Fishing With Evan - 10 Apr 10

Was out with the family this morning. Like any typical Singaporean family, our breakfast was not exactly the most healthy. Went to a good prata shop at Upper Thomson Road and all of us ate, laughed and generally had a good time.

After 4 pratas (actually they weren't very big but CD sized ones), I decided to go fishing. Only Evan wanted to go and so off we went. I decided to go to Kyoto pond at Farmway 3. Thank God that I had passed my driver's license (after 30 years but that's another post) cause it would had been impossible to get a cab in or out of this locale cause the location is really "ulu" meaning that it in the boonies!

Just driving and listening to Evan was good enough. During the drive, we spoke about many things - his time at school, the quarrels and fights with his friends (fight-make-up-friend again), and I even had the opportunity to pray with and for him. My boy is growing up and I remembered that I once cradled this 3.5kg baby in my arms way back on 22 Dec 1998. This baby is now growing into a teenager with both angst and potential.

Fishing was fun especially with my son. We spoke more and I realised that the fishing was really incidental. Evan just wanted to spend time with me and I with him. The end result was 5 fishes but really if we caught nothing, it would been just as fun spending time with my flesh and blood.

We got back at about 5 pm, cleaned up, got Lucas and went to Leisure Park for dinner with Mum. I had my "alone" time with Lucas as he sat with me on the way back in my car whilst Evan was with Mum in her car. Lucas and I were just comfortable with each other in the car and we had a good chat. Was a really good time of just being together. After the stresses of the previous week with the different tragedies, it was a blessed time to spend quality and quantity time with the boys. Looking forward to the next weekend with them again.

RIP

Have not been fishing with the boys for quite some time. Just got back from the Holy Land and was planning ot do some fishing with them. However, just last Thurs, got a text from my wife that my old fishing chum had suddenly passed away. He was only 46. The last time we met was on 7 Mar and we were planning to go long-line fishing. I just could not believe what I read and tears came forth.

I went to the home where he was laid. Here was my friend. The same friend that was with me when I just born again into Christ. We were always hanging out going to different services and fishing. He was there where we saw a pod of dolphins and when I caught my 6kg cobia off Pulau Tekong on a sampan. We also laid long-lines off Changi Yacht Club and there we caught huge conger eels and groupers. We even fished off Pulau Pangkor in Perak and he was laughing at me for my constant chumming of the water with my seasicked stomach! He was a boisterous , larger-than-life generous man.

My mind screamed out "Why" did it happen to him? I did not know and over the last couple of days, it was tough. I had my Pastor pray for me and the peace of God came upon me. I know that my friend is with Lord as I will be one day and we will meet again.

Nothing prepares you for death. It is painful and sudden but in Christ, we know that where we are heading for. But one thing for sure, his memory lives on in my heart for he was a good friend of mine and I will miss him.

When I fish these days, I sometime think that my friend is fishing next to me with his loud laughter and comments - that's just him! I loved him as a brother. Somehow, fishing will never be quite the same again but one day, we will meet again on the other side and I read that there are rivers there so that means only one thing.....

Of fishing and Nerf Guns

This is a blog that is suppose to write on my fishing with my boys but so far, they are more keen to go playing with their Nerf guns. Both of them bought a Nerf Vulcan and both wants to be Rambo. The gun is built like a real General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) and it fires via a magazine belt of bullets! I have bullets shooting all over the place and its chaos. I had to confiscate the guns yesterday cause it was getting really heated. Only on weekends when I take them to an open space, can they start using them!

I did fish last Sunday, 24 Jan at PRPP. I have not fished there for sometime and decided to just go and not think so much. Paid and proceed to cast my line with the usual white squidies. A couple of knocks but not much action. Saw people hitting nice size snappers with fish meat but I resisted the tempatation to use baits and continued to lure.

One hour past and I was sorely tempted to use the KS that I brought. At the 1 hour 15 minute mark, fish ON! The line peeled off and fought the fish till it was subdued. A nice 1.5 kg ACK. Cast off again and fish ON again - WOW 2 in a row! Reeled up a real fighter of a mangrove jack. I thought that I hit a rich vein of fish but after the 2 bites, it was all quiet! :(

On the 1.45 hour mark, I decided to give luring a rest, changed the rig and used a large piece of KS. Cast and just waited. What do you know. The line started moving and I struck and before long, a 2 plus kg ACK came up.

Did not have further bites and it was getting late and dark. Packed up and it was a fruitful day of fishing. Now if only the Nerf Vulcan is able to shoot the fishes! Gotta bring the boys out and savour the outdoors. Enough of the Nintendo Wii, game boys, Nerf guns, TV, Internet etc......Did not have those as a kid and we just played with whatever our imagination took us. So next trip, the boys will be joining me for sure! Or else I am going to use the Nerf GPMG on them!:)

FW1- Return to Baiting

After breaking the duck at Kyoto Pond last Saturday, I decided to move to FW1 after getting reports that it was on the mend. I do not have very good memories of this pond cause the last 2 times, I fished there, it was nothing short of quiet. In fact, I fished at the pond in Dec 09 and paid $100 as it was a so-called "competition". I ended with 1 sea bass which to me was the most expensive fish I have ever caught!

I left the house at 8.30 pm after talking and putting the boys to bed. I got to the pond at 9 pm and started fishing thereafter. This time around, I decided to use baits which is a move away from my usual luring.

Went to the recommended spot and placed in the floater. Within 2 minutes, the float moved down and FISH ON! Out came a very nice 1.5kg Russell Snapper or as we locals would call it, an Ang Chor Kee. Within the span of 2 hours, I managed to haul up a 2kg Red Drum (Taiwan Ngor), a 2 kg Red Snapper (Ang Kuey) and 3 Golden Promfrets (Kim Chews). Yayyyy....my duck has been broken.

Went back home happy and called up my neighbour at midnight to give her the Red Drum and Golden Promfret. She was indeed happy and I was happy for her. I kept both the snappers as it makes good fish curry.

All in all, a great fishing trip and to catch fish after weeks of fishing in a no-fish zone was exhilirating for me!!

Fishing at Kyoto Pond - 9 Jan 10

After 3 fruitless fishing trips, I decided to go luring at PRPP. When I reached the pond at about 7.45 pm, I noticed that there were quite a number of people fishing but it was pretty quiet in terms of fishes been caught. I spoke to a chap and he told me that he had been fishing for about an hour and caught nothing. And I had thought that the operator had put in a lot of fishes earlier in the day as adversied in FK.

I decided to move to Kyoto and my resolve was to lure and not use any baits. I reached, set up my gear and proceeded to fish. First half an hour, I broke my duck (Hooray...finally!!) and hit a decent size barramundi. After that, I had managed to secure some hits but the hook did not set.

Coming to the second hour, I decided to change from the squidies to the bright luminous green Berkeley Gulp lures. After 5 casts, the water exploded and FISH ON! It was a large barramundi (estimated weight 5 kg) and it did some pretty spectacular acrobatic jumps. After about 5 minutes, it was no match against my GL IMX rod and new Daiwa Exist 1003 reel. Fish was brought up and picture taken before Mr Kim was released back safely into the pond.

2 hits but as far as I'm concerned, it was beautiful as I finally got my fishes!! Thank God for that!

Will post the pix up when I have the time to download it from my camera phone.

Zero Fighter

It's been a frustrating fishing time for me for my last 3 trips. Was a "zero" fighter. The last trip I went was last Sat at FW2. The first 2 hours was very quiet and when they released the fishes, I managed to hit a snapper. But it went over quite a number of lines and before long, the fish slipped out! Ahhhhhh......

Think that I had better just keep a low profile. Perhaps I will try to break the duck tomorrow or on Sunday evening. Will see la.....:(

Ubin Fishing - 17 Dec 09

I have not been boat fishing for a couple of years mainly due to my lack of "sea legs". In the past, my trips on boats saw me "chumming" the water. Not the best sight which is why I avoided fishing on boats as much as possible.

I was really bored with pond fishing and wanted to do something different. I asked my fishingkaki, Ah Lau (Old Man) Andrew, on whether he was keen to go on Thurs. He agreed and a couple of calls, the boat was booked for a day's fishing off Ubin.

When I got up in the early morning to move off, it was raining heavily....Uh Oh....but since we're committed, let's just go for it. Met up Andrew and Guan Seng at Punggol Marina and by 8.30 am, we're off on the boat captained by Ahmad.

Wasnt a really great day...the fishes must be on vacation! We moved from spot to spot and no bites whatsoever except for some tiny nibbles. Andrew did catch a small grouper but Guan Seng and I caught absolutely nothing, except for some insignificant nibbles. Could it have been the rainy weather, tide change or our fishing rigs?

Ahmad tried his best to bring us to different spots and by 3 pm, he decided to try one last spot for some small "gelamas" which are just 15 cms in length but taste good when steamed. We had to change rigs to small hooks but the gelamas werent home! This was getting stranger that even the spot for small fishes yielded nothing? Global warming perhaps?? We were staring at the abyss of not catching anything!

At about 4 pm, Andrew and I finally managed to hook up something of substance. 2 grunters weighing in at 1.5 and 2 kg respectively. We werent zero fighters. YAY! Guan Seng did not hit anything big but did catch some smaller fishes.

As the dictum goes - "A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work". Not sure that I agree with this completely but yesterday was not great in terms of catches but the fun and fellowship was good. It was a good time of just going out and not thinking of work.

Didnt bring the boys as the boat was just large enough for 4 adults and I felt that the boys were just too young to handle a whole day fishing on a boat without bathrooms. So they will stick to fishing at ponds and lakes. Will be bringing them tomorrow to recce the opening of the Bottle Tree Park Catch and Release pond. Should be interesting to see huge Mekong Catfishes and Arapaimas been hooked up. Stay tune.