Pasir Ris-free fishing day at D'best fishing 31/07/14

Today's the day of free fishing here at Pasir Ris Pay Pond! brought to you by D'best fishing Singapore! last night about 500 fishes were released within a timeframe of 10 hours! If you were there you'll know the insanity and chaos that was going on there with lots of people flooding in and illegally parking on road sides just for a chance to fish for free. everyone was standing side by side and most lines were crossing with each

other and tangling badly. just how crowded was the place?let the pictures answer that.   

 to get a slot,one must squeeze in with the crowd and cast accurately to prevent any crossing of lines or alternatively,one could have arrived at 5pm to reserve a spot along the pathway and wait as the crowd grows in size. I would estimate at least 200 anglers were there and much more streaming in as the hours passed.

review?
hook ups were pretty good with Kim bak Lor and mangrove jack snappers as the most common fish but of course with a thousand rods in the water,your chances are one in a million to get a fish. the place was really well designed and well build with lots of engaging activities for every age group from prawning to lobster fishing and of course fishing either in the pro pond or big pond. the tackle shops and restaurants are not fully operational but the convenient store and live bait house is. all in all lots of hype around.

did we managed to fish?
no we did not.we just couldn't squeeze in and also I don't like the idea of fishing in crowded areas but since we bought the bait,might as well go somewhere to fish.next option was to go to sungei Api Api bridge to fish. when we arrived,there was a many groups of people there which the same idea to fish here because there was no space at the pay pond to accommodate so many.

time was about 9:30pm and there were many new comers to this bridge(you can tell but the equip they bring and the places they casted). But this is our usually fishing spot and we are familiar with what rigs to use and the size of bait to use. everyone else was using live prawn bought at the pay pond or tamban that they had caught from bedok jetty earlier in the day. with bottom rigs as their choice of setup while we were using apollo rigs with cheapo circle hooks.

first catch of the night belonged to us!with a nice black eeltail catfish of good size and many were shocked to see the fish(another indication that they were new here). the bell sounded and there was a strong pull on the line so i reeled in and recognise the feeling of reeling in a catfish immediately with the wobbling motion.

 skinny and feisty fish that trashed around when I tried to remove the hook.but after calming down,we picked it up and released it safely back into the water.

so the night went on with serveral tugs on the line but no real takes on the bait with the exception of glassfish and eels.we sat and talk about things while waiting for a significant catch.
after talking for sometime, Ghetto fisherman Ong told me that my rod was bending consistently and it was quite a hard bent because I was using a medium action rod at that time.so i picked the rod up and reeled in.initial thoughts were a pufferfish or marine catfish on the line but soon something shiny surfaced and started to swim in a diagonal direction. it was a barramundi aka Kim Bak Lor!!

it pulled hard but felt quite light(again because of the med action rod)!last fish I was expecting to hook up after weeks of no luck here! 40lb reel line with 60lb line leader and circle hooks?no probs reeling in the fish without any worry about snapping the line. in all the excitement we drew abit of attention after shouting "kim bak lor" hahahas and to see the surprised faces on many new comers was priceless.

it was kind of longish but no as wide(fat) although it had the length of a good table size fish but the weight did not add up.this fella weighed about 700 plus grams in total. Couldnt be happier with my catch cause despite not getting a fish at the free pay pond,I still managed to snag this guy up for the day's catch!

it was about 10:30 pm already so I decided to pass bryan the new rod to try.and minutes into fishing,he caught himself a flathead!something that he had been wanting to catch but of course something bigger in size!hahas so this little fella was released to grow.

 
after this,there were no more bites on our side but others around us were catching small fishes like Gobies and juvenile catfish.We ended the night with this last catch and left to the pay pond at 11:15pm.

pay pond was still as packed but of course many had left to catch the last train and bus back home.even though we still did not fish there,we were able to scout around to familiarize ourselves with the place and to also watch others at the smaller pro fishing pond.

As the sun began to rise,everyone's catches could be seem laying around on the floor and in their storage containers.every type of species of fish that can be caught here became clear!with groupers,barramundis,snappers and trevallies all displayed on the sidewalk.

The night's catch was encouraging and it was good to see the fishes return to this place once again after nearly 3 weeks of almost zero catches here.Alright time to sleep!
We hope this post encourages you to try out the pay pond and all the best here!rates can be found on the offical website so if you're keen do take a look!

cheers and peace out!
-Abel