Singapore, Horsburgh - Deep Sea Fishing

Horsburgh Lighthouse (or Horsburgh) is located on an outlying small island (a.k.a Pedra Branca meaning "White Rock" in Portuguese) near the entrance to the east of the Straits of Singapore. The lighthouse was named after Cpt James Horsburgh, who was a hydrographer with the then East India Company. Horsburgh is located about 54km (34 miles) east of Singapore.

It was raining in the morning as we set off for the long anticipated trip which was planned as far back as 3 months ago in August 1998. There were four of us; YK, Kenneth, CC and myself. 




Soon, we were on our way to the suppossedly rich fishing grounds near Horsburgh Lighthouse. This locale is considered a good fishing ground for recreational fishing because commercial trawling is supposedly not permitted. 




We reached our first fishing spot at exactly 5.00 pm local time. Looking around, we couldn't see actually any lighthouse but who cares, it was the fishing that we were coming for, not a visit to some lighthouse in the middle of the sea!




Baiting our hooks, we let down the lines and realised that we were flying kites in the sea! The current was simply too strong for the sinkers we were using and all of us had to retrieve our lines to change to heavier sinkers. In my bid to defeat the current, I resorted to using 3 different sinkers at one time. They were two size 5 and one size 8 sinkers. Even then, it was no good. I still couldn't feel them reaching the bottom of the sea although the depth at the area was only about 90 ft of water. But I simply couldn't add more sinkers as it would be very difficult to reel in the line with my spinning reel. In my haste to depart for the trip, I had left my newly bought multiplier reel at home!

The Author, Timothy, posing with 2 Snappers caught during the trip; the bigger fish is a Fingermark Snapper (Lutjanus johnii) and the smaller fish is a Spanish Flag Snapper (Lutjanus carponotatus), Horsburgh Lighthouse, Singapore (1998)

A little while later, I could see the tip of my Abu Garcia Commodore rod moving gently. Realising that there might be a fish at the other end, I gave the rod a gentle strike. True enough, there was something at the end of the line and it was pulling away and resisting my attempts to reel it from the bottom of the sea. As I slowly try to coax it to the surface, it started to swim. Other lines in the area were entangled with mine but that posed no real problem. As I slowly reeled the creature to within visual range, we realised that it was a stingray. But at that moment, it let go of the hook and swam away. An analysis of the bait later led me to conclude that the ray was never hooked. It had simply held on to the squid bait and followed it almost all the way to the surface. Had I knew this was the case, I would have invoked a more forceful strike to hook it. But that was history. A lesson had been learnt.

Releasing my line again with a fresh squid, I resumed the waiting game. At this moment, YK managed to bring up a good table-size Malabar Blood Snapper (a.k.a. Red Perch, Lutjanus malabaricus). Soon, I felt a tugged at the end of my line and giving the rod a slight jerk, I managed to hook the fish. It turned out to be another Malabar Blood Snapper. Moments later, several more snappers were landed by the boatman and the others. For some unknown reasons, the snappers had decided not to take my bait again and my line remained in the silent mode for a long time.

Nearing 7.30pm as the sun was setting, someone managed to land a small shark. Unfortunately, my limited knowledge of marine life prevented me from making a positive identification as to which species this shark belonged to. Soon after the shark, two Spanish Flag Snappers (Lutjanus carponotatus) arrived and were landed by YK and another angler. My lines remained untouched. Kenneth and CC fared worst. They had not had a single bite since we started fishing. Just before dinner, I decided to reel in my line to check if the squid bait was still there. As the line was slowly being reeled in, I felt a bite. Striking hard, I knew I had more or less managed my second catch of the trip. The fish felt heavy and as it tried to make its escape, but the big Silver Grunter (Pomadasys kaakan) was soon lying on the boat. By our estimates, it should weigh in the region of about 2 to 3 kg (between 4lb to 7lb). Kenneth soon joined in the action, adding another shark and a Malabar Blood Snapper to the big ice box in the boat.

Wrapping up my second catch, I settled in for dinner and it was wonderful to taste hot food again after hours out in the sea. Just after dinner, CC finally got his first catch of the day. And it was by far the biggest fish that anyone on the boat had caught so far. The burly catfish swam under the boat and exited from the side, entangling three other lines in the process. But it soon tired out and was netted. Other actions that included a Blue-spotted Stingray (Dasyatis kuhlii) and a small shark for the skipper, another Spanish Flag Snapper, more Malabar Blood Snappers and Silver Grunters.

Catfish (exact species unknown), Horsburgh Lighthouse, Singapore (1998)

Around 1.00 am, the boatman decided to move to another spot as the actions had died down. We arrived at the new location about an hour later. CC immediately managed to land a large Sweetlip (Diagramma pictum) but the action stopped there. Feeling tired, we began to dozed off.

We were soon woken by a loud splash. A fish had jumped out of and back into the water! My rod started to bend and I realised I have got a big one on. Retrieving the rod from the rod holder at the side of the boat, I gave a powerful strike and started to fight the fish. As it was rather dark, I had no idea of the type of fish that was pulling and tugging my line at the other end. Soon, I had reeled in enough line for the fish to be near enough to the boat to be identified. It was a Giant Herring! The sleek 0.96 metres (about 3ft) long fish soon tire itself out and was netted by CC. Almost immediately after I had landed my fish, another was caught by one of the others. It was another Giant Herring and although slightly smaller than the one I had caught earlier, this fish jumped out of the water thrice in its bid to escape! 

Giant Herring or Milkfish (Chanos chanos), Horsburgh Lighthouse, Singapore (1998)

Awoken by the commotion, YK baited a live squid to his handline. Another huge fish quickly took it. We were all thinking it was yet another Giant Herring and eagerly awaited another aerial display. But this time, there weren't any acrobatic shows. Instead, what greeted us was a massive Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) that measured almost 1.3 metres (slightly more than 4ft). It turned out to be the biggest and heaviest catch of the trip, disregarding the stingray caught by the boatman earlier in the night. 

Posing with the Giant Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda), Horsburgh Lighthouse, Singapore (1998)

The rain came soon after and the waves sent the boat bobbing like a cork in the water. Judging that there was unlikely to be any fish in this kind of sea condition, I went to sleep and only woke up at about 8.00 am. The short three hours of sleep was refreshing and I started to fish again. But throughout the whole morning, none of us had any bites except for the boatman who managed to land a shark, a big Stingray and a large Sweetlip.

At about 11.00 am, we set off for home. Nearing Singapore, we stopped to fish again and had lunch. A big Fingermark Snapper (Lutjanus johnii) was caught and from its size, must weigh in the region of about 2.5 to 3 kg (between 5lb to 7lb). The Fingermark proved to be the last fish of the trip and by 6.00 pm, we were backed on soild ground in Singapore.

Although the action wasn't something to really shout about, the fishes that were caught were all of respectable sizes. The combined catch of all of us onboard the boat was 31 fishes spread across 13 different species. If not for the pre-dawn rain, I believed we could have gotten more fish. But nevertheless, it was a memorable and enjoyable trip.

Note from the Author: This article is an excerpt from an original article that was written for and published in a regional magazine on recreational angling. The lack of photographs in this article is because most of the photographs taken during the trip were copyrighted by the said magazine who had acquired the publishing rights to those photographs. One further and rather important point to note is that the title is actually rather misleading. Please note that fishing near or around Horsburgh Lighthouse is not permitted. So where did we actually fished? Well, the actual fishing grounds for the trip were in the South China Sea, near the Straits of Singapore. There was one part during the trip where we actually saw the Lighthouse as a tiny little speck in the horizon when we were returning to shore. That was about as close as we ever got to the Lighthouse. ;-)

Additional Note from the Author: I have added in 3 photographs to this article on 7 August 2016. These photos were scanned from the original printed photos at low resolutions many years back. The scanned digital copies were found in an "old" hard drive. I initially had some doubts about including these photos because of their "poor" quality. But after some thoughts, I decided to include them anyway. After all, some "lousy" pictures are better than none. Btw, I have since hang up my fishing rods and have not been fishing in a long while due to work commitments. Would love to venture out to sea for some fishing actions in the future if time permits.