Arriving back in Singapore late in the afternoon, it was raining heavily, and we were both pretty hungry, so instead of going straight to our hotel, risking getting soaked, we got off of the MRT at Paya Lebar and went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in the retail mall that's directly connected to the station. We must have underestimated how hungry we both were, because between the two of us, we ate our way through about thirty plates! Amongst my selections, I had two favourites.
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| The marinated baby octopus was delicious,... |
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| ...and a simple, clean, wakame seaweed salad was very nice too. |
Riding the MRT along to Kallang, the rain had thankfully eased off. Checking in to our hotel, the same one we'd stayed in at the beginning of our trip, we decided to have a nap. Partly due to the early start we'd had, and also probably due to overeating. When we woke up a few hours later, we caught the MRT down to Marina South Pier and I had a couple of hours targeting nocturnal species. Cardinalfish were my main target, but I was also hopeful that some squirrelfish might be present. After catching a couple of candystripe cardinalfish, I got a much more aggressive take and the culprit shot off out into deeper water. It was a squirrelfish, and for a small fish, I was surprised that it put up as decent a scrap as it did.
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This redcoat was my first ever squirrelfish species. They are venomous, so it was handled with care.
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As I continued fishing, the bites weren't coming thick and fast but instead fairly sporadically. I then caught a nice Spanish flag snapper that also took my bait very aggressively and charged off. Putting up a spirited fight, it was great fun on ultralight tackle.
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Not huge, but I think it's the biggest Spanish flag snapper I've ever caught.
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Pleased with the way the session was unfolding, I was confident that eventually I'd catch a new species of cardinalfish before too long, as several are found in the area. We moved to a second spot, but the ground there was saturated with water from the downpour earlier in the afternoon, so we quickly moved back to nearby the first spot. Dropping my bait down again, I didn't get a bite for a while, but after a while I felt a very subtle take and lifted into something much bigger that immediately started stripping line from my reel at an alarming rate. It certainly wasn’t a cardinalfish! Applying some pressure to stop the fish potentially getting down into a gap in the boulders, luckily it instead swam out away from the wall I was fishing from into open water. It made a few more surging runs midwater, before it tired and I managed to bring it to the surface. Suddenly realising that my extendable net was back in the hotel, I had a decision to make, either swing the fish up with my rod, or put my rod down and try to hand line it up. I quickly decided just to go for the first option! Getting the tip of my rod as low as I could, I wound up my drag, and with one motion, lifted it up, over the railings and onto the grass behind me!
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My first ever goldlined sweetlips was a cracker!
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| I admire the fish one last time before releasing it. |
My heart was pounding for a while after that. On a high, I carried on fishing, and after moving to a different spot I caught a couple of new species of cardinalfish almost straight away and both were nice big specimens too! It really had turned into an amazing nighttime session!
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My first ever ochre-striped cardinalfish was shortly followed by,..
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...my first ever three-spot cardinalfish!
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Having achieved my goals for the session, and also been rewarded with the unexpected capture of the goldlined sweetlips, I decided to call it a night. In the morning, we were going to head back to Bedok Jetty for my last fishing session of the trip. The one I'd just enjoyed, would take some beating!
Tight lines, Scott.
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