Don't Worry, Still Fishing...

After my mediocre fishing results for 19 days in Sydney, I thought I was gonna hang up my rod. But, even though with lacklustre enthusiam, I still manage to rekindle the fire and did ask Jiaming out for a fishing session just before I started work. The Sunday before my new job, we went to Pasir Ris Farmway 3 yet again in the hope of playing with those CnR fishes. It was Qing Ming that day as well, so after paying respects to my grandparents, JM ruck up and we were off to the east.

This time round, nothing fanciful in techniques, with the usual bread and we did however get some frozen chicken heart and kembong (looks like yellowtail but stinks like hell!) from the pond owner. It didn't take quite long for JM to hook up 1st on bread. That fish gave him some serious curry and the dreaded shit happened, the line broke for no apparent reason. Indeed I'll say that fish was some crazy shit. Whilst seeing him in action, I was in the midst of rigging up the kembong on my aussie blackfish float to try for the barramundi ala floater style. But it was a failed experiment anyway, with the float inpossible to stay afloat properly.

JM did hook up yet again but this time round the fish gave a big disappointment in the fighting department. Took a short video on my lousy Nokia 6300 (kept forgetting to bring my camera out nowadays). It's a patin by the way.

Since this time round I brought back my 6 inch camo sandworm from Sydney, I thought I'll give it a try here. Rigged up on a 2 gram squidgy head and simply just slow roll in the pond. Frankly, this worm is hip hop as what Rocky always likes to say. Had about 3 short bursts on the worm at the various parts I've casted. As I was using the whole 6 inch, that's why the hookup was not successful. Went to the opposite end from where we were and continued using the worm. Towards about reaching a corner to where I was standing, I felt a heavy tug and the line suddenly went out slowly. I knew I had a fish on the other end and this thing went berserk. Ok, long story short, after a tumultous battle, it was revealed to be a Kim Bak Lor (barramundi). The pond helper came and upon witnessing the tag that was on the body, he lamented it to be a 6 kilo specimen which they had weighed it couple of weeks ago. As I wanted to take a photo with it, he told me to guide the fish over to a wooden platform for easy lip gripping. Went over and the fish was actually tired and cooperating. But this bugger was putting on a show, as soon as it was near the wooden platform, it dived once more and my line was stucked underneath it! KNNBCCB!!! Passed my rod to the helper who was standing on top of it to ask him help me flick the fish out. But guess due to his inexperience, instead of dunking my rod into the water to free the line, he simply just whacked it. Ping it goes and the 8lb leader broke in matter of seconds. I was gutted, but dare not show the face as there were heaps of uncles and aunties crowding around me. One uncle even asked me what line poundage I used, told him and got a sarcastic reply. What the fuck..

The session ended with me scoring a patin on surface bread and JM hit a big white colour tilapia on the chicken heart bait.

Last weekend then saw me being invited by Jialiang to go on board his dad's boat for the 1st time. We headed out from the marina and went straight to the bait grounds just below the Tuas-to-Malaysia bridge link. Using the sabiki rigs, it was so easy to collect heaps of small little bait fishes which I had absolutely no idea what they were. Once the livie tank was full, it was time to soak them. Didn't need to travel far from the bait grounds to the spots. Jialiang had a good fight on a tamban bait which turned out to be a huge Threadfin Salmon (or what we called here, Taiwan Ngors). The fight was damn good, makes me think: Singapore got fish wat! After a lull period, GTK was on again with a big Diamond Trevally (chermin). I had the privilege to handle the fight of the 2nd chermin. I did manage one small little Threadie before we pulled the plug. Also had some cheap thrills with the local small catfish population on peeled prawns, lol.

Quite a good haul in my opinion. Wanted to wash "Uncle Tan's" boat but the marina had no water flow. It was really an enjoyable day to fish the west side of Singapore. At least I feel that the passion still hasn't died in me.

Ronald