Then one day I had the opportunity to tangle with a wild MJ (during those times, Pasir Ris "Fishing Pond" was still a swampy ox-bow lake with children playing with toy boats along its banks). I'll never forget that fight.
I was using 6 lb line on a Daiwa reel with a Nilsmaster lure and reeling in slowly when something almost wrenched my rod out of my hand. The shock of the strike left me stunned for a moment as the Daiwa's drag screamed and howled while my rod was bent into a complete U-shape.
The fish never really gave me a chance to calm my shaking legs as it created havoc all over the place, even at times swimming towards me and then suddenly bursting off in a different direction at speeds that would put the Barra to shame. I tried really hard to get a glimpse of the fish but all I saw were huge boils, explosions and swirls in the water.
After participating in about 5-10 minutes of tug-of-war, with the fish still keeping out of sight, I decided that this fish was gonna be a whopper. 3 kg? 5 kg even?
But then, just when I thought that my fish was gonna break all previous weight records, it literally "popped" out of the water and landed at my feet. I felt really humiliated yet amused at the size of the fish, it was a Mangrove Jack barely hitting the One kilo mark. From then on, my respect for the MJ grew tremendously and I remember a couple of heart-stopping fights similar to that first one.
Then one day, Pasir Ris Fishing Pond was born and many other commercial ponds sprouted up all over Singapore. These ponds started stocking mostly Barras at first but suddenly the MJs started turning up in epidemic proportions. What made things worse was that most of these MJs were bred in brackish water ponds in our neighbouring countries and did not have the same amount of exercise and muscles as the wild ones. So, many of the new anglers in Singapore who appeared along with the fishing pond trend started catching these weakened, captivity-bred MJs and they probably started wondering what the hell these black coloured fish were.
And, of course, along came the "pond pro" who, after catching hundreds of such undernourished MJs, would 'educate' everyone else by telling them that these were Michael Jacksons, Chia Chors or Or Loo Loos which tasted far inferior to the nicer-looking Kim Buk Lor or Barra. This was not hard to believe, if you've seen a pond MJ. Thus, the MJ started earning a bad reputation at commercial ponds and people even started swearing when they caught one of these poor MJs. Deprived of any real experience with a wild MJ, the masses started looking down on the MJ. They don't know what they're missing.
So, before you jump to any conclusions about a fish, whether about its fighting qualities or about its taste, know that the wild MJ, in terms of strength, speed and taste, has very few peers. Also ask yourself, the next time you catch one in a pond, whether you see the fish you catch through the eyes of someone else who doesn't know as much as he thinks he does, or through your own eyes.
Whatever it is, to me, the Mangrove Jack will always be a SUPERB fish.
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