Taman Jurong Paypond

Date: 23 May 2008, 1740hr - 0040hr
Venue: Taman Jurong Paypond
Group: Chen Long, Lu Cong, Richard, Richard's nephew & Myself
Catch : 4 KBL, 6 MJ

This is the 1st time Richard willing to pay to fish at a local paypond, when he first suggested it, I was quite apprehensive whether he will come. As usual, Richard called up and asked to delay the meet up timing as he was tied up, we are so used to it that we simply brushed it aside and went to the pond ourself.
Chen Long and I reached the pond at 1730 , I was glad that not many anglers were around. We quickly paid and move to our shelter. This time round, I have prepared 3 rods before hand. 2 were meant for floater and 1 for luring and bottom fishing. As Chen Long was new to fishing using reel, I shown him a few basic operating procedure. He was a fast learner, immediately able to cast out with ease.
We floated our live prawns for the 1st few hours without any bite, and Chen long was beginning to feel frustrated. Richard joined us at 1800 after picking up his nephew, as he wanted to worth his money, he decided to wait for 1900 in order to enjoy 12hrs fishing. Night fishing starts at 1900 to next morning 0700hrs.
Chen Long got his 1st KBL when he was about to give up and wait for the fish release time at 2130hrs. This perk him up and went on to land his monster KBL subsequently. The monster weights in at 3kg, gave him a good fight with the 5" rod . At the other end, Richard and myself was landing zero.

3kg KBL landed.

Finally, at 2130hrs when the fish was release, I got my first KBL of the day, was glad to break the zero fish spell. Despite my tips to ask the guys over to my spot near the cages, they actually decided to stay put at their respective spot....hmmm....weirdo! I soon hooked up 2 pcs of mangrove jack snapper, and that still did not encourage them to shift from their spots! Geez.....
Lu Cong came in around 2230hrs, he did not have to wait long when he got his 1st mj, followed by 2, 3 and 4th....all landed less than an hour of his arrival! The last count before I went home he already landed 5 MJs, really lucky!

Total catches.
Overall, had a satisfying trip and newcomer Chen Long was a happy man after landed the biggest fish. Richard on the other hand was crowned the CAT for obvious reason. :o)

Chen Long with his monster KBL.

St John Island

Date : 02 May 2008
Venue : St John Island
Group : Richard, Kumaran & Myself
Catch : 1 tini-mini grouper

After a long break for about a month without fishing, Richard decided to round up a bunch of us for this St John island. However, those guys back out at the last minute, which Richard was damn unhappy about. We decided there and then that, it would be very difficult for them to join us for any future outing.


Marina bay ferry terminal

As it was a friday, earliest ferry service to St John only operates at 10am. This we found out only when we were there, thinking of catching the 830am ride which only on weekends & holidays. We rested at the cafe and consume our breakfast, amused at the little ang moh girl playing with her unicycle. She and her family later end up going to St John island too.

ferry ride

A short stop over at Kusu Island enable us to catch a glimpse of a tiny snake, which Kumaran eagerly pointed out to me. I managed to snap a photo of it trying to escape into the greens.

tiny snake running away from my camera

Finally when we reached our destination, after taking our bearing, we moved to the "fishing causeway" area. As the sun was scorching down, we set up our rod at the shade before moving in. 2 guys was already there, occuppying 2 holding area. They soon moved their rods away when we invaded the other one, 1 of the chap was telling us their poor result. We were further demoralised when he said he had stayed overnight. Anyway, fishing in the mid day with the sun in full blast and the tide declining wasn't any ideal condition to fish at all.

destination reached


poncho shelter

We quickly set up a poncho shade to shelter ourself which was really useful as we found out even though it was so small. We used dead sotong and tamban as baits, using the whole piece and float it out without any sinker.

The sea was layered with many rocks, presumably for the breakwater to act as one! Whenever, we cast a bottom rig, it would get stuck, hence we stuck to the floater for the rest of the day. Richard managed to hook up a tiny grouper casting under the shield of the poncho shelter! Sitting down somemore! hahaha....he seems to have fishing charm on him.

Richard with his prized catch!

After lunch, we were excited by a shadow chasing some small fish jumping out from the water, it was huge by any means. It was circling the area, and showed to us many times. I quickly cast out my lure, no interest in it at all. I changed to the tamban and let it float freely, and "wham" it goes....but the hook did not set. After several attempts, the fish seems to be well fed and swim away. I ended up burnt like charcoal braving the sun in the open.

Chasing the "shadow"

We packed up at 245pm to catch the last ferry ride back, yes, it was only 3hr or so fishing. Weekdays ferry are late out early back, as we found out.
Waiting for the ferry