Better off on my dinner plate The flathead is a fairly common by-catch when we are fishing in estuary and inshore reef systems. More often that not, it is also a fish that readily takes baits and lures and cause frustration for anglers that are hunting other more valuable species. The most common species that we get here is the Bartailed Flathead. This species is one of the biggest locally and has a yellow/black marking on its tail. But why the bias one may ask? Is it Asian culture that prizes certain fishes more? Or is it that that flathead looks ugly? Or maybe Asian cuisine rarely uses the fish. Well, after today I hope you don't throw away this species because it is absolutely top notch if prepared well. In a world that treasures sustainability, consuming flathead can go a long way in lowering demand for more prized fishes that may be seeing decline in their numbers. Flatheads are also prized in overseas fishing markets such as Australia. Fishermen fish for them excl...

Fishing at unjams or artificial reefs seems like nothing new to experienced anglers. We always dare to drop our jigs right beside unjam ropes but what if we did some diving below our favourite unjams? As I did a dive down an unjam, I could see the various species of fishes. There was also a heirarchy of sorts in the reef. The cobias seem to be circling the fringe of the reef while the groupers were like perched in the middle. Simply amazing... Diving at Tioman is Awesome ;) [Dated post]

It’s been more than six months since I last blogged. Quite a few reasons why. The most obvious would be that blogging simply isn’t that popular anymore. These days you have to upload short catchy videos for fast consumption to get the metrics. The less obvious would be marriage life and new commitments. If it’s one thing I learned, it’s that you tend to slow down on fishing when you get married and that isn’t a bad thing. Strange right? Most anglers tend to say it with a grimace but once you truly grasp the meaning, you will find out it is more than just fishing. Married life means you do more things with your partners together. You go house shopping, furniture shopping, dinners, outings, holidays and more shopping. In my case, we do a little bit of fishing every now and then too. And then there’s prawning. We have been visiting Sembawang Hai Bin Prawning (Singapore) quite a bit since it is quite near our marital home. So far so good, we generally do quite well at the pond ...

The last time I went to the Maldives with Shawn , we experienced much of the culture and island life in one of the many local islands in the Maldives. We even spent the nights at a simple home-stay and ate local food. That experience was extremely refreshing since I always loved to discover the people behind the places I traveled to. I found out that there was so much more to the Maldives than just sun-tanned westerners lazing around in the beaches (and their drinks). Can you put fishing into a honeymoon? Yes you can! Fast forward to 2018, I was now married and appointed to be the chief organiser of our honeymoon trip to the Maldives. At first, I wanted it to be an all relaxing luxury stay at a secluded resort on an island in the Maldives. As time went by, I knew we would be bored after just a few days doing nothing in a resort (which some people argue is what exactly you should do in a honeymoon). After a little tinkering and searching around, I had the perfect answer - I would...

Are you looking to bring your wife or girlfriend on a fishing trip? Then the Maldives would be an excellent choice as it provides a comfort and is also suitable for beginners. I was quite worried that Bakgal would be daunted by fishing in Maldives. After all, it is our honeymoon and fishing there can be quite "hardcore". We will also only be fishing with artificial jigs and poppers which require proper technique. I got worried for nothing though as Bakgal managed to secure so many kinds of fishing during the trip even though it was her first jigging trip! We booked Seagal Sportfishing Maldives Fishing Charter for a few days so we could have a relaxing Husband and Wife only fishing trip. Credit to the Captain (none other then Captain Ibrahim Ibee, previously Captain of Noranee 2) because he brought us to easy spots where the fishes weren't too big (very important), were very tasty and just had the right amount of fight in it that was suitable for a honeymoon fishing t...

I have pretty high standards of having cow (beef) on my plate so I was sceptical when I read the description of Fat Monkey's 'Dabomb'. The description on the menu said succulent beef with caramelised onions, cheddar cheese, bacon and BBQ sauce. The picture of the dish made me think I was eating a giant beef puff. For someone that eats beef at rare or medium rare with salt, this didn't look good to me. So I waited. And then it came out. The exterior looked normal enough. As I cut into the puff, the oozing cheese was also pretty normal (I mean, oozing cheese things are so common these days) and this was no different. As I dug in, the simple and proven combination of onions, cheese, bbq sauce and beef worked. The beef patties were very juicy and not overcooked. They were not overly seasoned or done so that was good and I had the feeling that they were handmade. The dish came with fries and salad too albeit the side dishes being too normal. At $13.90, this wasn...

Come at the right time, at the right price! The best package to take based on their current promotion is definitely the 9pm to 6am (next day) promotion at $60. This is 9 hours at $60 which amounts to $6.70 hourly (cheaper than prawning!). Gills allows you to "keep the hours" and requires that you top up a minimum of 1 hour ($30) when you want to redeem your remaining hours. The best time to fish would of course be the timings where they release fish. It's a pretty small, contained pond so not much retained fish from previous releases will linger for long. Here's a quick guide on how to utilise* the hours for the 9pm to 6am promotion. Total hours: 11, Total spend: $120 (additional 2 hours x $30) 1st trip: 9pm to 1am (total 4 hours utilised); 10pm and 12am fish release 2nd trip: 9pm to 1am (total 3 hours utilise + 1 hour top up); 10pm and 12am fish release 3rd trip: 10pm to 1am (total 2 hours utilise + 1 hour top up); 10pm and 12am fish release Of cours...