by turning its body when our flies swam across. Excited, we continued to try to get its attention.

While Andrew was back at the bench to get something, I saw the tilapia inching forward to my squid fly as I dragged it past. I instinctively gave a yank. At first, I thought I had hit a rock as the fly was near the rocky bottom. But the line started to move to my delight. I peered down to the water and confirmed that I had a hookup. Excitedly, I shouted for Andrew to come help to get some pics in case the fish throw the hook. Tilapia on fly is quite unheard of (at least for me) and I didn't want to go back without any evidence. I fought the fish for a while which was fun on my new light rod, my 4 piece sakura. Andrew climbed down the banks and help land the fish. As we were deciding what to do with it, by the time we put the fish back into the water with a cord, the fish was already out of the water for a long time of 5 minutes. I was impressed that the fish was still quite fiesty and didn't die after such a long time out of water. They are definitely very hardy. A crowd had gathered and was impressed with our "big" fish.

We returned to fishing when Andrew saw another Tilapia in the water. As he had some bread with him, he quickly changed his rig to a small hook with long leader. Tossing out, we waited and went back to chit chats. Suddenly, I saw his limited edition cabelas bending and a fish was definitely on. Guiding it up to the surface, it was indeed the tilapia that we saw. For a tilapia, we were surprised that the fight was quite fiesty with tugs and water splashes. I held on the rod while Andrew again climbed down to land the fish. Crowd by this time had return again, puzzled by this 2 guy with the furry bait.

We decided to keep one fish alive and let ZW have it for his 3 feet tank. The other, we decided to Cnk for the dinner table. I had never eaten a tilapia before. When we arrived at ZW home, we decided to cook it immediately. It was surprisingly good eating and didn't have the muddy taste. Not bad at all. No wonder they do sell tilapias in Sheng Shiong. As it turned out, quite an unexpected outing and an enjoyable evening fishing with Andrew. I was really expecting nothing and results like this is quite pleasant.

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KFC - 18 Pounder Mama Toman

Early this morning, ZW and I woke up during the wee hours to do some lure fishing at the reservoir. This is the golden hour that fishes tend to feed. So depriving ourselves from our warm beds, we gathered our fishing barangs and off we went.

Reaching the ground, it was not yet light as we setup up our rods in the dark. But the day break came around 6.40am and soon we could see fish activities all over. ZW was on his favourite Avis 3 hook lure, and I was using my pink K-ten. After casting for about 20 mins, I got the first hit of a small but fiesty toman that put up one hell of a splashy fight. I released it and went back to luring.

ZW was not hitting anything this time perhaps due to his darker colored lure. Previously, it was able to get quite a number of hits successfully. But this morning, the color perhaps wasn't that conducive for the current lighting.

I went back to casting and in another 15 mins, I got an electrifying take. The thing that got my lure set off with it with the lines peeling off my reel efforlessly on my right. That went on for about 30 secs, till I got worried about running out of lines. But the fish stopped after a while and I managed to start to able to nudge it slowly back to my side. There was some see-sawing of me getting the lines back and then it took off again pulling out what I put back. But eventually, I sensed the fish tiring out and I was able to get the upper hand. I was pretty careful as I was just on a 10lb line on my 8-15lb blackrose. The lure was set pretty well and the fish wasn't able to shake it off.

I was struggling to hold it

From the feel, it was definitely a big one. I quickly called for ZW to get the boga in my back. As I pulled the fish near to the banks, it finally surfaced and did a couple more thrashes. ZW and I were shocked at the size and the broadnest of it's mouth. For a moment, we both thought it was a cat fish. But as soon as we got it on the banks, we could see from the whitish side that it was a mummy toman.

It gulped the whole lure into its mouth

Final pose to show the full extent of the body before releasing it

The fish was exhausted and didn't put up any fight when we were holding it for photos and all. I couldn't hold it properly from the sheer weight and the slippery body. Carefully, I plied open the lure from it's powerful jaws. Good thing I had my boga with me, else it would have been tough to handle it. We then released it back to the water. For a while, it was topsy turvey, but it soon recovered and righted itself and quickly swam away.

My lure after that couldn't swim well anymore. When I examined it at home, I discovered that the toman had punctured it with it's teeth and that water was seeping into the lure internal. No wonder it wasn't able to swim properly after that. Testament to how powerful a bite from a toman is. With this catch, I have set a new record for myself. A day to remember and quite worth the lack of sleep with results like this. :)

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KFC - Pontian Kelong

It was a rare occasion for Andrew's family to be out full force with us. Today, the plan to head for the Kelong at Pontian. Andrew was eager to try it after reading the write up on the last recce trip. IZ and Jean too came along for their first try at Pontian. We were to find out that Jean studied here and hence was familiar with the area inside out. Since we were rather early as the tide was to be at around 3pm, we headed for Kukup instead to have a look see.

Reaching the town of Kukup

Quaint town of Kukup with the newly built ferry terminal

There was a chinese storey telling competition going on here

Kukup GSS!

20 years ago, here got lots of fishes

Kukup belongs to Pontian

Being the first time in Kukup, it was a "nose" opener for them. Kukup has a distinct "salty fish" smell to it mixed with all the garbage collecting below the stilts of the buildings. But this is a famous place for seafood and local delicacies. We did some shopping for crackers and tidbits and such, as we are not going to get lunch on the kelong.

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Although I planned to bring them to the nearby durian farm, all thought it was best to head straight for the kelong. So from Kukup, in about 40 mins, we arrived at the jetty. I contacted the owners and soon, they came along to meet us.

Tide at that time was really low. The boat had to move slowly in the shallow waters. But once we hit the deeper waters, we zoomed away to the Kelong just ahead of us. Water turned better the further we leave the shore. Reaching there, we found the place to big and spacious. Also, not many people were there.

Yes, we are

I caught this fish!

Renovation going on

Just 15 minutes here, got commotion!

Holy cow! A 2kg or so Kurau!

Wahsay..

And into the icebox with the other big fishes *saliva dripping*

Just within 15 minutes, there was a commotion. Someone had gotten something big and his friend was scrambling for the long net. We all ran there to have a look, and I was shocked to see a 2kg+ Kurau in the net. The fishing looked promising indeed. And when the man open the icebox to put the latest catch, we found many other catches inside it. From what we gathered, the group had been there since yesterday.

Andrew also catch sight of a leaping Kurau said to be in the region of 6-7 kilos. We hastily toss out all our bottom fishing lines and kept our fingers crossed. But alas, the fishes never did come.

I am a dedicated bait fish supplier

Extreme fishing (for half beaks)

Finally got it!

I also have! female one

The group left the place around 3pm leaving the entire kelong to us. But despite the incoming tide, there wasn't any bite at all. The only one was when Andrew got a malong eel. It was lost however when we failed to navigate it into the net. Luckily I managed to catch it on video.

We did have some fun though catching the swarms of half beaks and little todaks. Iz and Jean managed to get their very first half beaks.

Quiz time..

Are we there yet?

Hoo...I challenge with you, kor kor. We swing 1 thousand times can?

A Pari left its mark here

The dried up tail

Hmm...looks like "matchbox" car

Pure, simple happiness. I am a bumblebee

We left the place around 5pm and headed for Pontian town for dinner/lunch. Jean wanted to bring us to try the famous Pontian wanton noodles. Unfortunately, upon reaching there, we found it closed. Hence we went to the only mall in Pontian, Billion mall for KFC instead. That was followed by some shopping before we headed back to Singapore via Tuas.

We all agreed that the place was rather promising and vowed to try an overniter one day.

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