HellSinG's Weblog Site • NuTang.com

now, i dont think i've told anyone yet. but i've recently taken up a new hobby of fishing for lobsters at the reservoir near my place...its really a fun and economical way to pass time, esp on fri/ weekend nights when i got no place to go and yet dont want to waste money on boozing.

it started out on the weekend after cny when i had off for the following monday. with nth to do, i called up alvin and he suggested that we go fish for prawns at the nearby pay per hr fishing/ prawning establishment. so off we went and came back 3 hrs later, 30 bucks poorer each, with nt much of an achievement.

well, this was actually due to the hooks supplied by the place, which were for fish, not prawns. this kind tend to be thicker/harder and will easily tear through the fragile mouth of the prawns..so although we had many hits, most of them easily ended up as misses instead..between us, we had at least 50 hits during the 3 hrs, but we only managed to bring up abt 12 or 13 of the critters at the end of it..really, we thought we could have done better.

anyway, during our little prawning trip, ah huan came up with the idea of catching lobsters at the nearby reservoir. at first, i totally dismissed the idea, thinking like so many ignorant others, that lobsters could only be found in seawater..as i had nv heard of freshwater lobsters before. but well, somehow, huan managed to convince the both of us of the possibility of actually catching the critters, and so the following night, we set out on our very first lobster catching encounter.

this being our very first time trying our hand at catching lobsters, we only had minimum gear ~ bunch of prawning hooks attached to unbreakeable, waxed spider lines.. a loaf of gardenia bread to bait the lobsters (this was very important, huan said it had to be gardenia and nth else, as apparently the lobsters will not eat any other brand, but up till now, i still dont knw whether he's talking cock..haha.), couple of drinks, white LED torches that we always bring along for fishing trips - to shine on and find the critters who tend to be elusive and love hiding under rocks.

so well, off we went, and not surprisingly, it ended up quite disappointing, with only 2 small lobsters caught by huan, who was the more skilled fisherman among us after 2 plus hrs of squatting ard the rocks.

but now that i had actually seen many of the little buggers crawling ard the rocks once we baited them with little balls of bread rolled between fingertips (so that they would sink to the bottom), i was open to and excited at the idea of returning again to catch more of them..but of course better equipped..

so, over the course of the next 2-3 weeks, we went again and again..each time refining our equipment list, from small sticks picked up along the way to act as rods to self-fashioned ones made from rattan canes, of all things, and tongs to grab the buggers once we had them and they tried to scram.. we even went and bought sinking fish food to bait the lobsters as it got too tedious to continously roll the bread and throw them in..

so now, 3 weeks after our first unsuccesful trip, we are going every weekend to catch lobsters, and its becoming more of a hobby than anything else. heck, i might even take up fishing after this..as i went and bought myself a handsfree LED torch with both white and red light to better spot the little critters hiding between the rocks.

well of course, you are going to ask, if the lobsters taste good..and well..actually they don't..being freshwater breed and all. nth freshwater taste good except soon hock..so the lobsters are no exception..and since we've all taken turns bringing the night's catch home to cook and eat the next day..we don't really want to eat them anymore..in fact..the ones from our latest trip are currently residing in an old glass tank back at my home..i've decided to keep them as pets. i don't have any pictures of them yet..will post them next time when they have more or less settled down in to their new environment..so ttz all for now.