Taman Jurong Paypond CR - 28/06/07

This may sound really crazy to some, but Raymond, Felix and I were back at the paypond again on Thursday after we knocked off from a hectic day at work. I guess the break from fishing due to our work commitments 2 weeks ago had really fishing-deprived fanatics. Hah.

That pump in the picture above is featured later in this post.

Anyway, we were pretty lucky as the sky seemed overcast while we were on the way but the clouds began to dissipate when we reached our destination. After making the payment for our rods and buying 100g of live prawns (Read my little write-up on live prawns here) from the main booth, we began to set up our tackles at our usual marquee near to the nets where the fishes are released from 2 times a day. It was also pretty good that the place was quite empty and that we virtually had the whole pond to ourselves. I guess the signs of possible rain put many anglers off the idea of patronising the place tonight.

It was a warm and humid night, a stark contrast to the heavy downpour we encountered here a few days ago. Felix's rod was the first to land a strike, getting a hit while spinning his live prawn back towards the bank. His screaming reel was music to all of our ears. Within a short while, the Kim was hauled up and quickly clipped on the lower lip before being lowered back into the pond with a holding rope.

"Not bad leh, this one's fight." Felix commented. It was pretty unusual to hear those words coming out of his mouth as he had always made it clear that he feels that fights with paypond fishes are, in his own words: "like pulling up a cloth from the bottom of the pond".

Next in line was Raymond. Never one to sit around, he got his reward for changing his casting spots several times by hooking up another Kim near the other end of the pond.

Despite several half bitten prawns, I wasn't getting any hookups on my rod. I decided to change my bait to the frozen Tamban I had brought along for fun. After trying to spin it a few times across the pond to no avail, I casted it near to the mouth of the release nets and sat down to rest for a short while. As soon as I sat on the plastic chair, the reel started to scream as my line started running. I quickly picked up my rod and gave it a hard backward jerk.

It was a hit.

The Kim wasn't giving up. It broke to the surface twice, only to jump and wriggle in a valiant attempt to escape. I wasn't going to risk it cutting the line with it's sharp gill plates so I held my rod up high to tension up any slack line that may have gone under. When it got near to the pond bank, I quickly grabbed hold of my leader and pulled it out of the water.

After keeping the fish and re-casting to the same spot, there was another strike about 10 minutes later. I wasn't so lucky this time though. The darn fish started taking line and swam out to the right. I knew it didn't look good when I saw my line going towards the pump. In the blink of an eye, my line ran into the pump and the spool turned even faster. Knowing that there is no way to untangle the line, I had no choice but to cut off my line.

The catch of the day, 3 Kims in total.

Oh well, there will be another day for revenge.

Taman Jurong Paypond CR - 25/06/07

To fill up our insatiable hunger for fishing, we were out and about the next day after our weekend Bedok Jetty trip to try our luck at the Taman Jurong Paypond. With an affordable rate of $30 for 12 hours of overnight fishing, which is, by the way, applicable from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am the next morning , we couldn't think of a better way to chase our Monday blues away.

We were using rigs that consisted of simply a leader line with a live prawn on a size 1 hook, and variably a size 1/0 hook, attached to a braided main line, which has higher sensitivity due to it's non-stretching properties. Within 30 minutes, the fishes started biting and we started hauling them in.

Dave and myself posing with a Barramundi. The fish weighed close to a kilogram.

It seems that the pond only has Barramundis, also known commonly as the Seabass or colloquially as the Kim Bak Lor (a direct translation would be the Golden Eyed Perch), but we weren't complaining as they are known to be one of the fiercest saltwater fighters that an angler could hope for.

After 3 hours of solid fishing, the heavens opened up on us, literally raining cats and dogs and drenching the whole gang of us. The fishes had also seemingly stopped biting due to the heavy rain so it was time for us to pack up our stuff.

At the end of the day, we managed to get 6 Barramundis, which was an extremely satisfying result , our drenched selves notwithstanding. Well, the rain may have dampened our clothes but it had, most certainly, not doused any of our passion.

The fishes were brought home where the Missus and I decided to make a scrumptious meal of beer-battered fish and chips with our Barramundi fillets. Adding a dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice on top of them, the fillets were simply, with the lack of a better word, heavenly.

Before...

After!

Here are some pictures of the paypond when it's semi-drained below, which is taken off the paypond's website. Hopefully this will give you a rough idea where to cast your bait if you're planning to fish there.

I've also included the opening hours, price list, fish releasing times and contact details for the paypond if you're interested in paying a visit to the place soon:

Thanks for reading, and, as always, Tight Lines!

Understanding Gear Ratios

Prompted by a friend's recent questions about how to understand what the gear ratio in a reel means, I've decided to provide a short write-up on gear ratios to hopefully clear the air about this often-neglected area when choosing a reel.

Don't be intimidated by the many numbers that appear in a reel's gear ratio. They merely reflect the number of complete revolutions your spool makes as opposed to one complete revolution of your reel handle.

Here's a simple example: You have a reel with a 3:1 ratio. That simply means that when you turn the reel handle once, the spool turns 3 times.

Some reels are very fast with a high gear ratio like, for instance, 6:1. However, it is also important to note that the measure of the speed of a fishing reel is determined not by how fast the spool is turning, but by how fast it can pull line through the water, which is known technically as the line retrieval rate.

The retrieval rate depends on your spool speed and spool diameter. A reel with a high gear ratio but with a small spool diameter will not necessarily retrieve line as fast as a reel with a slower gear ratio and a larger spool diameter. Always check these 2 factors before determining which reel is right for you.

The other thing which my friend mentioned was that there are certain reels on the market with 3 figure gear ratios, such as a reel which variates between 3:1 and 1:2:1. These are twin gear reels or more commonly known as 2-speed reels, meaning that they have a higher gear (3:1) and a lower gear (1:2:1) in the reel. The higher gear understandably provides more speed in line retrieval while the lower gear provides the extra torque needed for the really big ones.

Undertanding Live Prawns

Foreword: I did this write-up as a guide for my fellow anglers and beginners out there who may have never used live prawns before and therefore need advice on how to rig up live prawns or generally just need a rough overview on live prawns. If you are an experienced angler and would like to contribute your valuable few cents worth, please feel free to add a comment on this article and I will review and change the contents accordingly.

What?
Many experienced anglers swear by it as a killer bait for Barramundi and it seems to be one of the most popular live baits in payponds all over the country . Yes, I'm talking about the humble saltwater bait prawn, otherwise known as the Swa Lor (沙卢) or Udang Merah Ros. (Thanks to handlinefishing.com for the info on the names)

Raymond hooking up a live prawn by it's tail.

Why?
Why do many anglers choose the Swa Lor over other live baits available on the market? I guess it would be due to their versatility, as several species of fishes such as the ever popular Barramundi (Kim Bak Lor / Seabass / Siakap) and various kinds of Groupers (Gao Hurr / Kerapu) do take live prawn readily, as well as their cheaper price in comparison to other kinds of live baits such as Milkfishes, which are generally more expensive (the rate is 5 milkfishes for $4 at Pasir Ris Paypond, while you can get 100g of live Swa Lor for the same amount, which comes up to about 10 prawns) and the aptly-named Sarong Worm (known as the Tubeworm to saltwater aquarium enthusiasts), which smells pretty bad, requires a little squeezing to be removed from it's caked mud casing (like a tube of toothpaste) and may bite when being handled.

Being able swimmers, live prawns are also able to be used with various set ups such as the popular Cable Car Rig, Long Snood Bottom Feeder or even with a float. They are also fast and easy to hook up and do not cause a mess.

Where?
Live prawns are sold in tackle shops all over the country at an average price of $3.50 per 100 grams. These prawns are packed in plastic bags after weighing, which are then turn filled up with oxygen which is enough to last you for 6 hours so that you can carry them around until you're ready to deploy your rods.

In contrast, live prawns sold at payponds cost slightly more at about $4 per 100 grams. However, if you're planning to fish in a specific paypond instead of other angling spots, do note that despite the higher price, prawns purchased from their respective payponds do have a tendency to stay alive for a much longer period of time than prawns bought from tackle shops. I guess the attrition rate of prawns bought from tackle shops is much higher due to their failure to adapt to the water in the pond whereas prawns bought from the pond owner are reared in the same water.

Sheng Siong Supermarket also sell live prawns at $1.10 per 100g but there have been complaints that they are way too big to be used for fishing. I've personally not used any Sheng Siong prawns before so I'm not really able to comment on their feasibility.

When?
Live prawns may be used for both day and night fishing, as their movement in water attracts predatory fishes. An experienced angler friend of mine, Felix, has also told me before that live prawns attract fishes as their eyes reflect light in the water.

How?
Live prawns are normally hooked up from the tail, or less commonly on the head. The rule of thumb is to avoid the intestinal vein when inserting the hook into the prawn to avoid killing it accidentally.

Gripping the prawn in one hand with too much strength while hooking it up with the other may kill the prawn as well. It is also important to note that prawns are known to wriggle vigorously and "jump" out of your hands if your grip is too loose so you must hold them with just the right amount of force.

These pictures below will hopefully give you a clearer picture on to hook up a live prawn properly. To understand the pictures and instructions better, you might want to take a look at the anatomy of a prawn here first.

Tail Hooking (Refer to picture above) - This is inarguably the most common way to hook up a live prawn as it allows the prawn to continue swimming freely without any restrictions once it hits the water. Notice that in the picture above, the hook is inserted in the last segment of the prawn, carefully avoiding the intestinal vein. Other variations may include hooking the 2nd last abdominal segment or even the middle segments.

Head Hooking (Refer to picture above) - This method is used much lesser by anglers as immaculate precision is required to insert the hook slightly below the rostrum of the prawn head . In other words, one wrong move and your prawn goes kaput. Nonetheless, it ensures the bait stays on the hook for the longest time as the rostrum is one of the hardest parts of a prawn. Like the tail hook method, the prawn continues to swim freely without any restrictions. Only attempt this if you have more live prawns as back-up as death is imminent to prawns which get hooked in any other part of the head by mistake.

Conclusion
I do sincerely hope that this rough write-up gives you a better picture of the live prawn as a bait, as well as served as a guide for those who have never handled or hooked up a live prawn before. And, as always, here's wishing you tight lines and screaming reels!

There we are. All set to go!

Tamban Jigging at Bedok Jetty

I ended up at Bedok Jetty early today morning after a quiet night at Tanjong Rhu, which had a horrible catch rate for me. There were zero bites. I figured that I might have been using the wrong bait of sliced sotong and dead prawns.

Anyway, we ended up at Bedok Jetty at about 2 a.m and thought it might be a good idea to pick a nice spot to rest before waking up in the early morning to jig for tambans as live bait.
When the sun started to rise at about 6:35 a.m, we started jigging for them.

After about 3 hours, the weather was too hot to bear for us. It ws a pity that we did not bring any sunblock along, due to this trip originally being an overnight fishing trip.

Bedok Jetty looks almost surreal at dawn, it was so beautiful with the orange hue of the rising sun casting a magnificent glow over the jetty and from where we were, we could see that the surrounding sea was teeming with literally tens of thousands of tamban darting around the water!

Anyway, at the end of the day, it was a pretty good haul of a hundred over tambans and 3 kunings which I have since kept in my freezer as baits for future use.

There was also a strike to our bigger rod with live tamban bait attached to a long snood bottom feeder, with the rod suddenly jumping up high while we were in the midst of jigging.

Unfortunately, the fish went under the jetty and the line got snagged beneath it. It was later retrieved with everything intact except the hook and live bait. Oh well, we'll be back for revenge another day.