Prawn Fishing In Singapore

I found the whacky concept of prawn fishing, like frog farming, immensely appealing.

Unfortunately, our prawn fishing expedition in Singapore was not as wildly exciting as I’d hoped.

The main problem seemed to be a lack of prawns. Two intrepid 10-year-olds, on loan from the blogging parents associated with Travels With A Nine Year Old and Vagabond Kids, stood patiently on the lip of the dark prawn fishing tanks, without so much as a nibble.

Miss M was more interested in the out-of-service jumping castle next door to the prawn fishing place than the actual prawn fishing.

But just before our hour of prawn fishing was up, things started happening. A staff member marched over and dumped a bag of prawns into the pond.

The adults rolled their eyes. The kids sharpened their focus. And within in minutes — success! A prawn was hooked. A prawn was landed. The scientific 10-year-old prawn warrior studied the underside of the creature and announced it was a female. She went into a mesh bag, which was thrown back into the murky prawn pond.

A few moments later, another prawn took the bait. But the crafty prawn was too smart for our fishing team. It let go before it got anywhere near the edge of the pool.

“That one’s a nerd,” announced our fisherboy. “It’s really smart.”

A few more minutes ticked by. And then another bite. This one was landed and the boys had one prawn each. Getting the prawn off the hook caused another frisson of excitement.

And then, suddenly, the hour was up and the prawn fishing staff retrieved the fishing poles. Our haul wasn’t big enough to make the effort to fire up the barbecues, even with the bag of prawns abandoned by another prawn fishing family, which the staff kindly gave to us.

Forlorn prawn barbecues

Thankfully, the boys weren’t disappointed in their prawn fishing experience. I calculated each prawn had cost the parents $15 each. So much for cheap seafood.

I think I was the only one tempted to take a fishing rod over to the holding tank, where hundreds of prawns basked in clear oxygenated water. It would have been much easier to catch a prawn from this tank …

than from the actual prawn fishing tank.

East Coast Prawning
1020 East Coast Parkway, Singapore
Tel: 6227 3330

By: Barbara

A career girl who dropped out, traveled, found love, and never got around to going home again. Now wrangling a cross-cultural relationship and two third culture kids.