Species hunting adventures in Singapore: Day 3.

On day three, Lee had arranged for us to meet up briefly in the afternoon with Jon, Tronixfishing’s Singapore Rep, in a tackle shop. We were going to visit the Southern Islands on day four with him, and it was also a chance to have a short break from fishing to look at some cool tackle and perhaps get some local intel. We spent the morning visiting several freshwater fishing zones, steadily making our way towards the meeting point. In Singapore, freshwater fishing is limited to a few controlled areas. None of the ones we fished produced anything, although we did see small groups of tilapia and a small catfish cruising around on the surface, so there were fish present. From the legal fishing spots we visited I got the impression that they weren’t particularly productive places to fish though!

Fishing/hiding in the shade of some trees in Marina Reservoir Fishing Zone 1.

Being away from the coast in mainly built up areas all morning meant it felt like the hottest day of the trip so far. It might not have been in reality, but without the wind to cool us, the heat was pretty brutal, almost unbearable. In an attempt to protect my sunburnt leg, I had decided to wear a pair of gym leggings under my shorts. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable they were, and I didn’t feel any hotter wearing them than I had without wearing them the previous two days. That said, I don’t think that was possible! Singapore just feels very hot all the time!

By the time we got close to where we were meeting Jon we’d pretty much given up on catching any fish, so Lee rang him, and he agreed to meet us sooner. After visiting a fly fishing tackle shop, we met up with Jon at the lure fishing tackle shop. He was a nice guy and after a chat we bought some tackle from the shop and got some advice on potential places to fish. Jon also introduced us to some young locals who were planning on fishing some illegal spots in the afternoon for peacock bass. They kindly offered to take us with them, so we had a tricky decision to make. The fines for fishing illegally were quite hefty, so after some discussion we decided against it. Instead, we caught a taxi to Labrador Jetty, a small pier in the Labrador Nature Reserve that has a fishing area at the end of it.

Another comfortable fishing platform, the fishing areas on Labrador Jetty, the two arms at the end,  were clearly marked.

Once again, Lee opted to cast jigs around, whilst Chris and I started off fishing small pieces of prawn on small hooks. The two of us caught a variety of small species and whilst the bites weren’t coming thick and fast, most of the fish we caught were new ones, so I was happy enough fishing away. 

Amongst the fish I caught on Labrador Jetty was this Chinese demoiselle, 

…a deep-bodied mojarra,..

…a few of these ornate threadfin bream,..

…a yellowstripe scad,..

…and a whipfin ponyfish.

Chris caught this regal demoiselle.

After a while, Lee called over to say that some baitfish were being taken from the surface on the inside of the arm of the pier that we were fishing from. Chris went over and joined Lee for a while to try and catch the culprits, leaving me on my own to try and rack up more additions to my trip tally. I managed to do just that.

I mainly caught lots of notchfin threadfin bream, a species I caught on day one.

I also caught a tiny Suez pufferfish,..

...and my first ever anchovy. I think it was an Indian anchovy. 

I also added a lattice monocle bream to my tally along with...

...a small ornage spotted grouper.

Things went very quiet after a while, so we decided to end the session and head back to the hotel. It had been a tough day and whilst Chris and I had caught a few fish, Lee hadn't caught anything at all. We were all looking forward to visiting the Southern Islands of St John's, Lazarus, Seringat and Kusu the following day though. After a quite tough day's fishing, especially for Lee, I was hopeful the fishing would be better there and that Lee would catch the bigger fish that he had put so much effort into trying to catch. 

Tight lines, Scott.

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