CR - PREP 23/11/08

Hands were itchy as we had not fished since the kelong trip, so bought some dead prawns and went to recce the ponds in Pasir Ris.

First stop - Farmway 3. There were about 5 rods but none of the anglers were particularly hardworking as the sun was mercilessly beating down. After half an hour of observation, we saw only 1 fish landed but 5 sickly fish netted!

So we proceded to second stop - Farmway 1. Water looked terrible... The pond was drained when we were last there 2 weeks ago and apparently it had to be done again. The workers were busy pulling the fish out from the keepnets into a box. Haiz...

We then went to our 3rd and final stop - PRPP. To our surprise, no one was fishing at the pro pond, but there were about 10 rods over at what was used to be the event/big fish pond. Within 10 mins of arriving, we saw 3 fish landed, including a big 3 to 4 kg kbl that was released back! Hmmm... not bad... Also, the operator was loading the keepnets and released about 10 fish into the pond. As the board stated that the next fish release timing was 4pm, we decided to have a late lunch before starting to fish.

Came back about 3:30pm. Again, about 4 fish were landed within 10 minutes so we did not hesitate any more. The operator was extremely efficient and once we were ready, he appeared to collect $$$. Only then did we know that the charges were $60 for 3 hrs and $100 for 6hrs. The man explained that they released more fish and that there were big fish up to 10 kg in the pond. However, he clarified that any fish above 2 plus kg had to be released back.

So we paid up. As we started fishing, it started drizzling. We managed to lose 2 fish due to bad hook-ups and land a kbl before the skies opened fire on us. Our initial thought that this could just be a passing shower soon was proved wrong as it continued to rain, and so heavily, that water poured into the pond from the slopes.

We almost lost our 3rd fish when the hook slipped out from its mouth right at the edge of the pond. WT immediately knelt down, plunged one hand into the water and tried to grab the fish. I was truly amazed when he stood up with the unlucky fish in his hand! In fact, the anglers at the adjacent table cheered for us. When they left, they actually gave us 2 fish. I think they were impressed by WT's skill in retrieving fish bare-handed... lol...

As the whole pond slowly turned brown from the soil in the run-off, we despaired of catching more fish. Surprisingly, the bites continued and we went on to catch 2 more in the pouring rain! The thunderstorm finally abated at about 6:30pm. We caught 1 more and lost another before deciding to pack up.

After a last cast, I reeled the line back only to discover that there was a bad wind-knot into middle of the main-line. WT gallantly offered to help me to unravel the mess and while he was doing it, the float which had remained in the water only 30cm from the edge went down! Thus, hand-line style, he 'fought' and landed a chia-chor - our final fish that did not make it into the photo as everything was already packed up...













In conclusion, we felt that the $60 charged was still reasonable as the bite rate was pretty good considering the weather and water conditions. We would definitely go back on a fair weather day to see if we can do even better!