KurauKing’s Fishing Journal

Sometimes don’t you all just wish that you weren’t bitten by the fishing bug? Because it sorta ruins your life. I mean there I was quite happily doing the rat race thing. Then a long holiday beckons. A fishing lesson from float fishing masters kindly arranged. And of course I can’t go cause the missus hates me fishing. But hey, it’s the new year, can’t let that get me down. And besides, the rod and tackle is hidden in the boot.

A couple of days later, managed to sneak out, drive off to a sweet spot. Only to see it has been commanded by a group of visiting scientists conducting of all things, a sediment study…. ok, the bottoms all stirred up and I spend half a day and only get me a small jelawat. But that’s ok, cos I fish not to catch a fish. Just being out there is enough. So I tell myself and even believe it sometimes…

Next day I sneak out again. Gave up on the sweet spot cos of the doctors in the mud. Search for a new sweet spot. Who cares if I spend half a day lost in the estates and acquire a few new dents in my car? It’s the adventure of it all. Of course when the haruans don’t wanna bite even when you can see them right it front of you it gets a little frustrating. But that’s ok, fishing is about the challenge after all. Eventually I lose my spinnerbaits and use up something like 15 frogs. But I get my fish. Only to be told when I bring it home, “How come so small one ah?” Well cos I let the bloody big ones go….like the good catch and release fisherman that I am. And besides the car wasn’t big enough to fit the big one in….

Two days later and the itch strikes again. Getting good at the sneaking out for “just a short while dear”. So I go. Find me a nice patch of pond. And fish away. And catch a grand total of one lampam. Plus suffer sunstroke cos it is bloody hot this time of the year and people who sit in offices all day shouldn’t sit in the sun all of a sudden….least that’s what I was told. Me? I like to think I was getting a healthy tan.

All of a sudden the long break is nearly over. It’s the second last day of the break. The next day is gonna consist of farewells and traffic jams. And so I put my foot down. “I am gonna go fishing and I am gonna go for the WHOLE day!” said I, the strong silent super angler. “PLEASE????” begged the cracking fishless figure (who incidentally isn’t me, cos I am a man, not a mouse….)

Well, it so happens that the gods of fishing were smiling on me (or so I thought) and so off I went. Happily to seek my fish. Hither and thither I drove. Searching for that elusive magic spot. After some effort where I drove my 2wd into 4wd territory, i found a fairly decent swamp. Things were looking up. Nice big swamp with good vegetation and an inlet stream. Activity on the surface. Finally it looked like the new year was gonna bring glad tidings. I had an entire arsenal and nearly a whole day to use it. So i did. I used lures cos lures are the first resort of the sporting angler. I used bait cos sometimes baits are the best bet. I groundbaited the place cos sometimes the fish needs a little encouragement.

And in the end, I gave up cos it was too hot and too frustrating. But hang on, I am a thinking angler (don’t we all think we are?). I realised that perhaps the time wasn’t ideal. I beat a strategic retreat into the shade of a big angsana tree which incidentally bordered a cool little pool. From which I managed to extract a couple of haruan while I plotted my next move. I gave the day some time to cool. And i returned in time for dusk. Well a couple of hours before dusk anyway. And I flogged that swamp mercilessly. I cast and I cast and then I cast some more. The way I figured it, there was definitely something big at the edge of the vegetation. But of course I had no way to be sure…. Eventually it was dusk. And my whole day, no week, of fishing was soon to be over.

I packed up my things. Let all my bait go. And as the sun was setting, to salute the place, I cast one final time. And as I was retrieving, i had an almighty strike. It tore off line on a screaming drag, surging under vegetation and back out again. From one side of the swamp to the other edge. The water boiled together with my adrenaline. I was on the edge. And then it spat the hook. And that was it.

I’d like to tell you now that I did the sporting thing and saluted the fish that beat me fairly, packed up and left the place with just fond memories. Yeah right! I flogged that water till the stars came out and the search party was nearly dispatched. Nothing. Not a single bite, follow or nibble. Finally I packed up. And now I am back in town. Rejoining the rat race.

And wondering why I bother going fishing…..why don’t you guys tell me? Tell me about the wonderful catches that you got on YOUR break. The beautiful wild fishes that you managed to lure and beat. Yeah, tell me all about it…And I’ll tell you about the one that got away….hang on, I already did.. and you know what? I swear it was bigger than my car.

Written by kram

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Lunar Tides/Moonphase

Tides are periodic rises and falls of large bodies of water. Tides are caused by the gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon. The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side, since the Earth is also being pulled toward the moon (and away from the water on the far side). Since the earth is rotating while this is happening, two tides occur each day.

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The Sun’s Interaction with the Tides

Spring Tides

Spring tides are especially strong tides (they do not have anything to do with the season Spring). They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line. The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides. Spring tides occur during the full moon and the new moon.

Neap Tides

Neap tides are especially weak tides. They occur when the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun are perpendicular to one another (with respect to the Earth). Neap tides occur during quarter moons.

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The eccentricity of the orbit of the moon in this illustration is greatly exaggerated.
The Proxigean Spring Tide is a rare, unusually high tide. This very high tide occurs when the moon is both unusually close to the Earth (at its closest perigee, called the proxigee) and in the New Moon phase (when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth). The proxigean spring tide occurs at most once every 1.5 years.

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Moonphase: observations of natural phenomena

The mating of Belankas (horseshoe crab):
I remember as a kid, seeing these blackish-green “alien-looking” creatures crawl up on the beaches. The female is larger and she is giving the smaller male a ride on her back. Normally on breeding season, there are hundreds of pairs and countless other singles crawling up the beach. I can’t remember exactly, but it is either on the full moon or new moon. Perhaps the mating season will co-incide with good / poor fishing days?

Sea lice:
Normally happens on neap tide days, although I’ve seen it happen at some badly infested areas during the period where there is no current flow at high tide. These are tiny yellowish creatures that will burrow through the bait if it is dead and devour it inside out. If you are diligent in checking your bait, you will find it swarming with these creatures and will start crawling out from the stomach cavities etc and it looks disgusting. Normally, when I encounter this, I either pack up and go home, or I anchor off in a safe, sheltered place and go to sleep.

Phosphorescent tide
Probably not related to moon phases, most often I noticed this happen after a rainy day, the sea will light up at night in a greenish-blue glow. The bow wave of the boat as well as the wash behind comes alight as the boat churns up the water. Sometimes, I see streaks shooting through the dark waters at night indicating fish swimming through.

On a dark moonless night at punggol pier, the water was very clear and each wash of the waves on the concrete steps of the pier brought on an explosion of amazingly beautiful light.

But beautiful as these things are, I noticed that on nights that the water fluoresce, i don’t catch fish, as it is an indicator of bad water condition. (Someone once told me it’s because of low pH in the water). What are your observations?

The green glowing stuff is bio-luminescence. Lots of sea creatures bio-luminese. The fireflies seen in swamps employ similar technology for their lights. There will always be plankton etc in the sea water at any one time which has bio-luminescent abilities and you can find one or two pin pricks of light, glowing in the water – that is normal.

But I’m talking here about the whole wave glowing. When you put your hand in and stir the water, your hand lights up the water.

This I notice happens normally a day or so after heavy rains. I believe freshwater, and runoff can stimulate an algal bloom, especially if there is NH3 or urea in the runoff (Most of our runoff will have that because of fertilisers from our roadside plants). And I guess marine dinoflagellates (a type of algae that is the cause of Red Tide) can bloom from this excess nutrient to cause this kind of glowing.

Those who keep fish will automatically know that the conditions I described here are what aquarists call “Poor Water parameters” – high NH3 and low O2, low pH – will kill fish. So how to expect fish to eat your bait under such conditions.

Corals spawn on the full moon. There is this marine forum http://www.sgreefclub.com/portal/ that tracks coral “hanky panky time” by tracking lunar phase.

Anyway, what are your observations/experience on a night where there is great phosphorescent seas. Do you experience a good catch?

Full moon
My Great-grand uncle used to tell us not to go fishing on the full moon. He’d say in Teochew “Moonlit night where got fish”. His probable reasoning is that on a moonlit night, fish can see your line and not bite (Thit is my guess because dunno why I never ask him “why not?” when he was alive, but instead chose to ignore the comment till now). However, my reasoning is if moonlit night fish can see line, daytime should be worst right?

By Ban_zai and LLCC

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Tips: Problem on loading lines onto your spool?

Some of you guys might happen to encounter this problem when you load new lines onto your reel either more lines or less lines on top – below the spool

This is how it look like am i right ?

To solve the problem all you need to do is add or remove a plastic spool washer, the plastic spool washer is located right below the spool on the main shaft after you removed the spool should be able the see it

*If there are more lines on the top add 1 more plastic spool washer
*if more lines on below remove a plastic spool washer

Where to get the plastic spool washer?

*When you got a new reel in box normally the spare plastic spool washer will be given comes together with the reel, do this solve your qns on what is that plastic washer for now?

If i’m not wrong there are reels desiged the spool to load lines this way for longer casting distance more lines below and longer spool , anyone can help me on what they called it thanks

*please note that some shimano and daiwa reels have ABS (ADVANCED BALLISTIC SYSTEM) spools..so no matter how you remove or add the washers your line will still be V-shape..

also the old school daiwa reels have long cast spools..means your line will be slanted the other way.

If you’ve done everything correct, then check how you load in your line – loading line for fixed spool reel is different from spooling in line for a moving spool multiplier. To make matters worse, not all fixed spool reel’s rotor rotate in the same direction. I’ve an antique Mitchell that goes the other way round. My Daiwa closed-face reel too.

Study how the line comes out of the feeder spool. It must be going back into your reel in the same spiral. Otherwise, every twist of the rotor will introduce a twist in your new line.

Tips on spooling your line
1) Wet your spool and line with water, allowing it to soak in for half an hour or so. Tie on a GOOD, SMOOTH swivel and clip on a small sinker with a 4inch piece of raffia tied to one eye of the sinker.
2) Go to the top floor of your block, check that it is not windy and lower the line slowly to the floor with the small sinker.
3) Allow time for the weight to spin and unkink the twisted line. You can see the raffia indicator turning – I can from 16 floors above.
4) When you reel the line back up, gently pinch the line before your rod tip (it helps to have an assistant to do this) with your thumb nail, sandwiching the line to your index finger. This will encourage the badly twisted line to untwist. Reel in slowly, under tension, sparing a thought for the person pinching the line as some fused GSP lines like Fireline can inflict bad cuts.
5) Allow time for the line to untwist (observe raffia) as you reel it back in.
6) When you unspool your line for storage, ensure that you match the line’s spiral direction from your reel back into the feeder spool.
7) If you’re using stiff fused lines like Fireline, you have to bear with a “wearing in period” till your line softens. Meantime, remember to pinch your line as you reel in when you use a light lure, or when you are twitching/walking the dog to ensure line is spooled back tight.

By Alan Chan

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