Catch Report at Fishing Paradise

So I've been hitting the main pond of Fishing Paradise @ Bottle Tree Park for the past few months now and I finally got my dad to join me =). Did the usual setup with a 3 hook Apollo rig and bread for marker shooting. My dad however was using a really light setup considering the kind of fishes you can possibly catch in the pond, he was using a 4-8lbs 5' telescopic rod and a 1000 size Penn Extreme reel with 6lbs mono line. Tbh I was a little worried abt what might happen if he hooked a remotely large fish. But as the night went on, I was proven wrong and once again, my dad's skill and calmness amazed me. The first hour was quiet, small nibbles but no real takes. I was perched behind my rod, ready to pounce at the slightest twitch of the marker. To my left, my dad was kicking back relaxing in his chair, literally almost falling asleep(he does that alot when fishing).

Suddenly from the corner of my eye I see him spring upright and the reel started screaming! A loud splash from the water in front and I caught a glimpse of a Rohu leaping right out of the water and dashing to the left. I jumped to my feet and ran over next to him and watched as the Rohu peeled meter after meter of line off the tiny reel at a ridiculous pace. I started to panic and suggested that he tighten his drag but his reply was "No need la, nice and easy, let it run, it's gonna tire out very soon" And true enough, about 15 seconds later the fish slowed down to intermittent short runs and he started slowly fighting the fish in. I was amazed at how gentle he was while fighting, gingerly thumbing the spool every now and then, talking to the fish... yes he also does that alot... lol, mumbling phrases like "Oh no no, where are you going, no no come back here". After a couple of minutes of tug of war, the fish came in and we netted it. A decent sized Rohu it was.



After settling down, we rebaited our hooks with bread and cast our lines out again. I was fishing as close to the middle of the pond as possible cos I believed that's where the patin were, whereas my dad just dropped his rig a mere 5m in front of him, saying "Catfish like to play just outside the light, that's where they'll be" And he was right! Barely 5 minutes later, he was on his feet and the reel was screaming again! This time there was no splash, no ripples, and the run seemed slower but significantly stronger. The fish just kept running and running, like a 1 way ticket, charging towards the center structure of the pond and once again I started to panic and told my dad to tighten his drag. "Ayah no need la, slow and steady, just watch, I'll get him to turn around" and using slow deliberate angling of his rod, to my surprise, he actually managed to turn the fish around just before it hit the middle! No pumping, no jigging, just a little spool thumbing and the proper angle of the rod did the job. From that point, the fish started tiring out and eventually came in. It was a small-medium sized Redtail Catfish! On bread! RTCs rarely take bread, they usually go for hotdogs! As the net came up the fish thrashed around a lot and my dad did not want to stress his knees out so we just took a picture of it in the net.




What a nice fight! Landing a Redtail on 6lbs line on a 4-8lbs rod, that might just be the lightest setup ever used to land a Redtail in the pond, but I didn't ask.

The rest of the night was pretty quiet and soon it came time to pack up. We reeled up and my dad was making a few casts to clean his hooks when BAM! He hit something! The reel squealed again as the fish ripped line out. This fight was even stronger than the previous one and we both suspected a foul hook as my dad got the hit while retrieving. The runs were long and hard, with very short breaks in between, fortunately, the fish headed to the left of the pond, away from the center structures. After a few minutes, my dad confirmed that it was a foul hook, saying "Foul hook for sure la, I don't feel the head shaking and I can't turn it, must have hooked it near the tail" And once again... he was right... he always is haha. As the fish came in, it's tail broke the surface and there right at the very corner of it, was the hook. Another pull and the whole fish surfaced, it was an Alligator Gar! Well no wonder the fight was so strong, usually Gars fight like plastic bags, but things change radically when you hook one by the tail on such a light setup I suppose. Not wanting to risk getting bitten, we took a picture of it in the net before letting it go.



So with that, our fishing for the night came to an end. All in all, it was a slow day for me, but I'm glad my dad had such a great time. I don't get to fish with him as often as I'd like these days, so it was nice that on this rare occasion he got some decent fish!