Singapore 23 May - The best session so far!

[IDPearl]

WOW – What a fantastic morning!

Arrived at the launch site at 6.20am. Not a breath of wind and a clear sky was there to greet us – on the smelly mud flats!

We set up quickly and off we went.



The sun was just stretching its arms and glowing a fiery red, over the heads of some cast-netters. Even TT looked nice today!






The water was like glass, so paddling was real easy.








As we got to the mangroves, some big splashes greeted us and got our pulses racing. So we drifted and cast lures into the small spaces around the trees. Over and over, but no takes. We decided to change spot, so I trolled a Yozuri Crystal Minnow behind. I’ve had this lure for about 6 years now, and used it only two or three times! Still got the original hooks on it!! Must change those now as they are looking a little old!


After a short troll, I had a big take – FISH ON!!!! Oooooooooo BIG FISH, BIG FISH!! The yak was turning with the fish – this was a strong fish! Not a violent fight, just powerful. As it came closer to the yak I saw it – a BIG CAT!! It turned beside me and headed down again. My drag was letting it take some line, but still with good control. Turned it around and it came up again….and down again…..up again…..down again. Finally it came up smiling. Actually I don’t know who had the biggest smile, me or the fish!




2.5kg safely on board, hooks released, wiped the slime off the lure and back to business. No more than 10 minutes after hooking this one and I felt another good tug! Line started to peel off and the rod was bouncing. FISH ON!!!! BIG FISH…BIG FISH!!! Woooohooooo!!!

This one felt totally different, much more of a fighter. After playing the fish for a while, she showed her true colours – IT’S A KIM!!!! IT’S A KIM!!!!! ("Kim Bak Lor" is Chinese for Barramundi!) Now my heart was pounding, pulse racing, check the drag, play it, play it, keep the tension. More line goes off and then she comes up again, surrendering. Out with the lip grip, careful, careful, open your mouth…………YAAAHHHHHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!











Sorry guys, this one didn’t go back! My first Kim and I’m gonna keep her!

After this, I paddled down another river and saw an Osprey sitting at the top of a tree – too far for a foto though, sorry. Another 10 minutes after this, on the way back out the river, a family of Otters was looking at me! These are the first wild Otters I’ve seen in my life and I was so awestruck, I didn’t even take a photo! They looked at me and then went whistling off into the mangroves. I am humbled and honoured to be in such a fantastic place.

[MAC]

Cracking Report Ian. A great read and some very nice pics as well. Keep em coming.

Kev

[Dave]

Great report and photos, that looks incredible and like an awful lot of fun. I'm heading over there myself in a few weeks but I don't think I'll get a chance to do any fishing. Although I'll be heading on to Australia so I'm hoping to do a bit over there maybe even try for a Barra or two.

[anthony2carr]

What a holiday.

[junior conger]

nice few fish

[davetilly]

nice one Ian looks the business for fishing ,it beats my trip to dunleorigh in a cold north west wind.

[IDPearl]

The winds are always warm, but the rains have taken the surface temp down to 26 degrees lately, during the monsoon season. Now the rains are easing off and the surface temps are around 28 deg C. The fishing should get better soon!

Was back in the North West of Singapore last weekend with Merv, Mathew and Richard. A nice early start led us to our first playground. After thrashing the water for half an hour or so with lures of various descriptions, Merv was the first to shout “FISH-ON!”. Merv was using his new rod – a funny bendy little rod about 4 feet long. He had given us a bending demonstration earlier in the car-park and this thing can bend almost double! In fact, it was almost bent double with joyful calls from Merv as he fought the fish – a small Giant Herring, bouncing out of the water (probably laughing at Merv’s little bendy rod!

Merv played the fish in and it looked like he had really enjoyed the fight on this light tackle. The fish happily swam away as Merv released the hook – before I had a chance to take a photo!

A little while later, Mathew had a fish jumping around his yak and another nice herring was added to the catch and release tally.





Not much action on the fish-finders this morning tho – even Mathew “The Human Fish-Finder” was having difficulty activating his tingling fishy senses, so we moved on. I was trolling a live prawn and a Squidgy. I paused for a little while en route to the next spot as I saw a little action on the fish-finder and my rod took a dive. I had a good fighter on the end, but as silver showed in the water, a large Catfish came up – much to the delight of the crew! Dropped her back in and looked at the slime all over my rig – yuck!





Spot number two looked promising with some interesting features on the profile of the seabed. One or two fish showed up on the finder and my baited rod took a dive as I had just cast out my Squidgy lure. I put the other rod down and grabbed the baiter. FISH ON! Up shot another Giant Herring and it proceeded to jump several more times, then under the yak, round my other line and back to the same side, now jumping with a Squidgy wrapped round the other line. I was now in a bit of a mess, with lines everywhere! Pulled the fish in for a quick photo and speared it back into the drink while it was still fresh and kicking.





Next up was Richard with another fine Herring pulling line out. This was the biggest of the four and is Richard’s biggest fish off the yak so far.





We carried on after this and tried a few more spots. Richard and I both lost a good fish each – mine because my drag was too loose and as I adjusted the drag, the fish spat the lure and Richard lost his mid fight when it spat the hook and left a very disappointed Richard wondering why.

All in all, another good fishing morning with 3 very good buddies.

Thanks for the entertainment guys.

Cheers,

Ian

[m.b3]

great to see ya getting out Ian. lovely fish and such a nice way to get them

[tafflure]

Some great fish and photos.

[alex1976]

nice fishing

[IDPearl]

Thanks for the comments. This was our last outing end March 2010!

Everything seemed to be wrong – dead low tide, no current, overcast and spitting with rain, but this was to be some of the best fishing we have had to date!

Merv showed us how to fish again with his live prawns beating the lures again. The fishing for Merv was frantic, with most drops producing a fish. Mathew and I were only a few meters away and couldn’t get the right spot – that Merv was sitting on!

His first few fish were Chermin and he suddenly had something bigger thrashing away on the other end of his line. Mathew and I were hoping it was a smelly catfish, but all three of us knew what it was really – a very nice Kim Bak Lor (Barramundi) of just under 4kg! On his next drop, his rod took another enormous bend and line started peeling off! This wasn’t the same as the previous fight and kept us guessing for a while. When the fish eventually showed its colours, we still got it wrong – we initially thought it was a big Chermin, but as it neared the surface, it turned out to be a beautiful Golden Pomfret – just over 4kg!!







Mathew and I managed a few consolation prizes of a few Chermin, a Catfish for Mathew, a small Grouper and an Ang Cho (Finger-mark Snapper) for me!











The following day, we returned to the water on a bright sunny day. Same time, same tide, but no fish showing for a long time. This time, I emerged the champion with the only fish of the day. First up was a nice Chermin, followed by a feisty Grouper which took a Surecatch rubber fish, followed by a really nice Ang Cho. I even missed a BIG fish as we were trolling back – straightened both brand new hooks on my lure!













Unfortunatley, I had an accident at work! I was fixing an air con unit at work to cool an area down ready for the Marina Bay Sands opening, but fell through the 3m high ceiling as I was about to step onto the ladder!


Broke my pelvis and 4 ribs! The ribs don't hurt much, but the pelvis is killing me! Just got back home, but won't be able to go yakking for a while!!