Largemouth Bass Fishing in Singapore

Kevin was the champion of the trip!

Introduction

Largemouth Bass in Singapore?! What's going on? I can safely say that many of us were pleasantly surprised when we heard about such a thing going on. Growing up, I used to play the Sega Pro Bass Fishing Game on the PC or in the arcade (man that feels). You know the one in the arcade where you have a rod and you could "cast" a crankbait? I guess it is exciting because the variety of techniques and lures that bass fishermen employ is quite astounding. Think of grubs, bugs, spinner baits, frogs... 

So well, news got around the fishing community in Singapore towards the end of the year but as it was a private bass pond, it isn't so easy to get a slot (unless you're a certain guy called Chase). So lo and behold, we managed to get a slot on a Saturday morning and we were all buzzing. What to use? What to bring? These would be the questions in your head if you're going for such a trip.

Now it was my first time there so I really am not a pro and besides I lure only once a year these days. So don't take my advice/tips below seriously. Quite certain though that if it's your first time there, you would find the below useful at least from a planning point of view.

Large Mouth Bass Pond Design

The pond is a standard rectangular kind of pond which is probably the size of two badminton courts so you don't need to cast far. Not much structure too so you can really go light here. Ultralight bass or luring setups would be good. The pond probably fits 5 pax well (we fished the pond with 5 of us so just nice) since it isn't that big.

What lure works? What to bring on your first trip?

I'm often clueless in a 100% luring or artificial jig scenario. I'm serious. So I brought a combination of rubber lures, small poppers, insect lures and spoons. If you're going there for the first time, I would certainly recommend you bring rubber lures, creature/grub baits, insect lures, spinnerbaits and shallow crankbaits.

Below, I detail what worked for me and observations from other anglers.

Rubbers: I was quite surprised that paddle tails weren't working that well compared to other presentations. Ah Du as usual was having lots of fun and takes with his OSP DOLIVE stick. The others were having fun with grub and creature baits. This is your chance to experiment with all the weird rubber, presentation and rigging styles. The large rubbers worked really well here and when I switched to bigger rubbers, I had more takes. So my advice is use big creature baits (crawdad or think Island Angler Jungle Bug) or big grubs! Dark colours like black and brown seemed to work like a charm. As for working the rubbers, a standard constant retrieve or lift and drop worked well.

Time to take out your big creature baits

Light Spoons: Spoons worked well for me but I was the only one using them though. I was using a whacky shaped spoon. Lift and dropped work but I found out that retrieving the spoon constantly at slow speed worked as well (in this case, the spoon was being worked like a lure). Interesting because it seems like the fish preferred consistent lure presentation and not so much of twitching or fast action.

Insect lures: Insect lures were highly recommended by Chase and I brought some decade old 'Rebel' insect lures. No hook ups though on the grasshopper popper. Kevin got one on a floating spider insect lure and it seemed the fish preferred slow consistent topwater action rather than chugging.

Crankbaits and shallow minnows: These worked really well when worked slowly and consistently. However, they had to be shallow. The fish didn't seem that interested in lures which stir up or consistently churn the bottom so I guess the best zone to work the lure would be slightly off the bottom or mid water although the water wasn't really that deep.

Shallow minnows worked. Picture by Kiat.

Pellet lure: What is pellet lure? Well, Chase introduced us this Bassday pellet lure which was quite interesting. It basically resembles a pellet and there were floating and sinking versions. The boys got a couple just by casting it out and letting it fall. However, once the berleying started towards the end of the session, these stopped working. In fact, the fish would choose the real pellets and spit out the fake ones. Interesting! Side note though fishing was way better before berleying. 

When lurers want to bait, they can too. Picture by Kiat.

Catch and Picture Reports (CR)

I didn't land much fish during this session (sad) but I had plenty of takes! Most of them were on my DOA softshell crab lure since I was using that almost the whole time. Hook set and hook presentation was important because the fish would swallow the whole lure. Alas, I "dropped" a few on crab lure (really wanted to get a photo with that).

The rest were catching fish effortlessly though and I think on average they caught probably 10 fish each although Kevin Mai was the champion with the biggest largemouth bass (received a prize from me too). 

Pictures below! All pictures credited to Chase kor kor.

Dark coloured grubs work

Champion angler and the bass whisperer

He's on a roll!

OSP DOLIVE stick worked super well for Ah Du. Many takes on the drop!

This one kind of looked like a "glass fish" though.

Rubbers worked well.

Spoon works too!

Shallow minnows. Picture by Kiat.

Another from Kevin Mai. Look at that lipping. Very pro.

Big chunky one!

More bass...

Chunky bass

Beautiful colouration on this one

A Future Bass Pond in the making?

I know I know you're probably skeptical because it is a pond but hey it is something new and really kudos to the folks who started it. A commercialised bass fishing pond might be really fun especially if you mix in some peacock bass, barramundi. 

One of the interesting things was that although pellets were used to bring up the fish in a controlled environment, they still retained some wild characteristics such as a preference for big creature baits (duh, the fish have a large mouth). So there is still "some kinda" bass fishing thrill or experimentation or game or whatever (you call it) to carry out.

Winner of the baktao "gold medal standard"

Great day of fun. Thanks Chase!

Trip Contact

This was a private trip organised by Chase so if you're keen to explore, do PM him. He can be found in the Singapore Fishing Telegram group.