2014 ~ Fishing Adventure of NorthernHardcoreFisherman

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It was a warm night and I was sitting in my living room watching some YouTube fishing videos from my 40" Sony LCD TV which's connected to a computer, as my flat don't have a store room all my fishing gears have to be placed at here in the living room, I had made a DIY fishing rod rack to hold all my fishing rods and there's a few cabinets for my accessories and a five level storage rack for my other stuff. They are all kept at the far right corner of the flat and are just beside the TV set.

I got bored as there was nothing interesting at YouTube, I shifted my focus away from the screen and I saw my rod rack, the 18 years old Loomis & Franklin 10 footer surf casting rod was standing there and the rod tip was trembling, as if there was something over at the other end of the fishing line was nipping my bait...

"HOLD-ON!!"

I was still sitting on my PELLO rocking chair which I bought from IKEA and I wasn't at any beach or jetty, what's wrong with me? Hmm... maybe I should just go for some fishing now since I'm not working tomorrow.

At 9:45pm I was ready to go, packed with two rods, the old timer Loomis & Franklin of course and the formerly PIONEER 13 footer surf casting rod. The PIONEER was given a complete makeover from a 7 guides spinning reel rod to a 12 guides multiplier reel rod, the reel seat was not installed as I bought two reel coaster for adjustable reel seat position, most of the time it was placed at the low rider position. Everything was ready except for one very important element, the bait! Although I had kept some baits in the freezer but I wasn't really keen on using them as the expiring date was long overdued!

I used to buy prawns or fishes from the supermarket to use as bait, but ever since I bought my 12 footer braided casting net I no longer needed to visit the store. Whenever I needed bait for fishing I went to the jetty or pier which is frequent by small bait fishes, species like Tamban(Herring) and Mullets, with the cast net most of the time I got what I needed. Not far away from my home there is a jetty, I headed straight to that jetty and after a few cast I caught around 30 pieces of Tambans(Herring), now my ammunition were ready for the assault at the Punggol End.

It was 11:30pm there were quite many people still here at the Punggol End, ever since the government gave this place a new face-lift and turning it into a modern looking full facilities recreation park, it is populated by people from all over the country especially on the weekend and it was given a new name too, Punggol Promenade. A stretch of new shop houses were built here and it was called Punggol Settlement. Many new seafood restaurants were opened here and it reminded you the old glorious days of the 80's where seafood was the main reason for people to come here.

I chose the far right corner of the park which is right before the canal that separated Conney Island from Punggol End, reason for choosing this place was it is just under 100 meter distance away from the canal mouth which I could easily cast my bait on to there, there is a beach right in front of where I was and if a big fish was hooked up I could go down to the beach to land it, the canal mouth is also the channel that sea water flow during the high and low tide, fishes will be entering the canal follow this channel and exit via it too.

I set up two rods using two different method of rigging, on the Loomis & Franklin it was rigged with a DIY float system which I make use of the cough medicine plastic bottle as float, this DIY float can be filled up with sea water and depending on how heavy tackle you are using, weigh can be increased or reduced base on the water level inside. I used a three feet 80 lb monofilemant line for the hook line, this was to target the surface predator fishes like Barramundi aka Kim Bak Loh aka Siakap, the Tamban is one of the favorite food for it especially a live one, I had to settle for a dead one as I didn't prepare the air pump to keep them alive. On the PIONEER 13 footer it was paired with the Abu Garcia 6600 C4 which I had modified it with a MonoMag breaking system and a CT cage open frame, The PIONEER was rigged with the standard long snood bottom feeder, a longer four feet 80 lb monofilemant hook line was tied near to the sinker (weight), this method would leave the bait further away from the leader line, greater chances that fishes will not see the leader line when they are taking the bait. Shy species like Stingray will never take your bait if they spotted or felt the leader line, some anglers went a step further by using Fluorocarbon fishing line which is the so called Invisible Leader Line.

I used a DIY grid sinker on the PIONEER 13 footer and it was cast straight out from the spot, the Loomis & Franklin was cast over to the canal mouth which was on my right hand side. The tide was coming in and the current brought the float into the canal, drag tension of the Surecatch spinning reel which I paired with the Loomis & Franklin was loosen to almost none, this allowed the current to pull the float into the canal though I needed to reel back some lines after the float went too deep, but in this way the bait had covered most part of the canal mouth and increased the chances of getting spotted by fishes.

While waiting for the bite I went around with my cast net and caught a few small fishes, they were hooked on as bait immediately as the local breed is always the best bait. High tide tonight was at 2:35am at 2.8m with half moon and it should be a good day for fishing, current was not very strong but I guessed it would pick up some pace when the tide raised towards it's peak.

At around 1:30am the rod tip of the Loomis & Franklin dipped a few times, it was not a strong pulled and it was intermittent. I went near to the rod and monitored the action, it continued to pull gently for about two minutes and it stopped. This should be a small fish I thought and I didn't want to waste more time waiting, I lifted up the rod slowly and tighten the drag tension, reeled in some line to get the fishing line tighten and then by holding firm on the spool I lifted the rod tip up further, immediately I felt some jerk from the rod and Yes! it was hooked. Without further delay I pulled the rod upward with some force and velocity to set the hook deeper, as I retrieved the lines it was like almost zero resistance, some light struggle suggesting that not only this fish was small but it was not a aggressive type of fish. What fish was that? might be a Ah Seng aka Catfish aka Ikan Duri, they are everywhere here at Punggol End and they are not really a fighter fish. Here I am referring to the small catfish which is weak when hooked up, it is not the case if this species grown more than one kg. Some times back I was fishing inside the Yishun Army Camp, I had a shock to see my rod tip bent violently and the fishing lines stripped off, it was a 2.5 kg catfish that took my bait and I can assure you that the thrill was almost the same level as you hooked up a Stingray. When this fish which I presumed as a small catfish was lifted up from the sea, to my surprised it was a Stingray, a baby though. Well, it was better than nothing I told myself and after unhooking the baby stingray, it was released back to where it from for it to grow into a monster.

At around 3am the 13 footer had a hard struck but it stopped when I reached to the rod, I waited for it to strike again patiently but it never happened. After 5 minutes I decided to test out if the fish was hooked just as the baby stingray did, the step was repeated as I lifted up the rod with some fishing lines retrieved to get some tension, slowly I brought the rod upward hoping to get the jerk or pull from the other end, I was quite excited and nervous as judging from that struck, it could be something huge and aggressive, could it be the Mama of that baby stingray? It appeared that my dream catch was not going to happen tonight, nothing could be felt and the bait was still attached on to the hook when I reeled it back, half of the bait was gone though. What a missed!

For the next two hours the two fishing rods remained unchallenged and as I was getting tired and hungry, I packed up and called it a day.

Many biggies were caught here at Punggol end in the past, it used to be a hot bed for Barramundi and most of them were 3kg and above. In recent year the rate of landing one of this is getting slimmer, the construction of the dam could be the main culprit. Having said that occasionally anglers did catch some nice species from this fascinating place, I shall be returning soon to hunt the biggies, till then see you, Punggol End.

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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!