Species hunting adventures in Singapore: Day 5.

Having failed to catch any freshwater species two days earlier, we opted to have another attempt on the fifth day of our trip. The three of us headed up to Kranji Reservoir on the north coast of Singapore to try and catch peacock bass. There are three species found in Singapore, speckled peacock bass, butterfly peacock bass and azul peacock bass. Chris had caught speckled peacock bass before, whilst Lee and I were keen to catch any species of peacock bass for the first time.

Chris caught this lump whilst in Columbia recently.

I was quite excited about the session, but given our experiences in the other legal fishing areas, my expectations weren't too high if I’m honest. Kranji Reservoir is huge, and the two legal fishing areas either side of its dam are tiny in comparison. Any fish that regularly frequent these areas are also heavily pressured. When we arrived, there were lots of other anglers fishing already. We were expecting that. What we weren’t expecting were crocodiles!

I don't know if I was more amazed that there were crocodiles or that there wasn't a fine for being near the water's edge! The authorities in Singapore really do love a fine!

Getting quickly set up right at the bottom of the fishing area, we started fishing, all trying different lures, changing them occasionally, but nothing we cast in resulted in any takes. We did see the odd very small peacock bass feeding on tiny fry in the margins, but even trying small soft plastics in those areas failed to tempt the predators responsible.

Lee and Chris join the crocodiles in the long grasses of Kranji Reservoir Fishing Ground A. They dam is at the top of the reservoir and the tall buildings beyond are actually in Malaysia.

We persevered, fishing away for about three hours, trying various lures at different spots, but sadly none of us had any joy. We decided that it was time for Plan B, so we made the short walk up out of the fishing area and over the road to the seaward side of the reservoir’s dam. The water there was surprisingly dirty, the bottom was very snaggy, and despite throwing out a piece of prawn I got no interest whatsoever. There was also no cover and to make matters worse it was extremely hot too. Did I mention how hot and humid Singapore is? It didn’t take long for us to realise that it was probably time to switch to Plan C. The slight problem with Plan C was that there was no Plan C, it had to be formulated, so we sought some shade and drank some water while I came up with it.

After looking at the places I had saved on Google Maps, I suggested we visit an area where we could fish for small freshwater species in a tiny stream that ran through a jungle and then came out of it continuing its journey along a roadside channel. This would be Phase One of Plan C. A taxi ride and short walk later, we were standing on a small wooden bridge in a lush green and very noisy area surrounded by dense foliage and tall trees. There were lots of small fish in the water flowing underneath the bridge, but there were also lots of insects in the air, some of them were biting varieties. Chris and I decided to soldier on and began fishing, whilst Lee, who wasn't really interested in catching such small fish, decided to keep exploring the jungle’s paths to avoid being eaten alive, and he also wanted to see what wildlife he could spot. When he returned a short time later, Chris and I had caught a couple of the little fish and Lee had seen some cool creatures, so we were all quite happy.

I caught this forest betta from the stream running under the wooden bridge.

Whilst exploring the jungle, Lee spotted this strange creature clinging to a tree. He thinks it was a flying lemur.

Leaving the jungle I had thirty minutes fishing in the roadside channel. Chris and Lee were happy just to watch me catch a few more species before we headed back to the hotel. While I was fishing I also watched a small catfish quickly swim past and into a small pipe. I dangled some prawn next to the pipe to try and tempt it, but couldn't entice it out.

You’d be forgiven for failing to see this small stream as it was so overgrown! There were plenty of small fish in it though!

I caught a few of these small Nile tilapia,..

...and some Indochinese spotted barb too.

It was still very early in the evening when we got back and went out for some food. Afterwards, Phase Two of Plan C began, our first evening session of the trip. We had intended to fish from a spot near the Marina Bay Cruise Terminal for a few hours, but when we got there and started fishing the action was pretty much non existent and the seabed was a tackle hungry beast. It’s not much fun repeatedly tying up drop shot rigs using the light of a head torch just to lose them after a cast or two, and Lee lost a few jigs as well. A move to another venue was discussed.

The cool night scene was the only good thing about the spot we tried.

It's fair to say we were all by that point feeling a bit frustrated with the way the day’s fishing had not gone to any of the plans. I suggested we get a taxi and head along to Bedok Jetty. It was lit up, comfortable and wasn’t a tackle graveyard. So that’s what we did. Sadly, the fishing there was also very slow. There were lots of small baitfish around and lots of squid in the water too, sporadically attacking the baitfish. We caught a few cardinalfish at least, and I added one new species to my tally, so it wasn't a total waste of time. Chris also caught a cardinalfish neither of us had caught during the trip.

There were a few of these rib bar cardinalfish out hunting.

My only new species of the evening was this small saddled grunt.

Chris caught this greedy whitelined cardinalfish on a fairly large chunk of prawn.

So, all things considered it had not been a great day fishing wise. The following morning we were going to catch a ferry over to Pulau Ubin where we were hoping to catch barramundi in its mangroves. At least that was the plan! There would no doubt be new species to catch from the brackish water and I was particularly looking forward to hopefully not only seeing, but also catching some mudskipper!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the next part.