Fishing at the kelong

So way back Patrick took up a liking for fishing. Hes been asking me out to fish , i couldn't help but oblige. Last Saturday , we took fishing for us to a newer level as we hit my uncle's kelong located at the north eastern part of Singapore.

We managed to rendezvous a sizable group of 8 anglers from our contacts. They were Me , Patrick, jun yuan , soon ning, jia wei , Edison or sth, Benjamin and soon ning's friend. After some shopping at the tackle shop at changi village we embark on our boat ride to the kelong . We reached late after noon and as soon as i finished setting up my rig i toss it into the water to test it , and woots, i got a fish just by doing that.


Less then 15 minutes i claimed first blood.

I saw Patrick's lighted up face,there are plenty of fishes around there alright. Disappointed though the catch was a small one and its a cat fish.

It wasn't long before its night fall and the fishes we started catching seemed to be of different species. Other then the usual cat fishes , I caught a sting ray and an eel and some small tarpoon.


Not the most appetizing sight to behold

Around 9 we had monsters hitting the deck as jia wei broke his rod when a big fish struck and Benjamin burst his line . Jun yuan concluded that it might be barracudas on the lurk and our setup then was not ready for those bastards. How ever , the action still went on as Benjamin went on to land his two bat fishes with the help of jun yuan.

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Voila , the bat fish , protector of Gotham fish city.

Jia wei was demoralized by the sight of his broken rod . How ever , after hooking up a rock fish with a hand line helped brighten his day up. His friend , Edison also landed a rock fish , ay, i heard from the kelong staffs that if prepared well its a delicacy and that its sought after by some restaurants.


Its a tad bit too small for table size though , release later on.

The night went on as we caught plenty of other fishes mostly gear fish and cat fish . It was mentally challenging as we grimace through the night deprived of sleep. Some of us couldn't take it and had to hit the sack . How ever , Soon ning, our photographer for the trip, did not give in to the sleep demon and landed himself a nice table sized mangrove jack.


The fish had its picture took later on during day time , which explains the day light.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the kelong would be the calming atmosphere it possess. The constant gentle slaps of the waves creates such an ambience it'd wash away all those stress from the busy urban life. The scenery was truly a sight to behold from the night sky to dawn. Who could ever expect to see such magnificence in Singapore.



The sun rays came seeping in and soon we were hit by the scorching golden light.My rod went for a deep dive suddenly and i wanked it hard. Fish on~ I begin reeling in and was surprised at whats the end of the line. A dog shark~


My first shark, not as big as i expected it to be though

The shark was released later as its not really edible and its quite a rare specimen . Later on the kelong staffs started feeding the fishes . There were so many fishes in the nets that i think if we were to fish all of them using the rod , we'd drop dead by exhaustion even before we finish fishing them . The food remnants escape through the netting and that attracted fishes to the net and that brought about a new feeding frenzy as surface action was seen every where , we quickly changed our rigs and started to fish for what ever caused the surface action. It appeared to be Half beaks,name kudos to Patrick's research, which were having the feeding frenzy. We caught some of those fishes , which puts up a good fight and can be whipped up to quite a good dish.


How about a game of darts?

We stopped fishing at around 9 and waited for the boat to come fetch us back to the main island. During then we took photos of our concluded catch.


Here's the basket load of fishes.

The boatmen finally arrived at 1130 am. We left the kelong as i watched the kelong becoming smaller in the horizon i got hit by the reality that internship is starting the next day . I'd wish to visit the place again soon , but the possibility of that happening would be so small. How ever , I'm so glad i came and woots, its definitely an experience I'd won't forget in due time. I think.