Peacock Bass Hunting @ Lower Pierce Reservoir

15 January 2016

It had been raining for a few days. Previously on Wabbit Fishing Log, I have wrote about weather forecasting based on the water level in the Lower Pierce Reservoir. As it has been raining for a few days, I decided to put theory into practice. I will check out the water level in the reservoir to prove whether I am right or wrong. And at the same time, do some Peacock Bass Hunting.

When I reached the legal fishing ground of Lower Pierce Reservoir, I am relieved that I am correct. The water level was really very low.

All the rocks along the edge of the reservoir were exposed. Although I am glad that I am correct with the weather forecast, I am sad because this fishing trip will be a disappointment. Due to the low water level, the fishes, especially the Peacock Bass, will be hiding in the deeper water further away from the reservoir edge. This means that there will be hard work casting the lure further. Being a lazy wabbit, I decided to look for pockets of deeper water that is closer to the edge to save me some far casting. 

Luckily, I found these pockets of deep water. I am pleasantly surprised that these pockets hold fishes although they were the smaller ones. Who’s complaining when there were fishes to be caught? 

The setup that I used in this trip consists of the Shimano Catana 5.5ft 8-16lb fast action rod with a Shimano AERNOS XT 1000 reel loaded with a unknown brand 15lbs braid line. 

As small fishes were expected, I decided to do Fly Fishing using Spinning Gear. The effective retrieve technique during this trip was bouncing the fly along the bottom. 

I managed to get 3 Peacock Bass during this one and a half hour session starting at around twelve noon. At least it cured my fishing itch.

Until next time, Tight Line.

Spinning Fly for Temensis @ Lower Pierce Reservoir

13 January 2016

I decided to go Temensis hunting at my favorite fishing spot. This is the legal fishing ground at Singapore’s Lower Peirce Reservoir. Although this fishing ground is heavily fished, the easy accessibility and beautiful scenery makes it my go-to place whenever I wanted some short casting and hunting practice. In this session, the effective luring method is Spinning Fly.

Today's water level was considered high as can be seen in the following picture. 

Based on my past experience, the water level in the reservoir can help in forecasting rain in the next few days. When the water is high, as in the above picture, there will be no rain in the next few days. If the water level is low, then there will be rain in the next few days. This is quite an interesting observation. 

My guess is that the water authority in Singapore used the reservoir as a sort of flood prevention. When rain is expected, the authority will drain the reservoir so that when the rain comes, the water from the upper reach of the reservoir will be stored behind the reservoir’s dam. No excess water will be allowed to flow beyond the reservoir’s dam to the lower reach. This will prevent flooding in the lower reach. When no rain is expected, water will be stored in the reservoir for future used and therefore the water level will be high. I hope that my guess is correct.

The high water level also helps me in my Temensis hunting. When the water is higher, the bigger Temensis can come nearer to the shore to feed. In this case, I do not need to cast very far out to search for them. Also the smaller Temensis like to hide among the rock to ambush any small unsuspecting fishes that swam by. Using this knowledge, I can cast my lure and run them over the rocks to catch them.

I started the session with a bunch of rubber lures. There were no takes by the bigger Temensis but smaller Temensis can be seen chasing after the lures.

Since the bigger Temensis were not there or they were not interested, I decided to downsize my lure to target the smaller Temensis. 

I changed my tactic to Spinning Fly. The flies used in my rig are home-made. The following picture shows one of my homemade flies. 

Black and White Raffia Fly

The fly is tied using commonly available material like sewing thread, raffia strings and glitzzy tinsel strings. A size 8 baitholder hook is used in the fly. For adhesive, I used a clear nail polish. Initially I had concerned on the durability of the nail polish as adhesive. But after using it for a long time, I can safely say that the nail polish can withstand countless whacking by the Peacock Bass. This is one good alternative to the epoxy glue or the super glue.

I targeted the smaller Temensis by running the weighted fly at mid water over the rocks. I initially started with a Black and White fly, followed by a Green and Yellow fly. Those guys do not seem interested. I only got a response when I used a Green and White fly. I managed to get 4 of those guys during the session. One of them is one of smallest fish I ever caught on Spinning Fly. Although they are small, they made up from their lack of size with their fighting spirit. They are loads of fun on light setup. Since they can be caught quite easily using weighted fly, they are a good target for the beginner lure angler. Catching them can give the beginner confidence in the ability of lure to catch fish.

The First of the Fantastic Four.

The Smallest in this session. One of a pack that attack the Fly.

Big Brother of the Fantastic Four. Nice Marking of a Juvenile Cichla Temensis.

The Last. Rocketed out of a Rock Crevice to grab the Fly.

Catching small Peacock Bass or Temensis using Spin Fly is fun and relatively easy. Make it part of your lure fishing learning process. This will help boost your confidence and sharpen your luring skill. Go when the water level is high and you will be rewarded.

Thanks you for Reading and Tight Lines.

Night Fishing Opening Session in 2016

When: 2 January 2016 

Where: A freshwater body somewhere in Singapore.

Weather: Moonless Night, Cloudy with occasional lightning seen.
Water Condition: Water was clear. The water level was high considering that there was rain the past few days.
Rod: SureCatch Romana 602 8-15lbRod
Reel: Shimano Holiday Spin XT 1000 Reel
Line: 10lb Monofilament Line
Leader: 10lb Dupont Monofilament Line
Method: Floating Bread
Strike Zone: Near to the water edge
Victim aka The Fish: The Red Devil Cichlid and The Mayan Cichlid
Comment/Observation: 

Now that the school holiday is over, school will be starting soon. Because of school work and such, there will be less time for the kids to go day fishing. So the available free time is at night. This signals the start of night fishing.

Our favorite night fishing spot is a local freshwater body of water. We found this place by accident. We were walking by this place one evening when we found bread slices discarded by some anglers at the water edge. As the bread was an unsightly sight, we decided to throw some small pieces into the water, hopefully to find out if there were fishes that eat bread. Before long, there were ripples on the water surface. So there were some fishes feeding. As it were dark, we could not make out the species of fishes that were feeding. We then decided to come back in the future to check this place out. To make a long story short, this is a pretty good fishing spot.

Since there is a small window of opportunity tonight, my kid and I decided to visit our night fishing spot. The tactic of choice is free-line floating bread and the target is any fish that eats floating bread. The free-lining method was used because this is a highly fished area during the daytime and the fishes are very suspicious of any fishing tackles in the water.

The fishes here are mostly palm size. Only occasionally a few big fishes will come visiting. The biggest fish that was caught here weighs in at around 4Kg. So we mostly use light setup here. The setup are 8-15lb class rods paired with size 1000 reels loaded with 10lb line. The hooks of choice are the size 8 beak hook with 8lb Dupont monofilament hook length.

I tried to used a thinner line for the hook length because thicker line will normally frighten the bigger fish away. I had seen big fishes rushing towards the bait but at the last minute, turned away. My guess is that they saw the line that is attached to the hook and this arouse their suspicion. So thinner line for better success.

When we reached the fishing spot, we will normally chum the area with some floating bread. This will help us locate any feeding fish. Then we will cast our float bread rig to the feeding spot.

There were no sign of any feeding fish for a good hour before some small nibbles of the floating bread came. Shortly more vicious surface takes were sighted and we immediately cast our rigs to the general feeding area.

Soon a fish took the bread and the first night victim was landed. It was a beautiful good size Red Devil cichlid. The scientific name for this fish is Amphilophus Labiatus. It is native to Central American and it is commonly found in the freshwater bodies in Singapore.

Shortly another fish was landed. This time it was a Mayan cichlid. The scientific name is Ciclasoma Urophthalmus. It is also native to Central American and it is another common fish in the freshwater bodies in Singapore.

Another Red Devil Cichlid was caught before we call it a night.

Introduced fish species are commonly found in Singapore's freshwater bodies. They could be released from the aquarium trade and they are replacing our natives species. Nevertheless we tried to treat our foreign talent fishes with respect. The fishes above are released without harm.

Please practise Catch and Release. This is the best way to sustain fish stock for the future.

Happy Reading and Tight Lines.