Rakit PL - Queenie attack

This week, Eric was keen to try out the Rakit and so off we go again to visit what that had come to be my regular haunt. We reached the Rakit about 9am, with the tide turning to come up in a few hours.

The morning started well with nice cool weather. The water seemed alright to me and I was habouring high hopes of a fruitful catch. But we soon learnt that the fishing was quite tough with hardly any catches from jigging. The tambans were simply nowhere to be found. Eric got lucky and caught the one and only tamban for the trip.

Unlikely star of the day


Kal-Kar-ying


Waiting for the bell


Good rod bending fight


A Duri


But one thing that was plentiful, was the humble glassfish. Seeing that we hardly got any live bait, Eric experimented with sending out a glassfish drifting in the water. He was fishing at a certain spot with a certain chair, and that was the lucky spot for the day. His bell on the the rod kept ringing and the first catch of a Duri that put up a good fight came on board. Duri was caught on dead prawn meat.

A group doing boat fishing (rentable from the rakit)


This is better than the playground swing


Kitty enjoying a glass fish meal


Fishing for food for Kitty


The children had fun playing happy family with the resident baby cat. They took turns caring for it and fishing for fishes for it to eat. :)

Sweet success! Second Kurau for Eric, which almost dropped back into the sea


Close up




Though Duri wasn't particularly a good one, it was a good prelude to better things to come. Eric's lucky spot soon had the bell ringing again. The fish put up a very good fight and when it surfaced, we thought it another Duri. But on closer inspection, it turned up to be the prizest catch of a Threadfin! A Threadfin at the Rakit was the least expected fish as I had never seen anyone catching it so far. So it was a beaming Eric with the Threadfin snapping pictures all the way to the icebox.

I wasn't doing that well and the only actions that I had was some takes by todaks disturbing my live prawns. But my hooks were too large and they would throw out the hook very quickly.

Todaks kept us entertained


Eric's long awaited Queen fish! Pretty big too




Eric's lucky spot did the magic again, and he was soon the proud owner of another first, a Queen for him! This trip, it was certainly a record breaking one. At the end of the day, he was to have two Queenies under his belt, a Duri, a Kurau(Threadfin), along with some four or five todaks.

D "picked" up this juvenile Cobia from somewhere. We released it :P


Desperate for glass fish bait. Fishing from the hole


Era fishing for glass fish (our supplier)


Holy smoke. Another queen for Eric


Finally! A queen for me too


Happy family


My second queen! :))


I did a hook change to a smaller one, and did manage to catch my first todak for the year, after a long dry spell of going todakless. I also was quite happy when a Queen, similar to Eric's, went for our glassfishy bait dinner. It was a great discovery that the what we used to think of as pest glassfish turned out to be such an effective bait. At the end of the trip, I had another lucky catch of a Queen that fiestily took my tamban jig when it was almost at the surface.

So it did turn out a be a fruitful trip indeed, despite the poor catches of baitfish. We now would never look at the glass fish as a nuisance. It really did save what might had been a fishless day.

Advent into fly tying

Thompson "A" Vise




I happened to come across someone selling off his fly tying vise. It looked interesting, and I was thinking of doing some fly tying myself. Although not into fly fishing, the use of flies in out waters can do wonders. Peacocks can be effectively gotten by charlies and clousers.

So I managed to get hold of the vise for a $50. This was an authentic D.H Thompson "A" vise. Though I was not an expert in this, I had heard the name many times. Therefore, the vise should be quite expensive originally. Searching on the Net, the vise would cost about $100US.

My fly tying materials


I drop into Coho the next day, asking for some fly tying materials thinking just to tie a clouser. I left the shop spending another $50 for a bobbin, fly tying materials, threads, beads (for eyes), crystal flash, size 2 mustad hooks and special glue for finishing the joints. Coho was nice to let me try tying one myself and taught me the ropes on the techniques, and I managed to tie my very first clouser.

A nice lady intro me to a fly tying set, which actually cost only $105 thereabout. I had already spent that much, and only got materials for tying clousers. :(. The set looked not bad at all and came with a nice guidebook on fly tying patterns.

Flies that I have now






Clousers






Charlies

Rakit PL - Salleh

The infamous jam


I had been running to the Rakit frequently these days. Part reason was that it is cheap and promising, and usually not so crowded. Another part reason was bringing some of my fishing friends there. Today, Andrew popped over to JB for some car servicing. Jeck Meng tagged along to look see, and was planning to head for Belumut later in the afternoon.

Hey, there is a kiddy ride in the workshop


Familiar hilly road


Servicing was done and over rather quickly. We joined up with TC and wifey and off we headed for the rakit around 1pm. Since wifey was coming along, we decided on the better creature comfort rakit. So it was back to Salleh's rakit for some short fishing fun.

Checking out the other Salleh's Rakit. Nope, not so comfortable


How to get to Belumut?


We asked the boat"boy" to bring us to the other Salleh's rakit for a looksee. But it wasn't so nicely constructed and we gave it a miss. We were told that that was the original rakit. The one that we went to, was the newly renovated one.

My first Queen!


How big it was


Jessie's fish


This fish so heavy. (Cencaru)


Reaching there, while I was still busy setting up, TC got very lucky and landed a small queenie on the first cast. I was like jaw dropping and couldn't believe my eyes. Thereafter, everyone excitement was pushed up one notch. Jessie (TC wifey) also wanted to fish, and she did catch some goodies along the way. D too got a Cencaru. They are good fighters.

My biggest fish!


Close up


Jeck Meng also managed to get the first fish since dunno when. It was a good size Assam fish. (But, they dont fight) So it was rounds of picture for good memory, and to show off to you know who. Shortly after that, he got bored with the silly activity of holding a rod and waiting and decide to run off into the great unknown, in search of Belumut mountain. At time of writing, I do not know if he is alive or not.

The fishing kind of tapered off gradually and we did not see the good catches that was at the beginning. Must be due to the changing tide, and water current was slow. I threw out a float and did have some fun with todaks. But lately, I had been quite unsuccessful in getting them. They always managed to throw out the hook by the time I was in position. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to use circle hook for them. But hack, I wasn't even targetting todaks and was hoping for a sailfish. However surface fishes seemed to be only them pesky sharp nose.

This is mine! Meeow!


Don't come any closer


Got any wasabi?


There was an interesting incident when I just landed an Assam fish (mistakenly thot to be giant tambans :P). The resident fat furry cat pounced on the flapping fish to my utter surprise and took off with it while the fish was still hooked to my lines. I was dead worried that the cat would swallow the hooks and tried to pull the fish away. But cat was adamant and wouldn't let go of it's dinner. Luckily, my tamban hooks tore from the fish mouth and managed to leave cat with fish intact. Cat then took fish to one corner to feast on it.

Rain also can fish


Expanding


Clever use for weights


My new friend


The rain clouds came over and it poured suddenly, and rather heavily. Luckily, the rakit was well equipped and had covers to roll down from the shelter. So, we were kept pretty dry. Some fishing was possible at the internal well. But nothing was biting.

Andrew had to leave early and we needed to cut short the fishing session. Nevertheless, it was a good outing. I am thinking to do an overniter in the near future. Should be fun.

Rakit Palau Layang - Reiza

TC car following behind


TC called the day before to revisit Rakit Palau Layang, after seeing my good catches for the last trip. Actually, there are still many "rakits" around that area, and I didn't mind trying them all out.

We meet again


The place we were heading


So much for confidence. TC came with this tiny icebox


Therefore today, after the last on the "verge of collasping" rakit, we went for the most presenatable and comfortable one. This one was called Reiza Rakit. This would be more expensive, costing RM20 per pax.

Yippee. So fun


Arriving there, it was indeed not bad. Almost had the feel of a full scale kelong. There were rooms that you could book at RM40. Toilet was presentable and ample fresh water for washing. There were lots of shady areas and shelter. So, it looked like the RM20 was well spent.

But unfortunately, the water condition was quite bad. Water was murky, and at times, quite dirty. We arrived there around 9+am with cool windy skies. But that soon became quite hot, and I did the stupid thing of not putting on sunblock. At the end of the day, TC and I were looking like lobsters from outer space.

String of glassfishes


First good catch


Cencaru


Undaunted, we setup our tamban jigs and went around trying out luck. TC managed to draw first blood by catching a tiny weeny glassfish. After that, it was quiet for about half hour despite jigging diligently. My luck took a turn, and I started landing glassfishes, overscoring TC result of 1. And indeed, I had a sudden good catch of a Cencaru, a fish that I had read about in Rod and Line. I hadn't gotten this before, so it was a welcome first.

Mama Tamban!


Tiniest Selar


Close up (fish was released)


Around 11am, I got my first Tamban and after that a few more although not plentiful like the last rakit. We used some them as bait. TC was targeting todaks, and the tambans came in handy.

I had also 2 very lucky catches of what we termed as Grandpa and Grandma Tambans. It was really huge. But strangely, no fight whatsoever. But still, it was another first for me. So the trip was turning out quite ok.

So heavy


Yeah, I got a fish


An angry Gelama


Around 2pm, there were no other fishes to be gotten. Some of the other fishing folks were fishing in the well under the shelter as it was too hot to be standing in the sun. A managed to get 4 scats within the short time she was fishing. Not bad at all.

My charlie which met the fate of flying off into the sea when my reel suddenly locked


Papa Tamban


Handsome fellow


I finally got it!


Not bad size


TC and I were at the back of the rakit aiming for todaks as we spied quite a few swimming around. There were some actions, with the todaks grabbing the bait offerings and taking off. But catching them was quite trickly as they would succeed most time to throw out the hook. I took the opportunity to try to lure with my x-rap, which was reputated to be good for Todaks. But not much luck, although I had one solid bite which got away. TC finally succeeded with a good size Todak and he was grinning from ear to ear. He authoratively told me that todaks don't eat plastics. hrrmph...

So ccccute


Pretty fellow


Finally some fellow from live prawns


ACK


This rakit is the tiny speck near to the man in red


In the late afternoon, the current was too strong, and not much fishes were around. Even the obliging todaks went somewhere else. But we managed to use apollo with prawn meat to catch some bottom residents of Gelama. We managed with quite a number just for the fun of it. I tried one last attempt with my jig and managed to get some anchovies. D said it was so cute and that I had to release it. After picture, back to the sea it went. I ended the day with an ACK on my bottom rig with live prawn. At least the RM10 worth of live prawns got something.

It was sort of a mix result day, with the morning bringing me some good catches. But clearly again, the water was quite bad. I wasn't sure if it was due to the location, but my guess is that the fishing here was largely depending on the water quality. There were some other rakits around and it might be worth some more tries.

Extension from the main platform


Feeding time!


Decent toilet


Berthing area


Tidbit shop


TV area


Rooms for rent


This rakit even got plants