A Shellfish World

When a co-worker asked me if I wanted to go “prawning” I almost immediately thought of the Peter Jackson science fiction film District 9 (and I am most definitely NOT a Sci-Fi person).  It turns out there is the local sport/pastime of fishing for prawns at local facilities.  So of course I said “yes” because when else would I have chance to go prawning?

So Christopher and I met up with him and his two sons on the other side of the country (in Singapore that means about a 30 minute drive) at Hai Bin Punggol.  It is not quite what I expected (I actually don’t know what I expected). 

The place was a collection of large ponds under a large roof.  Families were sitting  on white resin chairs, holding poles, chatting, and relaxing.  Every minute or so someone would flick their wrist as they hooked a prawn and up would come a surprisingly large prawn hooked at the end of a 2m line.

So we went up and paid our $20 SGD each and that got us a pole setup, a net basket to keep the prawns we caught, and an hour at the pond.  And since we were the only westerners there, they set us up with the “prawn master” to teach us the secrets of prawning.

Turns out a lot is dependent on the set up of your prawning rig.  First he had a special weight that allowed him to set the length from float to the hook so the hook was just off the bottom.  Then you tossed out the line and watched for the float to go underwater.  While we did this the Prawn Master kept grabbing our poles and telling us “CONTROL, CONTROL”.  We never did understand exactly what that meant we needed to do, but we heard it a lot. 

(As an aside, prawning is a form of recreational fishing and recreational fishing is all about holding a pole in one hand and holding a beer in the other.  Turns out this is a truism in Singapore as well.)

Finally you would see your float go underwater, count “1…..2…..3…..4…..5” and then flick your wrist.  The trick, as we learned, is just to flick your wrist and not your whole arm (that would result in prawn flying thought the air, bouncing off the ceiling, or wrapping around a pillar).  And hopefully land your catch.

Once landed you pull off his claw arm so he doesn’t pinch you, pull the hook out of his mouth, and place him (or her—we didn’t know the difference) in the net basket.  You rebaited your hook and tossed the line again.  A shout of “Control , Control” usually came about a minute later.

We must have done well because when they checked our basket at the end of the hour they went behind a wall and came out with more bagged prawns to add to our catch – I am sure it must have been as an award for our prawning prowess.  Our per person catch totals were 5,5,3,1, and 1 with the two dads bringing up the rear.

There were grills there to prepare them, but since we were already grilling meats that night we decided to have a Singapore Surf and Turf. 

Will I do it again?  Probably not.  Am I glad that I did it?  Absolutely.  Travel isn’t just about seeing the sights; it’s about experiencing the unfamiliar.  And that’s what we did and it is something I think we will remember and laugh about in future years.