It had been awhile fishing here. In fact, the last time I was here, I was using a handline and a small float with a single hook and some prawn meat. That time, blur blur didn't know what a lure is. Today, all trained and equipped with the right equipment. I thot to try out if this place could yield anything.
This area, was the smallest fishing area of all the reservoir . it was just about a 100 metres stretch. What was worst was that just right in front of the fishing area, were hordes of people kayaking. Looking straight out, tens of balloon floats were spread across the reservoir. I had no choice but to cast away from the legal area.
But weather was nice, and the water was kind of murky. I wasn't expecting to hit any fish as from observation, this was certainly a bad spot. The noise and human activity would chase away all fishes. So, I was just doing some luring exercise. But the fishing got serious when I saw a 3 foot haruan came up for air just 10 metres from me. Immediately, I tossed my middive in that direction. But tried as I might, nothing. I changed to a pink Gulp! and still nothing. So, came 5pm, I packed and went home with a zero. My first catch here would have to be another day.
Given my improving record with freshwater luring, today, felt a little more bold and wanted to practise on my saltwater luring. My search for KBL continued. High tide at 10pm was just nice for an after dinner outing. Reaching there, bridge was already filled with anglers. There wasn't any space on the bridge itself. But since I was luring, we parked ourselves by the side and I did my casting from the river bank.
I used the newly acquired bibless lure that I gotten from JB. Given the 28g weight, I didn't have any issue with birdnest. I couldn't quite see the swimming action but it did feel good from the vibrations. But it being quite a heavy lure, I couldn't retrieve slow else it would get snagged at the bottom.
So, cast and cast around 100 times. But nothing at all. I builded up quite a good sweat and mozzies came attacking me. Soon, I was smelling mopiko all over. And I thought I got some on the lines. Maybe that had affected the catch rate.
Seeing no action, I moved to the inner part of the river and tried to cast. On my second attempt, lure flew over some tree branches and got snagged. Pulled and pulled, and line broke. Geesh...there went my lure. Luckily it wasn't too ex (<$10). But I quite liked it, with its luminious body. Would be replacing it as part of my collection.
So, setup again and used my shimmering live bait red head this time. But cast and cast, again no action. Around 11.30pm, enough was enough. Packed and go. KBL...got to wait another day.
Weeds! Irritant...but fishes are there bacause of it
Good old humbug was wasted spectaculary this morning with a sudden strike this morning at LSR. I just reached the place, and Andrew and Elyn joined me shortly after. I got a call from them, wanting to join me at a Park to bring Pynn Pynn for a stroll. After setting up my trusty Yellow humbug, cast, cast, cast. And on the third cast, retrieved back till 10 metres from the bank, a "smallie/biggie?" came out of nowhere, took a hit, made a noisy splash, and took off with my humbug. My leader broke and lure went heaven and was never seen again. Argh! But I was careless and to be blamed as I was using quite a thin leader (4lbs), and realized that I had forgotten to loosen my drag.
But that morning, the action was good. Water was quite clear and still. From the bank, we could see a few PB "sniffing" and following the lure. A and E went quite surprised too. But after that incident, I switched to a white Middive. But it might have been the wrong color for that moment, caused after that, all quieten down. I let Andrew had a go, but his didn't quite have any peace as PP started wailing and crying.
Rod came back to me. I did a switcheroo to the Gold X-rap. This lure was meant for Sebarau, but nevertheless, gave it a shot. Cast for about 20 mins, nothing. But all of a sudden, a good take, and rod connected and a fish was at the other end of the line. But from the feel, not that big. Fish surfaced in a while, and it was another PB. Kind of smaller than last week's one, but still a good take. At least it proved that this Gold lure was quite effective.
We took some pics, PP with it as well and released the fellow unharmed. A was quite expert in handling the fish, and released it quite professionally. For me, I would have just tossed the fellow in. :P Search for bigger PB to be continued. Hoping to get a 2kg one this year :))
New sign advising the public not to release animals into the reservoir
BREAKING NEWS: - Man drown in LSR in Kayaking incident. No wonder on the way back, saw policemen running about. :o
Since I had my yellow humbug, I had been trying and trying to get something. It should be a good lure from what I read, but somehow, nothing from it so far. This morning, as usual, D got swimming. The morning turned out quite hot, and I wasn't quite in the mood for luring. But after some breakfast, I thought to do a quick one at LSR.
The last week weed clearing seemed to have made the place quite littered with floating weeds. Casting out my lure, 7 out of 10 times, I would be hauling back the lure entrapped with weeds. This would have minimised the chance as the lure would lose all action after stumbling on to weeds. So, whole morning, cast and cast, but nothing positive. However, I spied 2 times small PB following my lure, and once, a quite a big PB checking out the lure. In my haste to re-cast, I had gotten char bee hoon a few times. Must really remind myself not to be too kan cheong. Quite sickening to miss the chance due to bird nest.
A and D arrived at the park with their packed lunch. Around 12+pm, I walked back to where they were sitting and almost wanted to pack. But seeing that A was doing her cross-stitch, D was reading her comic, I carried on for another 15 mins or so at the new spot.
I tried to vary my speed. Seemed that when I retrieved fast, the lure would be running quite fast for any fish to catch it. I slowed it a little and adjusted until the action was quite ok. But somehow, today, the lure didn't seem good. It might be due to the dead knot that I used to tie it to the leader.
Just as I was quite disheartened at the prospect of going back with zero again, my line suddenly connected with a small PB. It struggled a little and made a jump. Line got slackened and I lost it! Argh....but that somehow encouraged me. I thought now that the trick was not to retrieve too fast. Make the lure more natural. So out the lure go and cast and cast....Just as I was like down to my last few attempts....I felt a strong take. But I wasn't too sure at that time. It might be another clumps of weeds. But on my retrieve, there was a postive reaction and the line spooled out a little for a couple of seconds. Wow, fish on! I tightened the drag and managed to lift up a wiry thrashing PB. Composing myself, I carefully got hold of the line and swung it up on the land. With a dull thud, the fish was landed. And what a beauty. This is the biggest PB to date that I have gotten. *big smile*.
TC was keen in a spot of reservoir fishing and so we made plans to visit LPR this morning at 7am for PBs or Tomans. But unfortunately, water was very calm, but occasionally disrupted by a patrolling boat that sent huge waves splashing on the water bank. I was trying to sight for tomans, but no luck at all.
Around 8.30am, we decided to head for LSR for its better catch rate. But upon reaching there, there were quite alot of activity with people packing up after a major water conservation event. Also, there was a group of people doing some boating. And to add on, weed clearing seemed to be in progress. Water was all murky and full of weeds. So naturally, no bites at all. Mr Sun came on full force and we were sweating to the brows and got really uncomfortable. Around 10am, we called it off and returned defeated.
D wanted to play with Era after her swimming and we let them continue their time in the pool till 12pm. In the meantime, I dropped by upper seletar to try again with my yellow humbug. But as expected, nothing too. Clouds turned quite dark and it drizzled a little. So that was the end of the day. A fat zero.
Felt adventurous today and spent the entire day in JB. After getting into JB before 7, we landed up at the usual Mac for a spot of breakfast. But I wasn't too sure where I would head for. The plan was to bring D and Era for Spiderman 3, but at that time, it was still too early. After pondering about it, I decided to see what was at the end of Pasir Gudang, the highway that I had been zipping up and down with.
At the west end, I already had been to the Perling toll end. This time round, i drove eastward, passing the exit for Kong Kong. The landscape changed to a more industrial look and there were gradually more and more big trucks and long vehicles on the road. Seems like the way would end at Tanjong Langsat, and Kg Pasir puteh.
I turned into Kg Pasir Puteh, my curiousity quite piqued by the name. Translated, it would mean white sand. Just like our counterpart at Pasir Ris. However, it was soon evident that this was a kampong beside the sea. However, there wasn't any place where the car could indeed see the sea. All the sea passage way was blocked by houses. I gave up and drove round and out.
Continuing the journey eastward, I drove to the very end of the road, and found ourselves at this port called Tanjong Langsat. It looked very new, and it was evident that this area was under development. The sea and beach looked promising. I parked the car under the hot sun, and strolled towards the beach to check it out.
However on closer inspection, the water was kind of blackish, from the oil spills from the ships I supposed. Sigh, what a waste of a nice scenic place. Otherwise, this would make a good fishing spot indeed. But given the condition, I wouldn't even dare to eat the oil tainted fishes.
In the afternoon, I decided to recce the tackle shops in JB. Seemed that most, if not all of the shops are located in the Permas Jaya area. I had already known that there was a TCE there some months back. But I was kind of disappointed at the shop, as it was selling mostly low end, malaysia products stuff. But today, i wanted to find Fishing Line, and Sports Fishing.
For FishingLine, I was lucky. The area in Permas was maddening. There were totally no road signs anywhere around. I had completely no idea which district I was in. But A eagle eyes spotted the words "FishingLine" as I was driving around. So, one down. The shop was indeed well stocked. Some of the stuff, I couldn't find in Singapore. All in all, a very good find.
Next, I didn't have the same luck with "Fisherman". I turned here and there but couldn't find the district 4. Luckily I had the JB detail road map with me. After some map reading and topology, I figured my location and the heading towards where it was supposed to be. And man, was it difficult to get to. Without the map, there was no chance anyone would chance upon it. It was hidden in some private area deep within Permas Jaya. But when I walked in, it was a very high and upmarket shop. I managed to get the shrimp hunter here at a good price of RM20. That in comparison to Singapore, was quite cheap. I also picked up a bibless Lure to try out.
This must be some sort of record. Barely 1 week after my last Kelong trip at Acheh, I was out again to another one. This time heading for Ah Yew Kelong. I had been trying to get the PFs together for an overnight trip at a kelong, but alas the plan was quite unsuccessful. I had thot that the drive was just nice for an exotic adventure as such, and also fairly cheap too. But I guess most were not so kelong minded. In the end, it was only Andrew, Elyn and 2 other of their friends, Abua and Zailani, joined my family for an outing to Sibu again.
I had suggested Ah Yew as the last time I was there, the place were undergoing some re-building, and the kelong would be the biggest of all 4, and the facilities the newest. My last trip wasn't a very good one in terms of fishing, but it was nice and quiet and rather comfortable.
I met up with the gang at woodlands pool and after a brief intro, dashed out towards the custom to beat the 7am dateline as all 3 cars were OPCs. Clearing the custom was a breeze with only a 3-4 car queue. Road up was ok, but I had a very close shave with a merging lane and I almost crashed into a long trailer as I ran out of road on the right side. But my 9 lives were still holding up and I got by unscathed.
Sedili way
Country road
Country road
Construction
We reached the jetty rather early and quite on time for a good slow breakfast. The grouchy looking boatman signalled us to the boat around 9.40am and soon we were on the way there. True enough, construction was still going on. This time in fact, we were in the midst of some on-going piling work. There were workers around and even in the water, pushing this and that log here and there. Due to that, our fishing area was quite squeezed as some areas would be hindered by some logs.
Our bunk
Our beds
First catch of the day
But it wasn't too crowded, about 30 pax of people on the kelong. I had expected a much smaller number, but it was not to be. But still, 30 pax was quite ok. We settled down, and quickly setup to get to the fishing. However, we were to discover that this trip was going to be tamban-less, and it was true throughout the entire trip. I must had only gotten less than 3 tambans for the whole duration. We had some lucky haul of selars and kunings, but not many. I think in total less than 10. So, live baiting was quite a dismay. I had thrown out some large sized selar, but I think they were too big for bait. However, I had 1 very strong take where my rod made a jump. But when I held the rod, it was gone, cut at the mainline. What the hell was that? I wondered.
Relax one corner
Zailani with his 100lb handline for Marlin
Abu and Zailani
Abu and Zailani had brought along sarong worms and some dead prawn for bait. The worms weren't as effective, but the dead prawn meat managed to get D some good sized selars (which I tossed out as bait). They busied themselves with apollo rigs and caught mainly emperors, and later on, a couple of leatherjackets.
Due to the poor catch of baitfishes, we spent most of the time under the hot sun getting Emperors. There was an infinite amount at the bottom and it was almost guaranteed that you would catch them. Heck, you could even get a few basketful, if you wanted.
Sibu sunset
Her very first sotong
D with her first Sotong
Came night after a beautiful sunset, jigging was again poor and non-existant. Even the "orange/yellow" fish were not even around. The other group were having a good catch of sotongs. I changed my rig and joined them. After getting my first sotong of the night, D was excited and wanted to try. I taught her how to do it and she was elated when her jig finally connected with 1. Andrew and Elyn also had quite a few catches. I tagged 2 sotongs that I caught onto my bottom rig and waited. And indeed there was a strike, this time again at the same 9 footer, and wired too. However, my wire was only 10lbs. The bells rang, and when I held it, lines were spooling out. I tighten the line to take up the slack and strike, but again, to my dismay, the line came back empty, snapped at the wire. Argh! Another one that got away.
Our barra corner during the nite
Small barras from last night. (todak wasn't ours)
Late into the night, Andrew suggested to try jigging and fishing on the other side. I went with him, but jigging was another 0 result effort. He went on to try some lumi rubber lures, and I thought of trying to get parangs and cast a dead tamban (my only one at that time) and let it drift. There was bite, and then followed by a strong strike. My tamban came back up half eaten. We thought it might have been a parang. Unhappy, I tossed out the remaining selars, kunings. And I eventually got hold of the culprit. It was no parang, but a foot long barracuda. It seemed that there was a school of them. As we were short of good fishes, I tossed out too a small barra that I had earlier gotten on jig. We wanted to know if they do eat their own kind. The answer was, yes, they do. I caught 2 more, and Andrew did land 1. Then we ran out of bait, and the school was gone. By then, it was already quite late (around 1am) and I crawled to the bad for some shut-eye.
Rows of Sotong (this was only a small portion of it all)
The next morning around 5am, we woke up and found the other jigging for sotong. On the kelong floor were rows and rows of sotong catches. Man, they were really making a killing there. We joined in, and managed to catch a few more sotong. D got her second one at this time.
Sotong on string
What a whole night fishing will do to you
I did some luring but result was 0. Tried jigging, and result as another 0. Around 7+am, I tried my sotong jig at the bottom and to my surprise, there was a dull tug, and then a strong bite, and I hauled up my first ever sotong in the daytime. A few minutes later, I got another one. Soon, everyone was around me sotong jigging. 3 girls from the other group also had some catches, one of which was quite a big one.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Free as a bird
Sea gulls having a kopi break and chit chat
Imitation of a sea gull
During the morning, some sea gulls paid us a visit. It was nice to see these birds circling round our kelong. Their flight was graceful and added a nice touch to a beautiful cool morning. Then out of the blue, a rainbow formed right in form of us and made a beautiful picture. We scrambled for our cameras to take some shots, and then it faded away. It was a nice morning indeed.
Orange fish..damn hard to catch
Splitting the loot
Again, I tossed out 1 sotong for my bottom, 1 big selar for my 9 footer and drifted a small kuning that D managed to get on a barra rig. But for all my attempts, nothing. around 10am, the sun came out strong and hard, and fishing was quite uncomfortable. By then, my sotongs on my rigs were dead. We packed up and got ready to leave.
Lunch!
Our group had the good luck to take the speed boat.
Going back on a speedboat
After a fairly decent lunch (the best during the trip, which generally was aweful), we were assigned to return via Speedboat. And it was surely a speedboat alright. Andrew timed the trip and it took an amazing 8 mins, as opposed by 30 mins via the normal bumboat. D enjoyed the ride very much and was giggling away at every bump during the ride.
Abu's car riding away into the sunset.
This time again, baitfishes were hard to get. But this was compensated by the good catches of sotong. This was my first kelong trip that I had seen so many of them. it was so plentiful that you could see them swimming around in schools. The visual aspect of catching them made it very thrilling as one would could actually see them attacked the lure. The fight was also quite fun, and a good size one would bend a normal rod. The reaction was that it would shoot out its ink and cloud the water, and squirty squirt out any remaining ink on unsuspecting people. The sound effect of the squirting was quite musical to hear, some sort like a "chut chut" sound. D was thrilled to see a live one so close at hand. And to experience catching a live one, that must count for something.
This trip, though no biggies, I think it was a fair and enjoyable. Andrew and gang were definitely great fishing company. If only the rest of the PFs were there as it was a decent driving adventure by itself. I had used the scenic Sedili road and the view and drive was very pleasant. On the way back, we stopped by Jusco at Permas for some Gu Nee Hoon shopping and sushi, and then for a cheap and good RM7 snow wash. Road back to via the causeway checkpoint was no sweat as it was rather clear. But on the road leading to the counters, we had a strange encounter with a MY car heading the opposite way on a one way road. !? Policemen were around the car, and we had to detour around. How did she get there?
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