Stingrays are well known in saltwater. Almost everyone knows what they are. In fact, if any recent event made stingrays famous, it must be the death of Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) who died when a stingray he was playing with stung him in the heart!

The only freshwater stingrays I have seen are those in aquariums, colorful ones with colorful spots that looks beautiful in a small tank at home. Just how big do freshwater stingray grows?

Well, judging from some pictures sent to me from Thailand, freshwater stingrays grow as big as their saltwater counterpart. In thailand, besides the famed Mekong Catfish, stingrays exists in sufficiently large numbers in the rivers to make catching them a viable sport!

Our fishing guide in Thailand organizes regular fishing trips to these rivers to catch these freshwater giants. Here, you see one of his clients leaning into a big one with heavy tackle. Just like their saltwater brothers, they put up a backbreaking fight, not unlike lifting a boulder from the sea bed. The only major difference is that the river is not that deep and this allows the stingrays to run further and lifting them is not such a back breaking task.

Nevertheless, they are a physical challenge, not for the fainthearted, but if you are fit enough, definitely worth an experience at least once in your fishing life!

Here is a double capture of table size giants. The Thais are beginning to recognize these as sportfishes and are starting to release them rather than keep them for the dining table.

However, I understand that they do make good eating as well, as they are practically boneless (soft cartilage instead) and makes an awesome meal when barbecued with Thai herbs and spices.

However, I’d rather they be left alone and I hope the riverside villagers and commercial fishermen recognize that they can provide more food on the table by attracting paying anglers and tourist all over the world for a once-in-a lifetime chance to land one of these gentle giants!

Catching these giants involved drifting dead baits on the bottom of the river. From then on, it is a waiting game and the wait can last anything from a few minutes to hours. However, typically a bite should come within an hour and when it does come, it would be unmistakably “stingray” like!

Come visit Thailand, for some of the most awesome freshwater fishing the world has to offer! As Thailand is still very much a developing country, angling is still not a highly popular sport and as such, many of the angling spots and species are still quite well protected.

Enjoy the pictures!

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We all know what Carps are. In many countries, these are scavengers. Carps are generally disliked by many as they destroy vegetation in rivers and lakes. They breed quickly and can endure vast environment changes. This explains why while Carps are about the only species of fish found in warm as well as cold countries.

In more developed countries, Carps are not food fish. However, in many developing countries, especially in Asia, they are bred as table fish, and can be quite a delicacy.

However, in some countries such as the U.K., they are prized as sportfish. Some anglers even specialize in catching carps alone… and there has been stories of Carps being caught on flies as well.

Well, back to one of my favorite countries, Thailand. Thailand is fast growing as one of the freshwater fishing capital of Asia. However, it also offers superb saltwater fishing for Sailfish, Marlins and Trevallys as well as other species in the beautiful oceans surrounding the country. Phuket, off the Andaman Sea, is a popular saltwater fishing destination for many anglers. However, in the last few post, we’ve been focused on Freshwater fishing in some of the fishing resorts like Bungsamran and IT Monster. Here are two pictures sent by one of our favorite guides, Wuttichai Khuensuwan (nickname Fishing Boy), of some giant Siamese Carps caught by his clients.

If you thought that Freshwater Fishing was about ultra light rods and 6 lbs line, think again. These monsters will take 15-20lb lines to subdue, especially considering that most of the time, you’re not fishing alone. Anything lighter and the risk of breakage or tangled lines with fellow anglers will be increased, thus increasing the odds that the fish will escape to fight another day.

Enjoy the pictures!

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Following my post on “Back to Basics” on fishng at the Kulai Pond in JB, here is a video of some of the catches. The video was taken at night without proper lighting, so the quality isn’t great, but it showed some of the action we had. Landing a fish with old fashion landing nets may be something of interest to some as well… Enjoy it!

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I’m not sure how many people actually recall fishing in Singapore some 30 to 35 years ago. Back then, bait fishing was all the rage and lures were heard of but hardly popular. Fishing ponds exists over different parts of Singapore, mostly in the more remote areas. Some of the more well known ones include Tampines, Ocean and Yio Chu Kang fishing pond. These were stocked with Grass Carp, Big Head Carps and several other species of carps.

Recently, I was introduced to Pond Fishing again in Malaysia by some kakis from Coho Sport Fishing. This time, the location was Nanyang Fishing Pond in Kulai, Johor Bahru, a one and a half hour car ride from Singapore. While there were lots of similarities with the old style pond fishing in Singapore (including using Chicken Feed as bait, Rod Stands and bite indicators), some major changes were obvious. For starters, while the traditional Carp species were available, the pond was also stocked with Pacu and Patin, two species which are even less particular about their food and fight alot harder than carps do. Secondly, this was a catch and release pond. Thirdly, being Catch & Release, there are alot more fishes which means that you rarely have to wait 15mins before your first bite.

So, how strong were these Patins and Pacus? Well, there’s a joke going around that this is a differnt kind of “fly fishing”. If you were not careful and keeping a watch on the indicator, your rod could literally “fly” into the pond when a Patin takes. It seems this is an everyday affair here and I had the honor to witness Han’s rod taking flight during our trip!

The fishing was awesome! Gone were the 4-5 gang hooks of the past. Instead, we used single or double hooks, which means there are less hooks to meddle with and get caught in the landing nets when landing a fish. How awesome? Well, I see a fish landed every 10 minutes or so and these average 2-3kg with bigger ones going to 4-5kgs or so. But I can certainly say they fought alot harder than the usual carp species.

Some of the guys who got there earlier were even landing Pacu’s on flies. However, care must be taken to set the hooks fast as Pacu’s have very sharp and powerful jaws that will break the line should it ever get in the way. More got away than landed on fly, mostly due to the small size of the flies, allowing the fish to get to the leader easily!

The fishing was easy enough that almost everyone caught something. I even managed to land 5 fishes, just using a simple one hook rig, a small telescopic rod (Shimano Bass 1) and 6 pound line. Pole fishing was a real prospect here, as witnessed by the Grass Carp taken on a pole rod by Edwin in the last picture below.

Cost of fishing here is also very “economical”. Each rod was only RM18 (S$8) and you bring your own bait.  This entitles you to a whole night of fishing. If you are lazy to mix your own “chicken feed”, bread will do just fine. You are encouraged to use barbless hooks for ease of release so that the fishes will not be hurt too badly. Should you land a good catch and you want to keep the fish, the pond attendant will weigh the fish and you pay for the fish according to the weight.

Did we have fun? You bet! We left Coho at 5pm and made our way to the site. Despite a heavy jam at the causeway (thanks to Mas Salamat!), we made it to the pond by about 7.30pm. This includes stopping along the way to buy dinner!

Fishing started at about 8pm and we fished for about 4 hours till midnight before making our way back home. In this short 4 hours, we must have landed about 30 to 40 fishes or so, averaging about 4 fishes each. This was definitely fruitful fishing compared to the old days when a whole night of dusk to dawn fishing may bag you two fishes on a good day and nothing on a bad day! And not to mention, that’s usually fishing with 2 rods each!

Would I recommend this place? Absolutely! If you’ve had experience pond fishing in Singapore in the past, this is definitely recommended. It’ll definitely evoke a strong sense of nostalgia… If you have not tried the old pond fishing ways, you owe it to yourself to try out a different and exciting way of fishing. While the technique may be back to basics, the fishes are a new, hungrier and stronger breed, giving the traditional pond fishing a new sense of excitement never before experienced. And if you are a real traditionalist, you can even try a pole rod… nothing can be more exciting than having a 2-3kg fish, zipping in and out at the end of your whippy pole rod. Try it… you’ll not regret it! This much I can guarantee!

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In a previous post on the IT Monster Lake in Bangkok, I showed some pictures of giant exotic species caught there. Just a few days ago, I received more pictures of our guide, who made a couple of trips there with the objective to catch these exotic species on fly. Fly anglers all over the world wants to get in on the “exotic fish” action and there might be no better place to make that dream come true than in Bangkok Thailand. These trips were made to understand the feeding patterns of these exotic species, the types of flies which will be effective, so that trips can be arranged in the future for aspiring fly anglers.

On the right, you will see a huge Barramundi caught from IT Monster weighing almost 15kg.

Here’s a couple of great pictures of an Alligator Gar weighing about 10kg caught on a 9wt fly outfit caught by our fishing guide from IT Monster Lake.

The picture below shows a “baby” arapaima weighing about 12kg caught on fly.

Another picture of an African Catfish, also caught on fly at IT Monster. This one weights about 8kg and was caught on a black/red fly fished on a slow strip.

Pictures below shows a selection of flies which have proven to be effective. Fly sizes range from size 4 to size 4/0. Darker flies seems to work better, mostly due to the slighly murky water at the lake.

Enjoy the pictures and I’ll post more pictures as soon as I receive them or make the trip to IT Monster. Stay tuned!

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Yesterday morning, I woke up bright and early at 5am. Decided to take a 5km jog and by the time I finished my jog, it was only 6am. The sky was not even bright yet. I decided I might do a little fishing, so I took my fishing gear and headed down to Bedok Reservoir. As I reached the new fishing platform, there was a guy already fishing. Beautiful morning. The sky was a little overcast but nevertheless, the scenery was beautiful.

As I walked nearer, I noticed some rubbish strewn all over the platform (see picture above). Boy, was I disappointed. Here we have a beautiful reservoir and the government has just opened it up for fishing and other water sports, and even before this new platform is opened, rubbish were all over the place.

As I looked around a little more, I realised that those were not the only rubbish I saw left around. There were plastic bags, leftover food, cups etc… etc… What’s really bad was that some of these were strewn in the water. While not all of these were left by anglers, I’m sure some unscrupulous anglers played a role in some of these as well.

A week ago, I saw a student from Damai Primary School, just threw a plastic bag into the water after fishing. Schools ought to play a bigger role in teaching our students not to litter. I’m always of the opinion that Singapore is clean because we have cleaners cleaning the streets every day. However, just look into some of the canals and rivers running through the housing estates (especially those in Kallang) and you’ll see that the general population are still not educated about keeping the environment clean, especially the waterways.

Well, these were definitely signs that the “ugly Singaporean” still exists. I applaud the authorities for opening up the reservoir for water sports. Now I can even understand why our waterways and reservoirs were opened for fishing and other water sports so late. If they had been opened many years earlier, the issues of littering might have been even bigger. As anglers, we definitely have to do our part to educate the general public on environment protection, otherwise, the fishes won’t be there for our enjoyment for very long!

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