Fishing Paradise @ Orto Highlights of fishing trips

Be warned that this is going to be a long post.

It is the end of the year school holiday. It is the time of the year where families will go travelling and it is also the time when we will go for our big ‘game’ fishing, i.e., pay pond fishing. 

This catch report is a compilation of our last 3 trips to Fishing Paradise @ ORTO, a Singapore Freshwater Pay Pond. Freshwater and Saltwater Pay Pond are popular in this region especially near to densely populated area. City dwellers wanted to fish too but do not have the luxury and time to escape to the great outdoors. Singapore, being a very small city state, does not have much great outdoors. So the next best thing for fishing will be these easily accessible pay ponds.

I brought two of my medium setup to the pond. The first setup consists of the Shimano Curado 201I baitcaster reel loaded with 20lb monofilament line and the Xpuyu Elite Cast XEC631 8-15lb single piece rod. The second setup consists of the Shimano Aernos 2500FA fixed spool reel loaded with Power Pro 20lb Braided Line and the Lemax Euromax  EM 66MH2 12-25lb rod.

The rig used was a floating rig with floating bread as bait. The hook used was a size 1 beak hook. The hook length was the 15lb Dupont Monofilament line.

Our first trip occurred on the afternoon of 9 Nov 2015. During this trip, the bait of choice is bread as our main target is the Patins. We landed two Patins during this trip.

 

The first 6.5kg Patin

The second 6.5Kg Patin

The excitement of the trip was the take by a monster fish. Unfortunately, the monster was too shy to grace us of its presence. My youngest son was holding the rod when the monster fish took the bait. Once the fish felt the hook, it immediately swam towards the other side of the pond at full speed. The poor boy was holding onto the rod with all his might. The line from the Aernos 2500 FA peels out quickly. He could not stop the run. When it finally stops, he gave up and I took over. I started to pump the fish in. But within a few pumps, it went out again. This goes on for a good 10 min before the fish managed to dislodge the hook. There were a few sad faces staring at the loose line.

Our second trip was on 20 Nov 2015. This time we decided to go for a morning session. It was a cloudy day and there were surface actions.  The session started well. A few big fishes were seen surfacing to feed.

The first fish was sort of a surprise. My youngest boy saw the line from the rod slowly moving out. When the line was taut, he gave a strike but there was no run. This is very unlike a Patin. When he was pulling the fish in, he commented that it felt like a giant plastic bag. Only when the fish came nearer to the side of the pond did the fish make an attempt to swim out. Finally, we managed to see that it is a very big 6kg African Walking catfish. It was a surprise because who would imaging a bottom feeder to eat a floating bread. 

The 6Kg African Walking Catfish

The next fish is the usual victim, a Patin weighing 6Kg. 

The 6 Kg Fat Patin

At this session, we also missed another monster fish. The monster took the bait and run. The short but fast run end with a loose line. The hook was dislodged. What a waste!!!!!

Initially there is a fear that when the sun rose higher, the bite rate would decreased. It seems that this morning fishing was not bad. So we planned that the next trip will be a morning trip.

The following trip was on 3 Dec 2016. This morning there was very little cloud in the sky. There was a nagging doubt about today’s fishing. My best guess was that it would be very sunny and the fish would not feel like biting. Sigh. The trip turned out as expected. The sun rose quickly and the bite rate was really bad. Looking around the pond, only 3 fishes were landed including ours during our morning session. So our hunch was correct. When the sun rose high high, the surface take turned low low. On the hind sight, maybe we should do bottom fishing. The fishes may go into the deeper and cooler water as the sun rises higher into the sky.

Or maybe there is another reason. On past fishing trips to Fishing Paradise, whenever we caught a Rohu, we would not catch another fish. We called this the Rohu jinx. So we always have this fear of catching a Rohu. On this trip, the first and only fish caught was a Rohu! Sad faces appear when the Rohu graced us with its presence. Here is the picture of the Rohu.

The Rohu

By the way, the scientific name for the Rohu is Labeo Rohita. The Rohu is a member of the carp family. It is found in the rivers of South Asia. It is a plant eater and it is an important fish in aquaculture. It is known to put up a long hard fight when hooked. From past experience in catching this fish, it will refuse to surface even when it is near the pond’s edge. It will put up a tight close quarter fight until the last minute. Loads of fun on light tackle.

Because of time and money constrain, i.e. to get the maximum bang for the money and time spend, we decided to go back to the 4pm-6pm fishing session at Fishing Paradise. Maybe one day, we will try to find the solution to better catch rate in the morning. Maybe like trying to wake up at 6am in the morning and start fishing at day break.

Overall we were quite satisfied with the sessions. The bite rate was fine except that in certain period of time. Sometimes the fishes stole the bait. I would attribute this to smaller fishes taking the bait. Maybe on our next trip, we would use a smaller hook to catch these smaller fishes and prayed that the hook will hold when a big fish hits.

Thanks for Reading and Tight Lines.

Fishing Paradise @ ORTO Fishing trip

When: 24 June 2015

Where: Fishing Paradise @ ORTO

Weather: Bright and Sunny

Water Condition: Water murky as usual. The water level is OK considering that there is rain the past few days.

Rod: Lemax Euromax  EM66MH2 12-25lb

Reel: Shimano Aernos 2500FA

Line: Power Pro 20lb Braided Line

Leader: 15lb Dupont Monofilament Line

Method: Floating Bread

Strike Zone: Near to Centre of the Pond

Victim aka The Fish: Pacu and Patin

Comment/Observation:

School’s out and it is time for big game fishing. Don’t get the wrong idea and let me clarify. Big game fishing to my kids and I is fishing trips to the local commercial pay pond where big fishes are stocked. Only when the school holidays are here, then my kids will have the time to go to the pay pond. As you know, Singapore has one of the most stressful education environments in the world and the kids need some de-stressing. Come to think of it, this is another thing where we are world class. 

One of our favorite pay ponds is Fishing Paradise @ ORTO. This is one of the few freshwater catch and release commercial ponds in Singapore. The pond is famous for their giant Chao Praya Catfish and Redtail Catfish. Other freshwater monster fishes are also stocked here. I like catch and release ponds. This means the fishes that are stocked in the pond have the chance to grow bigger and the fish stock normally does not get depleted. Not only the bite rate will be better, the chance of getting a big fish will also greatly increase. And the pond rule of Catch and Release follows what I strongly believe in.

A good introductory video on Fishing Paradise is available here .

Fishing Paradise @ ORTO is at:
81 Lorong Chencharu
Singapore 769198
Contact Number: 9632 7626
Opening hours: 24 hours Daily

Other than the good bite rate, the other thing I like about Fishing Paradise is the free parking and easy access from Khatib MRT Station. I am not affiliated to Fishing Paradise in any way. I am just an angler who visits them often. 

Currently the species of fish that we are targeting in the pond are those that eat bread. And this includes the Chao Praya, the Patin, the Rohu, the African Catfish and the Pacu. Sometime in the future, we will target the meat eater, the hard fighting Redtail Catfish. And not forgetting the Barramundi which is also food for the bigger Chao Praya and the Redtail Catfish.

Today was a very hot day. According to the Met Forecast, temperature was from 26 to 34 °C and it was fair and cloudy. And there was no rain for the whole day. We will be fishing from 4 to 6pm. On such a hot day, I am sceptical that the fish will bite.

Am I very wrong. Today is the day that we broke our record. Normally we caught about three fishes but today we managed to catch five fishes. The method used was the floater rig with bread skin bought from Fishing Paradise. The bait will be floating on the surface. The rig used the15lb Dupont monofilament line for the hook length. The hook was the Size 14 Octopus Hook from Eupro. This is equivalent to a Size 1 Beak hook.

Fishing with floating bread is very exciting. The floating bread acts as a bite indicator. Fishes could be seen surfacing occasionally to eat and a take will be anticipated whenever some surface action is near the floating bait. Sometime the fish misses and this will caused our heart to pump faster hoping it will turn around for another take. And sometime we are disappointed when the bait is stolen.

When a fish strikes close to the floating bread, we will automatically train our eyes to our line hoping a fish will drag the line out. When this happens, hang on for dear life as when the fish feels some resistance, it will speed out very fast and the drag on the reel will screamed.  After a quick strike and the battle begins. 

I will let the following pictures to complete the catch report.

Fighting the Pacu in Progress.

Finally a 6Kg Pacu was landed.

Here comes the first of a series of Patin.

The second Patin.

The third Patin.

The fourth Patin and a new record was achieved.