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Punggol Pro Pond Outing

The last time I tried Punggol Pro Pond was ages ago in 2006 when they first opened. Then they closed down and opened again. It’s a nice place to be as it’s away from the bustling city life and from my experience the fishes they release are quite healthy. They are one of the first ponds to release red snapper frequently.








We got our live prawns from fishing buddy toa payoh but the funny thing happened. We left our live prawns in the taxi! So we had no choice but to get the live prawns there! The aunty now sells the prawns for 100g $4 which she says is around 10 pcs so it’s around 40 cents per pc.

The aunty was pretty nice and gave us some time to setup. We started casting into the pond at 1620hrs but she said she will let us start at 1645hrs. Bite rate was not good at first as last fish release timing was around 1500hrs.

Only after around 45 minutes after we shifted, I had a good take when spinning live prawns. The fish took the prawn very fast and I couldn’t react in time. I was using quite a medium action rod so I was not used to it!

Momok had a good take by parking his rod and pump his fish in. It was a nice Mangrove Jack around 4lbs. Looks like momok is lucky today!


He got another fish at the same area it was a golden snapper around 2lbs.



At around 1730hrs, the fish lorry came and they began “releasing” fish into the pond straight from their lorry. I was thinking oh my god this is called fish releasing? The fishes won’t even bite after traveling so long in the lorry!

They were releasing BIG FISHES with around 10 over pcs of Barra/Seabass/Kbl which were around the 4 – 8 kg sizes. They also had 3 - 5 kg Mangrove Jacks released. I was right… the fishes are not even biting after the release. Maybe next morning will be very good.

There was this father and son team lol they boy was using handline illegally with prawn meat. He keep lobbing his prawn meat towards the cage area and landed many golden pomfret/kim chios. Feel like slapping him. Hahaha…

But luckily, around 1800hrs the aunty finally released some fishes from the cage. Fishes from the cage are already accustomed to the water and are very hungry so most likely they will go into feeding mode once they are released. Bites were slow for first 20 minutes only a few fishes landed. Momok landed a small kim.



I was doing “Drifting” of the live prawns using the current to slowly walk to the side of the cage. I had a big take! Again, my rod action was too slow or my hook too thick…. Zzzz… my leader came back with abrasion! I was thinking oh my god big kim but instead of keeping the “location” secret, I went to tell momok and 5 mins after rebaiting, many others had followed momok also hahahaha.

So all of us are beside the cage area and doing the drifting method. Luckily, when the rest are rebaiting I had a take again. This time I waited before the fish swallowed the bait and strike. Hehehe… The ang cho put up a good fight but it was not what I was looking for.



I went around the pond and I played the drifting method near another pump. I got a take again and this time I manage to hook it! It jumped many times and gave a good fight. It even tried running towards the pump. It’s a kim of around 2kg… Then when I was about to grab the leader to bring it up… it gave a shake of its head and just dropped back into the water… omg… After that I tried again at the area but no takes. As usual, everyone flocked over to that area.

Then, I went to the right of the cage and use my drifting method again. This time, AG was beside me and once I had hooked the fish I would pass it to her to have some fun…

BUT BUT BUT…. When the fish took it just stayed there. I reeled in slack line and striked… Then from passing to AG, I told AG “This one I fight…” There was something wrong with this fish. It was moving slowly but I could feel something was not right.

Oh my god the fish took just beside the cage area and now it was swimming towards there at full speed. Line peeled from my reel at a good rate but I thumbed my spool and actually ran in the opposite direction doing all sorts of stunts to get it area from the cage area. I kept on doing this. Every time I got it away some distance, I would stop thumbing my reel but it just kept swimming back. Eventually I just thumbed the spool and slowly walked backwards…

It worked! The fish swam to the middle of the pond then to the other pump… crossing everyone’s line. Luckily, they understand and released line so I could play with the biggie.

After making one round around the pond, it swam towards the cage again. I managed to turn it away but it turned back again! The blood pumped fast in me but I still could not get to turn it away! The fish scraped against the cage but lucky … my leader was still safe! I was thinking the fish was too big to swim under or around the cage but it swam towards the small corner and was gonna cut me off but I ran towards the fish and right on top of it I locked my spool and threw in my last gamble. One wrong move and my line will burst…

The Zeus Inox 4-8lbs rod was already at its max load and my mainline was being tested to the limits by my endless locking of the spool… cannot let it dash to the cage!!!

I got it further away from the cage area that way and out in the open water, it was a safe fight although I’m sure my leader is already damaged. John came with the big net but the first net attempt my leader coiled around the net. Lucky me… the fish dashed again but the leader uncoiled itself! It gave a few more run before the net came in…

It took 2 guys to haul it from the water. Hehe… Finally! Something big in paypond after a long long wait… Alan is right… the fishes here fight better. The kims in fw3 would never fight this dirty… A quick survey on my leader showed multiple abrasions to both bite leader and leader to the mainline… I was using YGK 25lbs soft leader. Sigh, fishing with a lot of obstacles around is damn challenging… Definitely better than fishing Todaks or Kims from open water areas.






And guess what the father and son team? His rig which was entangled with my mainline was actually a double hook rig to latch onto dead bait. Double hooks are not allowed. This fella was obviously breaking all the rules and even letting his son fish with handline and make it seem he is fishing for small fishes when everyone knows there are many kim chio in the pond to fish with dead prawns… ZzzzzzZzz…

Night came but no more fishes landed… fishes are not active… we wrap up our 3hrs slowly while packing. I think we fish more than 4 hours actually hahaha… Actually I like fishing at this punggol pro pond. The fishes fight well and are healthy. Best of all they release big fishes which makes it more fun than other pay ponds which release those usual 1-2kg table sized fish which are boring to fight….kekeke…

We bled the fish and went prawning after that!!! But prawning at fw3 was lousy… small prawns… sigh…



Prawning baits



The end of a crazy day!

Comments

LAND HERMIT said…
Nice . i like ur report !
Paddy Pike said…
Great report Nigel,
Wow some great fishing and captures, Just a thought but wont the taxi driver notice a funny smell in the cab hahahaha, Well done guys,
Regards to all,
,,,Paddy,,,
Anonymous said…
hey i was wondering, do all payponds allow u to bring home ur catches? i've never been to one b4..
Nigel said…
not all... most of them do though.

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