Another 3 Hours At The Pond

Nothing much but quite satisfying.

Good Time & Good Buddies

A Late Catch Report

SSL10272, originally uploaded by HenryKoh.

This was a Sabah trip in September 2005. It was a very disappointing trip for me, given the hype and anticipation of 'one drop one bite' fishing in Sabah. The weather is the culprit; it was too rough and makes it impossible to fish at the trench. The fishes for some reason were not biting at the shallower water. 6 out of 8, not including were suffering from seasickness. Infact one guy slept for at least 90% of the trip. I was sleeping much more than my usual; just too depress to get up and fish. Will I go back again? Likely, but next time it will be with less expectation and longing.

Not Bad For 3 Hours

No chance to fish the sea and thus decided to try the pond instead. Eight fishes for 3 hour is not bad I guess. The secret I guess is to work hard - spin here and spin there!

Changi By Night

Last Friday (19/1/07), Daryl, 2 other guys and I went on a night boat trip to the changi and tekong area hoping to catch the remnants of the red snappers that escaped from the fish farm. Ours was the only fishing boat in sight and the reason became obvious over time – the fishes were not there or were not biting.

The result of one sleepless night:

8 red snappers (500 gram or smaller)
2 sub kg golden snapper
1 x 500 gram grouper
A few small eels and catfishes

Mekong Catfish

I have not posted here for a long while basically because I have not been fishing and that's another story altogether. Anyway I was at the latest catch and release pond in Singapore to try out the infamous mekong catfish. I managed to hook one that is about 20kg on a short rod of about 4.5 feet and a small 1000 equivalent reel loaded with 15lb fireline. It put up an impressive tug of war.

category: catch report

Will It Happen Again

We had a lousy trip on Ah Chai's boat last saturday, 6 of us and we landed 3 diamond trevallies and a table size snapper. Francis and I lost a trevally each. Well, at least I caught the snapper. Francis is having a period of draught in fishing lately. Francis if you are reading this, my offer of Sabah still holds.

Frank's recent trip to Sabah had me dreaming impatiently of our impending trip and I hope that this trip will be as good as previous trips. These pictures sure bring back sweet memories:

tag: fishy feelings

Things I learnt From Pond Fishing

Recently I have been aggressively fishing the ponds. I have caught countless fishes, memorable among them were a 5 kg barramundi, a 4 plus kg snapper and a 3 plus kg GT. I did learn a couple of things about fishes particularly from a particular pond that had crystal clear water on one of the day. I observed the following:

1. The fishes may be there but if they are not in the mood to bite nothing will seduce them, you can lure quickly or slowly or throw a bait right in front of them or switch from live prawn to dead prawn to fish meat and they will just ignore it or scuttle away.
2. If they are in the mood to bite they will dash from some inconspicuous cover and take your bait as if their life is dependent on it.
3. Some fishes will come and inspect the bait and will teasing use their tail to knock the bait and then scuttle away, giving you false bite detection.
4. Fishes like snappers and barramundi in contrast to expectation will take the bait and stay still and not dash as expected.
5. Fishes, at least in the pond, bite less when water is crystal clear and when the day is hot.

What do think? Comments? Observations?

tag: fishy feelings, techniques

Eventful Event Pond Session

I saw the posting on fishingkaki that a bunch of people were gathering at the event pond at Ponggol on Wednesday 16/8 and so I went down to make up the necessary number. There were 11 of us and all had high hope of catching something big.

My first rig was a 2-hook rig with split shot and tamban bait. On spinning back on my second cast there was a violent pull, I paused a second to allow the fish to swallow the whole bait and strike. The fish dived for the nearest structure, I tried to pump it away, my reel was peeling line and the drag on my cheap shimano spinning reel was rough and jerky. I was fearful of tightening the sticky drag but fortunately my pumping actions managed to steer it away from the net and the fish performed a series of aerial display - it was a huge barramundi. I had a tug of war with the fish for the next 10 minutes or so and a kind soul helped me land it with the net. The barramundi was about 5 kg. Unfortunately while he was helping me with the net, his rod which was on the floor was pulled into the pond. The rod was retrieved ultimately but the fish on it was lost.

All hopes sky-rocketed. About 5 minutes later someone landed another barramundi of about the same size, I like to think that it is slightly smaller. Then it quiet down, only a few golden promfets were landed.

About an hour later, I was spinning live prawn, and there was a huge take and I fought the fish for about 30 seconds and lost it. I spinned live prawn again and was rewarded with a 4-5 kg GT which took me at least 15 minutes to tame. Two other GTs was landed by others shortly and it quiet down again.

The rest of the 3 hours was rather uneventful and a few of the anglers finished the session with zero catch.

I gave the barramundi away and release the GT back to the pond.

I enjoyed it because I was using 10 pound line and it is a novelty for someone like me who is used to clanking heavy weight from the deep using 65 pound outfit.

tag: catch report

My First Fish On Popper

I went with 4 other guys to a private luring and catch and release only blue water pond somewhere in Neo Tiew. It was 2 hours of hard work! The fishes are plenty but they just refuse to take lures. Well, I did manage to catch my first fish on a 40 gm popper, a giant trevally and another on a berkley glup.

tag: catch report

Long Time No Sea

Have not been fishing for a while, at sea that is, but have been doing a lot of pond fishing. It is regressive for me but it is kind of fun and a good quick fix for the addiction.

Recently went out with 5 other guys on Raju's boat. The catch was not that fantastic but I did catch the biggest snapper and the only diamond trevally.

tag: catch report

Impressive Snapper

Could not go on a long range trip over the weekend and so decided to go drifting with Ricky (aka Ah Eng). The catch rate was poor, only 5 fishes were caught:

two 3kg plus snappers by me
one 500 gm snapper by me
one star gazer catch and release by me
one 1.5kg grouper by Ricky

Well, the snappers fight were impressive and I am glad I ou-fished Ricky and so overall it was a good trip for me.

tag: catch report

Sedili Malaysia 19-21 May 2006

Nine of us set out for this much awaited trip on Friday evening and reached the first spot in Sedili at about 1 am on Saturday morning. For the next 2 hours or so we had fast and furious actions but with very few fishes landed. A rod was broken, line burst, hook straightened, wire trace burst and 2 fishes (a cobia and a tenggiri) was lost at boat-side. It was fun but frustrating - we were just mentally not ready for it.

The second night was rather quiet with 2 snappers and a couple of cat fishes caught.

We had a mini grouper fenzy at one spot in the day and some fun with parrots at another spot.

tag: catch report

Another Southern Island Catch

Anglers: Frank, Francis, Daryl, Preston and me.

Catch: Rather poor, only significant catch a 2kg parrot by me an a kg plus grouper by Francis

tag: catch report

Parrots & Parrots

Have not seriously fished for a while and hence have not posted on this blog but was handsomely rewarded on this trip to Rompin. Frank, Francis, Louis and I had a great time with the parrots on 29-30 April 2006. Parrots are just awesomely powerful.

tag: catch report