My Fishing Frenzy

Goodbye...

2010-08-05T22:38:00.001+08:00

Dear friends

Due to personal reasons, I will not be writing in this blog anymore. Part of the reason being certain major changes that had taken place in my life will cause me to have much much fewer chances to go fishing.

I want to thank all of you who have supported me all along by reading and commenting on my posts. I had actually abandoned this blog, only to find out recently that readers have left comments regarding my whereabouts. If you really want to read more nonsense from me, you can go to 'A small fish in the ocean' in the future.

Hasta la vista!
Miaows

Old Fish

2010-03-12T23:25:00.000+08:00

After a month long hiatus, there's no more excuse to postpone the next post... no matter how busy or how down I feel. My dear readers, if you were patiently checking once in a while for new posts, I am really really grateful. *Blows kisses* I sincerely hope I do deserve your support.

Well, I've not been to any fishing trips at all during the past month... so I shall talk about an old fish today. An old fish? Yes, this fish was actually caught during our late december 09 trip to Hotboys Kelong.

Barracuda during curing process.

Instead of eating it fresh, we decided to get it salted. Not just any salted fish, mind you! It is what we call 梅香咸鱼. Unlike normal salted fish which is very dry, the method of making 梅香咸鱼 allows it to retain more moisture - resulting in more fragrant flesh. This is what a cross-section of the salted barracuda looks like.

The flesh of the fish retains its moisture and firmness.

If you had seen whole barracudas or queenfish hanging outside in the sun at the kelongs, you probably were looking at the making of 梅香咸鱼. I believe all four kelongs at Sibu sells them? (Not sure though...)

Simply frying a slice of this in hot oil gives you a very crispy and fragrant, yet not too salty piece of salted fish that goes very well with rice or porridge. Ok, I shan't say more... I'm drooling already!

Year of the Tiger

2010-02-13T23:30:00.002+08:00

Today's the eve of the lunar new year and tomorrow will be a brand new year (and hopefully a brand new beginning for me!). Here's wishing all readers a joyful and prosperous year that is also abundant with fish! Happy Year of the Tiger!

My new handphone accessory!

Free lunch?

2010-02-10T22:40:00.000+08:00

Was told just yesterday that the food I was talking about in the previous post, was free! Well, if it was really all free then I have to admit I was rather harsh in my comments. I must say that their generousity is applaudable, even though the quality leaves a lot to be desired... Kekeke...

Think if I do join them for another trip, I shall be so thick-skinned as to get the food money from them, go grocery shopping and then do the cooking on the boat. 他们出钱，我出力嘛！

St John's Island Trip

2010-02-09T00:02:00.001+08:00

Notice that I did not name this post as a CR, this is because we caught nothing. Yup, a big fat zero for both of us (not counting the baitfish and sotong caught for bait)! Sianz...

There were a total of 9 anglers on this trip and we spent 36 hours out at sea - moving from spot to spot around St John's Island and all the way to Raffles Lighthouse. The potential was there but maybe we had used up our fishing luck at the kelong and should have waited for it to be 'recharged' before going on another fishing trip so soon? Haha...

Anyway, it could also be due to the food on board that affected my mood. Now, I'm totally ok with the dishes concocted by any boat's cook or deckie - which is usually something like fried vegetables with a chicken curry for lunch. So when I was told that the organiser would be doing the cooking, I obviously expected the same standard right? However, saving some money is not a good reason for me to eat plain porridge with assorted canned (sodium and preservatives overload) food!!

Plain porridge with: canned chye sim + chye poh + canned mock meat with peanuts + canned fried fish with black beans + preserved beancurd

Sorry peeps, call me fussy or whatever you want but I'm never going on boat trips again with this organiser. Unless I'm the one doing the cooking... Hehehe....

Hokkaido Bento

2010-02-05T12:57:00.004+08:00

The bi-annual Hokkaido Fair is here again at Isetan Scotts. If you want to get the steamed King crab bun and the assorted dried squid I talked about last June, go now!

You may also be tempted to buy this when you are there...

Hokkaido Seafood Bento

There were quite a few different combinations (and this one was the most expensive at $35 each), but the sheer variety of seafood in this bento made it irresistible! Seven types of seafood plus 3 types of pickles on vinegared rice... Yums.... :p

CR Hotboys - 29/1 to 31/1

2010-02-02T00:45:00.002+08:00

As mentioned in my previous post, this visit to Hotboys kelong was a very last minute trip; it was so last minute that we did not check our 'kelong stock' and had to survive without a couple of important things (Eg. We brought only 1 set of size 4 tamban hooks) ! However, this was a very special trip as it was ZY's first trip to a kelong (Not counting the 2 times he went while in his mummy's tummy) ! Kekeke...

The action started very soon after our arrival... Look! There’s a fish on the floor!

2.3kg queenfish caught using live tamban

Actually the only bait available was live tamban and thankfully they were there in huge numbers. It’s very difficult to get selars recently so we just had to make do with big fat tambans. Sotong was also scarce - maybe it’s because of the full moon - but whatever the reason, we only managed to catch 6 sotongs for the whole trip. It was not for a lack of trying though!

During nightfall, the schools of small fish swimming around were constantly being scared away by barracudas which kept surfacing once in a while, so we decided to teach them a lesson. I was fishing in front while WT was fishing at the back. Guess what, we both managed to get a hook up - at the very same time!

The kelong staff, who were watching TV, saw me fighting a fish and quickly came over. 明仔 expertly gaffed my barracuda and went back to his supper. I left the fish lying on the floor and went to the back to tell WT about my catch, only to see him fighting a barracuda too! I rushed back to ask the kelong staff for help, only to see them run towards the front instead of the back. I then realised why - my fish had managed to jump back into the sea!

明仔 passed me my rod that he had grabbed in time and gaffed the fish up... again. By then, WT had lost his fish! His dad, who was beside him, found a long net (not only was the pole long, the net itself was very long too!) and tried to net the barracuda. But... the barracuda swam into the net and right out again as there was a hole! WT couldn’t pull the fish out because the angle was wrong, and when the fish decided to make another dash, the line rubbed against the net and snapped! So he had nothing to show for his trouble...

6.2kg barracuda caught with live tamban

Just before daybreak on the next day, a kaci and a small grouper was caught. The grouper was steamed for lunch specially for ZY. Yummy!

2kg kaci caught using fresh sotong

It is nice to get some variety once in a while - like these Kerisi instead of Leng Chiam!

The second day, during dinner time, a tengirri took our bait! The rod grappled with the fish for don't know how long before WT arrived on the scene and continued the fight. We were all slowly eating and didn't even hear him yelling for us to help gaff the fish! Luckily, the attentive kelong staff heard him and quickly went to his rescue. ;p

This fish is bigger than me! AHHH!!!

8kg tengirri caught using live tamban

All in all, it was a enjoyable and fruitful trip indeed!

Kelong fever

2010-01-28T23:31:00.000+08:00

Despite all that I've said in the previous post... we are going to Sibu kelong tomorrow! Kekeke... Hope there will be a good CR to share in 3 day's time! :)

Disappearing act

2010-01-19T22:44:00.001+08:00

First I must apologise for having disappeared so long from my last post till now, then I'm going to give my excuse - I was admitted to hospital on the 15th for a laparoscopic myomectomy. So what? You may ask. Well, I wouldn't have bothered telling you this if not for the fact that my doctor gave me 32 days MC... Gasp!

Before everyone start grinning and slapping me on the back saying how lucky I am, let me tell you that I am virtually 'bedridden' for the first week, not allowed to do anything that is stressful for the second, and highly unlikely to be anywhere near a body of water in which you can find fish for the entire month. Sob....

No fishing till Chinese New Year? Boohoo! :(

Kayak fever

2010-01-11T23:54:00.000+08:00

Decided to give kayak fishing a try. When my friend who owns a double seater kayak and asked me along, I accepted his invitation straight away. Actually I was tempted by the idea of harvesting fresh mussels from the sea structures. I tried those fresh mussels a couple of times before and they were fabulous! But that was many years back whereby I could still swim to the middle of the sea to harvest them. But now, those reachable areas are all barren already.

Due to some hiccups, it was around 8am plus when we reached the spot. We only had a few hours of fishing before the sun became unbearable. I was in charge of harvesting the mussels while my friend was fishing for bait fish. He would hook up a bait fish and park his other rod while continue his bait fish hunting. It was not long before his bait fish was taken by a queenfish. Subsequently, the bait fish was taken at an average of about 5-10 minutes, all suspected to be queenies. The bite rate was quite frenzied!

But due to our clumsiness on the kayak with limited space, the hook sets were not proper most of the time. There were about 6-7 takes altogether but we only managed to land 2 before police coast guards came to disturb us and we decided to call it a day. I tried luring for them on the surface but seemed like they prefer to loiter around at the bottom.

It was quite a fruitful trip considering that it was my first kayak fishing trip and without a fish finder. The battery that I bought for the fish finder was a faulty one, sianz... Next time, we will definitely return with a working fish finder and hopefully have more to show.

Total catch for the day

- Special report by QWT

More Bluefin Tuna...

2010-01-10T18:04:00.003+08:00

Yikes! It has actually been a week since the last post! Forgive me, readers. Last week was the first week of school, and it's not easy to get back into the rhythm of a working schedule after resting for about one month. :p

And yes, the lure of fresh tuna sashimi was too much to resist... We went over to Isetan Scotts again! Kekeke...

This time, I paid more attention to the prices of the different cuts of tuna sashimi:

Akami $190/kg

Chutoro $408/kg

Ootoro $480/kg

Isn't the price difference amazing? If you want melt-in-your-mouth tuna sashimi, skip the chutoro and go straight for the ootoro! This was what we bought...

Negitoro and a tray of sashimi including all 3 cuts.

It was definitely worth it!

Blue fin tuna sashimi anyone?

2010-01-03T23:54:00.001+08:00

I was shopping at Isetan Scotts and again had a chance to see a whole bluefin tuna, which was waiting to be sliced up by a Japanese chef. Even though I wasn't the one who caught it, having a taste of it would satisfy me as well!

This fish cost $195/kg

According to the staff, the one that was carved up yesterday was even bigger at 50 over kg!

Vital statistics...

Those who want to see how a chef divide an entire fish into different cuts and portions can make their way down to the supermarket at the basement of Isetan at Scotts Road. You have 3 more chances to see this - Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday (5th, 9th and 10th Jan) at 2pm sharp. If you do find yourself there, you have to try the sushi or sashimi made from these fish. Oishi!!

A registry for recreational anglers?

2010-01-03T01:48:00.003+08:00

According to the Tampa Bay Online, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) of America has started a National Saltwater Angler Registry beginning this year. The reason behind is of course for the government to be able to keep track of the number and species of fish caught.

"By registering, recreational anglers will make their catch count," said Jim Balsiger, acting NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "The National Saltwater Angler Registry is an important tool that will enable us to better estimate the health of marine fisheries so that we're able to preserve the pastime of recreational saltwater fishing for generations to come."

This will work, assuming that all regulations and restrictions like bag limits are strictly adhered to. In addition, anglers must willingly register and conscientiously report their catch every time.

Hmm... Having witnessed people 'dabao-ing' their catches from reservoirs in Singapore and wishing that there are stringent checks by the relevant authorities, do you think this will work in America?

Auld Lang Syne

2009-12-31T22:11:00.001+08:00

Do anyone still sing this song on New Year's eve? Guess not... people are more likely to be grooving to hip hop then sitting round a table reminiscing, yah?

Well, there's only a couple of 2009 hours left before we welcome 2010. No matter where you are or what you are doing, I would like to wish all of our readers a very very happy 2010. Thank you all for the support in 2009, and we hope we can continue to see our readership rising steadily. :)

Tight lines everybody!

More on Hotboys kelong (24/12 - 27/12)

2009-12-29T17:04:00.001+08:00

The great number of bait fish I caught on this trip is something I have not experienced for quite a long time. How I missed hauling strings and strings of tambans out of the sea, especially if the tambans are big and fat ones! Five or six of them on tamban hooks can be really fun, as they put up a reasonably good fight for their size.

Tambans are good bait for many varieties of big fish

These silvery fish not only caught us the cobia, one of them also gave us this barracuda!

1.5kg barracuda

There was also this funny sight of a small kerisi that could not resist taking a metal jig!

Ima Gun 40g

Last but not least, even though I did not catch any bakdao this trip, there were 2 landed one night. They were both big ones between 2 to 3 kg, and one of them was actually foul hooked! This tells us that sometimes you just can't beat beginner's luck... :P

Cobia again, upsized!

2009-12-28T15:19:00.002+08:00

From the title, it is easy for our readers to guess what we caught at Hotboys kelong (24/12 to 27/12) this trip... Yes, it's another cobia. This time however, it is a slightly bigger one at 19kg.

It was joy when the Aernos 4000 reel started singing. In 3 steps, WT had reached the rod and yanked it out of the rod holder. As the bait was a much smaller tamban and not a medium sized selar like the previous time, I wondered what it could be. With a couple of pulls, we knew that it was... big fish on!

19 kg cobia

Before I continue with the story, let me just interrupt with a small piece of advice - when you know someone is fighting a big fish and your rod happens to be nearby, retrieve your line and remove your rod IMMEDIATELY! We were absolutely exasperated with this uncle who simply pulled his rod out, held it above his head and told us to carry on! *Faints...*

Ok, back to the fight... After making sure that the cobia wasn't going to dash under the kelong, WT passed me the rid to have a feel of what fighting a cobia was like. For a few minutes, I enjoyed the feel of a strong fish trying to run away and regained line bit by bit. True to its character, when the cobia was pulled back, it again tried to fight dirty. I quickly passed the rod back to WT as I was not confident of maneuvering the fish away from the kelong stilts.

One way of maintaining control of the fish was to keep the line as short as possible, and to do so we followed the fish along the side of the kelong from front to back. Having fought a 15kg cobia only 2 weeks ago, WT confidently subdued this 19kg one and an experienced kelong staff (明仔) gaffed it up with one quick stroke. Landed!

As we still have meat left over from the last cobia, we took only one third of this one and gave the rest to the kelong staff. Some pieces were also given to other anglers staying there. One of them made cobia sashimi on the spot and left it to chill. We were asked to partake the sashimi together with wine that night! Yums! :)

Barracuda fish & chips

2009-12-23T11:00:00.006+08:00

Was wondering how to cook a couple of fillets from the barracuda caught by WT during the last kelong trip... then decided to make fish and chips!

Batter-dipped fish, sotong & prawns

Haha... you would realise from the photo that there are no fries. Yup, I was so tired after frying this plateful that I decided not to fry the chips. The batter I used this time was only so-so for the sotong and prawns, I actually prefer this recipe for deep-fried squid and this recipe for Wasabi prawns. For the fish, however, it was scrumptious!

Looks pretty good yah?

Deep-fried Fish in Beer Batter

500g boneless filets of fish
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
juice of 1 lemon/ 3 limes

1/2 can of beer (You can drink the rest!)
1 cup flour
1 tbs paprika (optional)

1/2 cup cornflour
Oil for frying (at least 3 cups)

Add the salt, pepper and lemon juice to the fish and mix well.
Pour the beer into a large bowl.
Sift the flour and paprika into the beer and whisk till evenly mixed.
Dredge the filets in the cornflour, dip into the batter and fry till golden brown.
Serve immediately with chilli sauce and mayonnaise.

Tender fish that melts in your mouth, enveloped by a crispy skin of fried beer batter... Try it!

Freshwater pond fishing 20/12/09

2009-12-22T14:30:00.002+08:00

Wanted to go bash and lure on Sunday but it was not possible... haiz... To scratch our itching hands, we went to check out the new fresh water pond that opened only a couple of days ago in Bottle Tree Park - Fishing Paradise.

The price was $35 for 2 hours (CnR) with a T-shirt thrown in free. Even though it was rather expensive, we decided to try anyway. At the end of 2 hours, the only thing we had to show for our continuous effort in casting and retrieving several different soft rubber lures was... this photo of the view...

Good to see, not good to fish

There were quite a bit of surface action, especially when fish pellets were thrown in by the tackle store staff, but the fish didn't seem to be hungry or aggressive enough to want to take lures. We felt something a couple and times and when we tried to strike, the hook came back with a scale impaled - obviously not a bite!

We were terribly disappointed and thus were easily persuaded to spend $15 for 2 hours at the other freshwater pond at Farmway 3 by our friends Desmond and EH.

Men at work

The situation here was much better! Well, we still did not manage to land any fish, but there very many takes and 2 short-lived fights (hooks probably weren't set properly). Moreover, Desmond and EH landed a Chao Praya catfish and a Pacu respectively, not to mention several extended fights that ended prematurely thanks to crossed lines.

Well, if we want to go to a freshwater pond next time, you know where we will be!

Ah Ngan Kelong CR - Fish

2009-12-21T01:12:00.004+08:00

It's NE monsoon again, time of the year when we will go kelong more often! Supposedly there should be selars in abundance, but for this trip, the number of selars caught was just enough for me to use as bait.

There were quite a few sizable cobia landed on the kelong during my stay there and one of them was landed by me at 15kg. Lost another similar sized cobia by the kelong side due to poor gaffing skills by the Malay kelong helper. Lesson learnt, gaff your own fish if you have the experience. Even the kelong workers may not know how to gaff a fish properly. Both cobias were caught using selar as bait. Looks like very few selars may means they make better bait!

15kg Cobia

While I was fishing for Leng Chiams, my line unexpectedly ran out very fast. I was using very small size hooks (Owner Size 8, Apollo rig) so I had to be very careful not to let the hooks open up while fighting. Luckily the fish swam outwards instead of into the kelong. The first fish that came into my mind was a sizable batfish because only they are strong enough to exert this kind of pulling force and will take my small prawn cubes. But... usually batfish will swim under the kelong instead of outwards. So I was really confused, without a clue, and very anxious to find out. After some fight on my light tackle, I got my answer - it was a foul hooked barracuda! No wonder I was unable to tell... -.-

Yellow-tailed Barracuda

Also tried some soft rubber lures after getting sick of the baby Leng Chiams and managed to catch... this slightly bigger Leng Chiam... again. It was quite a different experience on rubber though.

Leng Chiam on soft rubber lure

Was hoping to catch some saitoh as bait during the night as selar was really scarce. No saitoh was caught throughout the trip but I managed to hook up quite a handful of baby big-eyed trevallies using 'homemade' luminous jigs.

A dozen or so of these were caught!

Was quite fun on light tackle as well, and sometimes the bite rate was one cast one hit.

Overall the catch was not bad except the quantity of selars was way below expectations. Well, this doesn't mean the number of selars is fewer this year, this only mean that we have to go up to the kelongs more often to hopefully meet the fishing frenzy!

- Special report by QWT.

Ah Ngan Kelong CR - Cephalopod

2009-12-17T15:48:00.002+08:00

Cephalopod - Family of squid, cuttlefish and octopus.

Finally am starting to talk about my Sibu kelong trip at Ah Ngan's from 10th to 12th Dec. First let me show off my biggest cephalopod catch till date.

Bakdao caught using size 3 Yamashita (box)

I weighed it and it was 2.4 kg on the digital scale, which means my placing is still behind the 3 kg ones caught by WT in Oct and Nigel in Nov, both at Hotboys. Nevermind, I'll still have a chance to catch one during our Christmas trip! Kekeke...

The other interesting thingI would like to share with our readers is this.

Reef squid egg cases.

Our friend KK was trying to retrieve his line which was 'sangkot', obviously having hooked onto something heavy at the bottom. When it finally came up, we were surprised to see a rusty old metal dish-dryer with chains of reef squid egg cases hanging like Christmas ornaments!

Call me suaku, but I had never seen these before, so imagine my great surprise to see tiny baby squids, about 5mm long, swimming in those translucent sacs! To save these babies, we quickly lowered the whole contraption back into the sea at a corner that people are less likely to drop their lines. Unfortunately, some of the sacs were torn during retrieval, so I quickly put them into a container of seawater to revive them.

One of the reef squid babies.

We were very glad that they could survive out of the sacs, and could even squirt ink already! After about 30 minutes, I poured everything back, keeping my fingers crossed that they could escape being eaten...

Ok, that's all for today. Don't worry, you will read about the fish soon!

Sibu kelong... Again!

2009-12-14T18:12:00.000+08:00

If you are looking at the countdown and wondering why it says Sibu kelong again, it's not a mistake - it's because we're going again 2 weeks later! We went to Ah Ngan's last week and will be going to Hotboys for the next one. It will be Christmas on the kelong for us!

For those waiting for the Ah Ngan kelong CR, my apologies... please give me another few day's grace cos ZY is sick. :( He is has a cold and a very bad cough, which means he cannot sleep well and he cries a lot due to the discomfort. :(

In the mean time, let me share this photo of him which I personally like very very much. :)

ZY & Sevenseas + Stella

Our next Sibu kelong trip

2009-12-08T01:48:00.000+08:00

This year, we started the practice of going to the kelong at night so we have an extra night of fishing time. Not only is it much cooler, there is also less competition as most of the other people would be sleeping. We go Hotboys kelong most often and always have no problems arranging for special transport (at an additional cost of course), and thus assumed that all the kelongs also offer this option.

This time round we decided to go Ah Ngan instead. We have been there before but never arriving at night, so we only found out a couple days ago that they don't send boats out at night due to safety issues. Surprised, we called all the other kelongs to check. Conclusion: Hotboys & Ah Fatt - yes, Ah Ngan & Ah You - no.

Perhaps Ah Ngan and Ah You, being further out at sea, experience stronger/faster currents and therefore have to be more concerned about the potential dangers of transporting customers at night?

Irukandji jellyfish

2009-12-06T01:52:00.001+08:00

Read in Saturday's Straits Times that a 29 year-old man was critically ill after he was stung by Irukandji jellyfish while diving in waters off northern Australia.

The Irukandji jellyfish is related to the more well-known box jellyfish, and is as deadly. Actually, it is more dangerous due to its size... or in fact, its lack of size. How do you avoid something when its so small (a mere 2.5 cm) you don't notice it at all?

Photo from www.irukandjijellyfish.com

The victim may only feel slight discomfort immediately after being stung, but after about 30 minutes, severe symptoms - including vomiting, profuse sweating, headache, agitation, rapid heart rate and very high blood pressure - may appear. These symptoms are collectively named the Irukandji Syndrome. You can read more about the syndrome at www.jellyfishfacts.net.

Luckily, these critters are found mainly in Queensland, Australia. Singaporean anglers need not worry about them. For treatment of stings by jellyfish commonly found in our region, go to the MFF article on venomous sea creatures!

Albino Sailfish caught in Mexico

2009-12-04T15:19:00.001+08:00

Reported in the Los Angeles Times was this rare albino sailfish that was white all over with brownish pink eyes. It was caught on the 28th of Nov, with live bait and fought about 15 mins before being landed and then released by the angler. Similar albino sailfish had been caught in that region before but I suppose none in South East Asia?

Photo from Pisces Sportfishing

Wonder if Singaporeans would have a chance to catch such a fish in Rompin or Pekan? By the way, this was his first ever sailfish! And I'm still waiting for mine...

Updates to our Andaman Islands trip

2009-12-01T12:34:00.001+08:00

Received word today that we definitely are changing our plans. Other than the fact that we will be going on a different day ($$$ flying into the pockets of budget airlines), we will be going on day trips instead of living on board for the length of the trip.

Gamefishing India - Halcyon II

There are 6 of us, so we will be taking 2 speedboats out - the Halcyon, and the Halcyon II. Fishing will be from 8am in the morning to 5pm on the boats but we will try to negotiate for longer fishing hours or try fishing from the jetty. Hehe...

Our boat sank!

2009-11-29T00:07:00.001+08:00

We received word on Wednesday that the boat we took to the Similan Islands, which is also the one we were supposed to take for the Andaman Islands, had sank!

The boat that 'blindly' struck some rocks.

The Blindstrike is a charter boat based in Phuket, Thailand. Apparently, the boat was out on a fishing trip at the Similan Islands when it struck some shallow rocks, and the damage to the hull was enough to sink the ship.

The first thought that entered my mind was... Heng ah! I mean, we were there just a couple of weeks ago, and it could have happened to us! *Shudder* When I bought travel insurance for the trip, it was to guard against the possible scenario of missing or damaged luggage more than anything else! So people, remember to purchase travel insurance when you go fishing to protect yourselves! *Touches wood*

MFF T-shirts Clearance Sale!

2009-11-25T22:26:00.001+08:00

Hey all! MyFishingFrenzy is holding a year-end clearance sale with discounts up to 60%! Everything, and I mean everything, is going at $8* each!

Go to our website www.myfishingfrenzy.com and take a look at the short-sleeved and long-sleeved T-shirts, and caps. Act fast, as sizes are limited hor!

*Delivery/postage charges not included.

Similan Islands - AOB

2009-11-24T18:23:00.001+08:00

The Similan Islands trip was 3D4N, but our fishing time was only about 30 hours (not including the almost 20 hours of travelling on the boat). So what did we do the rest of the time? Here's some of the more interesting things we came across.

As it is next to impossible for us to ever have a chance to fire a real gun in Singapore, the guys were eager to practise what they learnt in NS at the Phuket shooting range. At 890 baht (S$38), they get to fire 10 bullets.

Wind direction, check. Wind speed, check. FIRE!

The sharpshooter of the group, yeah!

As we were strolling down the street of Phuket, I spotted this on the menu of the local McDonalds and bought one to try. Not bad!

Broccoli, mushrooms and cheese instead of apples in the pie.

Last but not least, check out this photo of a pushcart selling plush toys. Something special's in there that's definitely not for sale!

'Woof woof! I'm much cuter than all these toys!'

Similan Islands - The action

2009-11-22T14:16:00.003+08:00

The journey was much longer and tougher than expected, we felt a little seasick but recovered once we reached the first jigging spot. It was a 8 plus hour journey before we had a chance to wet our lines. Very soon, the first fish of the trip, a red grouper, was landed... yes, by me. :)

JM blue/silver Alien 150g

Our favourite sashimi fish - the yellow finned tuna. Tasted really tender and went well with the super strong China-made wasabi. Simply superb!

Shibuki 186mm 80g sinking

Appetiser for our dinner that day!

The terrorist on the left, who worked hard to strike terror into the hearts of the local fish population, was rewarded with this 10kg GT. It whacked the lure 3 times, following all the way till it was finally hooked!

Gunz Tailwalk

Having caught the appetiser, it's time to catch the main dish for dinner...

Shout Stay blue/pink 130g

Another fish on the Shout Stay, this time a baby amberjack.

Shout Stay blue/pink 130g (again!)

The other terrorist on board also caught a baby amberjack.

Jigace

The above mentioned terrorist was the one who caught this poisonous lionfish, which nobody dared to pose with. Hehe...

Lionfish on jig!

The jig fell out when this fish was landed, so we can't share what it was that tempted this fish to bite.

Green Jobfish

Another green Jobfish.

JM Alien silver 150g

There were times when the screen of the fishfinder lifted our hopes and renewed our jigging enthusiasm, only to be disappointed.

Characters straight out of Sherman's Lagoon!

That was when I finally caved in and tried baiting with leftover tuna on tamban jigs to see what fish were swimming down there but didn't like the taste of metal.

Lo jiak, lo jiak... but it was a trigger fish spot. :(

Luckily, a couple of Potato fish came up too. :)

The hardworking crew transformed our catch into these tasty dishes.

Potato fish with sweet and sour sauce, yumz!

Deep-fried grouper with Thai chilli sauce.

Disclaimer: The fish that were sacrificed on this trip were the 2 groupers, 2 potato fish and the YFT. All other fish were released immediately after photo-taking. :p

Similan Islands - The Prelude

2009-11-20T02:48:00.003+08:00

Hehehe... I know I took a longer rest than originally intended, but finally, here's the 1st installment of the Similans CR. :)

Similan is a chain of 9 islands off Khao Lak, home to the best diving and snorkeling sites in Thailand. As it was made into a national park in 1982 and fishing was banned within the boundaries, we had to fish a distance away. That certainly did not discourage us, as we were sure that some fish will definitely be swimming around the area right?

We arrived in Phuket Saturday evening. While our luggage made their way to the boat, we made our way to a restaurant for dinner.

Entrance of the restaurant

The food that was ordered were the usual seafood dishes, but one was worthy of mention - the oysters!

Oysters cost 30 baht each.

The oysters were pretty fat and juicy, but what made an impression was the condiments they served the oysters with. Other than the usual lemon (in this case it was green), there was salt, garlic slices, chilli paste, cut chilli padi, pepper, fried shallots and this green plant as seen in the photo!

I nibbled a stalk of the green plant to see how it tastes like... and... it tasted... green? Err... I know this sounds lame, but there really wasn't anything special about it... it's just like eating tender grass shoots! Maybe there's some medicinal quality? If you know, please tell me. Cos I was too shy to ask the waitresses!

Anyway, despite the options available, I chickened out and ate the oysters with lemon and salt only. Kekeke...

After the dinner, we were ferried to the boat and our long journey to the fishing spots started... (To be continued! :p)

Am I really on dry land?

2009-11-18T13:56:00.000+08:00

The boat docked Monday evening and Tuesday was spent getting massages and shopping in Phuket. So why am I still woozy??? Sorry peeps, comes back another day. I'm suffering from post-voyage seasickness... :(

Please, no more rubbish in the sea...

2009-11-14T01:08:00.003+08:00

Just want to leave our readers with some food for thought till our next CR, which will probably appear on the 18th or 19th of November!

I try my very best not to litter, especially when I'm out at sea. Of course, there are times when I have no control over the rubbish I created - like when a boatman or a kelong staff dumps the rubbish we carefully bagged... into the sea.

Picture of plastic confetti from www.nytimes.com

I personally feel that biodegradable stuff like unfinished food is ok, but not plastic. Instead of decomposing, plastic will only breakdown into smaller and smaller pieces. Evidence of trash causing harm to sea creatures is well documented, but did you know that the tissue of certain fish contain some of the same chemicals as plastic?

Imagine these toxins being transfered to larger and larger fish and then back to ourselves!

Our luggage for the Similans

2009-11-13T11:46:00.002+08:00

If you look over at the countdown timer on the left, you would notice that it's less than 24 hours to the Similans trip. Woohoo! Obviously, we had to have packed our luggage by now.

In view of this upcoming trip and the Andamans next year, we decided to splurge a little and thus purchased 2 new Carlton suitcases with hard shells. They were bought at the Robinson's Expo Sale and the total cost was S$369. (Supposedly at a discount, though I am not sure if I believe they are really sold at an original price of £255 = S$590 according to their website!

The 75cm purple and 82cm lime green posing with the rod-tube.

We put all the reels into those big waterproof plastic storage boxes before loading them into the suitcases, hoping that they will arrive safe and sound (Fingers crossed for gentle handling by the airport staff...)! The suitcases each weigh almost 20kg, thanks to the reels, jigs and assorted fishing barang barang we are bringing, so any shopping would have to be hand-carried on our way back!

Cheaper SC eging lure in SG

2009-11-11T08:46:00.000+08:00

Haiz... just found out the other day when we were at Changi that the Surecatch eging lure is selling at $1.40 in Singapore... and I went all the way to Permas Jaya to pay RM5 = S$2!

Hahaha...

Well, but we did save quite a bit on the Rapala lures which are a couple bucks cheaper each... so it's not that bad.

Lovely dinner at Jaan

2009-11-09T00:22:00.004+08:00

This post has nothing to do with fishing, but I just have to talk about the lovely fish dishes we had Saturday evening at Jaan par Andre! We liked almost everything, but the otoro and the marbled goby were exceptional. Here are the photos to drool over...

Our dinner menu.

Free house wine for card members' on their birthdays!

Squid ink and parmesan twigs with eggplant dip.

Amaebi on raspberry sangria sorbet, with lemongrass jelly.

'Forgotten vegetables' - eating this was really like wondering through a secret garden!

Melt-in-your-mouth grilled otoro with charcoal powder, with what I think was shoyu jelly... my favourite dish of all!

Foie gras mousse and sandwich.

Marbled goby with crab wonton.

The fish was baked till just cooked, which made it incredibly tender yet not fishy at all. A mouthful of the fish with some amaebi and caviar... heavenly! Easily the best soon hock I've ever eaten.

Roasted saddle of lamb with puffed wild rice carbonara.

Dessert!

Coffee, tea and petit fours.

Complimentary birthday cake!

Getting the Amex credit card that gives you Feed-at-Raffles privileges of 50% discount was a superb deal! We'll definitely be back...

A comparison of 3 eging lures

2009-11-06T10:00:00.000+08:00

As mentioned in my previous post, we went Permas Jaya on Sunday to stock up on lures (Hehe... guess where we'll be using them?). While browsing the eging lures section in Fishingline, one of the friendly sales staff recommended the SureCatch WuHuang Squid (舞皇 - Dancing King). He actually singled out the one that came with a light that flashed when the lure touched water, but the smallest size for that design was 2.5, so I didn't like it as much. My favourite to use at the kelongs is size 2, as this catches even the smaller squid that we sometimes hook alive and throw out as bait.

The size 2 without lights.

I did, however, buy the size 2 version. I already have lots of eging lures at home, but decided to give this a try as it looks quite like a Yamashita! When I reached home, I immediately took out the different lures for a comparison.

3 lures in ascending prices from top to bottom.

The very first one is the Surecatch (S$2), the middle one is the Yamashita that comes in a plastic pouch (around S$10) and the bottom is the Yamashita packaged in a plastic box (around S$15). Let's take a closer look at the differences in the lures.

Prawn A

Prawn B

Prawn C (sorry, no new piece!)

The first obvious difference is in the eyes - C has a better quality red coloured eye while A and B uses tacky looking plastic stick-ons. I have no idea if better eyes attract more squid, but I suppose the overall aesthetics is definitely more pleasing to the angler!

The second difference is in the sinker - C has a more aerodynamic shaped sinker that most probably has a subtle effect on the way the lure sinks. A has a similar looking one that maybe 'borrowed' from the original, but B's sinker looks... er... like a small metal tombstone?

Thirdly, the feathers. Despite having caught 20 over squid, C has still quite a bit of feathers remaining. A has a big bunch, and B has one lonely feather. The fluttering of the feathers in the water is meant to simulate the feelers of the prawns and also create a little resistance in the water when the lure is pulled forward. So... I guess it's quite essential.

Fourth in this list is the body. Notice that the shape of B and C is pretty similar, while A is different (probably modelled after the Yozuris?) More importantly, notice that the brightly coloured reflective backing is present in the entire lure for A and C, but only partially for B.

Finally, the spikes at the end. All 3 lures come with a double set of spikes, but only B has plastic tubing round the middle. Also, B's spikes are more vertical, pointing towards the top of the lure, while the other 2 point at a wider angle outwards. A's spikes are smaller among all, and feels also weaker. However, even C's spikes actually opened a couple of times when bigger squid were landed so checking for 'structural integrity' is a must whichever lure you use.

To sum up, there is usually a direct correlation between price and quality, as you can see from the appearance of these lures. Nevertheless, some cheaper lures may work pretty well too. My personal take on this issue is that - experience and technique are still the most important factors, but good lures do give you an edge over others using those of average quality.

I am already convinced that the Yamashita that comes in a box is worth paying for, I shall try the others during my next kelong trip and then report on their effectiveness. Stay tuned! :p

Prawning in JB?

2009-11-02T11:03:00.001+08:00

Saw this flyer when we were at the Permas Jaya Fisherman Tackle shop. There was another one for the fishing pond there, but I didn't take it.

4 hours = RM36

If the price is converted to Singapore dollars, it would be only $15 for 4 hours. Wow... Judging from what is written, there are 4 types of prawns/lobster in the pond - salt water prawns (grey prawns?), tiger prawns, white prawns (?) and small lobsters. You will even get a chance to recoup the price of your ticket if you catch a lobster, or even better - a lobster with a clip!

I am really keen to check this place out, but it depends on whether WT wants to drive me in... :)

Rainy day at Bottle Tree

2009-11-01T00:42:00.002+08:00

We were there today yesterday at Bottle Tree waiting out a heavy thunderstorm. There is no doubt at all that the monsoon season is here! Time to chiong the kelongs, people!

Anyway, the reason for our presence was not the fishing, nor the prawning, but paintball. WT joined Desmond and Neil for a paintball session at Red Dynasty in Bottle Tree. The three of them all play Counterstrike, so it is not surprising that that they would be interested in this somewhat similar activity.

Bang, bang!

However, being someone who hates confrontations and 'violence' in any form, I had no choice but wait outside. I did consider prawning for the duration of their game, and went to check the prawn pond out. I saw that they had an 1 hour package for $14.50, but when I noticed that the prawns caught were rather small compared to the usual ponds I frequent, I decided against it and ended up feeding the local population of mosquitoes.

A word of caution for anyone who is coming over to this paintball place as spectator - bring lots of strong insect repellant! I donated quite a bit of my blood to the voracious mosquitoes there! :(

Polarized sunglasses

2009-10-28T15:34:00.001+08:00

As all anglers know, we sometimes have to brave the wind and the sun to go fishing. Thus, a good pair of sunglasses will help keep the bright sunlight out of your eyes. A good pair of sunglasses with polarized lenses would be even better, as they actually allow you to see into the water by eliminating the glare. Take a look at this page for some explanations and illustrations.

There are many brands of sunglasses out there, but much fewer choices if we only want the polarized type. In Singapore, one option is to buy a cheap one that costs about $30 (e.g. Skyline) off the shelves from a petrol station and the other extreme is to buy a branded one that costs a couple of hundreds (e.g. Oakley) from an optical shop.

I was agonising over which to buy (there aren't many options in between) when I saw these in the Sevenseas tackle shop in Bungsamran during our last Bangkok trip.

They come with a soft pouch with belt straps.

If my memory serves me right, they cost 1350 THB, which converts to about S$56. The design looked alright to me and they sit pretty well on my noses (better, compared to the really cheap ones), so I bought one. They have served me well for the last few months, having accompanied me on trips like the last one to Pekan (I was wearing them in my photo with the baby cobia).

All in all, I certainly don't regret buying them. But when I have the moolah to spend... it will definitely be a different story!

Secret spot = Good spot?

2009-10-26T22:09:00.007+08:00

Yesterday, we went to a new spot that was recommended by a friend. I'm not supposed to say where it is, so I think it qualifies as a secret spot? Hehe... Anyway, it took us almost one hour of walking to reach that spot so I hope our readers would feel better about not being able to go. ;p

When we finally arrived, we eagerly started casting - one of us using a surface lure and the other a sub-surface one. Within a few casts, the X-Rap registered a few taps and then a bite! Though it was a baby and did not give much of a fight, it was fun to catch a wild haruan in Singapore! It was released to fight another day when it has grown older.

Rapala X-Rap. Delicious looking, yes?

Unfortunately, those looking forward to more photos will be disappointed... This was the only one landed! There was a strong take on X-Rap Deep, but that heart-stopping fight was short-lived as the mainline burst due to abrasion. :(

There were lots of surface action, but no more takes. There were a few more taps, but that was all. We tried a few other lures but none of them seemed right (we brought only 2 suitable lures, the rest were sub-surface or surface types)!

In the end, we had to admit defeat (for the day only, mind you!) and went home. We promised ourselves that we would return with more lures and land the biggies!

Before I end, let me show everyone another interesting aspect of this place...

Yikes! What neatly positioned caterpillars!

I certainly hope we would have a much more exciting CR for our readers next time round!

Smart fish, smarter angler?

2009-10-23T16:50:00.001+08:00

There's a report showing that researchers have successfully trained certain fish to differentiate shapes and colours. This simply confirms what we have known for a long time - that fish can be smart!

Photo from www.nytimes.com

It is not uncommon for anglers who visit catch and release ponds to complain, after a certain period of time, that their lures are no longer as effective. The fish have already learnt from experience that these baitfish look-alikes do not taste good at all. What you get for your pains is not a delicious meal, but an encounter with silly humans who play a game of tug-of-war with you, pull you out of the water, take a photo of you and then throw you back.

Sheesh...

Who can blame them for getting smarter? So we better make sure we are ahead of them in this game, yah? :p

Self-service servicing

2009-10-21T16:41:00.005+08:00

Either after a long period of use, or after an especially punishing trip, our reels would show the wear and tear. Instead of bringing them to tackle shops for servicing, we decided to try it on our own. Of course, that would not be possible without the help of our friend - thanks, Jonathan!

Jonathan demonstrated using our Daiwa Hyper Certate Custom, and WT tried what he learnt on a Diawa Freams J.

'Deconstructed' Daiwa Freams J

'Deconstructed Daiwa Hyper Certate Custom'

That was on Sunday, and yesterday we went Beach Road and Jalan Besar to buy the tools with the new ball bearings and drag.

New ball bearings - not all were available in stainless steel.

Lubricants and etc.

It's amazing what difference it makes after all the time, money and effort you put in. There's definitely much more satisfaction then enlisting the help of the service centres! :)

Arapaima at Loyang Dua Pek Kong Temple

2009-10-18T16:51:00.000+08:00

Went over to Loyang Tua Pek Kong (洛阳大伯公庙）yesterday night and was surprised to see 2 big arapaimas living in the pond in front at the main entrance. When I was there the last time a few months back, there was only the usual carp and koi. This time, I saw 2 big arapaimas around 10kg, 2 small ones about 1kg each, 2 small arowanas and even a Soon Hock that someone must have released quietly inside!

It was very dark so I did not even bother to try take photos. However, if you go down, you can try to touch the fish as it glides past you... for luck! :p

Deepavali CR from shore

2009-10-17T16:23:00.002+08:00

Getting fish in Singapore is not very easy, thus we always try to up our chances by going on good days according to the 'fishing almanac'. Heehee...

To save costs, we actually tried to buy live prawns from Sheng Siong supermarket. Unfortunately, they were sold out last night and stocks had yet to arrive this morning at 7am. Thus, we set off for one of our favourite spots armed as usual with 300g of live prawns from Pasir Ris Pond bait house.

As our last visit to this spot was about 4 months ago, we had again forgotten that the tides here are a little wacky - at least 1 hour earlier than the timing given in the tidal tables. The meant that instead of arriving 1 hour before the change of tide, we arrive during!

This would explain why this catch is poorer compared to previous ones.

The one and only squid caught!

While jigging with tamban hooks, I spied a couple of green-eyed sotongs following the baitfish up. I used my eging lure and caught one immediately! Excited, I quickly continued to try catch more, but... unlucky me lost the lure to sangkot!

This precious squid was 'dissected' to become bait, which then caught us 2 reasonably sized fish. The crab in the photo was caught as it greedily refused to let go of the prawn in its pincers!

2 fish caught using fresh sotong as bait.

We actually released a dozen or so smaller fish which we hope to meet again when they are much larger. :) The todak was caught by floating a dead prawn out. It was released after photo taking.

This was one of the 5 todaks spotted swimming around.

Well, we simply MUST remember to turn up much earlier for a better catch!

Pekan on hindsight

2009-10-15T00:40:00.001+08:00

Some of our friends asked if the fact that we did not manage to set hook on any sailfish was due to the hooks we used - I would say possibly.

We know some anglers use trailing assist hooks, but have also heard of horror stories of swinging assist hooks embedding themselves into the eyes of fish. Thus we simply attached the luring hooks straight onto the stickbaits.

Is this the best method or is there a better way? Or is the problem not with the way the hooks are attached, but our method of setting hook?

Hmm... ...

CR - 10/10/09 Pekan

2009-10-14T23:58:00.006+08:00

We departed Singapore and reached JB around 3pm on Friday. It was agreed that we would take half day's leave so the the drivers could have a good night's rest before fishing on Saturday. The journey took about 4 hours so we reached Pekan 7 plus pm, had dinner, set up our gear, washed up and went to bed.

15 rods + 4 bags for the 6 of us!

The next morning, we went for breakfast, boarded the boat and set off about 9am.

The 3 speedboats operated by the same boatman.

We were to go catch some baitfish for the sails. There were baitfish, but they weren't biting enthusiastically and thus the bait-well had only 10 over assorted fish ranging from selar to tamban to slimy mackeral. Some of us, including yours truly, was tired of the slow baitfish action and turned to eging. Yeah! It was a one drop one kill situation, with the familiar tugging from big green-eyes and arrows appearing only after a couple of bounces off the seabed!

Nobody got inked!

As the squids there were plentiful and all of reasonable size (you won't find those puny little ones I caught during the last kelong trip!), it is better to use sized 3 eging lures. I caught 7 within 15 minutes! The only regret was that we had to leave for the sailfish spot soon after I got into the momentum. Sad...

A pail of assorted squid... Yum!

Ok, the next part is when it gets a little painful to talk about. So pardon me for being brief.

When we reached the sailfish area, the boatmen rigged up 2 rods with baitfish and waited for the fish to take. Neil and WT immediately started casting their stickbaits, hoping for a chance to get a sailfish that they had casted, set hook and fought entirely by themselves. The two were to be disappointed.

Despite being armed with very good lures (Gunz Tailwalk & Shimano Ocea Pencil respectively), their hardwork and perseverance was rewarded only with misses. It was either that the hook just could not be set properly when the fish took the lure, or that the sailfish followed all the way back to the side of the boat without biting. Haiz...

There were a total of 5 saifish taking the live bait. 2 were lost and 3 were landed by the other 3 who made up our group - June, Vincent and Desmond. A fourth was actually caught when it took Vincent's jig, so he actually fought 2 sails! (I turned as green as my ima Ro jig with jealousy...) So people, do be hardworking. You never know what fish will take your jig!

I was jigging all the way too, but my catch was a 2kg cobia and assorted smaller fish like table sized Kerisi and Grouper. No sails leh... :(

My cobia on jig.

It was about 3pm when the boatmen suddenly said that the winds were rising and we should move to a bottom spot for some baiting. Despite our extreme reluctance as we had yet to fight a sailfish, we had to agree. However, the winds were even stronger when we reached the new spot and we had to return after staying less than 15 minutes! The journey back was a very wet one as rain started soon after...

And that, was the end of our sailfish dream... Sob...

Taking the wind out of my sails

2009-10-12T17:00:00.001+08:00

I am feeling rather dejected at the moment... The wind has literally been taken out of my sails... I fought no sailfish at all during the Pekan trip!

Haiz... There were 3 speedboats out together that day and each boat caught around 4 sailfish. The problem was... there were 6 of us on the boat and I was a gentlemanly gentlewoman who graciously offered to let 3 other friends fight first. So, when it was finally my turn to fight the next fish that took the bait, no more fish was landed till it was time to go back!

Boohoo...

My apologies to those who are waiting for my updates, will tell everyone the details when I am feeling better...

Sigh... ...

Pekan weapons

2009-10-08T19:14:00.001+08:00

This is part of what we are bringing to Pekan tomorrow.

A selection from different brands

From a friend's experience in popping for GTs in the Andaman Islands, we've learnt that swimbaits can be more effective sometimes. Moreover, it's less tiring (which makes it much easier for me!).

We know that many actually catch their sailfish using bait. To challenge ourselves, we've decided to try using poppers and these lures. The repeated casting and retrieving will also be good practice for our up-coming Similan and Andaman Islands trips. Wish us luck so we can come back and report to our readers which of these was the most effective!

Our new car is here!

2009-10-07T20:52:00.003+08:00

Yeah! MFF's new Kia Cerato Forte has arrived!

Proud owner in car

The reason why we could go on the Sep 09 kelong trip was that our friend Andrew gave us a ride (yes, this is the same Andrew that went with us to BKK in Aug 09). We were also going on the coming Pekan trip in somebody else's car, but not now. We are very appreciative of these friends and their help... but... nothing beats your own car on a long journey, just like there's no place like home! ;p

Anyway, if our readers should meet a light silver Kia Cerato Forte with a license plate beginning in SJT and ending with Z on the roads, wave! It could be us! Hehe...

Eat a goldfish?

2009-10-05T20:56:00.008+08:00

It is a known fact that bigger fish do eat goldfish - WT has tried it (you can go ask him for details!) with success - there is also a lure that looks exactly like a goldfish. Go to their website and look at the different colours!

Lucky Craft Kingyo

But... would you eat one?

Apparently, a woman in Houston USA fried 7 goldfish and ate 3. These unfortunate goldfish were actually purchased by the woman and her ex-husband during happier times. The couple have since quarreled and the man called the police to report her 'fish-napping' their pets. When the police arrived, there was no crying over cooked fish...

Looks like hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... for the fish at least. ;p

3/10/09 FW3 Prawning CnC report

2009-10-04T16:57:00.010+08:00

We heard about the special October promotion at Ed'sPro Pond, and so had to go try our luck. Unfortunately, the situation was almost as bad as the last time we went. :(

So while WT continued fishing with hopes of getting a big one (as usual, the boys were trying out all the different methods in their arsenal with little to show for it...), I decided to defect over to the prawn pond.

It has been a long time since I have prawned at FW3. The charges are rather different from the others.

I chose to prawn 2.5 hrs for $24

While I was there prawning alone, a very kind gentleman offered me some of his 'special' bait - cut chicken heart coated with a red powder. He apparently mixes this powder himself and there are people who buy it from him. This additive is supposed to attract more prawns and improve your catch.

Frankly, I cannot say if the additive is very effective as I did not catch much more than usual, but that uncle's total catch was definitely more than mine... So, if you are interested you can go look for him, as he said he is always prawning there every weekend morning!

22 prawns, not including the free prawns that were given to me. :)

It is very obvious from the photo below that the prawns at FW3 are all the bigger prawns with pincers, I did not catch a single female one there. Maybe the operator specified this with the supplier?

Naked prawns with a teaspoon for comparison.

As my last recipe for fried prawn wontons was a success, I decided to try make their cousins - prawn dumplings in soup.

Prawn Dumplings in Soup

15 medium sized freshwater prawns
5 water chestnuts
1 tbs minced garlic
2 tbs chopped spring onion
1 tbs fish sauce
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp chinese cooking wine (optional)
1 tsp cornflour
20 pcs round dumpling skin
150g caixin
1 litre water
1 cube ikan bilis/chicken stock

Wash caixin and cut into 2 inch lengths.
Shell and de-vein prawns, chop roughly into small cubes.
Remove skin of water chestnuts and dice. (Note: Do not chop both above ingredients too fine, or the filling would have no crunch.)
Remove root part of spring onions and dice.
Marinate the prawn meat with the fish sauce, pepper, sesame oil, wine and cornflour.
Add the garlic, spring onion and water chestnuts and mix evenly.
Scoop 1 tbs of filling and place in the middle of 1 pc of dumpling skin. Brush the edges with a finger dipped in water, fold over into a semi-circle and press to seal.
In a pot, add the stock cube to the water and bring to a boil.
Put all the dumplings and cook till the dumplings float up and the skin turns translucent.
Put the caixin in and wait for the soup to boil again.
Turn heat down to a simmer while checking to see if the seasoning is satisfactory. Add fish sauce and pepper to taste if required.
Serve immediately (with fried shallots and more spring onions sprinkled on top!).

Before...

After...

Final product!

The uncle who gave me the 'special' bait told me that he is actually quite tired of eating his prawn catch every week. Maybe he doesn't try cooking the prawns in many different ways like we do? ;p

Mid-autumn's festival

2009-10-03T00:05:00.001+08:00

Today's the 3rd of October, but it's also the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar!

Fishy mooncakes!

MFF would like to wish all readers a very happy Mid-autumn's festival and hope that it is 月圆人圆，事事圆满 for everyone!

'Gay Fish' - South Park

2009-10-02T01:23:00.000+08:00

I was feeling very depressed just now, and that depression was like a writer's block that prevented me from writing. Luckily, South Park came to the rescue (both literally and figuratively!).

I have been a fan of South Park for many years. If you can see beyond the foul language, violence and sexual references (that makes the show unsuitable for children), what's attractive is its very potent humour. The writers often make jokes out of current affairs, events and news, poking fun at the situation in a way that never fails to make me smile (sometimes even laughing out loud...).

So if you are in need of a good laugh (and is above 16 years old... Hehe...), do it at the expense of rapper Kanye West in this Episode 5 of Season 13.

Enjoy!

Water water everywhere

2009-09-30T23:08:00.001+08:00

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

2009-09-30T01:24:00.006+08:00

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

2009-09-28T19:08:00.002+08:00

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

2009-09-27T11:19:00.004+08:00

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

2009-09-26T22:22:00.012+08:00

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

Wash and cut caixin into approximately 2 inch lengths.
Boil the half pot of water and put the caixin in. Remove immediately when the water boils again.
Put the beehoon in and also remove when the water boils. Set both caixin and beehoon aside.
Chop the fish head into inch-sized chunks and add pepper, salt and cornflour.
Heat the cup of oil and fry fish till golden brown.
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.
Divide the beehoon, caixin and fish meat between 6 big bowls. Ladle soup over and garnish with fried shallots and sliced red chilli padi.
Serve immediately.

Kawaii desu ne!

2009-09-26T00:53:00.019+08:00

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

2009-09-25T00:14:00.012+08:00

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

2009-09-24T00:22:00.002+08:00

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!

2009-09-22T17:32:00.008+08:00

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

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.
While fish is frying, boil the 6 cups of water in a separate container.
When the fish is ready, add the cooking wine, then pour the boiling water in.
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.)
Add salt/fish sauce and pepper to taste and sprinkle spring onions over.
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

2009-09-20T20:09:00.012+08:00

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!

2009-09-17T18:18:00.003+08:00

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

2009-09-16T15:18:00.011+08:00

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

2009-09-15T00:20:00.008+08:00

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!

2009-09-12T10:30:00.003+08:00

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...

2009-09-08T12:43:00.009+08:00

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

2009-09-06T00:11:00.012+08:00

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

2009-09-03T20:19:00.006+08:00

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... :)

Tongkat Ali anyone?

2009-08-31T23:59:00.011+08:00

Q. What is as hard as wood and as straight as a... ermm... wooden pole?

A. Tongkat Ali (Ali's walking stick)

Okok... I know I sound silly.

Tongkat Ali extract has been touted for years as a natural testosterone boosting herbal supplement. *Wink wink* However, it is not the trunk of the tree (which really looks like a long straight pole!) that is used - it's the roots.

Anyway, the reason this plant is making an appearance here today has something to do with the fact that I'm a coffee drinker. Whenever I go overseas (Eg. Permas Jaya tackle shops), I tend to look around for unique food and drink not available in Singapore. Thus, I would always cart home a couple of special brands of instant coffee.

The above are just 2 examples of well known brands of instant coffee manufactures, but with 'flavours' not found in Singapore. In addition to the 3 (coffee/creamer/sugar), you see ginseng, Tongkat Ali and even Misai Kucing (Cat's Whiskers) added.

These coffee do smell and taste different from the usual ones, but I have no idea if it is due to the herbs or other flavourings have actually been added?

No matter what, I don't feel any difference even after drinking these everyday. Maybe it's different for the guys? Hehehe...

Let me know yah? ;p

Cr - 28/08/09 PRPP

2009-08-29T00:09:00.006+08:00

It's always a torture when anticipation doesn't lead to fulfillment right? So after the pathetic attempt on Tuesday evening, I could not resist checking out another pond. As our loyal readers would know, we are pretty much 'car-less' right now, so the obvious place to go was PRPP.

Actually the name has changed. But I'm used to the old name and everyone knows what I'm talking about, so let's just leave it at that ok?

It has been so long I've not done pond fishing on my own that my heartbeat was slightly elevated throughout. In fact, I behaved like a complete noob, and made an ass of myself. As I was the only female angler there, my unfortunate bloopers did not go noticed. :(

I had a take the moment I tossed my peeled prawn in. 'Woohoo!' I thought, and I haven't even paid the money! My drag was set pretty high and soon, a kilo plus Grouper appeared. Giddy with happiness and excitement, I decided to forgo the pliers and simply lift the fish up.

And... PLOP! It struggled, managed to shake off the hook, and fell right back into the pond. Sob... It didn't help when my 'audience' from the opposite of the pond gave a collective 'Aiyah!'

Ok, there's more, but I'm going to retain some shreds of dignity in front of my reader and shall just sum it up with a photo.

1 Gao He, 1 Ang Kuey & 2 Kim Chews

All the above fish were caught in the first 2 hours - about 5:30 to 7:30pm. With the last hour a very quiet one. Despite having to save up for the many overseas trip, I believe this pond is worth my time. So... I think I'll be back... :p

Cr - 25/08/09 Pasir Ris Farmway 3 Ed's Pro Pond

2009-08-26T18:48:00.003+08:00

Actually I would hesitate to call this post a CR... because... we caught nothing!!!

Yes, We could not believe it but we had absolutely nothing to show for it after almost 5 hours of fishing ($50 for 5 hours). After the unfortunate accident which prevented us from fishing in Permas Jaya, we could not resist going to a pond. We arrived at Ed's Pro Pond around 730pm and witnessed 2 hits. One fish was landed and the other apparently threw the hook. Encouraged, we started fishing.

All was quiet till 8pm when some fish were released. Contrary to our expectations, which was that a few fish would usually be landed immediately, only 3 fish were landed - at 10 minutes interval!

The next and final fish we saw pulled out of the water was around 11pm. From 730pm to 12 midnight, there were about 8 to 10 anglers but only 4 fish caught! To be fair, we saw a few leaving with fish. Was it that the fish stopped biting and went on a fast when the sun set?

During the 4.5 hours, we used a variety of methods and baits. We used a float and also did bottom spinning. We used live prawns, live milkfish, peel prawns and even lures! What did we get in return? Zilch. Kosong.

The water condition seem ok. We saw fish - Sagais, Snappers and a Taiwan Ngor - swimming past in the clear water, but why didn't they bite?

Haiz... Maybe it has been too long since we have fished at a pond and we have lost our touch? Maybe we should continue to save up money for overseas trips then...

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2009-08-23T21:05:00.003+08:00

Haiz... Haiz... Haiz...

Sorry for sighing and grumbling at the very beginning of this entry, let me explain why.

This very morning, MFF had arranged with friends to try fish at one of the Permas Jaya pay pond and of course, shop for more tackle. Unfortunately, we crashed our car on the way.

Yes, you heard right. We crashed our car at the bend of a slip road linking 2 expressways. It rained heavily last night but the rain had stopped by the time we set off. The good weather gave us a false sense of security and we did not take the slipperiness of the still wet road into consideration. So, the car skidded in the middle of the bend with the front crashing into the metal railings on one side, followed by a 180 degrees spin to hit the opposite railing at the back.

We have every reason to be thankful. First and foremost, neither of us were hurt. We weren't going at very fast speed so though the cosmetic damage (from the car scraping the metal railings) was great, there was no damage to the chassis or the passengers. Very importantly too, there were no vehicles behind us so no others were involved in this accident. Thank goodness!

Well, as we were quoted mucho bucks for the repair, we decided to scrap the car straight away and get a new one. And herein come the other reason for all that sighing - we will have to give up certain plans to go fishing in the next couple of months.

Why, you ask? Well, Kia cars are apparently selling so well we will have to wait till October for the shipment. With that, our plans to drive up to Malaysia have just gone down the drain because - NO CAR. So there goes our September Sibu Kelong trip and October Pekan Sailfish trip.

Sob sob... :(

10 to 13 Aug BKK - Random Items of Interest

2009-08-21T00:10:00.010+08:00

It was the 12th of Aug, after our day at Bungsamran. We were returning to our hotel by taxi, and we were grumbling as the taxi-driver had chosen to not to take the highway and the journey took much longer than we expected. Fortuitously, while weaving in and out of the city's roads, we noticed this 'hawker centre-like' with many stalls. As it was within walking distance of the hotel, we decided to bath and change before walking about 15 minutes there.

It was already around 9pm, so many stalls were closed. As we walked around the place to check out the few stalls that remained opened, we chanced upon a cart that had many types of insects displayed! The owner was actually having his dinner there, and we had to wait till he finished his dinner before he would serve us... so it was a good thing he was finishing already!

There were about 8 types of fried insects available for sale - ranging from ants to grasshoppers, locusts, larvae and worms. Each type costs either 20 of 30 baht for about 3 spoonfuls and are all eaten with a dash of sauce and sprinkling of spiced powder. Unfortunately, the stall owner spoke no English so he did not understand our question of what the condiments were. The entire transaction consisted mainly of excited pointing and jabbing on our part...

We then sat down to try the insects, which we hoped would go down well with beer. Well, all I can tell you is that most of them tasted rather similar - salty and crunchy!

I assure you that these look worse at close range...

We were slowly trying the insects and washing them down with beer when the second surprise of the day showed up. It was at first quite puzzling when we heard trumpeting sounds coming from outside the food centre, which we thought was from the noisy horn of a lousy driver. A few seconds later, there was a commotion behind and we turned to see 3 men leading an elephant around.

Yes, a real, live young elephant! One man sat astride on the elephant, one held small bags of sugarcane sticks to sell at 20 Baht, and the last man collected the money. We bought 2 bags and enjoyed the unusual experience of feeding an elephant. You only had to hold out the sticks of sugarcane in front of you. The elephant would immediately extend its trunk over to gently pluck it from your hands and pop it into its mouth. The bundles of sugarcane disappeared really fast!

We apologise for the badly taken photo, we were too stunned!

I guess we were more than happy in the end, that the cab driver did not take the highway!

CR - 11/8/09 BKK Bungsamran

2009-08-17T19:24:00.032+08:00

Ok, I know we should have written this entry first before posting the video, but we were so excited about the video we couldn't wait! I'm sure our readers would understand right? :) Anyway, I am still going to write about BSR in case some of you want to know more...

Bungsamran 's morning fishing session is from 9am to 9pm. Thus, MFF arranged to meet the guide at the pond at 930am and took a cab there ourselves. We simply flagged down a cab outside our hotel and showed the driver the map to BSR. The trip from our hotel in Silom (beside Chong Nonsi BTS) took about 30 minutes and cost 250baht including toll for the highway. Remember to flag a moving cab! A stationary one parked outside a hotel is more likely to quote you an amount instead of going according to the meter, and you could get ripped off if you don't know the usual price for that distance.

Simply print this out and show it to the cab driver!

(Source: www.bungsamran.com)

We would always choose to fish on the boardwalk instead of paying more for a bungalow. Total cost would then be: 1000baht - fishing licence for 1 rod, 1000baht - fishing guide and 200baht per set of bait ingredient. We only fished for about 7 hours till the 2nd set of bait run out, so if you are fishing for the full 12hrs, be prepared to buy 3 sets of bait.

The tables and benches along the boardwalk are actually numbered, but you can 'expand your territory' when it's off-peak.

View of the bungalows from the boardwalk.

The guide would actually help you to mix and form the bait, cast, set hook and finally net the fish - all except the fighting! However, wanting the full BSR experience, we tried our hands at everything. We were successful with all but the forming of the bait - it had to be just right - too compact meant the ball won't disintegrate in the water, and too loose meant it would disintegrate when you cast! In the end, we gave up and left that part to the guide... Haha...

Bread + coconut milk + bait powder + pond water = 1 big ball!

It would usually take 2 or 3 casts to chum the water and attract the fish over. After that, there would be a hit for almost every cast! Once the float sinks and the slack lines starts to move, you set the hook and it's fish on!

Avet SX + Abu Garcia Tournament 8ft

One thing to take note is that the wily fish would often try to dash under the boardwalk so that your line would be cut by the stilts. Be wary and ready to drag the fish away immediately when it goes in that direction.

Your arms would ache even more when trying to stop the fish from going under!

Unique fighting posture - sitting on one of the wooden stumps...

Bring a fishing gimbal belt to make the fighting easier.

Daiwa Freams J + Loomis & Franklin 9 ft

Daiwa Freams J + Shimano Caranx Pencil Instrument

Frankly, we prefer the photos of the fighting stance then these with the catch!

Remember to apply sunblock, or you'll end up like me...

Our favourite photo of the lot with a lovely C-shaped bend!

To sum up, we enjoyed ourselves very much. The eating, the shopping and above all, the fishing!

CR - BKK 09 Bungsamran & Boon Ma Video

2009-08-16T21:17:00.007+08:00

Here's the video we've just completed. We love it and hope you will too, enjoy! :)

Alternatively, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9_iYHNqGbw

for the higher quality 'big screen' version!

CR - 10/8/09 BKK Boon Ma Part II

2009-08-14T23:07:00.014+08:00

It was MFF's first time going to Boon Ma, so we brought an assortment of about 20 lures including Duel, Maria, Rapala, Surecatch and Yozuri. We found out that when the fish were hungry, they took almost anything; but at the end of the day, it was still the 'branded' ones that attracted the most bites.

Can you identify the lure in this picture? Clue: It's 'cheap'! ;)

There was once when I was using a 'cheap' lure and could get no fish after 6 casts. The moment I changed to one of the 'Players of the Match', it was fish on! Thus, it would be good to bring a few better quality lures to use during lulls. A very good example was when the workers came in a truck to pour buckets of baby tilapias into the pond at 2:30pm - the 'cheap' lures were no fight for the real thing!

Most of my fish were caught using the red-head!

The reason why that 2 lures (refer to previous post for photo) deserve special mention was that they achieved a laudable performance of at least 50% bite rate. That was how the three of us managed to land a total of more than 30 fish (despite a 1-hour intermission due to extremely strong winds and heavy rain). We lost count very quickly and took only a few photos - the rest of the fish were released immediately after hook removal.

Close-up of the farm worker removing my red-head.

Now, since I've mentioned hook removal, I would like to advise anglers going to Boon Ma to change the treble hooks on their lures to good quality single hooks. When I was tired of using pliers to bend my opened treble hooks back into shape, I decided to change to singles. I was glad I did that - the number of hook-ups remained consistent, without me having to worry about hooks opening!

KBLs will jump and shake their heads to try dislodge the lures.

One other very important point is - do NOT use lures that are too small! As the KBLs feed by sucking/inhaling their food, using too-small lures will mean a very high chance of having a lure stuck deep inside the mouth of the fish. Not only is it more difficult to remove, there's also a higher possibility of the injured fish dying. Using bigger lures would significantly increase the chance of a hook up at the mouth.

Using lures of this size would also attract the attention of more fish.

All in all, we certainly enjoyed catching and fighting the barramundis, which were all around 7kg. The experience of seeing a fish jump up to snap on the poppers/surface cruisers was the icing on the cake!

Curved rods, singing reels and jumping fish - bliss!

CR - 10/8/09 BKK Boon Ma Part I

2009-08-13T23:00:00.011+08:00

Two years ago when MFF went to Bangkok, Boon Ma was in the cards originally. Unfortunately, we planned to go Bungsamran first... So the next day when we woke up, the ache in our arms were enough to persuade us to walk in the direction of the Thai traditional massage spa instead of Boon Ma!

This time, we obviously had wised up. So on our first morning in Bangkok, we were eagerly waiting below our hotel for the transport to bring us to the barramundis. We were quoted 2000 Baht for return transport to Boon Ma, in addition to the 1000 Baht guide fees. As we thought that was very expensive, we asked for the address so that we could take a taxi there ourselves. Interestingly, despite repeated requests for the address of Boon Ma, the guide answered every one of our questions... except for that one. Hmm...

Well, with no way of telling taxi drivers how to drive there, we had no choice but to accept the 'package'. Luckily, Andrew, who chanced upon our website/blog and happened to be in Bangkok on business a few days before our trip, got in contact and asked if he could join us. We of course welcomed his addition to our group, as it meant someone to share the costs with! Hehe... (Just kidding, Andrew!)

Anyway, after an hour's ride, we arrived at the farm around 10am. After a quick word with someone who seemed to be the owner/manager, our guide brought us to a pond which was right in front of a small 'house' that had a toilet attached. Without further ado, we set up our rods, chose a lure, and set out to molest the fish in the pond. *cue - evil laughter*

House-like shelter in the middle of the rows of ponds.

The farm workers set this up when we moved to the pond beside.

Introducing... the players of the match!

Ok, I still have a lot to say but I don't like very long posts. So I shall continue tomorrow, yes? *cue - more evil laughter*

To be continued... ;p

Back From Bangkok!

2009-08-12T23:21:00.004+08:00

Actually wanted to try write part of the BKK catch report... but could not overcome my inertia to do so. Even though the trip wasn't too tiring, the ZZZs seem intent on making me their prisoner. My brain has not shut down but it is definitely on standby mode, so I have no idea where to start... other than from the beginning, that is...

I'm just rambling on and on but not making much sense right? Sigh...

Okok, I shall just do this another day... hopefully tomorrow? Please forgive me and do come back in a day or two, alright?

Outside the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok, on National Day!

Meanwhile... Happy Belated National Day, Singapore!

Hello BKK!

2009-08-08T23:18:00.006+08:00

Yes, this is just another announcement to whoever is out there quietly following this blog...

MFF will be flying to Bangkok, Thailand tomorrow morning! Yeah!

Haha... Well, if you haven't already known from previous entries, we will be there to fish at Boon Ma and Bungsamram. We will try our best to update the CR and photos asap, hopefully by Thursday evening, so you know when to visit us again yah? :)

Pond Fishing in Permas Jaya?

2009-08-06T22:44:00.007+08:00

Went over Permas Jaya, Malaysia (again!) to go tackle shopping. Usually, it's shop and eat then go home, but this time... There was time to check out a fishing pond!

Will all anglers go home happy? :p

Prices were definitely cheaper than Singapore! Weekdays - $35 and weekends - $40, for the standard 3 hours. With the exchange rate hovering around S$1 = RM2.4, it works out to be S$14.60 and S$16.70 respectively!

Well, it's actually not very fair to simply compare the prices without looking at the catch rate, but you must admit that the difference in price is very very significant! Of course, this is not inclusive of the costs involved in driving there lah...

Sheltered area for the rainy/sunny days.

Live prawns are sold there at RM0.80 per piece. A bit of quick calculation will tell you that S$10 will get you 30 prawns - only slightly cheaper than Singapore prices. However, anglers there were spotted using dead prawns with success, so... maybe you can save the money?

Keep net for the fish - we saw 2 to 3kg kim chews swimming inside!

No matter what, it is highly likely that we will go and try it out one day. If we do, you'll be the first know! :)

CR (Cook Report) that follows 1/8/09 CR

2009-08-03T18:36:00.007+08:00

Feel so proud of myself that I just have to talk about what I did with the prawns caught last Saturday. I cooked the prawns in 2 different ways and they were all delicious! Really!

Remember the 'BEFORE'? Let's take a look first at the 'AFTER' photos...

Wasabi Prawns

Prawn Wontons

Believe me, my photography skills may be nothing to shout about but my cooking skills definitely can pass muster!

Want to try my recipes out? Here they are...

Wasabi Prawns

10 medium sized freshwater prawns
1 tsp salt
1 eggwhite
1/2 cup cornflour
Approximately 1 cup oil for frying

2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp condensed milk
2 tsp wasabi paste/powder
1 tsp lime/lemon juice

Shell and de-vein prawns. (I chose to leave the tails on as I think it's prettier!)
Add salt and mix evenly. Set aside.
Combine the mayo, condensed milk, wasabi, lime juice and mix evenly. Set aside.
Dip prawns in egg white then roll in cornflour to coat.
Fry in hot oil till golden brown.
Drizzle the wasabi mixture over the prawns and serve immediately. OR
Serve wasabi mixture separately in a saucer.

Prawn Wontons

10 medium sized freshwater prawns
5 water chestnuts
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbs chopped spring onion
1 tbs fish sauce OR 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp chinese cooking wine (optional)
1 tsp cornflour
20 pcs wonton skin
Approximately 1 cup oil for frying

Shell and de-vein prawns, chop roughly into small cubes.
Remove skin of water chestnuts and dice. (Note: Do not chop both above ingredients too fine, or the filling would have no crunch.)
Remove root part of spring onions and dice.
Marinate the prawn meat with the fish sauce/salt, pepper, sesame oil, wine and cornflour.
Add the garlic, spring onion and water chestnuts and mix evenly.
Scoop 1 tsp of filling and place in the middle of 1 pc of wonton skin. Brush the edges with a finger dipped in water, fold into a triangle and press to seal.
Fry in hot oil till wontons turn golden brown.
Serve immediately. (With Thai Sweet Chilli if desired!)

Let me know about your results if you decide to try my recipes!

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

2009-08-02T11:33:00.009+08:00

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! :)

Like father like son?

2009-07-30T01:15:00.006+08:00

Could not resist buying this set of children's clothes by Anakku. We saw them on discount when we were in Gerik's The Store (Belum trip) and bought 2 sets - this one and another sleeveless one trimmed in orange. At 50% off they were about RM12 per set of top and bottom. We were kiasu and bought the largest size available, which was for 12 to 18 months, so ZY will not outgrow them so fast.

Maybe MFF should come up with fishing-themed baby clothes! Hmm...

The obvious reason why we bought them despite having lot's of clothes already at home, was the design! If you cannot see the words printed on the t-shirt, they are "I Like Fishing. So Fun!"

Can't wait to bring him fishing!

Casting Practice @ Upper Seletar

2009-07-27T19:36:00.005+08:00

This is the third reservoir we went to for casting practice and among the three, this is our favourite. Kranji had too many trees above that you have to look out for and also too many mosquitoes trying to bite. Bedok had this wooden railing behind you have to be careful of and also too many people trying to bi... Haha, no lah... they were all trying to take a look at the big poppers that were making splashes in the usually calm waters.

This signboard makes a lot more sense than the one at Kranji...

We also realised that Kranji and Upper Seletar are the haunts of anglers practising their casts... for good reasons. Thus we will continue going there every Sunday morning! Fingers crossed... :)

It's always a bonus to be able to cast with friends!

Crabs again... this time as pets!

2009-07-21T19:47:00.006+08:00

Fancy a crab for a pet? Now you can! Mini hermit crabs are now available as pets! I was immediately reminded of the huge hermit crab hooked up accidentally at Hotboys Kelong!

Greedy sea hermit crab that eats sotong!

This HaHa Crab company has a booth at United Square where there are about 20 crabs crawling around on sand. And all the crabs have houses that were 'renovated' - painted in different bright colours! For slightly more than $50, you can bring home 1 crab with a couple accessories in a small plastic aquarium.

Could not take a photo of the crabs, so had to take one of the poster.

Apparently, this is a company that has, since 2005, been legally importing these land hermit crabs to sell as pets, so please don't pick any crabs up to keep as pets!

Belum Fishing Trip Part IV - The Food

2009-07-15T21:33:00.011+08:00

Was debating whether to write about this... then decided that we have to recommend this to our readers who might be going to Pulau Banding!

So, if you are going... and if you are going to be there either on Thursday or Friday or both... do make the effort to drive to the Gerik Night market. This market is located in the town of Gerik itself at the open area with a "Pasar Pagi" (Morning Market) sign, every Friday. However, it is located every Thursday at a paved open area at the outskirts of the town, where the permanent police checkpoint is. We actually did not know of its existence till we saw a sign at the resort that offered transportation to the night market at a fee. We simply drove towards Gerik till we saw it!

Delicious Sup Kuey Tiow that we had for 2 nights running!

No, we have no idea why it's at different places (about 10 minute's drive away) on different days. And no, we did not ask. Yes, we made a 45 min drive from the resort to the night market on both nights. And yes, we stuffed ourselves silly both times!

Fancy any poultry? Get it at the Gerik night market!

Other than the fishing, this market was really a highlight of our trip. Unlike the pasar malams of Singapore, the Gerik one is a night and wet market rolled into one. You can get fruits, vegetables, meat and even fish at this market!

You will find stalls like this with fish, crabs and sotong displayed for sale.

And don't get me started on the prices! A bowl of kuey tiow soup with generous pieces of mutton is RM3.50, a piece of mutton murtabak the size of your hand costs RM1.50, a cup of teh tarik RM1, while a crispy peanut and corn pancake RM0.50!

The food section. Yummy...

The most amazing part of this all is... if you come back the next day, there is no evidence of the stalls having been there at all, the stall owners would clear every scrap of rubbish away! Can our local pasar malam stall owners beat that???