~Fishing Passion~

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Mission Failed

Venue: Taman Jurong Fishing Pond
Time: 7.45am - 6.30pm
Bait: 200 grams Live Prawns
Rig: Floater
Weather: Thunderstorm in the late morning, Sunny thereafter
Date: 25th Oct 2009 (Sun)

Went to Tmj on fri night with Joel and Serene. Both of them managed to register 1 bite each while my float was untouched at all!

Decided to go back for revenge on Sun. However my mission failed miserably.

Managed to get my last stamp. With this card, you can exchange for either a session of 3hr fishing at the pro pond, 12 hours fishing at the main pond or 3 hrs prawning.

Reach the pond at 7.45am and started fishing. Only managed to register my first bite at ard 11.35am but I missed it....

Tmj Main Pond

One of the Ah Lau got a monitor lizard on his line. It was landed and threw over the fence.

Managed to get another 2 hits and landed 2 Kims from 12pm - 2pm.

Waiting and waiting...

At ard 5pm - 6.15pm, I managed to register 2 more bites at the 'hot' spot. Sadly I did not managed to land them due to 2 uncles.

They were giving 'advices' on when to reel in and strike. I am not a noob but due to pressure or whatever reason, I followed their advices and missed the 2 Kims.

Lesson learnt. Trust no one but yourself.

Gave up and pack up at 6.30pm.

My miserable catch

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Pathetic Day

Venue: Taman Jurong Fishing Pond
Time: 8am - 7pm
Bait: 350 grams Live Prawns
Rig: Floater
Weather: Thunderstorm in the morning, Sunny thereafter
Date: 16th Oct 2009(Fri)

Specially took 1 day leave with Joel for some pond fishing. Reached the pond ard 0745am and started fishing at 8am.

Was on the cab when I noticed few rumbles of thunder and grey skies were looming over Singapore. 5 mins before I reached, it was already raining cats and dogs.

Proceed to get my live prawns and started fishing. Was lucky to land 2 Kbls from 8.30am to 9.30am even thou it was raining heavily. Sad to say that the end of the actions for me thru out the day.

Got a couple of bites in the noon but did not managed to set hook.

Some views of the pond

My Weapon

There was basically no bites in the noon. Joel managed to break his egg ard 4pm-5pm and that the end of all the actions.

Total Catch

Me: 2 Kbl

Joel: 1 Kbl

Monday, October 12, 2009

First Boat Trip To Southern Island

Venue: Southern Islands
Time: 9am - 5pm
Bait: 2kg Live Prawns
Rig: Long Snood Bottom Feeder
Weather: Cloudy & Windy
Boat: Ah Chong's Boat (West Coast)
Date: 10 Oct 2009 (Lunar 22nd) Sat
Kakis: Qw, Luke, WQ, Qw's Colleague and Me

Instead of the usual waters at Changi, this time round we went for the deeper waters at Southern Islands.

Woke up late, met the rest ard 7.30am downstairs and immediately cab down to West Coast Mac.
Ah Chong reached at ard 8.15am and off we went to board his boat in "Commando Style".

We were supposed to wade into the water to ard our knees in order to board a small boat which brought us further out abt 20 metres to the fishing boat!

Ah Chong preparing the pinky 'raft' which he used it to row towards the small boat abt 10 metres out.

He would then come back on the small boat which we would need to wade into the water in order to climb onto it.

The small boat beside our fishing boat

Toilet

Kitchen and toilet

Fishing at Southern Islands and Changi is totally different. Waters here is much more deeper and current is stronger.

In my heart, I was seriously hoping to land some biggies but too bad the boatman was not with us.

~Fighters of the day~

QW

Wong

Luke

We did not managed to get any bites at all. Boatman was quite 'hardworking' at the beginning. So hardworking until I wondered whether he knew what the hell he was doing.

He was shifting spot after spot after every ten mins. Drop the line down and not even 5 mins he told us to reel in.

The Waiting Game

It was ard 12pm when we finally hit a spot with bites coming in quite constantly. Luke managed to land a small parrot ard 400gm. Moral increased but guess what? Boatman told us to keep our lines as he wanted to change spot.....

Really speechless, we got a freaking fish and he wanted to change spot...!!!!

This time round, he took us on a 1hr 30 mins ride to the international water.

On the way

Everyone trying to get a quick nap on the long journey.

Reached our destination at ard 2pm and we quickly dropped our lines down. As expected, nothing was caught except for one Deepsea KBL by Qw's colleague, Wong.

Only 2 pathetic fishes at ard 2.35pm

To add salt to our wound, the sea was super choppy. A few of us were feeling abit seasick and some even vomitted.

Waiting and waiting.............

Time flies and soon it was going 4pm.
We were talking cock when I suddenly FELT a tug! Without hesitation, gave a strike...and....Fish ON!!!!

Took ard 5 mins to pump it up and TA TAH~~~! It was a Spanish Flag Snapper est ard 1kg!

Unhooking

My Prize!

After landing my fish...guess what the boatman said. Keep your line...change spot.
I was really speechless when I heard him said that.

Decided to trust myself and told him we wanted to stay put. It was a correct move as Qw landed another small Spanish Flag Snapper after 10-15 mins.

Qw fighting

Spanish Flag Snapper est ard 700 grams

After we kept the fish in the icebox, guess what the boatman says again.....
"Keep your lines and change spot"
I nearly wanted to get a size 10 hook and hooked him on his balls and threw him overboard to feed the sharks!
Now we were at a spot with fishes and you bloody kept asking us to change spot...!!!

Check with the rest whether they were with me and told the boatman... "NO, we want to stay put!"
Nice move as Qw landed another snapper est ard 1kg.!

Again boatman told us to keep lines as he wanted to shift spot after Qw landed the snapper.
Sick and frustrated with him, we decided to gave in and kept our lines.

Went to another 2 more spots without any results before we called it a day at 5pm.
He told me beforehand it was until 5.30pm but he told us to pack up at ard 4.45pm. Reason was he got another grp of pple waiting for him. Bullshit!

Total Catch of the day

Qw: 1 big and 1 small Spanish Flag Snapper
Luke: 1 small Parrot
Wong: 1 Deepsea Kbl
Me: 1 big Spanish Flag Snapper

On the way back~~

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Just another night...

Date: 25th Sept 09 (Fri)
Weather: Cool
Rig: Apollo
Bait: Kelong Sotong
Venue: East Coast (Beside Devil Jetty)
Time: 8.30pm - 1.30am

Joel bought a new 10ft rod few weeks back. Therefore decided to try out the rod tonight.

It was just another boring night. Luck was not with me as I lost quite a few sinkers and rigs.

Nevertheless, managed to hook up a Swa Chiam and a Starfish.

Swa Chiam (Released)

Starfish (Released)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Ah Sengs Night....

Date: 18th Sept 2009 (Fri)
Time: 8.30pm - 12am
Weather: Cool
Bait: Kelong Sotong & Tambans
Rigs: Long Snood Bottom Feeder & Apollo
Venue: East Coast

It was the last day of the Chinese 7th month (Ghost Festival). Normally we would try not to fish in the night during this month. However, die-hard anglers like us dun really care abt all this stuffs when the crave of fighting a fish set in..

Qw picked me up ard 7.50pm and off we proceed to our spot. As usual, we setups our tackles and started waiting.

While we were waiting, some weird things happened....
There was this one weird guy who looked like AngMo. He walked all the way to our breakwater and threw one plastic bag into the sea.
We were abit disturbed by his action but we dismissed it and continue fishing.

Bites were coming in on and off but nothing was landed until ard 10pm..
We were sitting on the stone bench chatting when Qw's rod gave a hard bend. What came next was unexpected.

His rod was being pulled so hard that it bend all the way to the ground. Quickly, he ran, grabbed his rod and gave a strike. Fish On!!

Whatever was on the other end was giving him a good workout. His reel was screaming while line was being peeled out.
After 5 mins, Mr Seng emerged. It was a nice size weighing ard 1kg plus and it was tapao. Sorry no pix taken.

After settling that fellow, we continue chatting and discussing abt how amazed we were abt the brutal strength of Ah Sengs when my rod gave a ugly bend!

Same as Qw, my rod bend 90 degrees to 0 degrees parallel with the ground! WOW!!! Cant believe my eyes.

Grabbed the rod and gave a hard strike. Fish ON! 5 mins later, Mr Seng appeared.

Estimate ard 1kg plus too. (Released)

Both of us were very satisfied and happy with our catches. It maybe only a irritating catfish to many but to us we truly enjoyed the fight with them.

At ard 11pm, another Ah Seng took my bait. It was a smaller one. Est less than a kg. It was never landed as my rig was snagged to the rocks just directly below the breakwater.

Since it was only a Seng. I decided not to risk and get the fish. Cut the line and let it go...

Tried to took a pix from the top of the breakwater but I guessed it was too dark.

Halfway thru our fishing, I actually spotted a group of pple on our right hand side lighting up many candles forming a super big rectangular. They were burning lots of stuffs and throwing 'papers' up into the air and into the sea...

I did not took any pictures as I did not want to capture any 'things'. Honestly, we were feeling very weird and disturbed by all this..

Therefore we decided to packed up at ard 11.45pm.

As we were reeling in, Qw got a unexpected catch.

A baby stingray. (Released)

Overall, we had a fun night. 3 hours with 4 catches.

Me: 2 Ah Sengs
Qw: 1 Ah Seng & 1 Stingray

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Fishing in HongKong

Venue: 鴨仔坑釣魚場(波叔) (HongKong)
Date: 31 Aug 2009(Mon), Day 1 & 4 Sep 2009(Fri), Day 2
Time: 9.45am - 5.30pm (Day 1) & 9.15am - 3.30pm (Day 2)
Bait: Assorted Small Fishes
Rig: Short Leader with 2 Hooks
Weather: Freaking Hot

Ever since I started fishing actively 2-3 yrs back, I will try to search for fishing places whenever I travel.
This time round I managed to wet my lines in one of the most busiest city in the world, HongKong.

Fishing in HK is relatively new to me. Therefore, it was quite a challenge to plan this fishing trip.
After gathering some info here and there, I decided to pay a visit to one of the saltwater pond at 元朗流浮山下白泥村

You may refer to http://www.yl.hk/duck/ for more info on this pond.

Day 1

Woke up at ard 7.30am and proceed to buy our breakfast.

We board our train at Jordan MTR and have to travel for ard 40 mins to Tin Shui Wai station.

Tin Shui Wai Station

We took a cab to our destination from Tin Shui Wai Station.

Cost ard HK 60~ SGD 12, another 15 mins ride.

And there we are.....鴨仔坑釣魚場

Rules and Regulations

Different views of the pond

The owner was busy washing and clearing tonnes of bait fishes near the pond. When she saw us, she recommend us a hotspot.

Without any hesitation, I proceed to setup my tackles.

Bought one big bag of bait fishes from her at only HK 5~ SGD 1! Super Cheap!!!

Once done with my setup, I casted in the first baitfish at ard 9.30 am and BAMMM!!!

Fish ON!

Wow that was fast......! Cx grabbed the rod and line started peeling out in a fast and steady manner. She was struggling as more than 10 metres of line had already been stripped out. I quickly took over but the line snapped...

Rebait, Cast and Bammmm!!!! Fish ON again!! And we lost the fish again due to snapping of the line....

We had ard 2-3 line snapping cases before I finally landed my first fish at 10am!

Hook On!!!

Fish finally surfaced after 5 mins of fight

Taiwan Ngor

Unhooking

And finally photo session

2.5kg TN (1st)

10.05am, Hook On!!!

Took me quite a while before it was landed. It was bigger than my first fishy. It a pity that I actually forgot to weight it.Est at least 4kg!!!

Est 4-5 kg TN! (2nd)

It was a frenzy! Fishes were landed every 10-15 mins....

10.25am, Kim Chew (3rd)

10.28am, Her turn!!!

Taiwan Ngor (4th)

10.36am, Taiwan Ngor (5th)

10.41am, Taiwan Ngor (6th)

10.47am, Taiwan Ngor (7th)

10.52am, Taiwan Ngor (8th)

11.15am, Kim Chew (9th)

After 1 hour of feeding frenzy....bites started to slow down. Nevertheless, bites were still coming in consistently.

11.37am, Kbl (10th)

11.50am, Taiwan Ngor (11th)

12.01pm, Kbl (12th)

12.13pm, Kim Chew (13th)

12.38pm, Taiwan Ngor (14th)

12.49pm, Kim Chew (15th)

1.22pm, Kim Chew (16th)

1.38pm, Kim Chew (17th)

1.45pm, Grunter (18th)

2.00pm, Kim Chew (19th)

2.04pm, Kim Chew (20th)

We got a dry spell from 2pm -4pm. Therefore we proceed to have our lunch.

Instant noodles with luncheon meat, HK 15 ~SGD 3

After 2 hours of waiting, finally a Kim Chew come knocking on the door....

4.06pm, Kim Chew (21th)

4.31pm, Kbl (22th)

4.35pm, Taiwan Ngor (23th)

4.39pm, Kbl (24th)

5.00pm, Mangrove Jack (25th)

And finally the last fish of the day!

5.20pm, Kim Chew (26th)

Took some photos before we left....

The pond is just beside some mountains...

One of the many dogs

The lady boss...

Instead of taking a cab back to the MTR, we went to catch a minibus.

There is another pond just opposite call 'Hao Jie' fishing pond. Some pics of the pond while waiting for the minibus.

Day 2

We went back fishing on friday. This time round we reached earlier at ard 9.15am. We were hoping to catch the feeding frenzy and leave earlier.

However our high expectations were landed in huge disappointment.

There was no frenzy. Bites were coming in so much slower. We paid for 2 rods instead of 1 rod to increase our chances.

Our breakfast

Setting up the tackles

9.35am, Hook On!!!

It was a strong fight. Line was peeling fast and I had to keep pumping to gain back my lines. It took me 5-7 mins before the bugger finally surrender.