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Fishing at Barelang Fishing Pond (with trip itinerary and tips), Batam

It's never easy for angler-couples with kids to go fishing. You bring the kid along, it doesn't really feel like quality fishing together. You leave the kid at home, you're basically confined to one day trips which can only mean fishing in Singapore.

But... there's Batam too! At the now very famous Barelang Fishing Pond. It's a fairly inexpensive fishing venue, surrounded with nice restaurants, massage parlours, shopping malls and you bring rupiah. It's definitely easy to arrange too. I detail below three steps on how to arrange an affordable one day trip to Barelang Fishing Pond.

1. Pre-book a trusted driver with car for your one day trip

There are many operators and drivers around. Just search around in Facebook and you'll find plenty. It is always a good idea to pre-book one as you'll be assured you have transport on that day! My driver was Aan +6281268187673 and he has WhatsApp. The fee to book Aan is $60 per day. Note that there are cheaper options around.

2. Book your ferry tickets online

Many, many promotions for Batam ferry tickets. The usual would be Harbourfront Centre, Singapore to Batam Centre Batam. There is a one hour time difference. There is a 7.40am ferry and we took that one so we can have as time in Batam as possible.

3. Have a schedule in mind

After booking a driver and ferry tickets, just do some research and plan your day. If you're lazy, you can ask the driver to do so for you.

My plan was
  • Barelang fishing Pond 9am to 12pm (40 minutes from Batam Centre)
  • Seafood lunch at kelong 12pm to 2pm (two popular ones, Citra Utama and 007).
  • Massage 2pm to 4pm
  • Shopping for kueh lapis, shopping mall till 6pm
  • Ferry from Batam at 7pm.
Anyway, generally follow the above steps will do. Google if you need any more information. Fishing rates are found at https://www.barelangfishing.com/

As for the fishing, it was generally boring for me as the pond was just full of hybrid groupers and they were very easy to hook up with bait. We got ourselves the tuna bait which was literally cut tongkol. The guide will cast it out, you wait for 5 seconds to 5 minutes and you will almost likely get a hook up. Remember to use big hooks at least 7/0 and set the fish well. The other way to get fish was to spin lures. I brought some rubber lures and it definitely worked. Gave up after a few fish as it was quite boring to be catching the same species of fish. Probably won't ever visit this place again except for experiments or if the variety of fishes improve.

Fatty Hybrid!
Getting boring...

Line wrapped around torzite guides...
Again...
Rubber...

Some fishes went bust. Well that's life.


Food and massage was good though. We went to a massage place that just opened. See Kamaya Spa.

Below pictures for food.



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