Crab Fishing @ Sembawang Beach

Be prepared for a long list of photos (My post is far down)The crab net as it first went into the sea

Arul's sis casting the 1st net

The 3 of us at the rain shelther

The starfish that was caught in our nets - the only thing we caught

crab that the crabman caught

Bait lying around

trek through the forest and rocky coast

Walking back to civilisation

Leaving it all behind (finally)

Taking dinner at coffee shop in Sembawang

WOW THE PHOTOS ARE SO MANY.. hard to write my post.. Anws, it was a sunny and bright hot morning when we reached the jetty at Sembawang.. we were full of expectations and totally excited to catch crabs.. We girls were complaining about the hot sun too! =p We cast out our nets and waited (n waited for the next half of the day) passing by without any crabs. Gradually our good moods turned vehement as our crabby neighbours caught one crab after another. Our stomachs could not withstand not eating crabs for dinner or supper for that matter. The initial thoughts of the spicy, delicious crab curry slowly crumbled into dust, like salt being dissolved into seawater. we examined the types of bait, how the crab net was cast, the location of the crab nets, and many other things our little noob brains could conjure that was vaguely related to crab fishing. However, our bait was never even bitten by any crabs, nor fish for that matter, and our hearts sank with that feeling that we wouldn't even taste the crabs tonight.

Thrice, Thrice - we saw crabs swimming along where we had cast our nets. But they didn't venture to our chicken wing. Well, we thought we should put fish as the bait. So we took one dead fish (dead for a few hrs, as it was caught earlier by a kid who had left it on the jetty to dry and die) and tied it laboriously on the bait line. Well, the fish was so slippery it couldn't be tied down by our fishing twine, so we had to cut lines on the fish to hook the fishing twine on it (Arul sis's idea). We were very hopeful that would do the trick, but no. nobody thought it was tasty. lols. to think that crabs are scavengers.

Anws, it was a fruitful day - for all other crabbers. This crab guy (as we call him, arul's arch enemy) caught like 20 over crabs. He had 6 crab nets so his chances were much higher than ours (we had only 1 pathetic net). Another old granpa crabber caught like 10 over crabs.. He had 4 crab nets i think.. haiz.. To think we only brought one .. Well, to say the truth, we didn't have any experience as all of us were going there for the first time, and also it didn't occur to us to bring more nets. Well done.

thus the day passed as we observed the veteran fishers casting their fishing lines skillfully and rather far into the sea, and endured the one hour long heavy rain which left the jetty empty except for the kids of the sea who were running about.. and the family who lives by the sea in their tents and stoves n such.. The ground on which we sat down at the shelter outside the restaurant was warm and inviting, abit cosy and we spent the time looking at the congregation under a neighboring pavilion eating a nice buffet, eveasdropping on the malay fishing dudes packing their stuffs, smelling some cigarette smoke, and eating our packed nasi lemak with some envious looks from the malay dudes. The rain pelted sometimes, and we decided to tell ghost stories.. I had an idea to play the dog and bone game, (i counted, there were 11 of us in the shelther) if I could organise the group into 2 and just play or something to pass the boredom, but I din't do it in the end.

Anws, after 3pm, we left the jetty thinking we might go to yishun or someplace to buy some fish for bait, and cos I was supposed to have tuition at 6pm.. Anws, we didn't. We went to another jetty that was visible from the one we were at. It looked rather near, and we walked along the coast towards that jetty, with our hearts lifting up abit as we left that place with pathos. Pathos is a new word that Arul keeps using lolz. Carrying the big basket we brought for keeping crabs in, with raffia string inside instead of crabs, i suppose we were kinda grudgingly trudging along. Well it turned out to be a super long walk and it felt like we would never reach the jetty.

We walked through the coast line, and the sandy beach for awhile before it ended in a reclaimed portion of the beach with huge rocks cemented together.. After that, it was a long trek through the rocks and alot of undergrowth that looked like they were entwined wires (my nightmarish encounters with wires lately making that electromagnet makes almost anything twined together look like copper wires!). Mosquitoes were rampant in that wet rocky place just beside the coast, as all of us got bitten and itchy.

Midway, we passed by another stretch of sandy coast where there was an Indian tourist like guy paddaling on his inflatable boat by himself, while his grouchy girlfriend (maybe wife) looked on and nagged. We giggled as we passed by, unable to contain our amusement. From far, the guy looked like a fishermen. Next, we saw some breakwaters by the beach, and 3 blocks of red colored wood mysteriously held by ropes swishing beside the breakwaters. They looked like coffins! The 2 were afraid, and I couldn't bear not to unravel the mystery of the caskets. So I adventurously volunteered to examine it. It turned out, after some poking, near slipping, and pulling of the rope by a big branch, that the red wood was solid wood. We concluded that there were no coffins by the beach. Actually, we found a dead skeleton inside and we were scared stiff.

After that scare (believe it or not), we trekked past a sweet-scented altar with many indian deities.

Well, after that, we walked for quite long onward. Arul's sister was slipping further back behind and I stayed behind to wait for her. Eventually we realised her slippers was too slippery in that terrain and I urged her to change into her sandals. The sandals proved much better a companion on her feet. Before long, our progress was faster and we reached 2 paths - one higher, one lower. I wanted to go to the one on top a grassland, where I thought led to someplace better like a tar road or something. But it was very tall grass and deep, hard to walk. So we did not go far before changing course. The lower path led to a small stream that was actually a big drain that empties into the sea. It looked dark inside and very long, as it echoes, there's an altar at the entrance (or end, depending on where you're looking at the drain). It was so inviting and I wanted very strongly to explore it. However i was held back by my fellow comrades as they advised me against it since we weren't prepared with torches. Oh well. I took their advice.

Anws.. this post is getting real long, to make it short, lets just say we were tired by the time we finally reached the jetty we wanted to.. and our bladders were kinda full. and we walked to civilisation following the police woman's directions, after briefly observing young people wakeboarding and old men being garang about his crab net and as a result lost 1 fish, caught the bus back to sembawang, and ate there..

thus ended the rather momentous adventure taken by all of us noobs.

p/s arul said we enjoyed ourselves really alot and learnt alot of stuffs related to fishing! haha

It was a really fun day, out with the 2 of them, and we felt like hanging out somemore.. The wonderful respite from our daily work and school stuffs was a welcome one, as our minds relaxed on things foreign to us, yet not so demanding and persistent. We'll surely return back to catch crabs again, and this sport has a high chance of turning into a hobby! Do tune in more to this blog if ur really interested in crab fishing!

once again, thank you for reading this super long post. Do leave ur footprints, and most of all, remember to cherish the crabs you eat!!