Romzi's Catch @ Air Papan, Johor

This is a most peculiar catch from my pal, Romzi, during his very recent 1 day angling trip to Air Papan, Johor. He managed to fish out a Bar-Tailed Flathead from the crystal blue waters and was rather apalled as he had never seen anything like it before, especially being taken aback by the beautiful colours of it's tail, which in fact explains the name given to this otherwise normal looking flathead.

For the record, he released the flathead back into the waters for "another fight, another day".

Weekend Catch - 07/07/07

Here are a few catches over the weekend.

Our inshore catches from our recce cum short angling trip to the the Marina channel were (top) a juvenile Malabar Grouper and (bottom) a pesky Estaurine Moray.

Raymond managed to hook up a large Todak but unfortunately, it got away when it bit at the leader line with it's razor sharp teeth during the fight.

We have fun getting several Freckled Hawkfishes on small tamban hooks attached with prawn meat. There were also several bites (the rod bells were ringing every other second) but no hook-ups, resulting in empty hooks when our lines were retrieved. And these are sharp Owner hooks, no less. We're talking about skilled bait stealers here, probably a couple of Ah Sengs (Catfish) or larger sized Groupers.

I also joined Wifey, Dave and Anna for a whale of a time over at Taman Jurong Paypond and we were rewarded for braving the torrential winds and cold rain with 3 Barramundis (The Missus managed to fight 2 of them by herself, impressive!) and an ever elusive Mangrove Jack caught by our lucky lady angler Anna, who landed her first fish on her new Taurus rod and Daiwa reel. I know it's often said that paypond fishes don't bite when it rains due to the pond's salt water becoming a little brackish but these fishes sure aren't letting the live prawns go!

It's official. The myth has been broken. There are Mangrove Jacks in Taman Jurong. There probably aren't many of them in the pond as the owner only releases Kims on a daily basis, and that would be the reason why people are only catching Kims almost all the time.

Thanks for reading and, tight lines!

P.S Never attempt to handle Mangrove Jacks or any other kinds of snappers with your bare hands. I picked this one up at it's lower lip with a pair of pliers and it kept nipping hard at my pliers with it's sharp teeth. Scary stuff.

Tanjong Rhu CR - 30/06/07

With a little break over the weekend, Raymond and I decided to try out a recommended angling spot nestled below the Benjamin Spears bridge. With the imminent closure of the Marina channel due to the construction of the Marina Barrage, affecting most saltwater angling spots in Kallang, Marina Bay and Tanjong Rhu ( including this one) soon, we figured it would be a good time to try our luck there.

Now for all the fishios who go by the mantra "Fishing is for relaxation", I would highly recommend this spot to you. With the overhead flyover providing shade from sun and rain, coupled with an immaculate view of the Kallang Channel as well as the Marina Channel in the distance, this is truly a haven for anglers.

The only boon would be the occasional Ducktour LARC-V passing by. We had a couple of close shaves with kayakers nearly crossing our lines as well. I understand that this spot is the limit that all kayakers can go to and most of them would come over to this spot before heading back to the Kallang Watersports Center located downriver.

The tide was pretty good and we tried using live prawns attached to floats to get some bites. There were a couple of times where huge chunks of prawn were bitten off the hook. With the vessels passing by frequently, the floats were often pushed back inshore and we decided to change our rigs.

Trying out a cable car rig for fun, my bell started ringing shortly after to my suprise. It was a small Orange Spotted Grouper which decided to munch on the juicy live prawn struggling in the water. Incidently, that was the only hook-up we got on that day.

Having said that, there were several bites but no hook-ups thereafter. Often, we have reeled in our hooks to find half-bitten prawns. Raymond also had two fights but the dirty fighters went under rocks to snag his line, much to his dismay.

I would recommend short snood bottom feeder rigs for fishing in this spot to prevent frequent snags and if you have live bait, why not try a cable car rig as well? It might just work.

Thanks for reading, and here's wishing you tight lines and screaming reels forever!