Fishing in the haunted pool

Since I had a good time fishing at the apartment the other day, I went to a local mall (Pasar Raya) and bought a fishing pole and some accessories.  I also had my driver pick up some worms (cacing in Indonesian) along the street where they sell all kinds of pets.  I decided to check out an old, abandoned swimming pool next to our apartment to see if I could catch anything.

 

The abandoned pool.  I set up in the shade where the old bar (for serving cold drinks) was.

 

I caught an eating size bawal hitam on my first cast!  I caught two like this.

 

I also caught several of these little guys.  They remind me of sunfish back in Texas.

 

 

I ended up catching quite a few fish in about an hour, and I just tossed them all back.  Right as I was packing up, an indonesian guy strolled over, and we chatted a bit.  Turns out he works (and lives) there, and he is actively stocking the pool and a smaller pond nearby from the other ponds at the hotel.  He said there were 6 bawal hitam, 1 two pound snakehead, and lots of medium size catfish in the old swimming pool I was at.  He said I was welcome to fish as I pleased, and I assured him that I would not keep any as he likely needs them to feed his family. 

 

He also said other ponds on the property had much bigger fish (which agrees with Tedi's account).  I feel like Jeremy Wade as I am investigating where the "River Monsters" are hiding.  Next time, I'll have to try another area of the hotel grounds.  :)

 

He also told me that the staff avoids the old pool area due to the frequent sightings of ghosts.  He said he personally saw a little boy and girl running around the old pool late one night.  I guess I can't say I am surprised as the hotel has been around since the 1970's...

Fishing at the apartment

Yep, that's right, I went fishing at my apartment this afternoon.  After work, I went for a stroll around the complex to a mostly abandoned area behind the hotel that has a fairly big pond.  I decided to sit down next to a local guy with a fishing pole and strike up a relaxed conversation in Indonesian (mixed with English).  Before long, Tedi offered to let me fish a bit with some worms as bait.  I ended up catching two baby snakeheads (one of them below) and a sunfish-like fish. 

For the uninitiated, snakeheads are notoriously aggressive eaters that are currently wreaking havoc in Florida (due their illegal introduction) and are native to SE Asia.  They even have lungs and can survive quite a while outside of the water.  This little guy put up a decent fight for his size, and I thoughly enjoyed the experience.  Tedi told me that they can get as big as 4 kilos (~9 lbs) in this pond during the rainy season and are quite tasty.  Needless to say, I will be back to that side of the complex in the near future with a fishing pole of my own!

Fishing at Pasir Mukti

Today we went fishing at Pasir Mukti with another family from our church.  We ended up catching 5 or 6 fish after a couple of hours.  We caught several carp and a bawal hitam.  Then we had them cooked up at the onsite restaurant.  A great way to spend a saturday morning!

 

 

 

 

p.s.  As you can see, Julia is not in the pictures as she was taking them.  I need to be better about grabbing the camera from her and taking shots with her in it.  :)

 

 

Fishing

Back in July, my buddy, Edgar, and I went fishing at Pasirmukti.  We caught quite a few bawal hitam and ate a couple of them for lunch at the onsite restaurant.  Good times.

 

 

 

Doss

Gone Fishin’

Over the Christmas break, we took the kids fishing at Kebun Wisata Pasirmukti.  It is an agrofarm that is located about 1 hour outside of Jakarta.  Fishing is something that we all enjoy doing as a family, and it was something that we had not done since we moved to Jakarta.  I read about the agrofarm in the Family Guide to Jakarta.  It said that you could fish in the stocked ponds.

We took the kids on a Saturday.  The entrance fee was Rp. 15,000 per person.  The fee includes a free complimentary juice from the onsite restaurant.  We made our way to the fishing area.  The fishing fee was another Rp. 15,000 per person.  This fee includes a fishing pole and bait. There are also baskets that you can put the fish in and nets you can use to scoop out the fish.  If you want to take the fish home, you pay for the weight of the fish that you are taking home.  We threw back the ones that were too small to eat and kept the larger ones.

We noticed that some people had the fish cooked at the local restaurant.  We put ours on ice and took them home.  The kids really enjoyed being outdoors.  The girls gave up on fishing after awhile and just enjoyed throwing bait in the pond to feed the fish.  We will definitely be going again.
I forgot to mention that there are people on hand to help you take the fish off the hook if you are squeamish about that. Also, they will clean and scale the fish for you.  I think the cleaning was complimentary after you paid for the fish.  We just tipped the guy that cleaned the fish for us Rp. 20,000.  That is one part of fishing I do not enjoy…cleaning the fish…yuck!


Fishing for Gurame at one of the ponds.  We had no luck so we switched to the second pond.




Colorful baskets that you can use to put your fish in. There is a nail on each of the little fishing huts that you can attach the basket to so that you can keep your fish in the water until you are ready to go.



Fishing!




Lovely bug that we found floating in the pond.  DH scooped him out with the net so we could get a good look at him. Check out those mouth parts!




The final fish count.  We ended up with 7 decent sized Bawal Hitam. Incidentally, they are not supposed to be as good to eat as the Bawal Putih or the Gurame, but we thought they were still good.  They do have a lot of small bones so you do need to exercise some caution when eating this kind of fish. 




Some views of the fishing area.  It was really nice to be outside. The small huts provide shade and a place to sit.




The kids wanted to watch the fish being scaled and cleaned.  I opted not to watch that part.  I am a bit squeamish when it comes to blood and guts.




Price list. We paid Rp. 80,000 for the 7 fish that we caught.  It’s probably not much cheaper than buying the fish at the market, but it certainly was a lot more fun!




Heading back to the car.




We had lunch at the onsite restaurant.  The view was fantastic!  We also got to see a nice rainstorm.




The kids played in the rain a bit after lunch.  We went home with 3 wet but happy kids.



FYI: Kebun Wisata Pasirmukti
Jl. Raya Tajur Pasirmukti Km.4
Citeureup, Bogor 16810
Tel: 021 8794 3864/65
www.pasirmukti.co.id