Project 365: 175 of 365

Title: John, a happy customer

Canon point & shoot

beginner's luck @ CM's pond

one of the 2 tilapias that were caught on lure that day. this one was caught by me using mini berkley blade dancer. the other (no pix) was caught by chen using eupro upside-down top water lure.

my first and only haruan for the day. caught using BAKAU 2" softplastic swimbait. the haruan was about 500g. after posing for the camera, it was tagged and released.

the same haruan from another angle

another haruan (800g), caught using the same type of BAKAU lure, by the newbie

chiam (the newbie) proudly posing with his catch. the haruan was his first ever fish on lure.

chiam dislodging the hook from his second haruan. a 400g feisty fella. chiam put me and chen to shame as he was the only person to catch 2 haruans that day. i only managed to catch one while chen caught none.

with that kind of luck, i'm sure chiam will continue to fish for a long time to come

i have long believed in "beginner's luck" when it comes to fishing. many a times, i personally witness newbies at fishing either catching the most fish or catching the biggest fish of the day. today was no different. chen and me had made plans for a short fishing session at CM's pond today. i met chiam last night, during our regular badminton session and invited him to join, since i happened to know that chiam has started lure fishing quite recently and he has yet to catch any fish on lures. well, i'm sure he's glad he accepted the invitation for he put myself to shame by catching 2 haruans on lures and one of his haruan was the biggest caught during that session.

chiam, care to join me and chen to fish at kpg stoh sometime soon? we plan to go there to stock up on siakap aka barramundi aka kimbakloh, for the coming chinese new year.

first fish of 2007

tuesday, 2 january 2007 accepted an invite from a regular angling fren, john, to go fishing. the destination was ah kiong's pond, a semi-wild pond. armed with our fishing tackles, we arrived at the pond and started fishing by 3.30pm. weather was cloudy with intermitten showers. true anglers are not bothered by mild weathers. the order of the day was casting. my preferred lure was the mini berkley blade dancer, which has brought me great results in 2006. no takers on lures after more than an hour casting. frustrating is the feeling, to be able to see the channa straita (aka haruan, leihu) but cannot entice it to bite. took the next course of action, which is to do float fishing. as for bait, it was the small shrimp and rasboras that i managed to scoop up with a net that i brought along for the trip. few minutes after i placed my baited float, a havana cigar sized channa straita was cleanly hooked-up at the lips. a quick photo session and the fish was released back to the pond. john not wanting to miss out on the action rigged up and in a few minutes time, he also caught a small channa straita. later, it was my turn again to get the last channa straita for the day. it was a good feeling as i got my 2007 fishing to a reasonable start. "why?" you may ask. do stay tuned for the next update.