Eating everything I've caught at a go - Ebek, Sotong and Prawns

If anyone wondered what happened to the large GT that I caught (click here for the catch report), it has become the bane of my fishing existence. I'm not kidding. My mum has found a way to punish me for the loads of fish I bring home and stack in her freezer past midnight - like a Santa Claus with a sack of wet smelly fishes. No matter how late it is, I clean up as best as I can, quite fearful of my mother's wrath. But there is no escaping - she has been complaining that she is sick and tired of eating fish. At first, I could not understand, my mind failed entirely to comprehend how any human being could possibly be tired of this wonderous gift that God had given to mankind - fish! And then, my mother started to feed me fish every single day and on the weekends, fish for both lunch and dinner until, thick as my skull may be, I am enlightened as to why my fellow anglers give away their catches quite willingly!

The first fish that my mother cooked was the GT/Ebek in curry. This is a close up pic of one quarter of the fish (head portion) chopped up and cooked with coconut curry. After having cooked the cobia, tripletail and parrotfish to date, my mum likes the Ebek best. And it is indeed delicious - and guess what - it isn't for sale in Singapore or even JB markets - oh well, even if it was, my freezer is quite stuffed with Ebek meat still.

My mum also took it upon herself to cook the sotongs which I'd caught earlier (click here for the catch report) but since I absolutely detest the taste of squid, I didn't have any of it. It's strange why I like catching sotong even though I don't eat the same - sotongs never put up much of a fight either - it's just a dead weight at the end of the jig. And the mess they make! I just bought a squid jig for RM 44 and it's going to be my deadliest weapon in the squid killer arsenal when I go eging again with my fishing shifu - the weapon of last resort. The last fishing trip at Rompin, I had no problems landing 2 sotongs on a SGD 4 orange (that's the color to use at Rompin) jig but because the set up was different (a very heavy weight was used), jigging got too tiring for me and I went back to just bottom fishing.

But I digress - my mother, in addition to both the fish and squid, also cooked the rest of the prawns which I'd caught in my earlier prawning/prawn fishing forrays. Gosh, it has been some time since I've felt the urge to go prawn fishing but even if I get struck by the urge, my mother's method of making me eat all my catches is quite a deterrent indeed. Bah.

And here is a pic of my mum's cooking for dinner - all the different categories of catches (fish, prawns and squids) at a go including a pork meat dish and a veg dish.

I love my mother and her cooking but I do say - anyone wants any fishes? I'll keep you in mind the next time I go fishing!

Prawn Fishing at Bishan again (2nd time)

Due to an opportunity to be in the North area, I decided to bring a colleague located in the North side, prawn fishing at Sin Ming Prawn Fishing during lunch-time. At about 12.30pm, there weren't too many people prawn fishing (about 5-6 groups per pond) and with the good weather and "beginner's luck" that she had, we had a great time catching these 7 prawns in the short one hour! And yes, the large blue big-head prawn was a most welcome surprise (her second prawn), large claws and all. All the prawns in our net are missing their claws because I used the plier to remove them before unhooking the prawns.

Having purchased the 3hrs package which cost SGD30 instead of 1hr SGD 15, I returned later in the night about 11pm to complete the balance 2 hours by myself. Apparently if you return after 24 hours, you would have to purchase 1 more hr to make 3 hrs. Anyway, even at 11pm on a weekday night, the place was crowded. I got a seat at the same spot where we sat in the afternoon next to an uncle who was using live fish as bait. From the prawns in his net, it was evident that fish makes a better bait than worms and chicken liver for prawns. We got to talking and he offered me a fish for bait. There was a take less than 8mins later but given the trouble of transporting live fishes, I'll be sticking to worms for now which can be purchased at SGD 4 and are easy to saw or just tear apart for bait.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Now, I did something absolutely stupid this time when prawn fishing. Instead of threading the net through the vertical part of the pole holder, because of the size of the loop,I threaded the net through the horizontal part instead and after half an hour of prawn fishing when I had caught about 4 prawns, the entire net slipped off and fell into the pond. I didn't realise what had happened until I caught the 5th prawn and could not find my net. The white-haired uncle behind the counter was sympathetic to my plight and used a bamboo pole to hook up my net. All my 4 prawns were gone of course...he said he would give me more so I continued to prawn fish until the 2 hours were up (the lady at the counter was very precise about the time which is the 1 thing I don't like about Bishan Prawn Fishing). True to his word, he got the Chinese lady to give me some prawns and she gave me about 7 small prawns. Added to my catch, I took home 14 prawns from the 2 hours. Now how's that for decency and good service - the prawn fishing place wasn't obliged to give me any prawns, much less when I had been careless in placing my net. Hence, as I said before and would stress again, human r/s are most impt when it comes to prawn fishing too! :D That being said, based on my previous experience, I would estimate that the average catch rate at Sin Ming Prawn Fishing is 7 prawns an hour per rod which brings the cost of each prawn to SGD1.50.

Prawn Fishing at Jurong Hill (2nd time)

A friend of mine who had never tried out prawn fishing before was game to try out my favourite time-killer and given my first positive experience there, we decided to go all the way to Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing. We rented one rod for 3hrs and then another rod for 3 hrs (but we used the second rod for 1 and a 1/2 hrs each) and although the bite-rate was pathetic at first (4 in the first hour), it got better as the rain let up. The pp working there told us that when the weather is cold, the prawns do not feed as often. Everyone else there had really bad bite-rates too (one couple didn't catch anything for an entire hour even) but there were certain more areas which were far more productive than others (the center of the pond is best).

At the end of the 4 hours odd, we had these prawns (22) and we actually lost 2 prawns which slipped out of the net from a hole at the side (where the side of the net meets the bottom). We both were flummoxed when despite our catches, there were only 3 prawns in the net each time we checked until my sharp-eyed friend spotted the hole at the side. I also suggested bbq-ing the prawns (which I'd never done before) and so we skewered the prawns (some were alive!) and put them on the tray.

Well, because neither of us had ever bbq-ed prawns before, we had to ask for help from the pp there who were most helpful in helping us start the fire and build the charcoal. However, bbq-ing was such a dismal affair because we burnt about 3 prawns, failed to get a roaring fire (the fire was limited to a small part of the grill), that we gave up after a terrible half an hour. We brought the prawns to the restaurant next to the prawn fishing area and they charged us an exorbitant SGD 13 to cook the prawns! However, at that time, it seemed like a really good idea to just pay and eat our catch compared to the bbqing - I think both of us swore that we would never bbq prawns again! :D The restaurant didn't do a half bad job of cooking the prawns in butter and my friend ate most of it with great relish. :D

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Jurong Prawn Fishing is a great place to chill. However, it can get very crowded after 7pm, esp on a Sat evening. Lots of uncles and aunties there and some of them can be really friendly - they offer their catch or prawn fishing tips to the pp they perceive as newbies. The staff aren't as strict as Sin Ming Prawn Fishing about returning the rods on time but the catch rates while decent fall short of Sin Ming's (click here to read my experience prawn fishing there).

6 straight hours at Bishan Prawn Fishing at Sin Ming Avenue

After a "fishless" lure session (the grouper in the pic was given to me by 1 of my fishing friends who caught it on lure) which ended in the wee hours of the morning, I couldn't sleep and decided to go prawning / prawn fishing at Bishan Prawn Fishing Center by myself. It was about5am when I started and there were quite a number of fellow prawn fishing folks there to my surprise. Most were in groups or in pairs, and I was the only one alone but somehow that felt fine. I guess I've reached the unenviable stage where solitude and I are bosom buddies. No company beats bad company any time! Besides, look at my haul after prawn fishing with 1 rod for 6 straight hours - there was even one prawn almost as big as the grouper! The nokia phone is in the pic to give one an idea of the size of the super large prawn!


So, after I parked, I got out my fishing pliers (which are very useful in taking the hook out of the prawn), rented a rod, bought worms (on top of the chicken heart bait) and found a spot to sit down at pond 1 which the uncle at the counter told me had more and bigger prawns. Unfortunately, there was this plumpish ah soh who had a mouth turned down at the corners with an old man there and she gave me a long dirty look for reasons I can only speculate at. So I moved to an empty spot at pond 2 instead. Within 5 mins of dropping line, I had a bite. I'd forgotten to take the net to put the prawns so I left the first victim on the ground, re-baited (remember - always have the hook in the water as often as possible to maximise time) and went to the counter to get the net. When I got back, the rod was bent and I had another prawn. The group next to me wasn't catching anything for some strange reason (maybe I had the right spot) so I got dirty looks from them too - that's the thing about prawn fishing I dislike most - one must be able to endure dirty looks from luckless chaps at the pond if one is lucky and one must learn to quell one's feeling of envy, exasperation and helplessness when one is luckless and the people around are reeling in prawns one after another. The pic below is a close up pic of my haul in 6 straight hours (I didn't go toilet once from 5am to 12noon) which cost SGD 60. I counted about 40 prawns in all which means I averaged about 6 prawns an hour. The last hour was really bad though (11am to 12 noon) and I was tired and too insensitive to the float movement or just plain unlucky for I only caught 1 prawn. If you ask me when the best hour to go prawn fishing is or when the bite rate is highest based on my this one-time 6 hours experience from 5am, I would say that would be between 7am to 9am.

In my earlier review of Bishan Prawn Fishing (click here to read) where I had observed the bite rate and catch rate in the afternoon (about 5pm), the place scored 8/10 in my books. This time, where I had actually gone prawn fishing there for 6 straight hours in the wee hours of the morning to 12 noon, I would still rate this place a 8/10 in terms of catch rate and bite rate. The operators/employees there, in particular the Indian dude who helps out around the place, are very friendly, or should I say, can be very friendly. Like everywhere else, if you are friendly, chances are high that people will be friendly back to u...and all the more so, if u are alone, female, not over the hill, appear relatively ignorant at prawn fishing and possess a face that not just your mother would love. I noticed 1 of the employees there giving 1/4 net of prawns to the group next to me who hadn't caught much - it was really decent I thought, given that the group were planning to bbq their catch and they really hadn't caught too many prawns.

For myself, per the earlier pics, I brought all my prawns back home. My mum cooked some of them in soup for dinner the next day. The pic above shows the cooked super large prawn, an average sized prawn and a small prawn out of the haul. And the pic below shows how large the super large prawn was - after I peeled it, I put it back in the saucepan used to cook the prawns. I wasn't the only one who had a super large prawn though - the ah soh with the mouth that turned down at the corners also caught one from pond 1. My super large prawn was from pond 2. So, I guess there is an even distribution of prawns in both ponds.

If you have gotten this far in my post, you probably like prawn fishing or you would like to try prawn fishing so I'll share what was taught to me by 1 of the employees there when it appeared that I was a newbie at prawn fishing (well, as I said, one should always appear ignorant instead of a know-it-all).

1. Measure the depth of the pond using either a small sinker attached to the hook or using the rod itself by sticking the rod into the pond. Move the float to the level such that the hook will just touch the bottom of the pond.
2. Watch the float. As in, really watch it for movement. When a prawn starts to take the bait, the float will go down.
3. After the float goes down, extend / retract your rod so that the tip of the rod is directly above the float which has gone down in the water. The line from the end of the rod, and the rod should be at a 90 degrees angle.
4. Wait and count ten seconds
5. Flick your wrist (not arm or elbow) hard to set the hook in the prawn

If you want other prawn fishing tips which I have gathered from my own experiences and from the more friendly prawn fishing fellows around:
1. Bring a pair of pliers - it is easier to get the hook out of the prawn
2. Always position your float near the center of the pond (for Bishan prawn fishing center esp)
3. Sometimes, it helps to trawl ie drag the setup along the pond instead of waiting at one spot for prawns. Prawns aren't like fishes - they don't hunt for food actively.
4. Prawn fish at a time where there aren't many people so you can do number 3. above and there is less competition.
5. Always always be friendly with the operators as far as possible. Remember, they can tell you which pond is best for prawn fishing, give you some prawns if you have a luckless day and best of all, give you extra time for prawn fishing (though this wasn't the case at Bishan Prawn Fishing where they made sure you returned the rods on the dot. If not for this fact (that is, they wouldn't give an extra 10-15 mins), I would have rated this place a 9/10.

Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing

I haven't been prawn fishing since Ebi Culture closed early Dec last year. As I was in the West, it was either Jurong Hill or Westlake's prawn fishing venues. I decided on Jurong Hill primarily as it was nearer to where I was and I could fill my tummy there as well.

This is a picture of the prawn fishing venue located off the side of the restaurants at The Village (the prawn fishing venue shares the same carpark as the restaurants). There are 4 ponds, 3 of which are operational (2 small ones,1 larger deeper ones). Do note that the depths of each pond varies so you will have to measure first and then adjust your float accordingly. The rates are pretty standard: SGD 15 for 1 hr, 25 for 2 hrs and 30 for 3hrs. Take my advice and buy the 3hrs package if you are not sure whether you really want to stay for the whole 3 hrs. Firstly, you can come back and "finish" the unused mins. Secondly, you don't want to end up like me where I bought 1 hour first to try, and when I wanted to extend another hour, I was asked to pay another SGD 15 for that extra hour instead of SGD 25 for 2 hours. Apparently, or according to the guy operating the counter, he isn't allowed to amend what is keyed into the system. There are bbq facilities at the prawning venue as well as fridges with soft drinks cans for sale (rather pricy at SGD 1.80). Chicken liver is provided FOC and earthworms sold at SGD 4 (a bit pricy but if you are paying so much to go prawn fishing anyway, you might as well take the "better" bait).

The Slog Reviews: Again, using Ebi Culture as a basis for comparison, I would rate this place a 8.5/10. The pp prawn fishing as well as the server where I had lunch (Su Korean Cuisine), spoke well of Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing. I got my first prawn within the first 5 mins and another one in the next 10 mins. The bite rate (about 8-10 an hour) and catch rate (6 to 10 on average) was excellent but then again it was probably because there were few rods out when I went. I heard from a regular there that the place can get very crowded in the evenings and esp on weekends. The rods are decent although you should specifically request for an extendable rod or a long one (I wasn't given either) if you intend to go prawn fishing in the larger pond in the middle. Be warned though that there are many little fishes in the water which eat one's bait and I even hooked up a tiny fish at one point.

AND, LOOK AT MY HAUL! Okay, about 1/3 was mine only and the other 2/3 was given to me by one of the regulars, a nice old man who prawn fished like a pro (a prawn every 5-10mins). He had his own gear box, rod, hook and even bait! He said he had already so many prawns at home (and I should think so watching him prawn fish) and insisted on pouring his netful of prawns into my plastic bag. Oh yes, and one thing about the prawns, they are of fairly decent size but not really impressively big-big although I did note one pair of very large orange claws left on the ground. Maybe there are monster-sized prawns there, I don't know. I pulled off all the claws of each prawn before I unhooked each prawn (bring a pair of pliers/nailclippers if you don't wanna use fingers) which is why the prawns poured out in my kitchen sink look the way they do.

And here is a close up of the prawns which I put in a kitchen basket (note the depth) - I do think they weigh in total about a kilo and there was one with egg (orange) even! I can't wait to eat them tonight! :D I really can't see why anyone wouldn't love prawn fishing at all - one gets to meet new friends, test one's patience and have the thrill of catching edible fresh seafood.

Here are some of the prawns that my mum cooked for dinner. My mum is a really good cook and the prawns were great! :D I'm going prawning again soon! Time to check out new places :D

Bishan Prawn Fishing at Sin Ming Avenue

I had some sort of a course on Friday afternoon at bishan area which ended early about 5pm so I decided to check out the popular prawn fishing place at Sin Ming Ave. The prawn fishing place is next to the golf academy and parking at the open-air carpark is free. There are two ponds of similar size - the picture below is of one of the ponds whcih I took from where I was sitting.

As usual, I did not pay to go prawn fishing right away but asked for permission to sit and observe the catch-rate, bite-rate, crowd, facilities, rods etc. The counter was manned by a youngish Chinese-speaking lady who was friendly enough and the rods for rent were decent enough. There are a couple of vending machines for drinks on the premises and the connecting hawker centre sells beer and food like satay and chicken wings (someone walks around taking orders) to the pp prawn fishing. Unlike Ebi Culture which catered for the English-speaking crowd, this place is for the Chinese-speaking crowd. What would have been a nice peaceful silence is filled instead with loud Chinese songs (love ones esp) and bustling ah sohs, aunties, ah peks and uncles all speaking at the top of their voices in dialect and Chinese. There are also resident cats and dogs on the premises which is rather clean. The catch rate and bite rate were pretty decent. About 2 bites every 15 mins or so and the prawns ranged from decent-sized to rather large specimens. I was very tempted to rent a rod and go prawning myself :D

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. A good enough place to go prawning if there is one. Can't compare with my beloved ebi culture of course which played English music, had a younger crowd, and was quiet enough (not so many pp) but beats punggol prawn fishing hands down.

Update in March 2010: Click here to read about my experience prawn fishing at Bishan Prawn Fishing.

No more prawn fishing at Jalan Harimau

In my earlier entry on where to go prawn fishing, one of the places I'd found on the net and listed there was No. 10479, Jalan Harimau , Taman Century, 80250 JB. Well, I've taken it off the list now because after work today, I drove all the way up to Johor Bahru, queued a good 30mins at the customs, missed eating at a nice Jap restaurant all to check out the place and....nada. No such prawn fishing place. Maybe there was a long time ago, but there certainly isn't any now. I even asked the hawkers and dvd sellers at Pusat Makanan Centre Point (Medan Selera Food Center on my GPS). What a colossal waste of time.

So I had dinner instead at the hawker center. This hawker center is located behind Grand Paragon Hotel in JB and has a wide variety of food choices from claypot chicken rice to zi cha to satay. Despite that, and despite havinga pirated dvd stall right in the middle of the center, I wouldn't say that this is a must-visit, must-eat-at place. I ordered the sambal bbq fish and kangkong from the stall next to the stall named yummy wanton. The cost was RM23 (SGD 10) for both items. The Slog Reviews: 8/10 for the bbq fish which was fresh and tasty. The sambal chilli on the top of the fish was also delightfully fresh and spicy enough. However, the kangkong was a disappointment as it was pretty much tasteless and too oily. As for the satay which we ordered from the Malay satay stall (there is a Chinese satay stall), the ketupat was too soft and crummy and there wasn't much meat on the satay sticks. Although it only cost RM 6 (SGD 2.40) which is an unbeatable price, I wouldn't advise you spending calories on that.

And of course, no trip to Malaysia is ever complete without durians! The regular durian seller at Jalan Cantik 8 (he is only there in the night, sells out of a van and is parked in a dark spot) was out of XO durians by the time we got there so we settled for Super durians instead. The cost was RM12/kg (SGD 5/kg) for the two durians I bought back (see pic below) and I ate an entire 1kg durian there by myself. :)

Prawn Fishing at Pasir Ris Park

The first few times I tried out prawn fishing was with my sister after work when she was bumming a ride back from me. Being familiar with Pasir Ris Park where I used to fish with 1 of my ex-boyfriend many years ago (to the extent that he had a single digit amt left in his bank account because each hr cost S$20 and we were but poor students), we decided on a pure whim to check out the fishing ponds. However, while walking around the fishing pond, we stumbled across the prawn fishing ponds located at the side of the large fishing pond. It was relatively deserted on a weekday night.

The first few times we went there (before I got to know of Ebi Culture), our catch-rate was extremely poor - like just 1 or 2 prawns after one whole hour. Other people there were fishing prawns up like pros and there we were standing and waiting. That's the thing about prawning and fishing - the utter sense of helplessness one gets although one is doing everything similar to the person next to you and yet catching squat. However, I find it a useful reminder that we cannot control everything in life. As a line in 1 of my favourite movies (a Korean movie I caught on a flight to Manila for work) goes "We do what we can and leave it to God to do the rest".

Anyhow, this is the very first prawn which I caught prawning. My sister had almost given up after 45mins of not catching any prawns at all and passed the rod to me to hold for the last 15mins of the hour. I saw the float go down, held my breath, struck, and pulled this fella out.

The picture below is the result of our catch in one hour at the prawn fishing farm at Pasir Ris Park. I'll be honest and 'fess up that only 2 of the prawns in the bucket were caught by us. The others were given to us by the operators of the prawning place there. The Slog Reviews: 8/10, using Ebi Culture as a yardstick again, the bite-rates, catch-rates and services provided at this prawning place far exceed those provided at Punggol prawning. 1 old man had almost half a net full of prawns after 3 hours and the crowd there is pretty friendly and sparse (which I like). The operators are also helpful and friendly. They helped us with the baits when at that stage, I was afraid of sawing or tearing up earth worms (my sis still refuses to touch them) and also with unhooking the prawns. And yes, as I had mentioned, they gave us some prawns to take back after seeing our dismal catches. The rods there too, unlike those for rent at Punggol Prawning, are of better quality. If you are new to prawn fishing, this is a good place to spend your S$30. :)

Punggol Prawn Fishing and Geylang Prawn Noodles

After work yesterday, I decided to go check out Punggol Prawn Fishing at Punggol Marina Club. However, I took a slight detour along the way and drove to the end of the road instead which lead me to Punggol Jetty. There were a couple of old men and a group of young boys fishing at the jetty. Peered into their buckets and saw that they had caught really small fishes. One of the old men told me that these were caught using cast-nets. There were also some people shore fishing from the beach but as the weather had taken a turn for the worst, they started to pack up before the thunderstorm. According to the old men, this place doesn't have much fish (like all the licensed areas in Singapore) but I'm glad to have found a lovely place to practice casting with my Shimano Calais reel.

I parked my car along the road leading to the country club (at least the parking is free) and walked in, in the thunderstorm. Although there were a couple of signs pointing to the prawn fishing area (the signs were in the lobby and out of the pier), I could not find the place the first time - maybe it was because of the rain, wind and lack of light. Anyway, the prawn fishing place is located near Pier 1. There are 2 means of access - one through the carpark and the other through the boardwalk along the water edge. As usual, I did not pay to start prawning immediately but sat around watching the bite-rates and the folks prawning. This is a picture of the prawning place at Punggol Marina which consists of three small ponds laid back to back (each pond is the same size).

The Slog Reviews:1/10. Using Ebi Culture (please click here)as a yardstick, punggol prawning, despite its impressive website fails miserably to impress in terms of facilities, prawn size, bite-rates, catch-rates, crowd, service of the staff and rods provided. The ponds are awfully small as you can see from the picture, the prawns caught were NOTHING like that caught from Ebi Culture (see my previous post) but were really small-sized (smaller than one's hand generally) and after sitting there for a good half an hour just watching, most people there failed to catch many prawns (at best, 2 prawns per half hour per rod for one lucky person). The guy in my picture bending over was so desperate to catch prawns that he squatted down and dragged his line up and down but in the end, caught zilch. The man in blue caught only 1 prawn in half an hour and the lady in black who was smoking with a little child nearby, caught nothing. The counter appeared to be manned by a couple in their 30s-40s and a foreign worker. Unlike Ebi Culture, they displayed no interest in engaging their customers personally or even tempting visitors like me sitting there to shell out some $ to prawn. Not outside food and drink allowed on the premises which I can understand but the selection of drinks and food there is very limited. And the rods for rent were cheap thin things - nothing like the sort provided by Ebi Culture. I messaged my prawning kaki about the place and he replied that he had heard how lousy punggol prawning place was too. I'm not wasting S$30 at that place.

Anyway, on the way home, I stopped by Geylang Prawn Noodle at 325 Upper Paya Lebar Road for dinner. It took me quite a while to find the place although I have been to the place several times. It is located along How Son Rd behind a bus stop and parking in front of the row of shops (albeit limited lots) is free. I ordered the 2 in 1 prawn kway teoh soup (2 in 1 means prawns and pcs of meat) which cost SGD 5. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. A bit pricy for the amount one gets but the stocky yet not stalty taste of the soup and freshness of the prawns make up for that. There are also origami type paper on the table which one can and should use to put the prawn shells as opposed to leaving it on the table.

Where to go prawn fishing / prawning

After my last post, I searched the net for places to go prawning or prawn fishing. These are all I could find as of today. I've heard good things said about (1) and (8) but then these are popular places and one must contend with the crowd and competing rods.

In Singapore

(1) Bishan Prawn Fishing Address: 603, Sin Ming Avenue. My review of the place from observing can be found here while my review of the place from prawn fishing can be found here.

(2) Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing Address: 241, Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim(near Jurong Bird Park and located at The Village). My review can be found here and here.

(3) Pasir Ris Town Park Prawn Fishing Address: Pasir Ris Town Park. My review can be found here

(4) Pasir Ris Farmway Prawn Fishing Address: No. 70 Pasir Ris Farmway 3

(5) Punggol Prawn Fishing Address: 600 Punggol Seventeenth Avenue, off Punggol Road (at Marina Country Club). My review can be found here

(6) Yishun Prawn Fishing Address: 81 Lorong Chen Charu (Yishun) (at Bottle Tree Park)

(7) Geylang Prawn Fishing Address: 100 Guillemard road #01-13 (399718)

(8) Geylang Tua Tow Hei Pte Ltd Address: No. 192 , Geylang Road,Ying Lie Building

(9) Marina South Prawn (and Fishing) Pond Address: Marina South near the Superbowl

(10) Westlake Prawn Fishing Address: No 9 , Japanese Garden Road , Singapore 619228

(11) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Costa Sands Address: 1110 East Coast Parkway #01-01 Singapore 449880

(12) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Parkway Address: 1020 East Coast Parkway,Singapore 449878

(13) Prawn Fishing at Sungei Tengah Address: Farmart Centre 67 Sungei Tengah Rd, Singapore 699008

(14) D'Kranji Farm Address: 10, Neo Tiew Lane 2, Singapore 718813

(15) Ebi Culture. 21 Arozoo Avenue. Sadly, it has closed down. My review can be found here.

In Johor Bahru (JB)

(1) Fu4 Lin2 Yuan2 Diao Xia Zhong Xin (福林园钓虾中心) Address: 16 Jalan Pinang 23 Taman Daya 81100 JB

(2) Damai Fishing Village (大马钓虾中心). Address: No 50, Jalan Kassim Noor, Kampung Sungai Danga, Taman Perling 81200 JB

Prawn Fishing at Ebi Culture

Blogging about the freshwater prawns in the previous entry reminded me of how long it has been since I went prawn fishing or to use the incorrect but popular term, "prawning". The last time was 5th December 2009 one day before my regular haunt closed shop due to land issues with the authorities. This is the only picture I have of Ebi Culture - that's my sis's bf in the background and my sis's rod at the side.

I got to know of Ebi Culture when I was buying some deep diver lures at a tackle shop in Beach Rd during lunch time back in Aug 09. 1 of the investors in Ebi Culture was there too and he gave me his namecard. As I was busy flying between Shenzhen and Singapore for the China project, I didn't have time to check out the place till somewhere in early November. I hadn't intended to go prawn fishing that day but only to say hi to the owner since I'd told him I would drop by. Anyhow, I met my regular "prawning" kaki there the first visit (he let me practice some prawn fishing using the package he had) and I grew to love hanging out at Ebi Culture after work at least once a week. There was free parking, the 5 prawning ponds were large enough so one had one's own space to fish, and the staff were really decent friendly chaps. The prawns were also super duper large in size and Ebi Culture introduced yabbies in one of the ponds for a period. Here's a pic of me with one of the yabbies which I caught.


My sister loves prawn fishing too (in fact, it was because of her that I started prawn fishing!) so I introduced her to Ebi Culture. They had this great 1 for 1 ladies' night promo every Tues so I got her hooked to the place. And eventually, she brought her bf along. Alas, the place closed down before the 4 of us could have the prawns BBQ we had planned. Anyhow, here is a picture of one haul in 3 hours in our kitchen sink after one of the trips. My fingers are itchy already - time to find a new place to go prawn fishing!