Ed's Pro Pond - Major Changes

This is one blog entry without any pics, errr..... reason? Cause the previous 2 visit to this pond is in the night, firstly usually night pics usually turn out to be lousy on my phone cam and also, lazy to take pics lah.

It have been a while since I visited this pond, simply because I dun really do pond fishing. However, one fishing kaki needed a fix to cure his itch at night and I suggested this pond cause it does offer 'overnight' fishing. So off we go to the pond on 2 different occasion, result differ but bite rate reasonable. As I am not keen to fish at the pond, I simply just tag along to look look see see.

Also I do know that there is a change of ownership (or management as some call it) and changes to the pond layout. Rates still remains the same and only Live baits are allowed (Live Prawns and Milk Fish) which are sold at the pond and prawn meat.

1st trip - We reached the pond at close to 9pm, friend paid for the rod and we started off. We are expecting to finish off at about 2am as the rates are $50 for 5 hrs. Shortly after we started, one staff came over to us and inform us that there will be no release of fishes already, however, they are offering us to fish till 6am (their overnight fishing package of $50 from 10pm till 6am). Okay fine, no complains as we dun expect any fish release as it have pass their fish release timing.  Bite rate is okay considering there is no release of fishes, finish at 3am with 5 fishes on one rod. Not too bad indeed, all 5 are snappers around the 1kg region.

2nd trip - This time we reach at about 10pm and have full intention to fished till 6am, since with such long fishing hours, so it is again just one rod. Manage to chat with another angler who is there earlier, told us bite rate is bad and he have no bites for more then an hour already, he also mentioned that the pond got blast left right center in FK for it's poor bite rate. Anyway since already there so we started, really really slow, however I did notice something, it seems that one this occasion, it is not that the fishes are not biting but are very alert and frisky. They will grab the bait, feel something is not right and spat out the bait in less then 1 sec flat. Happens to notice this as I am holding the line in my hands with open bail arm. I think the pond management notice the terrible catch rate and they decided to release 2 batches of fishes at different timing although it is well past their published released timing. Kudos to them! Trying hard to keep customers happy.  For the entire period we have good bite rate but terrible catch rate, lack of skill? Could be. But anyway, during this period I learnt more about the spots for better catch rate.

This is not secret spot anyway, there are 2 big concrete blocks in the pond, one in the middle of the pond and one at the side. Cast as close as you can to the middle concrete block, closer to the net when you are trying to get snappers. If you want to target GP, which they do stock up reasonably big sized one at the pond, cast bait appox 1 to 1 1/2 ft from the middle concrete block further away from the nets. Saw a chap catching at least 4 to 5 GP from that spot and they are larger then a dinner plate. However, do use a lighter action rod for the GP as  you need to strike when they snatch the bait, too stiff, you can hardly feel it. On both occasion, we attached a luminous bead at the hook for rigs to target snappers, not sure if it improve bite rate but I feel that we do have a bite rate then others, you might like to try if fishing at night,

Final words - I still feel this pond provide a good value for money, $50 for 5hrs or for overnight fishing. For newbies or those who never fish before 5hrs to get a feel of the pond and do some decent fishing seems reasonable, 3hrs seems way too short a period for me. Due to it's size, the density of fishes there is likely to be higher then other ponds, but also because of it's size, when it get too crowded, it might be a pain in the arse to fish there too. Also it seems that the pond is not a deep as it is before, plus with a healthy amount of seaweeds inside, could be annoying to some. Oh yeah, though generally both trip are enjoyable but one of the staff kind of piss me off with his choice of words. 1st incident - Friend wanted to try for GP, so he get those off the shelf rig with 2 small hooks, staff notice and quite rudely told us only single hook allowed. 2nd incident - On our previous trip, we didn't notice that it is 6am already, the same staff also told us to pack up in a rude manner, heck, a little politeness will not kill you. Hope his attitude improves.

Disclaimer - Nope, I am not part of the pond management team or are paid to write about this pond. Simply just to share my experience at this pond.

Kyoto Haven Pond - Pasir Ris FW3

After a long hard day of doing housework in preparation for CNY, a call from friend to pay a visit to Kyoto pond is too much of a temptation. I just need to get out of the house to get a break, and also I would like to visit the pond as it have been in operation for a while already but yet didn't see much catch reports on this pond. Anyway armed with just some coffee and some drinks, this trip will serve as a recce trip for me while my friend will be fishing.

We reach there just after 10pm, immediately am told that they will close at 2am today thus with their current promotion of 3hrs+1hrs free, we will lose out about 15mins of fishing. No issue at all, so let's start fishing. In less then 20 minutes, 1st hook up, a KBL but friend loss it when the KBL is doing it's 'Michael Jordan' routine, after that it is pretty quiet for my friend till about 1 am where he have about 3 hooks up but lost all of it. Staffs are friendly chaps which I manage to strike a decent conversation with a couple of them, which they tell me a lot more about the ponds and other stuff. Some interesting facts is that there are 12 species in the pond, 2 types of KBL (Barra and Local KBL, err.... dun ask me what are local KBL, I have no idea what they are), small qty of Taiwan Ngor, 3 types of groupers (sorry too tired to remember what they are), GT (Golden Trevally), GT again (this time round is Giant Trevally), GP (golden promfet), and 3 species of snappers. Plus 2 Giant groupers which have grown to an estimated 20kg odd already.

Ed's Pro Pond - Location Review

Wrote a CR using these pics in a local fishing forum early this year and created some big hoo-ha. That's one reason why these days I prefer to do all these fishing stuff on my Blog, remove all these issues and also easier for me to check back should I needed to. Also with the soon might be implement MDA guidelines on blogging and commercial interest, I better put in a disclaimer before I get myself into any trouble.

Disclaimer - I do NOT have any commercial interest in this fishing pond. It is just that I know one of the staff there which I know from fishing trips.
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This pond is a SW fishing pond that is located at Paris Ris Farmway 3, not too sure what's it name when it is first open but it is known as Ed's Pro pond because the boss is known as 'Ed'. As you can see from the date stamp on the pics, these are pretty old pictures by modern standard, but it still generally look the same except for a few more shelters.

When one first visit the pond, it could look be depressingly small, most 'Pro' pond are usually larger then this. However, the magic of this pond is it's depth, I am told before it undergoes some renovations, the deepest part is as deep as 4 meters. Having the depth, even catching small GP are fun too as they will dive and dive, however most anglers will be going for the snappers and groupers for it's meat. From what I understand, during the renovation, they have fill up the bottom with new sand, pumping in fresh seawater, building trenches to help fish distribution, and some small other improvement. While the water condition have definitely improved, the hot spot for the snappers are still at the keep net area. Alex, a friend and one of the staff there, told me just a couple of days ago that there is a couple more hotspots around this small pond. I might be meeting up with him soon for kopi and hopefully will be able to reveal where are the other hotspots.

Currently they are running a couple of competitions, which is kind of confusing to me, anyway they are basically the heaviest catch of the month. Prizes range from High End tackles to Free membership at the pond (X hrs of fishing bascially).

Info
Address - 70, Pasir Ris Farmway 3
Rates - SGD50 for 5 hrs, fish release at 5hrs interval; Weekend Night fishing from 10pm till 7am (I think), NO fish release.
This is a Catch and Keep pond; However fishes above 5kg and GT are to be released back to the pond.
Others - There is a Snack store, prawning area and FW CnR which is operate by another operator.

Below are some other pics of the pond.

Virgin experience - Newbie 1st try at FW Prawning

For all the fishing I have tried before, fishing for prawn is something I have never ever try before.  Although I have learn from other anglers about the art of prawn fishing, I have never ever tried it until today.  Alas, no longer a prawning virgin already.

In fact, it is something I didn't setup to do, it just happen. I am at the Taman Jurong Pond to pass time with a friend, then met some other fisho friends as well, who are into prawning. As usual, started talking about fishing stuff and inadvertently about prawning, one of them is a prawning fanatic at this pond and share with me some tips and show me a few tricks as well. Since he intend to do some prawn fishing, I shamelessly asked to tag along to learn more about the feeding pattern, when to set hook, where to hunt etc.  And yes I do learn a lot and managed to catch some prawns when I tried using his setup with guidance.  I am very very impressed with his catch, he is still fishing (albeit finishing soon) when I left and he have already catch an estimated 50pcs of prawns, pic shown are just part of his catch which he gave to me.  In the pic there are 30 prawns (yes yes, I counted them), plus the smaller 1st batch he gave away too, that comes up to an estimate of 50pcs.

CR - 1 hour Quickie at Taman Jurong Pro Pond

Ever since I knew more about rubbers lures and how effective it is at the Taman Jurong Pro Pond, I always recommend fisho I know to try out rubber at the pro pond.  After a long long break, I visited the pond 2 weeks back with a non-fishing friend, not to fish but to watch EPL at the little pub there.  As the water is very clear that night, I can see a few schools different species of fishes they released (KBL, Taiwan Ngor and MJ).  Notice that the KBL are of decent sizes, 1kg+ and saw a 2kg+ one too, I find that odd as usually they release 700g to 800g KBL only.  However, with 5 rods at that time and all using live prawn, I didn't see anyone catching any fish.  So sent as SMS to a fellow fisho who like to fish at this pond, telling him the KBL at the pro pond have grown cause no one is catching them.

This evening, fisho friend called me telling me he wanted to go take a look at the pond as he have not been there for a while, so off we go with no fishing gear.  But I brought along two 1/8 oz jig head and some rubbers, in case of zero fighter newbies who need to bring at least one fish home, I can give them the stuff to try.  After a while, friend get really itchy as he didn't fish for a while, and after seeing that I brought the rubbers, he decided to pay for an hour of fishing using their house rod.

After a very short session, he decided to take a smoke and pass the rod to me to have a go, a couple of cast later, I got my first hook up, but alas, jerky drag plus entangle with another angler's line make me lost the fish and also the jig head.  Damn, now left with only one jig head for the rest of the session, thus we decided to go for high drag setting and hopefully bring in the fishes fast to reduce the chance of line out situation.

Friend landed 2 fish shortly, one KBL and one MJ, and after that I have a go, I simply cannot believe that I have 7 takes and zero hook up and friend got 2 to 3 takes and also zero hook up.  However, we both ended the one hour session pretty satified with the bite rate, but non too happy about the hook up rate.  I think the jig head hook got blunt after the 2nd fish is landed, this unable to increase the hook up rate.  But nevertheless, it still prove to us that rubbers work well at the pro pond.

Tips

Bring your own tackle, their reels is in real need to service and have the drag system changed. Drag is jerky, and is either low or very high setting, not good at all.

Use rubber with good tail action, commonly found rubbers like Sure Catch, Angler's Pal, White Rabbit are okay, but the material is a bit hard, trim the section between body and tail thinner to achieve better tail action; Without good tail action, catch rate is significantly reduced. Remove the bottom triple hook as well, snag too easily as the strike zone is just above the bottom of the pond; Best are those soft unweighted rubber to be used with jig head, can use as it is with good tail action.