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Thursday, January 21, 2010

My Eighteenth Fishing Trip - 10th Jan - Kelong

Errr, it's the 21st of January 2010 now, which means this CR is longgg overdue. Sigh so busy at work that I didn't have time to write. On the bright side, everything is more settled down now and I finally had time to go fishing!

This trip was jio'ed by ZY and today's conquest was XXX's kelong. Sorry ah don't think it'll be appropriate to disclose the kelong's name here cos as you know, by right we cannot fish on kelong's in Singapore... by right.... hahahhahaha. This trip only consisted of 4 people. ZY, his gf (sorry forgot your name :S), Rizal and myself. I got to know ZY and Rizal from this blog and they are awesome dudes!

So, the plan was, to meet at Sembawang MRT at 8am. Omg, I eat until so big, I've never been to Sembawang lol. The nearest I've been to this place was when I was still in the Navy and we had to go to Sembawang Naval Base for some exercise. Oh, we were supposed to take the Kelong's speed boat from SAF Yacht Club which was next to the Naval Base anyway.

So... Since I had no idea how far Sembawang was, I woke up FRIGGIN' early so as to have some buffer just in case. And this is how the sky looked like outside my place when I started walking.

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I bought a new super zoom prosumer Lumix camera but I didn't use it for this trip cos too precious already. Used back my old cheap Sony one!

So anyway, after a long ass train ride to the end of the earth, "Ding Dong... Sembawang.. toot toot toot toot toot... Please stand clear of the yellow line... toot toot toot toot toot." On the way there especially near the Khatib area, I saw tons of people fishing in the lakes and reservoirs, and it put a smile on my face. Why? Cos it's been so long since I last fished, so long since I last saw people fishing. But most importantly, I was going fishing! For the last one over month I been in tedious work training, staring at the casino everyday indoors. Man I needed my outdoor nothingness fun.

Rizal came at 8am on the dot and we chatted up a lil'. And ZY came late but his excuse was cos he had to buy us food as per my request. Sigh, he like that say, I cannot scold him lol. First thing I asked when he came, "so where are the prawns?". Diao~ He brought dead ones..... Alamak.... When he said he'd bring prawns I thought he meant live ones!

We then proceeded to NTUC to stock up some drinks and took a cab down to the Yacht club. It was already 9am.

Upon reaching, his contact was nowhere to be seen and we had to wait about 30mins. So we took some pics. When I suggested to take some pics, straight away they said, "Uh oh, we gonna be on his blog". Your wish is my command! lol.

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This is ZY.

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This is Riz. (Eh bang, don't intro or call yourself Riz lei, just say Rizal. Riz is not much shorter that Rizal and it's not hard to pronounce ma. You want to be associated with the other Ris is it? lol).

Two random pics while waiting...

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Soon the boat came to pick us up!

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Actually, this is my second time trying a kelong in Singapore. I didn't even bother posting up the other. That other kelong I went to a few months back was terrible. There were nothing but 5 million Glass Fishes. The live prawn I casted out early in the morning was still alive by the time we left. My 5ft small fish jigging rod only yielded Glass Fishes. It was really bad and boring. So this time, I also didn't expect jack shit, I just needed to get away.

I always used to wonder, is it just me that can set up my stuff at lightning speed, or is everyone else just very relaxed. I found out it's just me. Within 20secs upon reaching, I was already casting, they barely joined their rods together lol.

The first thing I noticed when we got there, was that this place was huge! It was like 2 bungalows joined by a bridge. On one side, was where they reared fishes.

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And on the other, was where they had this hugggeeeee kelong net that was motor operated. It was also where the kitchen was.

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We started fishing around the fish rearing areas first, as it would be logical that wild fish would hide near the nets where they feed their farmed fish.

Nothing.

So then I tried casting under the kitchen area side. and Bam! Instantly got a small fish. Didn't take any pic of it as it was kinda lame. Then everyone started trying and got the same kind of fish. I have no clue what fish it is but it looks like a baby Guhood (Grunter) and it kept grunting!

Soon I realised that the end of the kitchen side of the kelong actually had a nice balcony and fishing area with chairs, fishing stands etc. They even had 2 BBQ pits there. So I made everyone move there. Once there, I set up my 7ft casting rod and casted, then continued to play with my small rod.

It was kinda quiet.

Then suddenly...

ZY screamed and his girlfriend shrieked..!

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I looked over and was like.. wtf......

He pulled up an eel.. eeee...

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ZY was excited at his first eel that he spent too long taking pictures. And cos he took so long, the eel started to twist and turn and got entirely wrapped up in his line and was bleeding all over.. Eeewww not a very good sight. I have pics but I won't post it, so cruel! lol.

After that, it was all quiet again... Sigh... Oh well... Not like I didn't expect this from a Singapore kelong right?

So I moved down back to the fish rearing area where alot of activity was happening. The workers were feeding and cleaning the fish. I saw how the sorted the Groupers out and checked for diseases etc. Quite interesting. It was then that one of the Uncles asked me if we got anything. I said no. So he took me to this spot and O M G this magical little hole gave us all fun for the whole day!

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THE SECRET MAGICAL HOLE!

He opened up 2 other smaller holes for the other guys. But mine... was the magic one! I looked around and picked up an old rig left lying on the table, it had really small hooks. I decided to use it cos I was too lazy to tie my own lol. I put some small prawn pieces on and let my line down.

Wow, immediately I felt so many nibbles. But I knew... I knew these were small fishes. Suddenly, I had another small nibble, but the consistency of it's vibration was different. Ah... I might be on to something! Wait for it, wait for it...

BAM! FISH ON!
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Ahhhh!! This fish was stronggggggg! And I was using that small tackle set up that I had and I was so scared it would snap! I kept reeling as fast as I could and I saw my line going round and round in circles. The fish was swimming in circles and trying to dash for the wooden planks down below. NO! Cannot let that happen or everything finish!!! JUST WACK! So I reeled and reeled and finally....

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Like a raging bullet through a delicate bubble, I burst any of the fish's hope for escape! Wah I like this pic, so drama lol.

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First good fish of the day!

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Tada, this is what came up :)

So this is called a Kim Kor (Spotted Scat). The uncle told me this was the very popular fish we eat during Chinese New Year and the price goes way up during this time. And I have a good eye for danger lol. One look at this bugger, I knew his spines cannot be touched. So together with the guys, we took the hook out and threw it into a net to keep him alive. We were all careful not to get impaled if it were to suddenly jump.

Wow. This small fishy gave me a tremendous fight on my light tackle. Shiok man! All the weeks of waiting for a fishing trip was worth it! I remembered how it felt like and that feeling is superb!

My super magic hole yielded Kim Kor after Kim Kor, providing me with so much fun.

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Again...
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And again... This time a Cat Fish that was duly released.
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And again...


For the next 15mins, I pulled up more than 10 of them when suddenly...

I dropped my line down as usual. By this time, I could identify immediately if it was a Kim Kor eying my sweet prawn. Nibble... Nibble...

STRIKE! FISH ON!

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But this time it was different. Halfway through enjoying the fight and thrill, it pulled really really hard. And my line bent all the way down and it was really heavy! Usually I would feel it trashing violently in circles, but this time it felt like it was trashing in different directions! Omg, what did I get?

Wanna know?

Really wanna know?!?!?!?

I got...................


















TWO KIM KORS! lol!


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This is the exhilarated face of a fkin champion lol.

Ok anyway, time to stop the self praise lol... I gave my spot up to the others so everyone can take part in the thrill. And they did :) But for some reason, after I gave the spot up, hook ups were far and slow for them. Either I genocided the entire school, or I was just lucky. I kept telling ZY he not handsome enough that's why they don't come haha.

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ZY n his gf (sorry I keep refering to you as gf) with their hook up.
P.S please excuse ZY's protruding nipple.


I don't know why but I don't seem to have any pics of Rizal and his catches. Hmmm, I could have swore I took a few... Bang, you not handsome enough la my camera deleted you itself. Sorry ah...

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I think this is one of Rizal's catch.

Soon, the bites slowed down, but everyone had a great run and fun. We decided to pack up around 6pm and gather the fishes for sorting and ta paoing.

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Out of the 16 Kim Kors, I got most of them. We split everything down evenly so that everyone had a good share to take home. Those small Grunters were all taken home by Rizal to make fish biscuits :)

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A group shot of the gang.

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Solo shot!

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My share.

Everyone had a ridiculously good time and swore we would visit again. The place was clean and spacious. Oh I forgot to mention that the toilet here SHOCKED me. The toilet was really huge and it had a toilet bowl with a full flush system! A KELONG WITH A TOILET BOWL! Omg that's really something. Also, it was very new and clean. Amazing! I would definitely take my friends there. Even if not for fishing but an overnight makan, BBQ chill out session.

Soon, we headed home and it was the end of a great trip. Thank you guys for being such great fun.

Here's a preview of the magic hole. We were actually trying to capture a hook up scene since it was quite quick. But the fishys' were camera shy and so it didn't happen. But still.. Enjoy!!



Till next time! Rawr!

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