Water water everywhere

First they said there was no water. Then they found some water. Would they one day find lots of water with fish swimming in it?

Scientists had once declared the moon devoid of water, then they found the presence of hydroxyl on the moon. Over on the red planet however, the fact that water is present was documented years ago. Yet now they have discovered that there's much more water ice on Mars then they had initially supposed - and not just in any dirty form but pure ice.

So, who knows but a couple of decades later there will emerge new fishing destinations? We may be luring on the moon and jigging on Mars! Hahaha... That will be the day...

MFF's students' prawning outing

The title's a mouthful isn't it? Hehe... This is the first time MFF has brought such a big group out to prawn and these are all international students from Hua, who are going to take the O'levels.

East Coast Prawning was chosen for this outing as I made a visit a couple months back and saw that they provided all the 'barang barang' required to BBQ the prawns. Moreover, I found on their site that it was 1-for-1 on Tuesday Ladies' Nite! Sadly, this wasn't the case when we reached the pond - the signboard told us otherwise...

$40 for 2 rods instead of the $30 I had told the students...

The same promotion on Thursdays.


I was told by the counter staff that this promotion just started today! Weren't we 'lucky'? Why didn't they update their blog, which I actually checked just Tuesday morning?!  :(

Thank goodness the students were rather understanding, and we started anyway.

Waiting patiently for prawns to take their bait...


All the students were first-timers except for one, so they were rather nervous and anxious about catching their first prawn. Hence... A few bloopers were certainly expected!

Prawn flew over the rafters... :p


As the students had started at 7pm and were to finish at 10pm, we decided to start processing and BBQing the prawns so they won't go home too late. That was why we never really counted the total catch - they were eating and catching prawns at the same time!

Success = all smiles!

The very helpful guys who volunteered to cook for everyone.

A group photo before calling it a day!


Even though the total catch was pretty poor - 50 over prawns by 10 rods - the students were excited about their first ever prawns caught and enthusiastically eating the 'fruits of their labour'! I shall ask them if they feel like doing this again...  :)

Testing of cutesy lures

While we were at casting practice yesterday, I could not resist testing the action of my new lures. :P Thus, my pink Jitabata Araikun and black Nekoguruma both had a quick dip in the waters of the Upper Seletar Reservoir.

The Araikun is said to be an effective lure despite it looking like it belongs to a childrens' cartoon. So as expected, it wriggled enthusiatically when I did a fast retrieve. Looking at the Araikun shaking its cute butt, I could not help but smile... :)



There was no need to work the lure at all - the design of the lips made it effortless for the lurer.


The Nekoguruma, however, was not a good choice as a lure (or maybe I didn't work it right?). There was minimal action at the tail and sometimes it looked just like a stick of wood floating across the surface.





No matter! My 3 nekos were meant to be 'pampered pets' at home all along. Could I succeed in getting the big toman we saw surfacing occasionally to take a bite at the Araikun though? Hehhehheh...

Humboldt squid washed ashore

Dozens of Humboldt squid were found washed ashore on Tofino's beaches early August. A few days later, hundreds of pilchards were washed ashore on the same beaches. Just a couple days ago, more Humboldt squid again were found according to The Province.



Josie Osborne of the Raincoast Education Society on Chesterman Beach, Tofino BC Canada


Biologists suggested that this phenomenon could be due to climate change, as the squid expanded their hunting range due to waters becoming warmer, and were then caught in strong currents.

A dissection of a squid's stomach showed chunks of fish flesh and scales, which most probably were herring or sardines.



What do Humboldts eat?


Climate change is apparently affect many species. Let's hope that there will be no lasting damage to the population of Humboldts.

On a lighter note, I wonder how it would feel to hook on to a metre-long squid while eging? :)

Kelong parrotfish cook report II

This afternoon we had the other half of the parrotfish head for lunch. It was cooked using the MFF recipe for Fishhead Beehoon. The results was fantastic! Tender fish meat that was slipping off the bones together with QQ fish gelatin and skin in a scrumptious milk-white broth...

We slurped it all up!



As the recipe was for the use of an entire fish, we made a few adjustments.

Fishhead Beehoon (Serves 6)

• 1 fish head (Approx 800g)  
• 1 tsp pepper 
• 2 tsp salt 
• 2 tbs cornflour 
• 1/2 cup oil 

• 1 kg thick white beehoon 
• 500g caixin (or any other green leafy vegetable) 
• Half pot water 

• 1 litre water 
• 1 chicken/fish flavour cube 
• 2 knobs of ginger (thumb-sized) 
• Half a can of evaporated milk 
• 1 tsp pepper 
• 2 tbs XO

1. Wash and cut caixin into approximately 2 inch lengths.
2. Boil the half pot of water and put the caixin in. Remove immediately when the water boils again.
3. Put the beehoon in and also remove when the water boils. Set both caixin and beehoon aside.
4. Chop the fish head into inch-sized chunks and add pepper, salt and cornflour.
5. Heat the cup of oil and fry fish till golden brown.
6. Bring the pot of water to a boil. Add flavour cube, ginger, evaporated milk, pepper, XO and the fish into the litre of water and bring to a boil again. Lower the heat and simmer for another 15 to 30 mins. 
7. Divide the beehoon, caixin and fish meat between 6 big bowls. Ladle soup over and garnish with fried shallots and sliced red chilli padi. 
8. Serve immediately. 

Kawaii desu ne!

There's simply no other way to describe what I'm talking about, but to say 'These are so cute!' These Japanese fishing lures may or may not catch fish, but they have already caught me....

Introducing the Nekogurumas（貓車). Manufactured by 疑似餌工房 (The Lure Workshop), which apparently also makes lures in the shape of vegetables, these lures are described as 木製貓形鉛筆疑似餌 (Wooden cat-shaped pencil lure). They are 11cm long and weigh 14.5g.

Miaow, miaow, miaow!

These lures will float on the surface, that's why they come with 'double' instead of treble hooks.



Next up is the Jitabata Araikun (wriggling raccoon) by Zeal. These plastic raccoons have such big soulful eyes that I was hooked before I realised what happened. This pink specimen with white embellishments is a 1999 design that measures 7.2cm and weighs 13g.

Bring me home, pretty please?


I have no idea how well all these freshwater lures will work, and am actually very curious about it, but you are probably not going to see me at the reservoirs testing them out anytime soon... They are too cute to be used!

Episode Sotong at HB Kelong 17/9-20/9

One of my favourite activities at Sibu kelongs is eging. Sotongs can be caught anytime of the day, but I usually will start only when the sky darkens. For this trip, because we arrived around midnight, the first thing I did after setting up was of course, eging!

1st catch - a nice arrow!

Compared to MFF's previous trip to HB kelong in April and May, the size of sotongs at Sibu have reduced drastically. The average was 'hand'-sized back then, but now they are mostly as big as 2 of my fingers.  I suppose it is now the off-peak period for sotongs...

If only all 38 were of the bigger size... Hehehe!

Of the total 38 I caught from 3 nights worth of eging, only 6 were of reasonable size. 35 out of 38 of these sotongs were caught using 1 single lure - a size 2.0 Yamashita. I believe it was its small size that allowed me to catch so many. Even our favourite size 2.5 Yozuri shrimp hunter lost by such a wide margin! Do be aware, however, that the spikes on the size 2.0 Yamashita is smaller and much weaker than the bigger sizes. I had to bend the spikes back once in a while, and I had a couple of misses which was probably due to big sotongs slipping off slanted spikes!

The Yozuri finally registers a catch, and it's a baktao!

Personally, I still prefer the Yozuri as I think its action in water is more realistic and natural than the Yamashita. However, the fact that the smallest size available is 2.5, and that even this size is often out of stock, means that we will be stocking up on the Yamashitas too...

The battered Yamashita - notice the fabric torn by the many grasping sotong tentacles!

Last but not least, let me end the post with this photo which will remind us that no matter how we try to point the head of the sotong away, there will be times that we will 'kanna' from the sotong! Hahaha...

My 'inked' feet, and the culprit...

MFF's first milestone

At 1155 hours on 23 September 2009, MyFishingFrenzy blog welcomed our 1000th unique visitor!
*cue for fireworks*

This is actually a very small number to popular bloggers out there like Nigel, who has already hit 10000. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to all readers who came in to read our blog, even more so to those who chose to subscribe to our posts. Muchas Gracias! *blows kisses*

The unique IP address visitor counter was put up on the 20th of August, meaning that 1000 of you had visited us at least once in a 35-day period. I shall work harder to create posts of both quality and quantity, so as not to disappoint our supporters!  :)

Oh, by the way, can I humbly petition our readers to talk to us using the message board and let us know what you think of our blog and the posts? Pleeeeeeeeease?

Kelong parrotfish cook report!

A fish weighing 6.5 kg can definitely be made into many meals. Half the head of this parrotfish was made into a 鱼头炉 (Fish Head Hotpot) Monday night.

This dish served as dinner for 6 of us!

Fish Head Hotpot (6 servings)

• 1 or 1/2 head of fish weighing approx 600 to 800g (Most commonly used fish for this dish is actually from the snapper family)
• 500g Chinese cabbage (大白菜) - cut into inch-wide pieces
• 1 can button mushroom
• 1 can Pacific clams
• 200g roast pork (烧肉) - sliced
• 1 thumb-sized knob of ginger - sliced thinly
• 1 sprig spring onions - diced
• 6 bowls of water
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 2 tbs chinese cooking wine
• salt/ fish sauce to taste
• pepper

1. Heat oil in pot and fry the ginger till fragrant. Add the fish head and fry till half cooked. You can opt to keep the head whole, or chop it into chunks.
2. While fish is frying, boil the 6 cups of water in a separate container.
3. When the fish is ready, add the cooking wine, then pour the boiling water in.
4. Put the cabbage, mushroom, clams and roast pork in, bring to a boil again, and then simmer for approximately 15 mins till cooked. (This time will vary depending on whether you chop the fish head up or not.)
5. Add salt/fish sauce and pepper to taste and sprinkle spring onions over.
6. Serve immediately with rice.

We were also served this dish at Hotboys kelong during our stay. Instead of the roast pork and clams, they added cubes of yam and black wood ear fungus (黑木耳). The fish head, cabbage and mushrooms are almost 'mandatory' for this hotpot, but the combination of optional ingredients is entirely up to you. Whatever you put in, the fish head will certainly make the soup sweeeeet!

Fishy Business at HB Kelong 17/9 - 20/9

We rushed off after work to arrive at Hotboys kelong about midnight on the 17th. As we always prefer fishing at night, we did not mind paying more to reach the kelong 1 night earlier. We had expected huge crowds during this Hari Raya long weekend, thus we would rather take a day's leave to fish in relative peace and quiet.

True enough, we were happily sharing the kelong with around 10 other people for the first 2 nights. However, the kelong was swamped with people who arrived in droves on Saturday morning. Many of them were families with children on holiday and not anglers out for serious fishing. Even then, we had to jostle for space sometimes among the tamban rig and sotong lure wielding holiday makers...

Well, despite all that we were very happy with this trip because of this...

Big parrotfish caught at kelong!

I was patiently eging the previous night when I spotted a crab swimming on the surface of the sea. Unlike most crabs we usually see which are only about 1 inch plus across, this one was almost 3 inches. Intrigued, I decided to scoop it up with a net and place in a plastic container with about 1 cm of seawater to use for bait the next morning.

On Saturday the 19th, I woke up at 630am. After the usual morning ablutions, I walked over to take a look at the crab - which was still alive. Great! I thought. As the current was rather slow, a paternoster rig with a single Owner size 2/0 hook was chosen. I casted this out with my Abu Garcia Tournament 9 feet rod paired with an Avet SX reel.

It as not more than 10 minutes before we noticed the rod tip bending slightly. Must be small fishes nibbling at the crab, we thought. But when the tap, tap motion continued consistently, the rod had to be checked. When I lifted the rod and gave it a jerk to set hook, I was rewarded immediately with a fierce tug. Fish on!

The fish tugged energetically, but did not manage to pull too much line out due to the high drag settings - it was too near the kelong's stilts for me to take the risk! After a few minutes' pumping, the fish surfaced. Woohoo! We were expecting a parrot, but hugely surprised to see its size! Although we tried to land the fish quickly, the strong parrot managed to make a dash into the stilts. NO!!!

The line was kept in tension as we patiently waited for the parrot to come out. Luckily, our 50 lb braided mainline/ 80 lb FC shock leader/ 50 lb leader withstood any abrasion and a minute after, the tired parrot was dragged out and landed. :)

6.5 kg on the kelong's weighing scales.

We also amused ourselves at the kelong 'shooting' rabbitfish with treble hooks, using bread as bait. Read about the various other methods of fishing we employ at the kelong here. Unfortunately, thanks to anglers who used nets to catch these rabbitfish, the population is very much decimated.

Beware of the spines!

We managed to catch only 7 selars throughout the trip. Other anglers were also catching about this number. Guess we will have to wait quite a while before more can be caught during the monsoon season!

Selars caught on size 5 tamban rigs.

Total catch - 18kg.

The picture above shows only the fish caught, not the sotongs which will be another story coming soon... :p

Kelong, Kelong!

In Singlish, 'kelong' is used as an adjective to mean cheating or corruption (especially in competitions like soccer matches). To us anglers however, it usually refers to what it means originally - a wooden structure built on the sea for commercial rearing of fish.

The 4 kelongs in Sibu, Malaysia have long since ceased their commercial rearing of fish. Now, they are opened to anglers like us who can enjoy the experience of fishing on the sea, not from a rocky boat, but from a relatively stable structure. These kelongs are not really very far from shore, but the bait fish that enjoy the shelter of these structures do attract biggies from the area. It is not uncommon to get fish around the 1 kg mark, and records will show spectacular catches of up to 30 over kg!

So, while waiting for our CR, take a look at our past catches!

The fish in your fillet

I am a cheeseburger person. When I eat at McDonald's, I order the double cheeseburger, like, 90% of the time. The last time I had a Filet-O-Fish was when they came up with the double version with wasabi and seaweed shaker fries.








McDonald's Filet-O-Fish


Did you click on the link above? If you did, you might have noticed it is stated by McDonald's that they use 'prime white fish such as Hoki and Pollock' for their fish burgers.

Apparently, McDonald's nomination for Seafood Champion of the Year Award earlier this year was due to them purchasing their fish from sustainable sources. However, this New York Times article reveals that New Zealand had slashed the amount of Hoki that could be harvested by almost two-thirds: from 275,000 tons in 2001, to 100,000 tons in the last 2 years. Reasons? Hoki fish stocks and spawns are falling, the ecosystem is being damaged, and of course, the many other innocent species that are caught in the trawler nets.

If the trawlers can do this much damage to what is supossedly a sustainble resource, can you imagine what is happening in other parts of the world?

Ima-gination

I never knew this till I clicked the 'About the Company' tab on IMA's US website - that this name came from the first 3 letters of the word 'imagination'! Launched more than 10 years ago in 1998, ima's jigs and lures are now a staple in many Singaporean anglers' tackle boxes.

We have used ima Ro jigs to great success in Pengibu, both in 2007 and 2008. I am especially enamoured of the way they show the weight of the jigs using Japanese characters (Kanji). For example - an 80g jig has the words ‘八十郎’ , literally the '80(gram) gentleman', printed on its side. There will be a post later on our battle-scarred jigs and lures that we have retired from active duty, where you will be able to see how some of these jigs have 'survived'. :)

Anyway, now I would choose to pronounce this brand name /ˈɪmɑ/ instead of /ˈaɪmɑ/ !

MFF's New Look!

Just finished giving our blog a makeover. We love the new look and hope you do too! So, just indulge me and allow me to highlight a few items on this page, ok? :)

Countdown

This will always be showing the date of our next fishing trip, so our readers would understand when we will 'disappear' and would also look forward to our CR!

Flickr & Youtube links

This will open a new window where our readers would be able to see our fishing photos and videos from different trips.

Fishing Links

This is a list of links to fishing sites - ranging from forums to tackle brands websites from different countries.

Pleeeeease do leave a note for us on the message board to tell us how much you like our blog (I hope!) or what kind of improvement you would like to see. We very much look forward to hearing from you!

When you feel like puffing up...

Did you know that puffing up is bad for the puffer fish?

Well, I didn't know that too... so we should all think twice before puffing up in anger! Haha...

We are all aware that fish from the Tetraodontidae family, including the puffer fish, porcupine fish, burrfish and blowfish, all inflate themselves with water when they are provoked. Apparently, this inflation up to 2 or 3 times its normal size is very stressful for the fish, and it is even more dangerous (to the fish itself, not us) if it inflates with air when taken out of the water.

I only found out about this when I came across this puffer fish forum, many actually keep them as pets. I must say that some of them do look very appealing with their big expressive eyes!

I'm sure many anglers have retrieved their line to find a puffed up puffer at the end of it, so have we as shown in this Jan 07 photo. We released it of course, but some keep the fish for eating, as we have witnessed during one of our kelong trips! (We have a photo of the skinned puffer, but shall not upload it as I feel it's a little revolting...)

Now, many fish of the puffer family is highly toxic. This potentially fatal tetrodotoxin is present in the fish's skin, intestines, ovaries and liver, with trace amounts in the blood and muscle. Thus, Japanese chefs have to be specially trained and licensed before they can serve fugu.

I wonder what happened to the three anglers we met at the kelong... after they ate the puffer...

CR - 05/09/09 PRPP

It has been a week since our last trip to PRPP. With the 4 fish in our tummies and not taking up space in the freezer, we have an excuse to spend money at pay ponds again! Mindful of the pretty good water condition and bite rate over at PRPP, we chose to go there again despite stories of a large number of fish released at another pond.

We arrived around 430pm and after witnessing a couple of strikes, we persuaded ourselves that it was the right place to fish (we don't need much persuading sometimes.. lol).

Half an hour later, we were getting frustrated as there were no action for our rod, though a few anglers around were landing fish. Time to shift to Plan B.

We have noticed, on separate occasions, that even when the other fish are not in a feeding mood, the Golden Pompano would usually be the exception. Also, most of the fish landed by other anglers were pompanos. So without hesitation, we changed from big hook + whole prawn to small hook + 1/3 prawn.

Our glum faces soon had reason to smile when we landed 4 Golden Pompanos and 2 Golden Trevallies in the next 1 hour! I actually had a big take when fish were released at 6pm, but lost it when the fish dashed into the keepnet area and my small hook meant for the pompanos opened... :(

Suddenly, we noticed that 2 anglers opposite were getting big ACKs! But it was around 730pm already and we realised we had ONE prawn left. Undaunted, we decided to try our luck with this last one by walking all the way over the other side to tempt the biggies.

It was to be a rather long wait as the sun had set and the action had slowed down. Even the angler who successfully landed 2 big ACKs just now with his 'live fish+live prawn+fish meat' combo, had to sit back and relax.

Total catch = 6.5kg

Well, 皇天不负苦心人. We managed to get a 3.3kg ACK as our final fish, using that final prawn. Great fight too! :)

*Smug grin included*

Aroozoo Prawn Pond

Just found out about this prawn pond in Hougang. This is another prawn pond that has a Facebook page! The Aroozoo's guide to prawning is well drawn and very helpful especially to beginners, though I wonder if it's put up there at the pond? Of course, our dear readers can also refer to the MFF prawning tips, which is not so well illustrated but, I feel, more comprehensive! :p

Apparently, they have this Thursday Buddies Nite from 6pm to 3am, where a group of 4 anglers who purchase a 3-hour package each will get 1 can of beer free!

What is most attractive, however, is their Tuesday Ladies Nite promotion (also from 6pm to 3am). Anyone one who purchases a 3 hour package will be entitled to a free rod to be utilised in the same span of time. However, the recipient of the free rod has to be FEMALE. *rubs hands in glee*

Of course I'm going there soon!

Heeheehee... Opps, should be Hayhayhay... :)