Bottletree Adventure

This morning's adventure was to Bottletree Park at Sembawang for a spot of sport fishing, i.e. taking fish out of the water for a photo, then putting it back approximately where you found it.

The bait was bread and some powdery brown fish meal, which is supposed to be like 'peh-hoon' for fish, except that its brown. The idea is to make a fish-meal sandwich. Since sandwiches have little structural integrity, I decided to make a fish-meal ball instead.

However, the guy next to me was baiting entire flat slices of bread and flinging them halfway across the pond. I shall call him Sandwich-Man.

Persistence finally paid off for Sandwich-Man.



Meanwhile, sitting, waiting. Waiting. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.





When suddenly!



A Red-Tail Catfish! =D =D =D







My first Red-Tail Cat. =D

No fishing story would be complete without telling about The-One-That-Got-Away. It was another Red-Tail Cat that I managed to bring to the edge but threw the hook at the last moment. It was THIS big. But no picture no count =(.

Called it a day and gave the leftover fish meal to Sandwich-Man. Hope he caught something with it. =)



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South China Sea Adventure - Aftermath

The snappers did not go to waste! Deep fried claypot snapper ftw =)

South China Sea adventure II

Setting off from the port limits, and after about 3 hours ride, we arrived at our first spot.

Bro here decided that prawning was not exciting enough for him, so he took to dragon-prawning (龙虾) instead!





It looks exactly like the ones you see in chinese restaurants! Pay $10/hr to fish prawns or $400 for 3d2n to fish lobsters? You decide.

We tried to convince him that it was poisonous and that he should let us use it as bait. Unfortunately that didn't work.

Action here was rather slow, and after the initial excitement of the lobster, only 1 reef tip shark was caught. This was the unlucky shark featured in the video. I've received some negative comments on this, with some people commenting that the shark should have been released, and that bashing it with a bat was cruel and unusual punishment.



When it comes to ta-paoing fish, I follow one simple rule. If I'm not going to eat it, I let it go. That said, it seems like locally, anglers just keep whatever they get, regardless of size or taste. Case in point: the boatman in my first adventure to Desaru, who just threw all the little selar into the boat, then threw them away at the end of the day. To me, that seems like a huge disrespect to God's creatures and a massive failure on our part as stewards of the environment.

But that's just me. Unfortunately, the first thing that happened after the shark came onboard was that the baseball bat made an appearance. Just to be clear, I make no value judgment on the kaki who disabled the shark and the other who kept the shark. Ultimately it ended up on someone's dinner plate (apparently there's a good restaurant in Balestir which specialises in shark dishes).

So if one fishes a shark then, what would you do? On the one had you have to somehow incapacitate it before it takes one of your fingers off when you try to remove the hook. On the other, you want to preserve it and release it (assumably). Perhaps some senior anglers can offer their guidance.

After a slow night, dawn breaks over the south china sea. A wonderful sight.


Made wonderfuller with a wonderful simple breakfast.




But we're here for fish from the sea. Not from a tin with black beans!



Small fish = waste time, waste bait.


Nurse shark

Everyone's spirits were lifted when this was fished up.




Yes its that guy again. Once more we tried to convince him that ang-gaos were bad. The blue spots are poisonous, and have to be removed before eating. We were unsuccessful, most probably because this was not his first day fishing o_O.

So that was pretty much it until we retrieved our lines and left for THE CHERMIN SPOT. This was where we were saving the live prawns for. We must have decimated an entire family of chermin.





Yes they are THAT big and extremely strong fighters. The one in the last pic weighed in at about 7kgs (taking into account fisherman exaggeration factor). There was a particular one which ran circles around us all and entangled 6 lines together. Considering there were 10 people fishing, that's a 60% sangkot rate.

I managed to pull one up, but it turns out that I was pulling someone else's line instead. There was a fish on the end of that line, but sorry, no score. Then from the other end of the boat, someone pulled up my line which hooked one up. I found out that the customary rule (江湖规矩) is that the fish belongs to whose-ever hook its hooked onto, and not whoever pulled it up. =)

Just as quickly as it had started, the feeding frenzy stopped. Next stop, the Ang Chor (snapper) spot.

But first, some sotong sashimi. Fresh, juicy, sweet.



Smoking kills

Night 2

The snapper spot was a strong current rocky area. 1kg sinkers flying at a 45degree angle. I was extremely surprised that my rod didn't break at all.


That there is the 'layang' (malay word for 'kite' i.e. flying all about) factor on a size 20 (1kg) sinker.

Finally fortune favours me! First snapper of the night was mine!



The golden carpet eventually appeared. These things are heavy because 1. they are; 2. the current is very strong and going against you; 3. that damned size 20 sinker. Opposable thumbs eventually trumped dorsal fins.



And at 2am I'd had enough.

The catch

No monsters (and no mermaids) were caught this trip. However, there was a sole fish (deckhand said in his 20 years he'd never seen anyone fish up a sole fish), and a jewfish (aka Malloway) which are quite rare in these waters. Asides from the chermin and the snappers, there were also a couple of barracudas, red snappers, groupers, coral trout and yeah, sharks.





Coral trout (aka Ang-Gao)


Barracuda, shark, jewfish


Sickle-fish (aka Chao Xi)


Chermin (aka Chio-Meng)




more lobster (coz i'm jealous)




A bountiful harvest and a safe trip. What more could you ask for?


Customs on the return journey.





Thanks guys for a wonderful trip. I've certainly level upped. Time to go shopping for gear upgrades with the (imaginary) gold that I've earned!

South China Sea adventure I

Alright here we go! Off to the south china sea onboard one of the finest vessels in town, the Seven Seas Conqueress with Cpt Ricky.





Boarded late in the evening, and slipped off under the cover of darkness for our first destination. This was my first time going out of local port limits to fish, so a bit of a mountain tortoise (or deep sea grouper). Apparently you have to clear customs. What happens is you wait at a particular spot (near the port limits) and the customs boat will come around.


That right there, is the customs boat coming around.

The 3 hour ride to grounds 1 gave us lots of time to lock and load. Behold the weapons racks.







I must say, the company for the next 3D2N was excellent. Here's some of them:



We have Koo, trip organiser and sashimi chef




Alex, part time bartender




Richard, a McDonald's fan and slayer of chermin



and this bro who's name I suddenly forgot, (paiseh!) Penn reels fanatic and all round most heng angler on board!





Supplies are important when going out to sea. Foremost, you must have enough bait.


If you dont have enough bait, you scoop more out from the sea. In this case, baby squids.


And you must have enough beer. Its not just recommended practice, its the law!


I know what you're thinking, the apples are not compulsory of course.

So there we were on the first night at Horsburgh Lighthouse aka Pedra Branca. I've never seen Pedra Branca before except images on tv and print, so I was really psyched to set eyes upon it. Behold! Horsburgh Lighthouse by night!


Well, what did u expect? Here it is by day




Next up: What we came for! =)