More Species Hunting Adventures in Singapore: Part 3.

The last time I visited Singapore, with my mates Chris and Lee, Marina South Promenade was the first place that we fished. It wasn’t particularly productive, and even worse it was hellishly snaggy, so my expectations were understandably pretty low. The tall trees behind us provided us with some welcome shade, and as we wandered along we stopped at a couple of spots, so I could have a few casts. Sadly, my recollection of my previous session in the area proved to be quite good, I caught hardly any fish, nothing new, and spent more time tying up rigs to replace the ones I lost than I did actually fishing, so I threw in the towel fairly quickly, and we headed along to Marina South Pier for one last short session. 

Bottom fishing along Marina South Promenade is not a productive approach in my fairly limited experience.

By the time we got along to the railings just past Marina South Pier, the sun had set, and it was starting to get dark. Perfect for me to target some cardinalfish. The decision to fish after dark was a last minute one, and as a result, I didn’t have my headtorch with me, but we made do with the lights on our iPhones. Rig wise, I fished a drop shot rig but instead of tying on a weight, I squeezed on a couple of large split shot. The idea being that if they got snagged, I could apply a bit of pressure, and they would simply slide off the bottom of the rig. Lowering this rig down into gaps in the submerged boulders straight down the wall, it didn’t take too long for me to feel a few small taps. Before too long, I’d caught a couple of different species of cardinalfish. 

The first was a flame cardinalfish, my first ever. 

It was followed by a few candystripe cardinalfish. A species I have caught before in a few different places around Asia.

Just before I was about to finish fishing, I caught my first ever bigeye cusk. I’ve no idea why their English common name is bigeye cusk, their eyes are pretty tiny! 

The following day, we took the MRT to the HarbourFront station, then hiked up the Marang Trail through a forest to Mount Faber Station, so we could take the Singapore Cable Car over to Sentosa Island. There was a little bit of light rain falling as we made our way up, and off in the distance there were a few thunderstorms and what looked like a heavy downpour.

It’s usually raining somewhere in Singapore!

The cable car ride was very impressive, and I say that as someone who isn't really a big fan of heights!

Once safely over on Sentosa, we went for a walk around. I had my fishing gear with me, but fishing is not permitted anywhere on Sentosa Island sadly, at least not from the shore. Instead, to get a quick fix of fish, we visited the S.E.A. Aquarium. Lillian loves visiting a good aquarium, and with a 2 for 1 offer on admission tickets, it was an opportunity too good to miss!

Highlights were this bigeye soldierfish,...

...and the weedy sea dragons. Very cool looking fish!

Taking the cable car back over to the mainland, we caught the MRT and headed to a small park containing a pond. At a couple of places around it there were no fishing signs, but I was reliably informed that there was a small area where fishing was permitted. 

No fishing here. 

After a bit of searching, I found a spot deep in the undergrowth, where I could chance my luck.

Setting up my tanago rod and fishing a tiny piece of bread under a pole float, I quickly got started. I had two target species, both of them non-native to Singapore. Fortunately, both were present, and even better, both were also very receptive to my micro fishing approach, readily attacking the tiny fleck of bread as it fell through the water column. After a few failed attempts, I started hooking a few of them.

I caught a few blackline rasbora very quickly, but the fish I really wanted to catch,..

…was a tiger barb! What an awesome micro species!

After catching these two tiny fish species and popping one of each into my viewing tank, I was about to take some photos of them, when a small snakehead briefly entered the shallow water directly in front of me, no doubt attracted by the activity of the hooked fish and keen to investigate the possibility of a potential meal. It sat motionless for a brief moment, before it spotted me and quickly swam off again into heavy weed to my left. I’d have loved to set up my Rock Rover to have a go at catching one, but as I’d caught what I was after, and wasn’t totally sure about the legality of fishing where I was, I took photos of the two micro species, quickly packed up my tanago rod, and we headed back to take the Circle Line further north to our second fishing spot of the afternoon, a spot I’d fished at the last time I visited Singapore. After a bit of a walk, we arrived at a small stream that runs out of a jungle into an urban area. On first impressions, most people passing this small stream would find it hard to believe there were fish in it, let alone a wide variety of species. Fishing from a wooden bridge just inside the jungle to begin with, tiny pieces of bread on tango hooks quickly produced a few small fish. 

 

Indochinese spotted barb were present in large numbers. 

I was actually hoping to catch a danio, a fish that’s popular with beginner aquarists. After a while, the small shoal of Indochinese spotted barb seemed to lose interest and swam off downstream. It was at this point I caught this male Forest betta. 

The humidity under the canopy was oppressive, and in no time at all we were both sweating profusely as a result, so we decided to head out of it and for the rest of the session, I fished from a small concrete road bridge over the stream. Switching to my Rock Rover, I fished with a larger hook and was soon pulling out a few more species.

The predominant species was Mayan cichlid. 

There were a few Nile tilapia in amongst them. 

Then I spotted what I thought initially was a goldfish. Dropping a piece of prawn in its vicinity, it initially swam off. After I’d caught a few more Mayan cichlid, it reappeared from underneath the bridge. Slowly lowering my bait down a little further upstream from it, the colourful fish took it eagerly before charging off. After a short scrap, I landed the fish, at that point realising it was in fact a colourful tilapia.

A hybrid, known as a red tilapia, I would later discover. 

After taking a few photos, I released the colourful fish slightly downstream. Returning to the bridge, I was surprised to see a couple of snakehead poking out from the darkness of the bridge’s shadow. I knew I probably only had one chance to catch one, so I moved back from the water, quickly tied on a stronger, slightly larger hook, and baited it up with a large chunk of prawn. Creeping back to the edge of the bridge, the two snakeheads were still sitting there motionless. Slowly lowering my bait down about a foot away from them, I wasn’t too surprised when they both lurched forward and attempted to quickly swallow it. Of course, only one of them succeeded, and firmly setting the hook, all hell broke loose! The hooked fish swam off strongly downstream and put a fair old bend into my rod, almost forcing it against the structure of the bridge. Thankfully, the angry fish was able to take some line, as had my drag been set any tighter, I’m fairly confident my ultralight rod might have come to a nasty end. After its initial surging run, I was able to play the fish slowly back upstream from underneath the bridge and then through some weed before pulling it up onto the grassy bank.

My first striped snakehead. A powerful fish!

Armed with a large mouth and powerful jaws, they are a super aggressive predator. 

Putting the fish back, I fished on for a short while, but the commotion caused by the thrashing snakehead seemed to have caused all the other fish to flee the area. Anyway, light was beginning to fade, and we were both feeling pretty hungry, so we headed off to catch the MRT back to Geylang where we planned to get freshened up before going out for a Chinese meal! The following day we were leaving the mainland in search of more species, and Lillian had declared she was going to fish with me!

Tight lines, Scott.

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