Pulau Ubin Fishing Angler Hotspots

A STOMPer visited Bedok Jetty last week and learnt from an angler that music attracts fish to the bait.Fisherman told STOMP today (Jul 9):"These pictures were taken at the Bedok Jetty near the East Coast Park."Everyday hordes of anglers make their way to this jetty to enjoy the thrill of fishing from a pier."They come on foot, bicycles or motorbikes."The squid that was caught and kept in a polystyrene box."Last week I visited Bedok Jetty and found that anglers come here everyday of the week."They came with their fishing gear, hooks, baits and even stools and canvas to keep out the sun."One angler told me he was there for two days and he had a good catch including eels, crabs, squids and some ikan chermin."He liked the jetty as it is close to the public toilets and food centre."He also brought along his radio and DVD player as he believes that music somehow attracts fish to his line and he was glad he had a good catch for two days."I see a trumpeter perch ( Pelates quadrilineatus), flower crab (Portunus pelagicus), and what is probably a blue-spined swimming crab (Thalamita prymna) in the first photo.That's not a squid in the fourth picture, but an octopus.Ikan chermin is a local name for Indian threadfin (Alectis indicus), a pelagic predator of coastal waters.Indian threadfin, Bedok Jetty;(Photo by lkc_stib)The eel is probably a brown-spotted moray eel (Gymnothorax reevesii).Oh, and I'm not too sure if fish are really attracted by music, although I won't be surprised if they might be drawn by the vibrations that are transmitted to the water. The underwater realm is far from silent, and a great deal of marine species use sound to communicate.
STOMPer Fatt caught this man fishing illegally at Labrador Nature Reserve Beach yesterday morning (May 9).He said:"I was at Labrador Nature Reserve on Saturday morning."This man was happily fishing from the Nature Reserve Beach."We should do more enforcement at our Nature Reserves or else we will have not much left to reserve for our future generations."Our nature reserves need more protection and effective enforcement."Do check out the video posted on STOMP.As far as I know, fishing is permitted only from the jetty, so this angler is breaking the law.Some people might argue that it's just one person with a makeshift fishing pole, and that the impact on marine life is minimal. One old man won't decimate the fish there. Still, if we do not make an active effort to curb these illegal practices on our protected shores, what sort of message are we sending to the greedier and more unscrupulous people out there? Will we see even more people descending upon the shores of Labrador with driftnets and bubu traps? Man laying fish traps off Berlayar Creek;(Photo by Ria)Time and time again, I've seen the ugly impacts of unregulated exploitation of marine life, from abandoned nets and fishing lines that entangle and kill creatures, to people decimating an entire shore with their baskets and trowels.Dead horseshoe crab trapped in abandoned net;(Photo by Ria)While I believe that it is possible for some level of sustainable fishing and harvesting to occur in local waters, I really doubt that those in the fishing community will ever get their act together and be more pro-active and united in conserving fish populations.To be honest, even though Labrador is gazetted as a nature reserve, it is far from healthy, as it has been affected to some degree by surrounding development, pollution, dumping and poaching. I'm sure the last thing it needs is more fishermen blatantly flouting the law and using their selective vision to ignore the No Fishing signs.

Some residents were seen fishing at the park connector beside Sungei Ulu Pandan last Sunday(22 March).A STOMPer describes the scenes he saw:"These pictures were taken at the park connector beside Sungei Ulu Pandan near Clementi Ave 4."On Sunday afternoon, some residents from the nearby HDB estate came here armed with fishing rods to try their luck in fishing."Some anglers managed to catch some tilapia after waiting for half an hour."Some children also swam in the river and they seemed to enjoy themselves."source