A Usual Weekend

ZH went Gina Tackle Shop last friday...

IMA Popkey 120 in a discontinued color

Got him to help me buy a lure.

Feels so guilty now...

Anyway, my company held it's Seventh Month Prayers last friday.

Stayed and drank with the guys.

Ling came after she knocked off.

Went home and fell asleep close to midnight...

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Went fishing at Spot Banana on Saturday's dawn.
Still felt the effects of alcohol whilst on my way there...

Upon reaching, we were delighted to see that the water outlet was turned on.
This means most temensis in the vicinity will flock there to enjoy the influx of rich oxygen and small bait fishes.

Doesn't apply to snakeheads though...
Snakeheads have secondary primitive lungs which enable them to suck in atmospheric air even when the water gets really low in oxygen.

Very soon, I got this temensis on my newly acquired IMA Popkey:

There were many bites indeed...

Felt sick and nauseous from the after-effects of last night's drinking...

Went to the outlet's mouth and toyed around with my lure:

Captured this awesome video by chance:



It shows a temensis executing a lightning fast strike against a top-water lure.

This is a fine example of why top-water strikes are always exciting.
The splash will be much more explosive if it is coming from a large fish.

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Sunday's dawn, went to Spot Mozzy and met 2 regular baiters there whom I happen to know a few months back when we joined hands to removed a net planted by Thai workers.

Me: Nothing
ZH: 1

Baiters: 6 when we left.

Left the place and went to Pierce Reservoir where I caught this 3lb speckled peacock bass:

And by the way, the Berkley Whiplash crystal seems strong and after some dips in the water, it turned softer (which is a good thing).

Only minus point about this line when compared to Sufix 832 is that it is not as smooth.

Reason being that The Whiplash Crystal is weaved from 4 strands whereas the Sufix 832 has 8 stands.

No big deal, I can live with that...

Desperate Measures For Desperate Times

Went Spot Mozzy on Sunday morning.

Thunderstorm during my drive there.
Could bearly see the road ahead!

Slowed down into a drizzle when I arrived at our meeting point.

Put on our disposable raincoats and started trekking in.
Was pretty sure the rain will stop once we reached Mozzy.

How wrong...
Rain continued with dark skies looming blowing strong chilling wind.

Zero bites...

ZH caught himself a small tilapia though...
Bugger tried to eat his large minnow which is longer than the fish itself!
lol

Spotted a 'hole' in opposite bank's vegetation.
Maybe a snakehead is hiding there waiting out the rain?

Casted and got my Scouter stuck!
Sianzzzz................

Tried pulling it back but my braided line snapped when I tugged lightly.
It must have frayed badly somewhere causing this sudden breakage.

One of my favorite snakehead lure...
Stuck...
Expensive one...
Arrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Decided to retrieve it no matter what!

Stripped down to my underwear and rubber boots, waded my way towards my Scouter which was still clinging on some branch just above the water surface.

The tributary's bottom was packed with loose mud and with every step I took, my leg sank into it to shin level, sometimes up till knee level.
Warm slimy sticky mud flowing into my boots.
Gross but feeling strangely shiok...

Water feels surprisingly warm in this cold weather though...
Rain showed no sign of stopping and instead, grew slightly heavier.

Pass the halfway mark, it suddenly turned deeper until chest level.
Thankfully, mud had progressed to hard ground as the water deepened.

Luckily there's no breeding snakeheads around.
They are known to attack anything (including humans) if their nest gets disturbed.

Not to mention water snakes, crocodiles, water ghosts, leeches, etc.
I'll have no problem as long as there're no cockroaches in the water...

Unpicked my lure and waded back where ZH pulled me up the bank.

Wet and cold but happy to get my Scouter back.

Peeled out and discarded all the remaining line from my spool.
It has been used for quite a long while already.
Might have already suffered some abrasion damage which are invisible to the naked eyes.

Went back home, washed my gear, rinsed my boots along with a hot shower.

Had purchased a spool of Berkley Whiplash Crystal awhile back.
Intend to replace my Sufix 832 with it.

The Whiplash Crystal costs way cheaper than Sufix 832.

One thing I found out about those braided lines on the market is that NONE of them are stating facts on their packaging.

In reality, both are capable of achieving breaking strength of over 35lbs.

I'm talking about the stated breaking strength and thickness on their respective packagings.

For example:

Sufix 832's 20lbs has a diameter of 0.26mm. (stated 0.23mm)

Whiplash Crystal 30lbs measured 0.26mm as well. (stated 0.10mm)

(Above measurements are verified by me personally using digital tools from work which are used to measure paper thickness.)

This means that Sufix is actually marketing it's 30lbs line in a '20lbs packaging' so as to fool anglers thinking that their line is hardier and stronger compared to other brands of the same line class.

While the Whiplash Crystal states a realistic poundage of 30lbs, it conveniently downplayed the thickness by a rather huge margin to their advantage obviously.

I have no faults with Sufix and in fact, has been using their line for almost 2 years now.

The 832 is still a better choice compared to most (not all) braided lines out there.

'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

Will try the Berkley Whiplash Crystal for now.

I'll prefer fixing it now than waiting for it to fail me in the middle of a fish fight...

Chlorine & Quarry

Saturday morning, we went Spot Banana.
Reached just before dawn and was surprisingly pleased to see no one there but us.

Water was abnormally clear with patches of bubbles floating on surface. (?)

Adjusted my drag setting and clipped on my Scouter.

First cast into the far distant.

Man, this lure can really fly!
If loaded properly, it can easily outcast Surface Cruisers.

Lure landed on water and I walked it slowly on the surface pausing every now and then.

A huge splash and strong tug.

I pulled my rod and fight lasted for a short while. 

Suddenly, it went slack...

Reeled it back and noticed that one of the trebles got bent.

Oh well... that's life...

Carried on casting and the place seemed abnormally quiet save for a pair of zebra tilapias swimming leisurely near to where I was standing. 

No takes at all. 

ZH spotted gushing water further up and we realised that PUB had turned on an outlet up ahead. 

We walked up to the outlet feeling excited as moving water usually promise good catches and hookup rates. 

Water pumping out has a greyish tone to it.
That's when we smelled chlorine.

PUB will sometimes pump water loaded with chlorine into it's reservoirs.

No fish will wanna stick around chemical laden water...

After some photo taking, we left...

Went to Mandai to check out a water body.
It's an abandoned quarry in a SAF's training ground.

Trekked in and saw the biggest bamboo tree in Stinkapore:

Real thing is much bigger than seen on photo

No sign of wild pandas nearby though...

Found the water body after a long trek and some dead ends.

I walked up the fallen tree and tested the depth.
It was too shallow...
Only slightly less than 2 feet deep at the area around the fallen tree...

We stick around observing for a cigarette's duration during which not a single fish activity was sighted.

Another dead lake...

Mosquitoes are very much alive and active there though...

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Went home and showed Ling this:

Something which I picked up on the ground while trekking in.

She doesn't know what it is and seemed not too interested...

Anyway, kept it at a corner in my fishing bag.

Lucky charm?

This seed from a rubber tree brought back some of my childhood memories in Malaysia...

Long Holidays

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday!

Super long weekend due to Hari Raya and National day.
This doesn't come by often.

Spent Thursday morning with Ling, Kann and Kico, Maricar going to the pool at Roxy Hotel.

Too bad I can't swim, otherwise will join them.
Also, I don't think it's good for the kids to see my tattoos.

Sat by the poolside while they're having fun.

Ling instigated Kiki to blast me with a water cannon.

And failed miserably... lol

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Friday morning, went to Spot Mozzy.
Also the start of chinese seventh month.

ZH overslept.
Made me wait for half and hour...

No sign of any paranormal activity.
Snapped this passing spider while I strolled the area in the dark, quiet and cold morning killing time.

We trekked in after he arrived and very soon, he got a bit from the tributary:

Giant Snakehead @ 6.5lbs

On Jackall Mickey 140

Fish was caught using his newly purchased Jackall Mikey 140.

One of the trebles was totally mangled, another one nearly dislodge one of the snakehead's eye.

It's lucky that the rest held on and we managed to land the fish despite it's tightly shut jaws.

I continued casting out into the open waters trying all those new lures that I purchased recently.

Deps Buzzjet, Jackall Mikey, Daiwa Morethan Scouter.

Not much luck with the Mikey despite it's enchanting sub-surface swimming action...

Switched to the Scouter and 'walked' it slowly with pauses. 

Awhile later, I saw a splash where my lure was and the line started tugging.

Striked immediately and after some headshakes, it suddenly went 'dead'!

No more struggles and pull...

I then reeled back my line slowly.

Strangely, there's still weight at the end of my line.

Must have hooked onto some trash or branch at the river bed, I thought... 

When nearing, I saw the fish.

It had allowed itself to be towed back slowly without putting up any fight at all!

Strange... First time I've encountered such peaceful reaction from a hooked snakehead...

However, once retrieved near enough for it to see my silhouette, it instantly transformed into a wild thing again.

Dashed, shook, thrashed.

There's was once it even jumped cleanly out of the water surface attempting to throw my hook!

Missed the photo opportunity of it's spectacular leap...

Cigar smoking snakehead

Giant Snakehead 6.5lbs @ 65cm

As always, the fishes were returned safely back into the water.



No more action after this and we returned to civilisation...

New Lures... Again...

Top: Daiwa Morethan Scouter 130F

Centre: Duo Tide Minnow SLD 145F

Bottom: Jackall Mikey (Skull Shell Edition) Chart Back MB

Been buying alot of expensive branded lures lately...

This is it!

No more new lures for August!

I'll try...

Record Freshwater Catch!

Went to Spot Banana with ZH at first light this morning.

Upon arrival, saw a scene which disappoints me.

Another fishing buddy lost...

Shall not elaborate further but it made me an even more selfish angler.

Anyway, back to the events.

Caught nothing, not even a single bite.

Spot is almost dead due to some individuals who keep bringing groups of anglers there...

After countless casts, I went in deeper into the banana trees and joined ZH.

No action there as well...

Saw a monitor lizard circling around the area, sliding in the water looking for prey to feed on.

Was casting my dark colored Surface Cruiser when the lizard saw my lure.

It started to give chase and quickly, I retrieved my lure.

The large reptile made a few lazy bites at my lure which didn't connect.

At this point, I developed an evil thought...

Was trying to lure it closer to terrify ZH, who seemed to be rather afraid of it.   lol

Suddenly, it made a quick dash in the water and snapped!

I was stunned at this lightning fast maneuver.

Met countless water monitors when fishing, they have always been slow and seemed to know that our lures are artificial.

At the most, they'll swim close enough and investigate without attacking.

They seem to be smart enough to know that lures are not food.

This is my first encounter with a monitor lizard aggressive enough (or stupid?) to attack my lure.

And a rather huge one that is...

Lure still hanging from it's upper jaw

At the very moment it took my lure, lizard dived and dashed once it felt resistant from my tight line.

The strength from it was unlike any other monster I caught before.

Not much shakes but the pull... I will never forget it...

Could only held on to my NRX, not able to do anything, allowing it to peel line off my reel.

It's initial dash was crazy...

Pulls line off my Ryoga like nobody's business...

At one point, It attempted to crawl onto land on my far right.

I immediately thumbed my spool hard and pulled it back into the water.

This is the moment when I prayed to myself that everything hold.

Knots, terminals, line, rod.

Soon, it wore itself out with all the wild thrashings as I pulled it close.

I passed my rod to ZH and proceeded to lip grip the monster.

ZH was kind enough to let me use his cheapo lip grip fearing that I might lose my expensive boga to this beast.

What to do now??

Of course, the smart thing to do is to cut line and forgo my surface cruiser.

But that lure was one of my favorite (and expensive!), there's no way I'm going to sacrifice it!

Moreover, I don't think leaving it stuck in the lizard's mouth is a good idea.

They are not like fishes which can perform vigorous headshakes to dislodge the hook.

WTF?! Pliers so small!!!

Next thing is to remove the hooks.

Once again, the very kind ZH passed me his pliers.
Very small pliers indeed...

The lizard was hissing menacingly as I was removing the hooks from it's jaw.

Thankfully, the procedure was rather quick and the lizard did not attempt to eat my hand.

More photos:

Tried pulling it up on land but failed as it was too heavy!

I had actually tried to pull it up on land to take better photos (against ZH's protests) but it was simply too heavy.
Also, the standing area that we're on is extremely small.
No way to accommodate 2 grown men and a huge angry lizard.

This beast is well over 20kg!!

Fearing that I might injure it's jaws, I let it went free...

Here's a video showing the later segment of the crazy fight:





We left after a short while later.
No fish... Only 1 big hissing man-eating lizard...

Went to a prata shop at Thomson to have breakfast, then to a hardware shop at Toa Payoh Lorong 1 to buy new water boots.
Current one stinks like hell!

Chatted for awhile and left for home.

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Went to Lower Seletar Reservoir at 3pm to join my other 3 colleagues who were there to catch yabbies.

Yabbies are freshwater mini lobsters.

They recently started a craze over this activity...

One of them had also purchased a baitcasting gear recently and wanted me to guide him casting it.

Once I arrived, I saw yet another water monitor.

This one is much smaller and skinnier.

It's eating a tilapia which it had caught earlier on.

For the first time, I tried my hands on catching those darn yabbies.

It's actually not easy to get hookups.

Out of 20 attempts, only 1 will succeed.

After some time, my stubbornness paid off and I caught the largest of all!

My very first yabby!

The haul

Went home slightly over 7pm.
Dog tired...

Showered and went for my favorite porridge near my home at Tiong Bahru.

Went and fetched Ling who went for her company's outing to USS.




Couldn't forget the lizard...

Deps - Japan

It's been some time since I bought any high end lures...

This time, I splurged on 4 lures by Deps, a Japanese brand.

Managed to get a couple at dirt cheap prices from Dex, a friend from Fishing Kaki Forum:

Deps Buzzjet 96mm 28grams

Got these at a superb friendship price!

Thanks Dex! Appreciate it...

These are big fat heavy surface lures with very detailed finish and unique working action.

A day after, I saw the smaller junior version of it in a bright color at my regular tackle shop.
Although the retail price of these Deps lures are much higher than Dex's friendship price, I just cannot resist grabbing it...

Guess what?
Another variant of the surface lure by Deps is just hanging right above the Buzzjet Junior in the shop!

It's the Spiral Minnow... *drool*

Deps Spiral Minnow 120mm 25gram
Deps Buzzjet Junior 76mm 14gram

Purchased both of these fine lures without any slightest hint of hesitation despite the obscene price tag.   lol







Now let's see if I'm able to get some teeth marks on them this coming weekend...