The freshwater "Bream"

It has been quite awhile since i've returned to this place. Decided to sacrifice some sleep and woke myself up early on my off day to do a first light session. Reached the spot nice and early with the cool and crisp morning air still lingering.

Upon reaching the first area discovered fishing is gonna be tough today due to the thick overgrowths of weeds everywhere, there goes my lure testing trials. Rigged on a Keitech 3" Pine Shrimp colored Swing impact and started covering the openings of the weeds and eventually had a few chases. Persistency paid off when finally a hookup was secure however the fight was short due to the thick weeds forcing me to "crank em in" usdm style.

The weeds were everywhere so i covered the ground slowly had a few misses and hookedup another peacock.

Nothing huge was landed and the sun was beginning to scorch me up so i decided on retreating into the smaller waterway to try my luck. As i reached a small water outlet i spotted a pair of good size Green Chromides who were guarding a nest. These fishes mildly resembled the shape of breams aka. the Kurodai, Thus we have aptly decided on the term "Freshwater breams of Singapore" to describe this fishes. They fight pretty well on light tackle making quick short bursts and using their wide flat body to generate pulling force. These fishes however, are seldom landed on lures because even though they are omnivorous, their diet consist mainly of algae and will not aggressively hunt down lures and strike em. 

The best chance to land a Chromide on lure is during their mating season, when they are seen in pairs and are guarding their nest. At such moments the Chromides will actively chase away anything they deemed as threat nearing their nest. 

Even though the Chromides are evidently more aggressive during mating, it would take quite alot of patience to aggravate one enough to take a strike at lures as they generally like to exhale water towards lures as an act of defense to prevent it from getting close to their nest.

Today i discovered that getting lures close to them will not trigger strikes the way peacock bass do when presented with a wiggling lure. The secret to landing your first Chromide via sight fishing is to use a slightly heavier lure preferably in brighter colors of about 40mm, the weight will negate the effects of the chromide puffing water at your lure enabling your lure to get close enough to them. Allow your lure to come into contact with the fishes, bumping the lure into them. This makes the fish extremely agitated and in awhile, start taking nibs and charges at the lure allowing a nice firm hookup.

I hope this helps you guys going after this less targeted species and always remember to practice Catch and Release. P.S please refrain from foul hooking these fishes, it cheapens out our sport ;)