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:
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.
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