Marina South Singapore Fishing Spot (Eging and Shore Jigging Recce)

Marina South has always been a favourite fishing spot in Singapore. In the past, we would go settle our dinner at the Marina South buffet steamboat and then head off to the water breakers to crank deep diver lures. In fact, I remember a memory of having my popper being taxed from me one of those times we went luring there! Another fairly famous fishing spot were the freshwater ponds just next to the saltwater side. Quite a fair bit of haruan (snakehead) and tarpon in there!

Ok back to the topic. I finally had time to go for a full recce of the Marina South fishing areas. It's quite amazing that there are no restrictions for fishing almost the entire Marina South coast and it makes shore casting, eging, ajing and microjigging so much more fun. We explored three spots today and I think we sort of regretted not bringing some bait... Below are some of the areas with Google map pins and what I think of the spots.

Marina South Pier Fishing (Beside Marina Bay Fire Station)

Google map: https://goo.gl/maps/hnTSBevJ1pQbAF868

Park at: https://goo.gl/maps/vvA3Fbh1jDJQ29hAA

The first spot we visited was right beside the Marina Bay Fire Station. It's probably the least accessible of the lot if you're on foot since it's not near any public transport. If you're driving, you can park at the Marina Bay Fire Station (parking was fairly cheap).

Don't be fooled. It is not a typical drain. More like an empty space beside the wharf.

Spotted coral fish here like rabbit fish, soap fish and couple of mullet.

Once you get to the parking, just follow the road and path under the overhead bridge till you get to the longkang/drain. Follow the drain out and you'll be able to access the fishing spot. The drain area is actually quite interesting because it is not really a typical drain. It is actually a small opening beside Tanjong Pagar terminal wharf. In fact, it was probably around 8m to 10m. Water is quite clear and you can see coral and reef fishes around the area. In the Singapore Fishing Telegram group, some folks posted videos of big barramundi (seabass) swimming around the drain area.

Regular "baiting uncles". Legend has it that they never ever go home.

As we moved further down the spot, there were many "baiting uncles" who were all professionally cooped up in their umbrella/shade/PTK setups. I immediately told biao there was a "conspiracy" here. They were using live selar/kunning as bait and were all fishing around the drain entrance.

You can enjoy the business district scene while fishing...

Quite alot of rubbish though. If this carries on then fishing may eventually get banned here.

We tried eging and shore jigging here for awhile but didn't catch anything interesting. A fellow eging angler caught a cuttlefish (baktao) here. We've seen many catch reports from this area though and it really does seem promising. You will be able to walk along the stretch and reach an area where are exposed rocks and breakers. The exposed area does look better for eging but we were too lazy and walked back to the carpark after reaching here.

Marina Barrage Fishing Spot

Google map: https://g.page/marina-barrage-singapore?share

Park at: https://maps.app.goo.gl/HJB42iZvkq3WPwte6

The Marina Barrage fishing spot! This wasn't my first time here and I was fairly familiar with the area here. It's also where I took my wedding photo haha. It's also the most accessible spot to reach since the fishing breaker is just beside the carpark. 

After coming out from the carpark, just walk along the breakers!

You can encounter quite alot of professional tournament anglers along the stretch. Say hi so that they know you're friendly.

The breakers are also the infamous spot where the religious groups released tons of mud crabs and hybrid groupers at. It's also a spot where a particular crab expert said that mud crabs could survive at. Anyway, this spot is kind of nice since it's so accessible so I would certainly recommend it for baiters. As you walk further down, there are shaded areas and also a proper drain where you usually find "pole fishing uncle" that are fishing for rabbit fish (pei tor)

"Pole fishing uncle"

Nice drain? Wonder if it is a good crabbing spot?

Oh yeah, Kevin Mai (the famous fisherman) caught a spanish mackeral (tengirri) on spoon here so it definitely must be a good spot.

Marina South Pier Fishing Spot

Google map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZBxmu9EyYZGNxGcQA

Park at: https://goo.gl/maps/ZBxmu9EyYZGNxGcQA or https://goo.gl/maps/uddxemGoJW3d1mJw6

This is a fishing spot which is the most but least accessible spot at the same time. Surprised? Here's why... First of all, it is situated right beside the Marina South Pier MRT (yay for MRT) so for those who don't have private transport, this is welcome. But if you're driving then the carpark here is not only always full but also very expensive. I've put in a secondary parking location at Marina Bay Cruise Centre that you can also consider. Parking there is slightly cheaper.

Back to the spot...

This spot gave us the most "feels" during the recce trip because it was right beside the pier (yes, same place where Fishstalker fishing charter launches from). As you can fish right beside the pier, you can cast under the jetty and the fishing area right beside the pier was also sheltered since you can right in the middle of two piers.

Regular "baiting uncles" at the left.

Boy boy was eging. Grandpa tagged along. Nice Grandpa. See that handline at the left? That was a rope handline connected to a live selar.

Peaceful fishing spot...

There were also regular "baiting uncles" here and again the legend is that they never go home. They were slightly more "pro" here though and some of the uncles were eging (squidding) or ajing (catching bait). There was even one uncle who was using live selar on a ROPE handline setup. Talk about big game...

Whippy whip eging

Legend has it that that there are hybrid groupers under the pier

Anyway, we tried eging here but didn't catch anything. Matt lost some of his rubbers here to the jetty monster.

Bonus Fishing Spot: Marina Bay Cruise Centre

Google map: https://goo.gl/maps/uddxemGoJW3d1mJw6

Park at: https://goo.gl/maps/uddxemGoJW3d1mJw6

Now because we didn't catch anything substantial during this trip, I've actually listed down a bonus spot. This was a spot I wanted to visit during the session but we didn't have time. It's the open area beside the Marina Bay Cruise Centre. The first thing you will notice is that the breakers here seem to be more aged and when you look at them, you just think they will be more suitable for deep divers or squid jigs (I don't know how to explain this feeling). But we had no CRs from here... So I'll attach an eging video from Island Angler. 

Well... time to go eging here...