CR - 1/8/09 Prawning at East Coast Park

Don't go East Coast Park often, so was surprised to hear about a prawn pond there. Curious about the new (to me!) place, I decided to check it out.

No fish, no lobster, but yes there are prawns.

This place is about 5 mins walk from Burger King, right beside the Futsal court. There are two ponds here - one saltwater and one freshwater. However, unlike Pasir Ris Farmway 3, the prices are different.

The counter staff readily told customers that freshwater prawns were easier to catch.

At the counter, I saw small bags of salt, firestarters, satay sticks and styrofoam plates - all free of charge for customers to bbq their catch! There were 2 pits in a corner, complete with a bag of charcoal too! Hmm... Must support this place...

Comfy looking cafe styled chairs, though I stood there all the way!

The size of the ponds are not very big and the water only about 1 metre deep. The freshwater pond is bigger and divided into 2 sections, each section can seat around 20 people. I had a rather favourable first impression due to the state of cleanliness. As the bait provided (chicken hearts) were already cut up into small pieces, the area is less likely to be dirtied or to attract ants.

You can hook your keep net, place your bait and park your rods here!

I eagerly started, only to get zero for the first 20 minutes! Arghh... I switched over to another area and the bites started immediately! (Note to self: NEVER prawn beside the pump, the water flow must be too fast for prawns to like hanging around that area.)

I was glad to see that most prawns caught, whether by other customers or myself, were medium sized. The baby sized ones were less common - making up about 30% and the big ones were rare - I only saw 1 caught during my 3 hours.

One unique point about this pond is that because of it's location that receives a high amount of human traffic, there were many patrons who were families and classmates out for a gathering. They are usually inexperienced and that was why flying prawns and shrieking girls were not uncommon there that day! :p

When the time was up I took my net to the counter area to 'dapao' my catch. A very friendly uncle (the boss?) offered to help me hold the plastic bag while I shook the prawns from the net. He also asked me if I wanted to know the weight of my catch and weighed them for me. Pretty good service!

Oh, did I forget to mention my total number of prawns? It was 19 prawns at 700g. Not fantastic, but remember "ren sheng di bu shou" ok! (Excuses, excuses again... Haha...)

BEFORE...

To be continued! :)