Fishing the waters of Changi was a very familiar ball game for me and when I had the chance to independently fish it together with Boatman Shawn, it was a different kind of feeling to fishing - it was also the proving of certain concepts/assumptions/theories. I considered it as a test of sorts to see how much I gleaned from my countless Changi Offshores with the experienced traditional local boatmen such as Ah Chong, Ah Fong, Ah Long and Ah Soon etc. If you consider the experiences with James, Uncle Soh, Ah Bee and so on, it adds up to even more experience points! In short, I started my first real offshore fishing experiences in Changi waters and I was determined to get fish even without the guide of a charter captain! The second point I would like to make would be the sharing of spots especially for kayak and self boating fishing kakis. Recently, I've got to hear a few incidences which really sparked a curiosity in me.... Stories about the usual "my spot your spot our sec...

Digging for lala at Kranji Dam has been an activity that I had always wanted to do although I always dismissed the activity with nothing but a little light hearted scorn. As I walked by Kranji Dam after my freshwater fishing exercises, I would see families with their spades, shovels and pails wading out during low tide to exposed mud flats to dig for the shellfish. I would then label them as crazy and nothing better to do... But on this day, I was the one being crazy as I did exactly that! The goal was to do something different from the usual boring things singaporeans do... Armed with pink mini shovels and a single pail, we ventured down to the mud flats from the Kranji battle site. Secret weapon - pink mini shovels from Daiso! The amount of sandworms that were crawling around at low tide around the swamp area was freaky! They were all over the place and only went away when the tide was completely low! Apparently we were the first ones there and we didn't really know ho...

After not diving for almost a year, the itch to get back into the water to view the world beneath the waves beckoned. I did the Advanced Open Water Dive with Blue Reef Diving this time round since Apache Divers were no longer doing dive courses. I was by myself on this trip as most of my diving friends had already completed their AOW Course but not to worry - I found that a main attraction of diving was to go alone and not to worry about your friends/family or life. Going alone for such trips may seem "emo" or "lone ranger" but I found it to be refreshing since you're in thoughts with most of yourself and at the same time, you make yourself approachable to other groups since you're alone. That was true as the strangers from the trips turned into friends (and Facebook friends)! I was a little disappointed that it was not a Live On Board (LOB) dive but when I reached Pulau Dayang, a little part of that disappointment faded away as I saw why divers frequente...

The spanish mackeral (batang) season was in full force at Desaru this year and surely the Baktao had to make a trip up himself with the usual kakis including Boatman Shawn. Jackson pintails and an array of casting lures with jigs were prepared before hand. It was kind of exciting as I hadn't had freshly cooked batang porridge for a long time now. Desaru is a short 1 hour drive from Singapore and we had our breakfast at the usual breakfast spot - a combination of Nasi Lemak, Mee Goreng, Fried Chicken, Kopi and Teh Susu. Our ice, drinks and lunch were also bought here and the guys stopped for a poop at the toilet before we loaded up and made our way to the launching point - a secluded beach known as Kg Lompang. It was quite a dirty beach especially during low tide but that didn't stop couples from taking their marriage photos there! The fried chicken has really improved! Sweet coffee ala malaysian style The famous boatman Shawn The weather was cruel to us ...

Pekan has been hot recently with many anglers flocking over to get a taste of what it is like to fish there. Pekan fishing has always been "quiet" compared to the relatively more famous Rompin but it has always been a great productive fishing spot at the East Coast of Malaysia. The best thing I loved about Pekan was that it was laid back as compared to Rompin... The number of fishing charters there were but a handful and the commercialization was little. It was more informal and fishing with Rickey was like fishing with old time friends because of the years behind our long friendship. Fishing was really fishing in that sense - it wasn't stressful.  wanton mee at the usual coffee place  tapao some traditional kueh kueh for lunch Some of our friends had recently even went popping for GT at Jubilee Reef and had caught up to 47kg GT! That's a whopper considering it's Pekan we're talking about... and it's not just one or two... GTs between 15kg...