Although I have lost count if how many times I went offshore fishing at Changi, nothing is as sweet and rare as seeing a Kurau landed right before your eyes. And a beautiful one at that! Kelvin landed this beauty of a fish on relatively light offshore tackle and to see that golden sheen on the fish was unreal. It wasn't a day with much quantity but very good sizes! Very happy for the guys that they managed to score some as we have lost some monsters during our previous trips. Weighed: Kurau - 5.5kg Barramundi - 4kg I went home, gutted and scaled the barramundi and steamed the slices the very next day. Recipe to steam for 5 minutes: Some ginger slices Rock sugar water Light soy sauce Pepper Minced garlic

Been terribly busy these days with career and family so much that fishing isn't really important anymore. But... that's what all anglers say until they hooked one. Recently has been a tough time for me because I've been outwitted by the fishes on multiple occasions. Today though no such incidents as the big ones weren't biting but I managed to score a decent sized grunter (guhood) on one of David's (Dactylus) new prototype jigs. I barely jigged 30 minutes with it and I was rewarded! It's a very effective jig and I reckon it will be a big hit - that's a respectable promotion for you. Anyway, the usual Changi Offshore suspects were caught... not the best trip according to Ah Fong's standard catches this week but still great fun. Let's hope we can continue the fishing in Singapore and not face another lock-down... Brilliant Guhood! See that jig there? Love the shimmer of this fish! David caught a 4lb flattie! A whopper flathead for ...

A day of good harvest! It's been a long time since I went to fish offshore in Changi and it's one of the most unique places to do offshore at. An entire culture and way of doing things permeates the fishing here as many of the wooden bumboat were relocated Pulau Ubin and or Pulau Tekong. Fishing is in their way of life! So I wasn't concerned we were going with a relatively unknown boatman today and I had a gut feel that he wouldn't disappoint. Offshore in Changi is also one of those weird ones because of how much the habitat has changed and how the prevalence of fish farming and religious fish release have contributed to a rather screwed up (in my opinion) ecosystem. When I first fished Changi as a kid about 20 years ago, the common fishes were not groupers or snappers. In fact they were rather prized. The common fishes then included sweet lips, parrot fish, stargazers, miss wong, tee ka chias, arumugam and so on. In fact, certain trip you can get even 50 piece...

A half day session which was blessed It's prime time for fishing in Singapore now. Everyone is having decent catches after the circuit breaker lifted and after a few months of zero business, it is really good to see the fishing community raring to go again. If this had went on any longer, I'm sure many tackle shops and fishing charters would have closed down. Not much fishing for me though because of work but that didn't stop me from grabbing a kaki or two who had a thing for light baiting game. Our target? We were going for something less conventional than your usual species. The fat fat swa chiams (pasir pasir, sand whiting) that Captain Jeff (Prince of Peace Fishing Charters) found for us were good fun and they were all very very big. You can't really see from the picture but all 97 pieces were almost the same length as our feet. Almost all of them were this size! Double hook up! Fishing conditions are simple. In fact, if you pay my wages for a day, I...

The best catch. No point posting the rest. Night fishing trips, heavy gears, catching squids and setting them out for the elusive giant golden snappers. This is still one of the more appealing kind of fishing trips for me as there is certain sense of helplessness against some fish you hook up at night. And that happened this very night even when live squid was rare. So basically what happened was that I hooked up a piece of kelong sotong to my night setup meant for harvesting fish: Calstar 20-50lbs overhead, Daiwa Genpaoh 40 with 65lbs braid, size 20 Seaguar leader which is rated about 90lbs estimated. The usual happened... bite alarm went off, I gave the fish a good yank, and reeled it off the bottom. This was all good for five seconds until the fish turned its head and nose dived. It just wouldn't stop even after I dialed a few clicks on the Genpaoh's star drag. What?! No prizes for what happened next. A humble reefing. Bite leader came back frayed. This has never h...

Catching the elusive Threadfin Salmon in Singapore has always been a challenge here. They used to be more common but are now scarce due to habitat destruction. This graceful fighter also tastes heavenly and has quite a few species. The more prized species is the Kurau (Orh Ngor or Black Threadfin) and is commonly served to new Mothers as it is nutritious and believed to boost breast milk supply. There is also the Senangin (Pek Ngor or Ngor Soon) though. During this Batu Pahat trip with David Ho, we caught both of them! In the below write-up, I detail my experience during this trip and what to look out for if you're going to Batu Pahat for the first time to jig for threadfin. What tackle to use? Micro Jigging tackle that can comfortably jig 20g to 40g jigs will be suitable. However, try to go a little on the heavier side as the captain does mention that sometimes they can get huge kuraus on the micro jigs. Micro is fun but surely you want to have more firepower against a 20kg ku...

This post is meant as a supplement to this Batu Pahat catch report . Information and pictures taken from #fishidlessonsbydavidho. Did you know that the Kurau and Senangin are totally different? This post aims to enable you to know the difference. Name and Terminology Kurau is known as Indian Giant Threadfin salmon/Kurau/黑午鱼/Orh Ngor Senangin is known as Blue Threadfin salmon/Senangin/白午鱼/Pek Ngor/Ngor Soon Eating Quality Kurau is known the more premium species and is a popular fish for maternity purposes as it is believed to boost milk supply for new mothers. It is rare and big sized fish are hard to come by these days. Generally costs more than Senangin. Senangin is less premium and is readily available in the market in various sizes. I have also seen that farming for it can be quite successful.  Size Differences If you do a Google search, you will realise that both can grow quite big. However, this is not a good comparison as geographically, there are differe...