Error spotted.

Whilst updating my lifetime species list when I returned from Asia last month, I noticed an error. I had misidentified a cardinalfish I caught in Kagoshima, Japan, back in 2019. Erroneously thinking it was a three-spot cardinalfish.

The fish in question. Using Google Lens, I clicked on a link to an excellent Japanese website that I have used in the past to help identify fish, where I discovered that the fish above was actually Apogonichthyoides cathetogramma. It does not have an English common name. In Japanese it is called a Yokosujiishimochi.

This is a three-spot cardinalfish. So, I actually caught this species for the first time in Singapore last month.

I think I might go through my lifetime species list and double check all the species I've got on it. There are a handful on there that I’m not 100% sure I’ve identified correctly. To be honest, I probably don’t take species identification as seriously as other “life listers” do. I actually prefer referring to myself as a “species hunter” and I’m happy to say I’ve caught about five hundred species. Knowing the exact number isn’t that important to me, and if there are one or two that I might have misidentified I’m not going to lose too much sleep over it. That said if an error becomes apparent, I’ll correct it. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Five above zero.

Leaving Singapore at the end of November, where the average temperature was about 30°C, and stepping off the plane in Edinburgh on a dark and rather chilly evening into a temperature of 1°C, was not much fun. Winter in Scotland is pretty grim, even in the Central Belt. At least I had lots of photos to crop, watermark and upload into fourteen blog posts that I still had to write. Something to keep me busy for a couple of weeks when it was horrible outside.

About halfway through that process, I checked the weather forecast for the coming days, and seeing a short, fairly mild spell approaching, I arranged to meet up with my mate Ryan to catch up. We fished locally at Marine Esplanade, our main target for the evening was five bearded rocking, a species I’ve not caught this year. Ryan brought some frozen black lug, and we fished small sections of it, on small hooks, on the bottom. We got bites from the start of the session and both of us opened our account with pin whiting. 

There are lots of pin whiting around this part of the coastline.

I also caught a solitary poor cod. They seem to be increasingly common in the Forth Estuary.

After catching a few more whiting, my rod tip started nodding away again. Lifting it up and feeling the weight of a small fish, I wound it in to find the target species for the evening had snaffled my small smelly bait. 

My first five bearded rockling of the year! My 267th species of 2024!

The rockling reminded me slightly of the bigeye cusk I had caught in Singapore. A pleasant little flashback! Things slowed down after that, but as we chatted away, another bite registered on my rod tip and picking my rod up I felt another fish on. It felt like a second rockling, wriggling around as it came up through the murky water towards me, but it turned out to be a viviparous blenny.

A nice bonus fish!

Before we left, I caught a second five bearded rockling. I love it when a plan comes together! Speaking of plans coming together, Ryan will be coming to Japan with Lillian and I next November, and we’ll be planning our three-week itinerary over the next few months. It’s a trip I'm already really looking forward to!

Tight lines, Scott. 

More Species Hunting Adventures In Singapore: Part 7.

On the morning of the last day of our holiday, we got up quite early and took a Grab taxi to Bedok Jetty. As we arrived, a local angler caught an impressive wolf herring on a live bait. My mate Lee caught a small one when we visited Bedok Jetty last year, but this thing was huge and had a nasty set of teeth on it!

Wolf herring, not the most attractive fish in the sea, that's for sure!

Setting up my rod under the first shelter on the jetty, mainly because it looked like it was about to start raining at any moment, I started off by tying on a set of sabiki. The lady who had caught the wolf herring tried to sell me a set of her handmade ones. I'd watched her pull up several full sets of sardinella using them whilst I got my own rod set up, but I decided to try fishing with my own ones. There is definitely a knack to catching sardinella using sabiki. A knack that the lady had clearly mastered, as I watched her repeatedly pull up five or six almost every drop whilst a teenager on my other side, also using a set of her sabiki only caught one or two. I struggled to catch any on my shop bought rig, but eventually landed a one or two a couple of times.

My first fringescale sardinella. The locals target various species of sardinella, using one or two as bait and taking the rest home to eat.

Switching to fishing small chunks of prawn close to the bottom, I caught a few pink ear emperor and a diamond wrasse before adding three more species to my tally. None of them were new to me, but the third was my fourth shrimpgoby species of the trip. I love shrimpgoby, there's just something about them!

First up was a juvenile yellowfin snapper,..

...which was followed by a monogrammed monocle bream,..

...and then I caught this lovely masked shrimpgoby.

Just look at some of the colourful markings on those fins!

At this point, we decided to move to a new spot, and as I was keen to catch some tripodfish. Having been given some great information on exactly where to try, we moved up to a spot close to the end of the jetty. Not long after we sat down, it started raining, but Lillian had brought a large umbrella, so we sheltered underneath it. There were other anglers fishing either side of us who had lines out, so I couldn't quite fish the exact area I had been told to, but I was able to drop my rig in reasonably close to it. My first drop produced another wonderfully colourful shrimpgoby.

A peacock shrimpgoby, with its reflective, almost metallic blue spotting. Simply stunning!

Casting out and waiting for a short period, if I didn’t get any bites, I’d slowly bump my running ledger rig along the bottom, repeating this process until something hit my bait. This produced a few oriental sillago and my bait also got stripped a few times.

I'm not sure why, but I just don't find sillago that interesting.

Feeling slightly frustrated, I switched to a slightly smaller hook and tiny pieces of prawn. I should have done this sooner, as this slight tweak worked a treat, and saw me catching two more new species in consecutive casts.

The first was this long-tail tripodfish.

Followed shortly afterwards by my first ever longspine ponyfish.

Before we left, we decided to try one last spot, right at the end of the jetty on its left-hand arm. This produced a few butterfly whiptail, and then the last addition to my species tally of the entire trip.

The colouration of butterfly whiptail can vary, but the small black dot at the root of the tail encircled with a V is the feature to look for.

This lattice monocle bream was my 114th species of the trip. A total I was very happy with!

After about a dozen "last casts", I ran out of bait, but Lillian found a scrap of dried up prawn on the ground and told me to have one last "last cast". The dehydrated scrap proved to be a tough bait for the fish to easily strip off, and after missing a few bites, I caught my last fish of the trip. It just happened to be the same species as the very first fish of the trip, caught three weeks earlier when we visited Bedok Jetty. Time flies when you're having species hunting fun!

This pink ear emperor was a nice fish to finish off my Asian species hunt!

Packing away my tackle for the final time, we walked back to the car park where we had been dropped off and took another Grab taxi up to Mandai Wildlife Reserve, where we spent a few hours exploring Bird Paradise. It was raining while we were there, so some of the birds were taking shelter, but enough were out that the experience was still enjoyable.

Who doesn’t love penguins,..

…flamingoes,..

…colourful parrots,..

...and birds that look a bit like Robert Smith of The Cure? Lillian is a lifelong fan, but somehow didn't see the likeness.

In the evening, we headed out for a nice meal at BBQ Box, just around the corner from our hotel. Way too many tasty grilled skewers and a few delicious salads were washed down with a huge jug of ice-cold lemon and lime tea. With a long day of travelling to do the following day, we didn't want to be suffering with a hangover!

Just a small selection of delicious grilled meat and seafood skewers we enjoyed.

Sliced lotus root and smashed cucumber salad. A balanced diet is important, after all.

The following morning, we returned to Changi Airport, the fourth time we had used it in three weeks! Killing some time before we had to board our flight back to the UK, we visited its butterfly garden! My friend Nick had tasked us with getting photographs of ten different species of tropical butterflies whilst we were away, and we had failed miserably! We’d seen hundreds, but they don’t tend to sit still long enough for a photo in the wild. In the butterfly garden, a couple were more than happy to pose.

This is a common rose.

This is a clipper.

Boarding the plane home at the end of a holiday is always tinged with sadness, but all good things must come to an end. Lillian and I both love visiting Asia, and I love species hunting there. Visiting Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand, we’d had an amazing time and have decided to return to Japan next November for another three wek adventure. We’ll be revisiting some of the places we’ve been to during three previous trips, as well as some new places. As always, I'll be doing a spot of species hunting too.

My fishing sessions had been enjoyable and very productive. Here's a list of the 114 species I caught over the duration of the trip, with all the new species in bold.

1. Anchor Tuskfish
2. Argus Wrasse
3. Banded Archerfish
4. Banded Grunter
5. Banded Sergeant
6. Banded Silver Biddy
7. Barred Mudskipper
8. Bigeye Cusk
9. Bigeye Trevelly
10. Black-spotted Snubnose Goby
11. Blackline Rasbora
12. Blackspot Sargeant
13. Bluegill Longfin
14. Bluelined Hind
15. Brownstripe Red Snapper
    
16. Butterfly Whiptail
17. Candystripe Cardinalfish
18. Cantor’s Gudgeon
19. Checkerboard Wrasse
20. Chinese Demoiselle
21. Chocolate Hind
22. Common Silver Biddy
23. Congaturi Halfbeak
24. Cook’s Cardinalfish
25. Crested Grunter
26. Decorated Ponyfish
27. Diamond Wrasse
28. Dory Snapper
29. Duskytail Grouper
30. False Scorpionfish
31. Fanbellied Filefish
32. Flame Cardinalfish
33. Forest Betta
34. Fringescale Sardinella
35. Giant Mudskipper
36. Giant Trevally
37. Goldlined Sweetlip
38. Green Puller
    
39. Grey Demoiselle
40. Harry Hotlips
41. Houndfish
42. Humpback Cardinal
43. Humpbacked Cardinalfish
44. Indo-Pacific Sergeant
45. Indochinese Spotted Barb
46. Iridescent Shark Catfish
47. Jansen’s Wrasse
48. Javaen Barb
49. Javan Ricefish
50. Javelin Grunter
51. Knight Goby
52. Kop’s Glass Perchlet
53. Lattice Monocle Bream
54. Long-tail Tripodfish
    
55. Longspine Ponyfish
56. Lunartail Puffer
57. Malayan Tiger Barb
58. Mangrove Jack
59. Marble Goby
60. Masked Shrimpgoby
61. Mayan Cichlid
62. Minute Mudskipper
63. Monogrammed Monocle Bream
64. Moon Wrasse
65. Mottled Spinefoot
66. Nile Tilapia
67. Obscure Damsel
68. Ochre-striped Cardinalfish
69. One-spot Snapper
70. Onespot Demoiselle
    
71. Orbiculate Cardinalfish
72. Oriental Sillago
73. Ornate Goby
74. Pacific Dusky Wrasse
75. Pale Rasbora
76. Peacock Shrimpgoby
77. Pearly-spotted Wrasse
78. Pink Ear Emperor
79. Pink-Speckled Shrimpgoby
80. Red Tilapia
81. Redbelly Yellowtail Fusilier
82. Redcoat
83. Rib Bar Cardinalfish
84. Robust Mangrove Goby
85. Scissortail Rasbora
86. Siamese Glassfish
87. Silty Wrasse
88. Silver Demoiselle
89. Silver Sillago
90. Spanish Flag Snapper
91. Spectacled Sandgoby
    
92. Streaky Rockskipper
93. Stripe-nosed Halfbeak
94. Striped Snakehead
95. Striped Snapper
96. Sulphur Goatfish
97. Threadfin Acara
98. Three-spot Cardinalfish
99. Threespot Dascyllus
100. Tiger Barb
101. Timor Wrasse
102. Toothpony
     
103. Tropical Sand Goby
104. Two Spot Demoiselle
105. Two-lined Monocle Bream
106. Vachelli’s Glass Perchlet
107. Weber’s Chromis
108. Western Mosquitofish
109. Whipfin Silver-biddy
110. White Shouldered Whiptail
111. Whitecheek Monocle Bream
112. Yellow Banded Damselfish
113. Yellowfin Snapper
114. Yellowfin Surgeonfish

Adding the new species to the list of all the species I've ever caught, when I got back, I realised that I had passed the five hundred mark. A great achievement that I'm very proud of. Over the coming years, I'd like to try to hit one thousand eventually!

Tight lines, Scott.

Acknowledgments:

I'd like to thank fellow species hunters Luke and Arthur for their advice on fishing various venues around Phuket before the trip. It was very useful!

Most of all though, I'd yet again like to thank fellow species hunter Jiayuan for his invaluable help throughout the duration of my trip. Whether it be information on the best places to try for certain species, or helping to identify some of the fish I'd caught, his knowledge was incredibly useful and equally impressive! We kept in touch throughout pretty much my entire trip. This, despite the fact he was busy with university exams and projects. Sadly, his academic commitments meant that we didn't get the chance to meet up during either of the Singapore phases of our adventure, which I would have loved. Hopefully, the next time I'm in Singapore we can go species hunting together!

More Species Hunting Adventures In Singapore: Part 6.

Arriving back in Singapore late in the afternoon, it was raining heavily, and we were both pretty hungry, so instead of going straight to our hotel, risking getting soaked, we got off of the MRT at Paya Lebar and went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in the retail mall that's directly connected to the station. We must have underestimated how hungry we both were, because between the two of us, we ate our way through about thirty plates! Amongst my selections, I had two favourites.

The marinated baby octopus was delicious,...

...and a simple, clean, wakame seaweed salad was very nice too. 

Riding the MRT along to Kallang, the rain had thankfully eased off. Checking in to our hotel, the same one we'd stayed in at the beginning of our trip, we decided to have a nap. Partly due to the early start we'd had, and also probably due to overeating. When we woke up a few hours later, we caught the MRT down to Marina South Pier and I had a couple of hours targeting nocturnal species. Cardinalfish were my main target, but I was also hopeful that some squirrelfish might be present. After catching a couple of candystripe cardinalfish, I got a much more aggressive take and the culprit shot off out into deeper water. It was a squirrelfish, and for a small fish, I was surprised that it put up as decent a scrap as it did.

This redcoat was my first ever squirrelfish species. They are venomous, so it was handled with care.

As I continued fishing, the bites weren't coming thick and fast but instead fairly sporadically. I then caught a nice Spanish flag snapper that also took my bait very aggressively and charged off. Putting up a spirited fight, it was great fun on ultralight tackle.

Not huge, but I think it's the biggest Spanish flag snapper I've ever caught.

Pleased with the way the session was unfolding, I was confident that eventually I'd catch a new species of cardinalfish before too long, as several are found in the area. We moved to a second spot, but the ground there was saturated with water from the downpour earlier in the afternoon, so we quickly moved back to nearby the first spot. Dropping my bait down again, I didn't get a bite for a while, but after a while I felt a very subtle take and lifted into something much bigger that immediately started stripping line from my reel at an alarming rate. It certainly wasn’t a cardinalfish! Applying some pressure to stop the fish potentially getting down into a gap in the boulders, luckily it instead swam out away from the wall I was fishing from into open water. It made a few more surging runs midwater, before it tired and I managed to bring it to the surface. Suddenly realising that my extendable net was back in the hotel, I had a decision to make, either swing the fish up with my rod, or put my rod down and try to hand line it up. I quickly decided just to go for the first option! Getting the tip of my rod as low as I could, I wound up my drag, and with one motion, lifted it up, over the railings and onto the grass behind me!

My first ever goldlined sweetlips was a cracker!

I admire the fish one last time before releasing it. 

My heart was pounding for a while after that. On a high, I carried on fishing, and after moving to a different spot I caught a couple of new species of cardinalfish almost straight away and both were nice big specimens too! It really had turned into an amazing nighttime session!

My first ever ochre-striped cardinalfish was shortly followed by,..

...my first ever three-spot cardinalfish!

Having achieved my goals for the session, and also been rewarded with the unexpected capture of the goldlined sweetlips, I decided to call it a night. In the morning, we were going to head back to Bedok Jetty for my last fishing session of the trip. The one I'd just enjoyed, would take some beating!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species Hunting Adventures In Phuket: Part 5.

After stopping to get some lunch on the way, we arrived at the small pond, and I set about thrashing the water with some small plugs and paddletail lures mounted on small jigheads. After a while I did see a fish following my lure, and it had a wild slash at it just in front of me before speeding off, flashing its silver flank as it did so. I'm fairly sure it was a small tarpon, but obviously there's no way to be totally certain. Anyway, I carried on trying, covering most of the pond and trying a few different retrieve speeds and styles, all to no avail.

I didn't see any no fishing signs.

Having spent over an hour trying to catch my first tarpon, and having caught nothing at all, I decided to turn my attention to the multitude of fish that I could see between the edge of the pond and the floating pontoon I was standing on. Turning around and rigging up a split shot rig, I got comfortable and quickly caught three of the larger species that I could see, taking me over the one hundred species mark for the trip!

First to greedily gobble a piece of prawn was this Cantor's gudgeon.

Followed very quickly by this humpbacked cardinalfish.

From a submerged rock, I then tempted my first robust mangrove goby.

Seeing lots of tiny goby sitting on the rocky bottom, I switched over to a tanago hook and baited it up with a tiny piece of prawn. Lowering this down, after missing a couple of bites, I caught one of the diminutive fish, and swinging it up to hand, unhooked it and popped it into my micro species tank for a close up photo.

This tiny tank is an awesome addition to my species hunting kit. Inside it is my first ever black-spotted stubnose goby!

Fairly confident I'd caught all the mini and micro species behind me, that I could see anyway, and also hadn't caught already during the trip, I made a final effort to catch a tarpon. Despite my efforts, I was unsuccessful, sadly. By this point, it was fairly late in the afternoon, and there was one last spot that I wanted to fish, so off we went. About thirty minutes later, we arrived at Sarasin Bridge, parked the car and walked out onto it.

Sarasin Bridge connects Phuket to Phang Nga in southern Thailand. It's now for pedestrians only, having being replaced by a new road bridge that runs adjacent to it in 2011.

Not long after we arrived, the light was slowly beginning to fade and there wasn't too much current flowing underneath the bridge. Dropping a chunk of prawn to the bottom, I caught a fish straight away, but after that things were surprisingly slow. Eventually, once it was pretty dark, I caught a second fish.

This chocolate hind was an addition to the trip's total, but I've caught them before, again whilst in Singapore last year.

Another species added to the tally, this whitecheek monocle bream was also my first.

By the time darkness came, the current flowing under the bridge had picked up considerably, making fishing more difficult with the tackle I had with me. I did want to continue fishing closer to the start of the bridge to see if I could catch any nocturnal species, but it had been a long day, and we were both quite hungry, so I packed up, and we made the one-hour drive back south to Rawai, stopping for some very tasty smash burgers on the way. 

It would have been nice to end our time in Thailand with a traditional Thai meal, but this triple smash burger with bacon and cheese was so good!

Sadly, our in Thailand had come to an end, and despite not being able to fish on Rawai Landing Pier, I think I did reasonably well on the species hunting front. In the morning, we were flying back to Singapore, where we'd be staying for two nights before flying home again. We had a bit of sightseeing planned, but I was hopeful that I would be able to squeeze in two last fishing sessions before the adventure was over.

Tight lines, Scott.

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