Scorpion XT draws First Blood!

[happywally]

eager to put my new Scorpion XT combo to the test, i dragged my missus out of bed at 545am in the morning and drove to Fishing Paradise, http://www.fishingparadise.com.sg/index.html, Singapore's Freshwater Sportfishing pond...

Fishing Paradise was started more than a year ago (i think) to promote fishing as a sport in singapore, and stocks some of the most exciting freshwater game fish... here are the some of the species found there:

Arapaima

Alligator Gar

Barramundi

Big Head Carp

Chao Praya Catfish

Giant Siamese Carp

Grass Carp

Patin Catfish

Red Bellied Pacu

Red Tail Catfish

Tiger Catfish

Tiger Shovel Nose Catfish

Walking Catfish

the pond is a CnR pond, and only barbless hooks are allowed to be used... the type of bait permitted is also strictly controlled to maintain water quality... lures are welcome, but the trebles must be swapped for barbless single hooks too...

anyway so i got there at about 7am and begun setting up... the missus complained that it was way to early and decided to nap in the car for a short while... yeah right.

so i set up and went over to chat with the pond attendant, it being my first time and all... he advises me to use a float rig and bread as bait... even gave me a weighted float to use as be noted i was using my scorpion xt bc...started fishing at 730am after all the admin had been settled...

first cast! ... ... birds nest... (it was my first time using a bc... had read up alot about it... even practiced a few times on a mates... but a first cast birds nest is pretty much the norm lol...)

anyway a couple of cast later im getting the hang of it...

i float my bread out and wait... meanwhile the pond attendant is burleying heaps of bread, and all over the surface fins and splashes erupted in a feeding frenzy...

heres the interesting thing though, my baited bread was untouched...

so it continued that way... for the next 2 hours... the attendant would burley, i would float my bread into the midst of the burley.

all the burlyed bread would be smashed, mine would be untouched...

i did get one or 2 nibbles, and my float even got body slammed once... but nil takes at all...

just as i was thinking to myself... what if i remove the float? another pond attendant comes along... he's probably the oldest one there... what we singaporeans would call "lao jiao" - old experienced hand... so he comes along and tells me in chinese that the fish are very clever, and i should remove the float cause they are rather cautious today...

off comes the float!. next cast. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!

(you can imagine my emotions right now... :woohoo:)

well sadly thanks to debarbed hooks... i dropped the fish just as i got him near the side of the pond...

a few moments later, on a new piece of bread...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

i pile on the tension and keep reeling...

= my first Patin Catfish!!!

(at this point i would like to apologise for the lack of photos... because the camera was with my missus... WHO IS STILL SLEEPING IN THE CAR! )

it was now 10 am... OH JOY! MY MISSUS HAS FINALLY DECIDED TO JOIN ME! :whistle:

couple of moments later... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

probably the biggest one of the day...

Patin Catfish (Pangasius Nasutus)

bout 5 minutes later.... 3rd Patin Catfish of the day...

right about now... my missus is all excited and jubilant...

so being the gentleman (and not bearing a grudge for her sleeping for 3 hours in the car...), i hand her the rod.

Liz's first Patin Catfish.

waiting for the hit...

Fish ON!

Liz's second Patin catfish... this one ran like a demon...

after that we packed up and left cause we had a lunch appointment...

end time 11am... 5 fish landed in just over an hour...

not bad for my first trip there (considering i usually bottom out with zeros on first trips.)

my Scorpion XT combi performed beautifully... the drag was smooth and linear, the cranking was baby bottom smooth...

cant say much about the casting cause i wasnt using lures, but it was easy enough with bread...

the rod was in a class of its own... both sensitive and stong... light enough to manipulate with one hand...

fast action, able to maintain tension on the line for the entire fight....

all in all im very pleased with my new setup... and im definately going back to Fishing Paradise to hit up some more of those game fish... GAME ON!

cheers guys thanks for the read.

Wally

PS. decided to do a pose with the AFO tourny shirt and my new ridiculously long rod tube just for you guys.

[straddiebrad]

good one mate how long are you there for,

[kiwifisho]

Nice report mate. Those things look like they could go hard :woohoo:

Kiwi

[eg_vtec]

awsome stuff i want to go there one dayyy

[happywally]

good one mate how long are you there for,

hey mate how are you?

ill be back in brissy on the 6th of Feb...

we should head out when i get back!

Nice report mate. Those things look like they could go hard :woohoo:

Kiwi

yeah they run pretty hard for their size... somewhat similar to threadies... although i would say threadies are still in a league of their own...

my missus took a couple of videos... managed to get one with the Patin making a run... the sound of the reel going of on that one was insane...

ill try to get it uploaded...

forgot to post this photo up.

this was the state of the hook after the 5th fish. (the left one is what it looks like brand new. the barb was crushed before fishing commenced)

[Angus]

Nice one Wally.

[kriso]

cool report wally cheers

[happywally]

hey guys...

went out to fishing paradise with my Scorpion XT setup again last night...

fished for a short 1 hour, but managed to land one fish and lost one...

Red Bellied Pacu (Colossoma Brachypomus)

this one fought pretty hard... took me alot of brute force to try and bring him closer to the shore...

i hooked up to a second fish soon after... i but i lost it when it ran past a pipe...

it fought in the same way as the first Pacu, and so i assume it was a Pacu as well...

but whatever it was... i couldnt really dent its runs... it was so strong...

will be going back for more soon!

cheers

Wally

[Funfisher]

awesome report Wally, those pacos are a really cool fish they love eating berrys and grapes :laugh:

[Schmuck]

Very cool list of stocked fish in that pond, would be sweet to hook up to an Arapaima or the RTC/TSNs.

[Little Grey Men]

Very enjoyable read Wally. Wow, that Pacu looks like a unit. Certainly would be fun fishing those ponds, not knowing what could be on the other end of your line.

[happywally]

Very cool list of stocked fish in that pond, would be sweet to hook up to an Arapaima or the RTC/TSNs.

haha yeah. fingers crossed to see some RED!

so far i know that only 1 person has hooked up one of the 2 arapaimas in the pond....

and it was more luck than anything as the arapaima ran straight towards him....

he managed to get it to the water edge, but then it surfaced, spat the hook, and swam away...

so thats the closest anyone has come :S

at 2M and 80kgs... they are near impossible...

Very enjoyable read Wally. Wow, that Pacu looks like a unit. Certainly would be fun fishing those ponds, not knowing what could be on the other end of your line.

yeah its exhilarating... especially when you see your line zip through the water from one end of the pond to the other in mere seconds...

[qbkami]

wow that is some fat fish! nice well done

[happywally]

hey guys...

just spent another 2 and a half hours at FP...

my missus agreed to come along this time round and ended up being a much needed photographer....

landed 4 fish tonight... and i was really happy i didnt lose any fish, unlike the past 2 trips (which i was nearly spooled on one :laugh:)

kiara_poltegerist told me i might not be fishing them aggressively enough... and so today i really gave it my all the moment i hooked up...

well there are the results... (thanks to the missus for awesome pictures...)

Fish 1 : Chao Phraya Catfish (Pangasius Sanitwongsei)

this one was the biggest of the night... and it ran like a steam train even at max drag...

Fish 2 & 3 : Patin Catfish

these 2 put up a good fight, but were nothing compared to the mighty Chao Praya...

fish 3 was particularly strong for a Patin... probably 4-5 kgs

Fish 4 : Chao Phraya Catfish

what a way to end the night... even though this one was smaller than the first, it made long lightning fast runs...

and by the end, i was aching in my arms and back...

this was the hook by the end of the night.... (compared to a new one...) :woohoo:

and this is my trophy of hooks used at FP... :evil:

my next target will be the Red Tail Catfish... hopefully i can get some!

cheers for the read guys

Wally

[happywally]

Rohu Carp (Labeo Rohita)

got a nice big Rohu last night...

as i was bending down to pick him up for a shot... he kicked up and slapped me across the face with his tail :laugh:

a classic case of lovestruck :woohoo:

funny thing was... just in the arvo before that i watched a you tube video of the exact same fish slap :laugh:

also landed 4 more Patin catfish and 1 baby Chao Phraya...

didnt bother with the photos though (see above )...

[happywally]

more pics from the last few trips...

22/12/10

29/12/10

30/12/10

enjoy!

Happy New Year mates!

[Anhie]

Some expensive quarium fish hey have in those ponds

[Genesis]

Hey Wally, how many ponds are there in Sg now beside Pasir Ris? I heard that quite a few have opened up in the past years....

[roobs]

yeah you can buy most of those as aquarium fish but it just shows how big they can get! i see an arapaima in my dreams sometimes- he turns up often enough! and you got your red tailed catfish too!

[happywally]

Hey Wally, how many ponds are there in Sg now beside Pasir Ris? I heard that quite a few have opened up in the past years....

the main ones are all at Pasir Ris...

the Jurong one closed down...

Fishing Paradise is pretty much the only good pond worth going to apart from the Pasir Ris ponds...

and being at Sembawang its easy to get there for me...

i heard the Pasir Ris Farmway 3 freshwater pond is pretty good though... will try before i come back :evil:

yeah you can buy most of those as aquarium fish but it just shows how big they can get! i see an arapaima in my dreams sometimes- he turns up often enough! and you got your red tailed catfish too!

haha mate thats a baby... the guy next to me landed a ridiculous 15kg one... i was immensely jealous...

[AngryBundyBear]

great reports wally and some nice pics too...

[happywally]

my Scorpion XT setup was put to the test last night again...

probably the most interesting fight i've had in my life lol...

the fish was so strong i couldnt stop him even with near max drag on my Scorpion XT reel...

i fought him for quite a while but he managed to run underneath this small table sized tray (use to grow lillies) by the side of the pond that was supported at each corner by plastic chairs...

i told the staff i was snagged... and he knew the redtail must have ran round the chairs...

so he took off his shirt and jumped in :woohoo:

turns out the redtail ran around 3 of the 4 chairs, and even inbetween the chair legs as well

the staff spent about 5 minutes removing the chairs and trying to free the line... in which time the redtail miraculously didnt spit the hook (amazing considering my hook is barbless... )

he lifts his hand with a thumbs up and shouts: "CRANK CRANK CRANK!"

i crank hard and fish on!... again...

a short tussle later (and obviously i was pulling the fish away from any more structure... )

tada!

he weighed in at 15.4kg... :cheer:

cheers for the read guys

Wally

[happywally]

NEW SPECIES for the Scorpion XT!

(actually not a new species... this is a hybrid between a Redtail Catfish and a Tiger Shovelnose Catfish... :cheer:)

Tiger Catfish - 11kg

the pond owner said that is probably one of the biggest (if not the biggest) tigers in the pond...

cheers guys.

[happywally]

hey guys...

i was back in sg for the last 10 days...

and i was invited by Fishing Paradise to field test their new Toman (Giant Snakehead) Pond before its official launch...

i removed the treble hooks from the lures to preserve and protect the "virgin" fish...

see for yourself the incredible surface action...
/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbxbXla_6sI