Shimano Fun Fishing Day 2010

This Blog entry is way way way long overdue, I thought I have put it up before but then my memory must be failing me because it is not.

This event is held at Bedok Jetty in I believe in July 2010, it have been postponed from the original date as you might recall we are hit by an oil slick during the period when it is supposed to be held originally. Of course we all know that fishing along BJT is FOC, thus questions are raised when there is a $20 (if I remember correctly), to register yourself for the event, unlike in paypond where the organizer need to book the entire pond for competitions. Frankly, I am not too sure why is there a need to collect money for what to me should be part of Shimano Fishing marketing campaign, maybe to deter folks who come for a free ride.

Half Beaks Hunting

It has been a while since I last fish for half beaks, almost a full year ago. As they comes near to our mainland shoreline in huge numbers for a short 3 months period or so, it is usually a case of catching them when they are around. Myself and DesT decided to hunt them before they are gone from our shore line.

Arrangement are made the day before the trip, my hands are itching for some action as we noticed that the half beaks are still around just a couple of days ago.  However, this trip almost didn't happen as while we are having breakfast on the day of this trip, we notice the weather isn't too good, slight overcast with a chance of raining.  With a heavy heart, we gave up the thought of going fishing and started to have a chat and have more kopi and teh.  I think mother nature took pity on us, as the sun came out blazing in the late morning, with hunting season coming to a close and with itchy hands, common sense are thrown out of the window and we decided to go half beak hunting.

Shimano Slade 1000FB

Got this reel at the Shimano Fun Fishing Day 2010, I think this my prize for the Fishing Game.  I always wanted to get a 1000 sized reel, so this comes at a good time, but with the AX 1000FB I got at the same event, all of a sudden I have two 1000 sized reel.


No idea what to do with this reel, although it is well built with Aluminum body, but the specs is pretty pathetic, 1 x bearing and 1 x Roller bearing. After thinking for a while, I decided to use this reel 'as it is', which in my term totally unmodified, with all the with lithium grease inside the body. See how good does this 'Entry Level' reel last, how much abuse it can take as I intend to use it for almost everything, from very light bottom fishing to maybe luring.

Shimano AX 1000FB

Got this reel at the Shimano Fun Fishing Day 2010, I think this my Lucky Draw prize.  Thinking of selling it away, but notice that the spool use the AR-C design, which suppose to cast better.  So decided against selling it and upgrade it with a few bearings, think I will use it for light luring.

With it's graphite body, it could be light to pair with a noodle rod for some half beak fun. Most likely, I will spool it with some 4lb or 5lb braided lines, as most Shimano reels at 1000 size are rated at about 2kg drag.

Sister Island - Great Getaway

Sister islands, a pair of small island on the southern part of our small country. My belief that it is not a familiar place for most of us to visit as there is no regular ferry trip to these island unlike St John & Kusu islands. So would one expect a run down, ill maintained island then? Nay, small both it might be, but it is a nicely maintained with proper toilet facilities.

Recently, been asked to see if I am keen to join a batch of hardcore anglers to one of the islands, heck yes, though I know that fishing is a bit tough there, but heck, it is not often to be able to find a gang of 12 pax to split the cost of charter a ferry there.

Daiwa Freams 4500J - Changing Handle Bushing to Bearing

This article is posted at a local fishing forum, but somehow the photos were lost at the photo hosting website. Finally I managed to find the photos in my HDD and upload them again, so here it is.

Reel - Daiwa Freams 4500J
Bearing Size - 8.0 / 14.0 / 3.5 (Open Type)
Verdict - Indeed it feel much more smooth then it used to be before adding the bearing. As I didn't do any servicing to the reel during the change, thus I believe the finding should be correct. I will recommend the change.

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.