More Species Hunting Adventures in Singapore: Part 3.

The last time I visited Singapore, with my mates Chris and Lee, Marina South Promenade was the first place that we fished. It wasn’t particularly productive, and even worse it was hellishly snaggy, so my expectations were understandably pretty low. The tall trees behind us provided us with some welcome shade, and as we wandered along we stopped at a couple of spots, so I could have a few casts. Sadly, my recollection of my previous session in the area proved to be quite good, I caught hardly any fish, nothing new, and spent more time tying up rigs to replace the ones I lost than I did actually fishing, so I threw in the towel fairly quickly, and we headed along to Marina South Pier for one last short session. 

Bottom fishing along Marina South Promenade is not a productive approach in my fairly limited experience.

By the time we got along to the railings just past Marina South Pier, the sun had set, and it was starting to get dark. Perfect for me to target some cardinalfish. The decision to fish after dark was a last minute one, and as a result, I didn’t have my headtorch with me, but we made do with the lights on our iPhones. Rig wise, I fished a drop shot rig but instead of tying on a weight, I squeezed on a couple of large split shot. The idea being that if they got snagged, I could apply a bit of pressure, and they would simply slide off the bottom of the rig. Lowering this rig down into gaps in the submerged boulders straight down the wall, it didn’t take too long for me to feel a few small taps. Before too long, I’d caught a couple of different species of cardinalfish. 

The first was a flame cardinalfish, my first ever. 

It was followed by a few candystripe cardinalfish. A species I have caught before in a few different places around Asia.

Just before I was about to finish fishing, I caught my first ever bigeye cusk. I’ve no idea why their English common name is bigeye cusk, their eyes are pretty tiny! 

The following day, we took the MRT to the HarbourFront station, then hiked up the Marang Trail through a forest to Mount Faber Station, so we could take the Singapore Cable Car over to Sentosa Island. There was a little bit of light rain falling as we made our way up, and off in the distance there were a few thunderstorms and what looked like a heavy downpour.

It’s usually raining somewhere in Singapore!

The cable car ride was very impressive, and I say that as someone who isn't really a big fan of heights!

Once safely over on Sentosa, we went for a walk around. I had my fishing gear with me, but fishing is not permitted anywhere on Sentosa Island sadly, at least not from the shore. Instead, to get a quick fix of fish, we visited the S.E.A. Aquarium. Lillian loves visiting a good aquarium, and with a 2 for 1 offer on admission tickets, it was an opportunity too good to miss!

Highlights were this bigeye soldierfish,...

...and the weedy sea dragons. Very cool looking fish!

Taking the cable car back over to the mainland, we caught the MRT and headed to a small park containing a pond. At a couple of places around it there were no fishing signs, but I was reliably informed that there was a small area where fishing was permitted. 

No fishing here. 

After a bit of searching, I found a spot deep in the undergrowth, where I could chance my luck.

Setting up my tanago rod and fishing a tiny piece of bread under a pole float, I quickly got started. I had two target species, both of them non-native to Singapore. Fortunately, both were present, and even better, both were also very receptive to my micro fishing approach, readily attacking the tiny fleck of bread as it fell through the water column. After a few failed attempts, I started hooking a few of them.

I caught a few blackline rasbora very quickly, but the fish I really wanted to catch,..

…was a tiger barb! What an awesome micro species!

After catching these two tiny fish species and popping one of each into my viewing tank, I was about to take some photos of them, when a small snakehead briefly entered the shallow water directly in front of me, no doubt attracted by the activity of the hooked fish and keen to investigate the possibility of a potential meal. It sat motionless for a brief moment, before it spotted me and quickly swam off again into heavy weed to my left. I’d have loved to set up my Rock Rover to have a go at catching one, but as I’d caught what I was after, and wasn’t totally sure about the legality of fishing where I was, I took photos of the two micro species, quickly packed up my tanago rod, and we headed back to take the Circle Line further north to our second fishing spot of the afternoon, a spot I’d fished at the last time I visited Singapore. After a bit of a walk, we arrived at a small stream that runs out of a jungle into an urban area. On first impressions, most people passing this small stream would find it hard to believe there were fish in it, let alone a wide variety of species. Fishing from a wooden bridge just inside the jungle to begin with, tiny pieces of bread on tango hooks quickly produced a few small fish. 

 

Indochinese spotted barb were present in large numbers. 

I was actually hoping to catch a danio, a fish that’s popular with beginner aquarists. After a while, the small shoal of Indochinese spotted barb seemed to lose interest and swam off downstream. It was at this point I caught this male Forest betta. 

The humidity under the canopy was oppressive, and in no time at all we were both sweating profusely as a result, so we decided to head out of it and for the rest of the session, I fished from a small concrete road bridge over the stream. Switching to my Rock Rover, I fished with a larger hook and was soon pulling out a few more species.

The predominant species was Mayan cichlid. 

There were a few Nile tilapia in amongst them. 

Then I spotted what I thought initially was a goldfish. Dropping a piece of prawn in its vicinity, it initially swam off. After I’d caught a few more Mayan cichlid, it reappeared from underneath the bridge. Slowly lowering my bait down a little further upstream from it, the colourful fish took it eagerly before charging off. After a short scrap, I landed the fish, at that point realising it was in fact a colourful tilapia.

A hybrid, known as a red tilapia, I would later discover. 

After taking a few photos, I released the colourful fish slightly downstream. Returning to the bridge, I was surprised to see a couple of snakehead poking out from the darkness of the bridge’s shadow. I knew I probably only had one chance to catch one, so I moved back from the water, quickly tied on a stronger, slightly larger hook, and baited it up with a large chunk of prawn. Creeping back to the edge of the bridge, the two snakeheads were still sitting there motionless. Slowly lowering my bait down about a foot away from them, I wasn’t too surprised when they both lurched forward and attempted to quickly swallow it. Of course, only one of them succeeded, and firmly setting the hook, all hell broke loose! The hooked fish swam off strongly downstream and put a fair old bend into my rod, almost forcing it against the structure of the bridge. Thankfully, the angry fish was able to take some line, as had my drag been set any tighter, I’m fairly confident my ultralight rod might have come to a nasty end. After its initial surging run, I was able to play the fish slowly back upstream from underneath the bridge and then through some weed before pulling it up onto the grassy bank.

My first striped snakehead. A powerful fish!

Armed with a large mouth and powerful jaws, they are a super aggressive predator. 

Putting the fish back, I fished on for a short while, but the commotion caused by the thrashing snakehead seemed to have caused all the other fish to flee the area. Anyway, light was beginning to fade, and we were both feeling pretty hungry, so we headed off to catch the MRT back to Geylang where we planned to get freshened up before going out for a Chinese meal! The following day we were leaving the mainland in search of more species, and Lillian had declared she was going to fish with me!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting adventures in Singapore: Day 2 continued.

Before we travelled to Singapore we were slightly concerned about the potential for us to get a proper soaking. Whilst the climate there is hot and humid, it can also be very wet too, only for relatively short periods usually, but sometimes these can be heavy downpours. 

Rain on the way?

It looked likely that the sweat might get rinsed from our clothes, or we’d have to leave the jetty and retreat to a shelter on the coast at the start of the jetty, but as the dark clouds approached luckily they began to clear and the sun kept shining, so we carried on fishing. Chris caught a dark fish with pale stripes that I thought was a striped eel catfish, a species with venomous spines that can deliver a nasty sting. “Don’t touch that!” I shouted over to him. After he put the fish down, so I could go over to get a better look at it, I realised that it was in fact a remora! These are the long, streamlined fish that hitch a ride on larger fish as they swim along. Had something large just passed under the jetty? Probably!

I'd discover later that Chris’s remora was a live sharksucker. What an awesome capture!

The sucker on the back of its head. Amazing!

Chris was over the moon to catch it and is still occasionally reminding me he had done so. I was, ever so slightly, jealous, but realistically knew that the likelihood of catching one myself was minuscule. Things slowed down a little for a while, but fishing hard on the bottom and casting my rigs under the jetty improved my catch rates slightly. I also moved around from time to time to try my luck in new spots, and this also threw up some new species too. 

This candystripe cardinalfish was the first species of the trip that I’d caught before. I caught one in Kagoshima in Japan in 2020. 

I caught my first damselfish of the trip too. Brown damsels can be very difficult to identify, but I’m confident this is my first silty damselfish.

Chris called me over to show me his second tripodfish species of the trip, a short-nosed tripodfish. 

I also caught this funky, colourful little bluelined hind.

My bottom fishing eventually produced what I hoped it would in the form of a couple of new shrimpgoby species. They were sandwiched around a third new species that I suspected might be my first scorpionfish of the trip. I was wrong about that though and when I discovered what it was the fish in question’s name justified my mistake in a way.

My decision to fish hard on the bottom produced my first ever masked shrimpgoby.

This false scorpionfish had me fooled.

 This lagoon shrimpgoby had some very colourful markings.

As the sun began to dip towards the horizon, the fishing slowed down again. By that point we were all pretty exhausted. Jet lag and dehydration were also no doubt a factor again. Also, despite repeatedly applying generous amounts of sun cream to my sunburnt calf it was still very sore. We called it a day just as it got dark, headed back to the hotel to get freshened up and then went out for food and beer again. 

The end of a long day on Bedok Jetty!

For Chris and I it had been a very productive day fishing with small prawn baits, catching lots of small but interesting species. For Lee, it had been another tough day fishing exclusively with artificials, with not much reward for the many hours of hard work he'd put in. That’s what can happen when you are determined to catch something bigger I suppose.

Tight lines, Scott.

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More species hunting fun in Japan : Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Aburatsu.

After arriving in Kumamoto late in the afternoon we went out to explore a bit and ended up going for a walk around the castle's grounds. Kumamoto castle and many of the surrounding buildings and walls were badly damaged by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 2016 and are still being rebuilt. Afterwards we found a sushi bar and had a great meal, the gizzard shad nigiri was great but the standout dish was the Japanese omlette topped with tiny sardines. We also had a few beers and spent a couple of hours in a karaoke venue murdering various songs whilst consuming even more beer before eventually stumbling back to our hotel.

Kumamoto Castle being rebuilt.

Gizzard shad or Kohada in Japanese. Very tasty indeed.

Japanese sweet omlette topped with hundreds of tiny sardine fry.

The next morning we didn't have an alarm set but when we did wake up it was to the sound of rain battering against our hotel room window. Undeterred, we were keen to stick to our plan for the day and whilst it might have been wet it was still very humid so we dressed accordingly. Catching a tram, the main mode of transport in the city, we went to explore the Suizen-ji Jōju-en Gardens. Like the gardens we visited in Hiroshima they were very nice indeed being immaculately maintained. One tree in particular had been there for quite some time.

Umbrella and t-shirt weather.

This tree is over a thousand years old.

Later in the evening we visited a restaurant that specialises in horse dishes, something that Kumamoto is famous for. I tried raw horse the last time we visited Japan and thoroughly enjoyed it so we were keen to have some more. Strangely the establishment was named Mutsugoro which is Japanese for mudskipper so I asked one the chefs why this was the case and he explained that when it first opened that was the main food they specialised in. Once again several beers were consumed and a second evening was concluded with a drunken karaoke session.

I had basashi (raw horse) again and I also tried the horse tripe stew as well. Lillian opted to have the grilled horse which was also excellent.

The next morning we hired a car and drove east to visit the Aso-Kuju National Park. As we approached Mount Aso, the active volcano in the centre of the park, we could see huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky and weren't sure if this was something to be concerned about. It turned out that whilst the activity levels were indeed high and a 1km exclusion zone was in effect, this had been the case for some time and the ash clouds were nothing to worry about. Unfortunately however the raised activity levels meant we could not go up any further to see the crater itself. After taking a few photos from a safe distance and visiting the Aso Volcano Museum we hit the road again.

Mount Aso smoking away behind me. This is fairly normal.

For our next stop we drove south west to visit the small town of Takachiho. The gorge running through it was formed by the Gokase River slowly eroding a deep narrow chasm into the volcanic basalt columns that formed from lava that poured from Mount Aso during a very active period in its ancient history. Parking the car we walked along a nice trail following the gorge until we reached the boat hire area, on the way passing a pond that had lots of sturgeon in it.

Visitors row boats in Takachiho gorge close to a waterfall.

No fishing allowed sadly.

Down in the gorge the scenery was stunning.

After hiring a boat ourselves and rowing up and down the gorge we walked back the way we'd came to the car and drove to the final stop of our road trip going north again to visit the picturesque Nabegataki Falls, a waterfall that you can walk behind.

This photo really doesn't do the falls justice. They get lit up after dark too but sadly we had to get the hire car back by 19:00.

Driving back to Kumamoto we were making good time but as we got further into the city the traffic got heavier and soon almost ground to a halt. By the time we had reached the petrol station that was closest to the car hire centre and filled the tank we were already overdue so I had to put the foot down and do a bit of drifting around corners to make it back before the staff left. Luckily we just caught them as they were turning off their office's lights. For dinner that evening we treated ourself to another superb dining experience in the shape of teppanyaki beef.

Watching the chef carefully taking his time cooking our dinner to perfection right in front of us was torture but the mouth watering beef practically dissolving in our mouths made it more than worthwhile.

The next day we were leaving Kumamoto in the afternoon and incredibly I had managed to go over seventy two hours without fishing. Suffering from withdrawl symptoms we spent a couple of hours looking for a likely place that I could fish for tanago in drainage ditches near our hotel but sadly we didn't find one. Determined to catch something before we left the city I ended up freelining some bread to some carp that we spotted skulking around in a piece of slack water at the edge of the Shirakawa River.

My only fish in Kumamoto. Great fun on my Rock Rover though!

Before leaving I bought a Kumamon hat. He is the mascot for the city. The Japanese do love a mascot.

After a short bullet train ride we arrived in Kagoshima and caught a tram to our hotel. After dropping off our luggage we headed out again, catching a second tram to visit the city's aquarium and have a wander around the harbour area. Mainly so I could check out its fishing potential.

Like Nagasaki and Kumamoto, trams are the main mode of transport in Kagoshima. Both old...

...and new.

After visiting the aquarium and sadly finding out that the harbour seemed to be a no fishing zone, we went for some sushi in a very busy conveyor belt restaurant nearby. It was a lively establishment with its chefs constantly shouting orders out in a theatrical manner. It also had lots of cool fish prints on the walls.

An uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe) gunkan combo was a perfect treat to finish off our sushi feast.

I overindulged myself again.

I love these gyotaku fish prints. Made by covering your catch in ink and then pressing paper onto it they were originally a way to record catches but are also an artform too.

The following day we headed back down to the port area and caught a ferry across the bay to Sakurajima, Japan's most active volcano. Sakarujima used to be an island but large scale eruptions in 1914 created new land that reached the mainland so its now a peninsula. From a distance we could see grey clouds of ash covering the volcano's peak. Once we disembarked from the ferry our first stop was the visitor centre where we spotted a rather unique snow globe.

Ash clouds being spewed from one of the craters on Sakurajima.

Very apt.

We then went for a walk along a coastal lava trail path that followed the shoreline. I had my fishing gear with me but there were "Fishing Prohibited" signs at the side of the path almost everywhere access to the sea was possible. Towards the end of the walk we came to a small harbour and as there was no signs that we could see we stopped for an hour or so and I wet a line. It was a fish every cast due to the incredible numbers of Nagasaki damsels in the area. After switching tactics from drop shotting sections of isome to fishing a lure on a jighead I caught a small wrasse.

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to fish here or not.

These Nagasaki damsel were loving small sections of pink isome.

An Ecogear Shirasu jighead with a Tict Brilliant lure was taken by what I'd later identify as juvenile red naped wrasse.

We then carried on walking along the trail and reaching the end we then caught a tour bus which took us up to an observation platform located further up the side of the volcano where we enjoyed the views it offered. Near the ferry terminal there is a free public hot spring foot spa and a fishing park so when we got back on the tour bus again and headed back down to the coast that's where we went to relax. 

Lillian made the most of the volcanic hot spring foot spa whilst I fished at the fishing park nearby. Perfect!

The fishing park was pretty good and only cost a few hundred yen. This payment granted access to a purpose built pier and also included the loan of a life vest. The pier was manned and also had facilities to clean any fish caught should you wish to take them home to eat, which most Japanese do. I soon discovered, but wasn't surprised given where I was, that the bottom was very snaggy due to being volcanic rock. The fishing was pretty good though and despite loosing some rigs I caught some grass puffer, a few marbled rockfish, some star bambooleaf wrasse and fairly large red naped wrasse.

A nice colourful red naped wrasse.

After a while I thought it had started raining very lightly until a few drops landed in my mouth and had a dreadful taste. It turned out the wind had changed direction and it was ash from the volcano behind me that was falling from the sky. Looking down I discovered my clothes and tackle were quickly getting covered with a fine dusting so I packed up and headed to join Lillian at the foot spa. Soaking my feet for ten minutes or so was a nice way to finish the visit to Sakurajima and afterwards we caught a ferry back to Kagoshima.

Raining ash!

The following day it was raining rather heavily but we grabbed umbrellas from the hotel and went for a walk. At one point there was a relatively small moat at the side of the pavement that had a few koi carp in it! After ambling about for a while we then went for a ride on the massive ferris wheel that has been built on top of the shopping centre next to the train station before catching a tram so we could visit the Kagoshima City Sea Fishing Park. Once there I paid the small fee and I spent a couple of hours getting soaked and adding a few more species to my trip's tally while Lillian took advantage of one of the shelters on the pier.

Swimming in the rain. These koi carp were in a small moat in front of the Kagoshima City Museum of Art.

It was a pretty grim day so the views from this massive ferris wheel weren't great unfortunately.

What better way to spend another grey day in Kagoshima than fishing in the rain. I much prefer the wet variety to the grey powdered kind.

This was my third cardinalfish species of the trip. It is a candystripe cardinalfish.

It was soon followed by my forth, Apogonichthyoides cathetogramma. It does not have an English common name. In Japanese it is called a Yokosujiishimochi. Quite big as cardinalfish go.

Just before we left I caught this small areolate grouper.

On the way back to the tram stop we visited another tackle shop where once again I exercised remarkable restraint yet again aided by Lillian's watchful eye.

Point tackle shop in Kagoshima. I really should have taken some photos of the interior but I didn't want to get drool on my iPhone.

It had been a wet cold day so after a hot shower back at our hotel we rewarded ourselves with a visit to a restaurant nearby that had some amazing black pork tonkatsu. The name refers to the colour of the pigs.

Crispy fried panko breadcrumbs surround thickly cut succulent black pork. Add a generous amount of tonkatsu sauce and some mustard for a truely amazing meal!

On our final day staying in Kagoshima we hired a car again and drove east to visit a few places of interest. Our first stop was a rather large statue of the animated fantasy film character Totoro that an airbnb owner has built outside their property in a clever piece of marketing.

I like fishing. Lillian likes Totoro. Fair's fair.

The second stop on our road trip was the small island of Aoshima to see some interesting rock formations and visit the island's shrine. The island is connected to the mainland by a bridge so that it can be accessed at all states of the tide.

Hundreds of tilted layers of rock form the "Devil's washboard" formations that surround Aoshima.

The shrine itself was very busy indeed and there were lots of tables inside covered with a multitude of things for sale. Too many in my opinion which I felt spoiled the shrine a bit. One thing I did love though was the ornate dragon fountain at the entrance.

One of the coolest fountains I've ever seen.

The third and final stop for the day was Udo Shrine which was a little further south down the coast. There are several shrines at the site and whilst there you can also test your skill throwing small clay pebbles into a depression in a large rock. Sucessful throws are supposed to bring good fortune and I managed to get three out of five inside it. With our sightseeing done for the day I had been looking forward to doing a spot of fishing from some rocks nearby but the sea was way too rough. 

The people on the left are trying to throw their clay pebbles into the ringed hole on the large boulder below them. I was planning on fishing from the rocks nearby but not in that swell!

With fishing on that part of the coast out of question Plan B was quickly formulated with the aid of Google Maps. We drove further south to Aburatsu's Harbour so I could take advantage of the sheltered nature of its location. After trying a few different spots that didn't hold any fish I eventually found a productive area and caught a few fish including a couple of new species. One was my fifth cardinalfish species of the trip and the other was a nice little jack.

This chap is a Doederlein's cardinalfish.

I would later discovered this was my first big eye trevally.

Before long we had to begin the drive back to Kagoshima to return the hire car. It took a little longer than expected but luckily there was no need to repeat the fast and furious manouvers that I'd pulled in Kumamoto! With only four days left of our trip our last stop was the coastal hot spring city of Beppu where I'd booked us into a nice traditional Japanese hotel right next to the sea. With access to a private onsen in the hotel we were looking forward to winding down a bit and slowing down the pace of our trip. I was still hopeful that I could catch a few more fish though.

Tight lines, Scott.