Preview: Pure Fishing Asian Cup 2011 Third Leg
Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 5:00PM 
This was a recent scouting trip to Happy Farm. These guys were catching a few tilapia on lures, but weren't seeing much bass action.The final leg of the preliminary round of the Pure Fishing 2011 Asia Cup wraps up this Saturday with the tournament arriving at Happy Farm fishing pond in Bade, Taoyuan County. This is the round that I’ll be participating in and I wish I could say I was a bit more excited. I have scouted out this pond on three occasions and have yet to experience or witness any real action outside of the bait anglers landing tilapia.
If any readers are wondering why there haven’t been many new fishing reports of photos posted in the last month, the reason is that I keep heading back to Happy Farm and getting shut down. I have spotted the occasional largemouth bass, the target of this tournament leg, but haven’t seen that many being caught.
What I did notice was the visibility in the pond is pretty poor and the water his heavy stained green from algae. The oxygen content may be low because I notice several tilapia gulping air at windward end of the pond. I’ve also spotted a few sluggish and sick looking bass, carp and tilapia. That said, I’ve also seen many big fish jumping and rolling in the middle of the pond.*
So, it should at the very least be interesting to see what happens when 50 tournament anglers show up on Saturday. I have my doubts that the action will be as wide open as it was at the previous two legs.
Speaking of which, pure fishing has posted pics from the second leg in Tainan on their site. It looks like a good time was had by all catching a mixed bag of barramundi and bass. There are a couple of nice fish in a few of the shots.
*Just to clarify, I don't have a completely negative take on Happy Farm. The staff there are very friendly and so are the other anglers. It has a more family friendly atmosphere than some other ponds in the area and if you are a bait angler, you'll probably do well fishing there. I'm just a little dubious about the bass action.
Here is a map to Happy Farm in Bade for anyone interested in viewing or fishing their in the future.
Reader Comments (4)
You had a post about getting a charter fishing boat, that I'd like to find. I also have a question of how good a trip near Changhua would be and things I should look for in a charter fishing boat. Thank for any help you can offer.
Hi Okami,
Send me a direct message with your email address from the "contact" box in the sidebar on the right and I'll send you the information on charter contacts. I don't know much about Changhua, but there are a lot of fish ponds near the coast and some allow fishing. You can also head up into the mountains to Sun Moon lake where I have often seen anglers fishing from the shore.
Hi Chris,
I really like your blog. It's great for me because I've been trying to get into fishing here in Taipei. Do you know any good spots around Tucheng in New Taipei City? I'm definitely going to try the pond in Bade and Dasi, but they're still a little far for just a casual morning fishing outing. I know we've got the Dahan River...but not sure about the water quality. If you could get back to me with any advice you might have about places to try, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks. Have a nice day.
Hi Abram,
There are quite a few ponds in Taoyuan county that stock bass. I also live in New Taipei City (Sanxia). There are a few ponds that I know of in this area, but most stock tilapia and carp, which are the more traditionally popular species for bait anglers in Taiwan. Lure fishing for bass is quickly becoming more popular and consequently more commercial ponds are stocking bass. They are also showing up in the "wild" in a few spots. As far as the local rivers are concerned, if you are just into catch and release, water quality shouldn't be too much of a concern (in the short term). Tilapia are ubiquitous in local rivers and very resistant to pollution. There are also catfish in some of the local waterways and baby tarpon in the estuaries. If it looks like it could have fish in it, it probably does. If you do find any good spots let me know.