Fishing is good in Ubin now. Most likely due to devotees seeking merit by releasing live seafood in the sea. They should have built reef sanctuaries for the fish to hide and seek freedom in. Many bumboats were chartered out and visitors have to wait more than a hour for a boat to get back to mainland.

Live seafood set free

Large grouper caught at Marman river and steam-cooked for our delight.
Updated: June 2010
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Update: 7 Feb 2010. Extremely lucky guy caught a large sea-bass at Marman beach.


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The best chance to catch fish is to paddle some distance away from shore.

Unfortunately Ubin marine life is slowly choked by pollution. The water cannot renew itself by tidal directions due to the causeway cutting off the straits. Water run-offs from ship repairs contribute to the pollution also. Sea-horses have long since disappeared. During heavy rains, salinity levels dropped so much that fish farms lost their livestock. The other is plankton bloom causing huge numbers of dead fish. They can’t sell their fish anyway as the water is declared unclean by the authorities.

Below picture: Serene beach at Outward Bound School (No trespassing). Pasir Gudang Port can be seen in the background.

Fishing from the jetty
For first timers, best bet is still at Ubin jetty using live baits which you can buy at Changi village. You can get lucky if fish were released by Buddhist groups.

Other fishing spots.
Ubin disused granite quarries are fenced up and trespassing is not allowed. Good fishing spots if they are opened to public. Snakeheads or Toman fish are seen there including Kois.

Click here for google searches on latest discussion from fishingkaki.com. Like many of their members have observed, you need to be hardy to bear with mosquitoes and trek to remote spots. The taxi uncles knows where are the good spots if you charter their van-taxis. According to them, best lunar dates are 8-12, 24-28 when current are not too strong.

Fishing at night.
Although there are boats leaving for Ubin at night, its harder to fill up with passengers so waiting is necessary. Best is go on weekend eve or public holidays arriving at Changi Point Ferry before 8pm. Share costs of chartering the boat if there are not enough passengers. Bring enough food and drinks to last you the next morning.

Crabs, shellfish and prawn fishing

You can get large crabs like this for dinner and other shellfish. But that involves stomping in mud at low tides.

As for prawns, I have seen some anglers who got lucky and caught large ones while fishing during at the abandoned prawn farms during high tide.

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Other restrictions
Fishing at Chek Jawa is not allowed. Use small pen knives or razors to cut baits instead of large filleting knives to avoid being hassled unnecessarily by Aetos guys manning the x-ray counter.

With the last official sighting 80 years go, its great news to learn that Greater mousedeers were sighted on Ubin. (Another link)

Mousedeers are called Pelandok in Malay or Kancil in Bahasa Indonesia. Some Ubin villagers have seen them, but they have also spotted sun bears and gibbons in Ubin so its hard to believe what they saw. There are even reports of tiger being sighted spooking everyone. I once saw an old boar with strange gait that I almost thought I saw an orang-utan.

The reduction of people residing in Ubin has brought some unexpected benefits. The enlargement of Outward Bound School perimeter occupying nearly the whole Western side of Ubin also help create a “no man’s land” where animals have space to themselves. I am hoping to find squirrels which used to be common in Ubin many years ago.

But opposing Yin Yang forces are still at play. Contractors are indiscriminately fogging some places in Ubin killing mosquitoes, butterflies and other insects alike. They pour chemicals to kill mosquitoes larvae when there are pond fishes already feeding on them. There are huge land development going in Johore just 5 km north of Chek Jawa, potentially cutting off migrating animals like wild boars who are able to swim across to Ubin. The creation of an anti smuggling fence sealed Ubin further. There is a family of otters in Ubin itself which may not survive as a breeding population.

Pollution is problematic with tanker washings going on at Johore side, discharging oil and tar. The rivers of Johore are choked with rubbish landing on Ubin shores that some visitors declared Noordin beach as the dirtiest beach they ever saw.