how to fish for halfbeak

the above black barred halfbeak is a seasonal fish, it can be found commonly in sg water during its season, they often travel in big school, sometimes small groups, or some may stray away. from this picture, the largest i have caught is about 1feet or 12" in length including the "beak".
if you look carefully at the mouth, "halfbeak" show you that the fish have a shorter beak on top and a much longer beak below. the halfbeak season is from Jan - Mar.

this is a easy fish to target, with polarised sunglass, under a good sunlight, you can actually see it swimming on the water surface. i learnt this valuable trick from my fishing mate, Mr Desmond Tan, aka DesT, a experienced surface fisher hunter with his whippy noodle rod.

now, come to the rig setup for targetting the HB. from your main line, link up a 4-6lbs leader line about 2feet long, with a small tamban hook size at the terminal. and you will need a float, the float location will be at the junction where the main line "meet" the leader line. now the rig is ready for action.

walk around the jetty, eg labrador park, St john island, etc are good place to hunt for them. when you "see" them, cast it infront of them, and reel it in slowly. let the fish "see" your bait (you can use slice prawn meat or halfbeak meat, which really works wonder!) when you see the fish dart toward ya bait, pause for a moment. within a few seconds, tighten the line and strike, you would have had a solid hook up. sometimes, you can actually see halfbeak doing water surface ballet dancing.

with a good day, you can easily bring up 20-30 pieces alone. and with the same set up, you can target todak as well, a much bigger water surface fish. i hope with this simple explaination, you will be able to get your first halfbeak.

special thanks to Mr DesT