Going for salty.....

Have been visiting the sea lately for fishing. Partly, I want to get saltwater fishes. I know I can catch the reservior fishes easily, but for the saltwater fishes.....uummmm.
The last time I was catching Tambans at Bedok Jetty. This time round...going to a new location near the airport. With good deep waters around the varity of fishes are good.
I have been there for four times and catch nothing....but the hope of catching one is there. I saw many older people catching the rabbit fishes and I managed to learn the method to catch them.
Tomorrow morning I will be going there to catch the same fishes. Will also try jigging for squid. Hopefully, I will land something.

Got this one after several tries.

Back to LSR

Coming back to the place that I first started to fish at reservoirs. With my knee injury recovering from a tennis game, I'm back to my morning schedule at LSR.


Total weight = 1.2 Kg.

Firstly, caught one at our usual corner with a popper. A medium one but lost it on the way to land. So, I decided to change to my special Fly and try. After 15mins of luring, got a tug and I pulled in the first big one. Whilst reeling the fish in and got it out of the water, my leader broke and the fish was heading back into the water. Fortunately, I managed to catch my line in time and pulled back the fish - saved!

We then decided to go to the jetty and try our luck there, after an hour, I landed another big one. This time I cannot putt it up to the jetty - too heavy for my rod. My buddy have to help me carry up the fish.

After about one month of absence at LSR and not catching PBs, these catch today is most satisfying.

Upp. Seletar Reservior

This month, we fish mostly at Upper Seletar. We fish in the early mornings. The action there is slow as we target for only Tomans. There are some surface action but no takers. Sometimes we can see schools of Tomans, but the fishes are small. The smallest I caught was about 5cm long...attacking at my poppers. That shows, how aggressive they can be!

I might go back to LSR (Lower Seletar R) at the end of the month.....my usual place unless I can find a better place to fish for big Tomans.

Various dishes from Peacock Bass

I love to eat fish. Most of the time my wife cooks the dishes, so when it comes to fresh water fishes like Peacock Bass....It's different cooking style. These fresh water fishes have some what a kind of smell of mud. Some fresh water fish species have strong mud smell but surprisingly, PBs don't have that strong smell.

In-order to give the PB a better taste, we rub salt on to the body and the inside of the belly. Some say that soaking in Assam water or black vinegar will kill off the smell.

Well, we managed that and come up with these dishes: -

Assam Buak Keluak PB.








Assam Pedas.....Garnishes with onions, chilli, pineapple, ladies fingers and tomatoes.










Fried with chilli topping, tomatoes and corriander leaves.

Fishes caught in July 2006

my new lure rod............... a peacock bass





Haruan on
my Tamban rod &
reel.













PBs & Haruan












This is my fishing buddy(Necroplastic frm FNR)

Today he is the 'King of the catch' with 8 strikes!
All using flies.

PBs of various sizes

My trips to LSR

I started to go to Lower Pierce Reservoir or LSR after meeting some friends at www.Fishingnewsroom.com. So, begins a journey into freshwater & sea fishing.
We are fortunate that the PUB have opened some areas of the reservoir for game fishing. There are rules that you cannot use live baits for fishing with in the water catchment areas.
The reservoirs that are open for fishing are: -

• Lower Pierce Reservoir
• Lower Seletar reservoir
• MacRitchie Reservoir
• Yishun
• Upper Seletar Reservoir
• Mandai
• Kranji Reservoir
• Bedok Reservoir
• Ponggol Pond

This is where I go to fish with my 'kakis' or 'buddies' on most Mondays & Thurs.

My first catch was a Peacock Bass or PB for short. Good feeling of the fight, almost cannot pull the fish up to the jetty.

PB comes in various sizes- small ones are most commonly found around the jetty. But you will be able to catch some pretty big ones at the correct spot.

As me and my buddy (Necro) kept going to LSR for our fishing trips, we some how go into a kind of competition - 'Who's going to catch the most or biggest today?'

We also experiment with the various lures and flies that we bought and by-the-way, I got into making my own flies.

I made several more of these and tested them with the PBs. I got my first catch using my own fly (picture above).......what a satisfaction! It workes!

my home-made flies

Coming up - catches for July 2006.

My visit to Bedok Jetty (BJT)- Fishing for Tambans.

I would go to Bedok Jetty (BJT) when the in-coming tide is in the mornings, usually between 10-12 pm. to catch Tamban fish.I like the morning tides as the noon sun is too hot and scorching. You will get a good tanning after a few visits at BJT. My usual out-fit: hat, sunglasses & long sleeves polo. My gears are: pail, Tamban rod, hooks and sinkers.
After the catch, I would process the fishes and to keep some as bait for future fishing trips to the jetty.

What are Tambans?
They are what you can call Bait fishes, small size around 60mm-100mm in length. They are around the jetty pillars and sometimes comes in large shoals.
When they are around, predator fishes are lurking to have a feast.

• So, I fish the Tambans and used them to catch the bigger fishes.
  Tambans in basin.
  
  How to catch Tambans?
  I used a short rod and a small reel. For the hooks it is a small size luring hooks with a short feather.
  
  

Where to buy the hooks?
I buy the hooks form the man (called Jepun) selling at the jetty. A short, well tan, rustic look and extremely experience in fishing. He is usually around the jetty in the mornings, almost everyday. May be the only time 'Off' is during the Chinese New Year.
You can get the hooks at fishing shops in Singapore, but let me warn you about these commercial hooks. You will face disappointment catching the tambans. The catch rate is low.

• my set of hooks- look how small they are.

How to cook a tamban dish?
Used to be the fish for Nasi Lemak, but now the ingredient for Nasi Lemak have changed to using 'Kunning fish'.
It is best eaten deep fried. Season with Tumeric powder and flour, then put into hot oil to fry. I would finished the whole fish - Head to tail nothing left behind.

How I get hook on fishing....

I got to know how to fish when I was very young, using a bamboo rod with a fixed line and trying to catch whitettings along Pasir Panjang beach and at Tanah Merah Beach. I used to stay at my GreatGrand Father's bungalow at Pasir Panjang during the school holidays.
My first taste of pond fishing was at Tampinese in the 1970s during my school days. There are several ponds and my friends would get to the different ponds to fish.
Later, I started to owned a rod (Silstar- Ramrod and Zebco-Pro-Staff 40 reel) and went fishing at Pasir Ris pond in the 90's. Did some fishing also during my trip to Tioman Island using hand lines.
Now, I have got three rods and go fishing about two times a week. I hope to share my experiences week after week with the catches and misses, the friendship along the way and the joy of fishing. It doesn’t mean that you need to land a catch each time, but each time you go for fishing is a feeling of excitement and anticipation of a catch.....a bigger catch each time you are there.