KFC - Tuas 2nd Link Kelong (1)

As mentioned, we had planned to search out the whereabouts of the this kelong that was mentioned in FK forum, in the location near to Tuas 2nd Link. The forward party consisted of myself and family with ZW. I had only planned to bring along my light fishing barangs + 1 small icebox. Lucky for us, I decided to change to the larger icebox that morning. I trying searching out the contact for the kelong on the internet, but to no avail. With the little clues that we have, I picked up ZW and headed for the Yeo's restaurant after the 2nd Link.

Entrance to Yeo's restaurant

The Yeo's restaurant was easy to find since it was a icon witha lobster on my GPS. After clearing the checkpoint in about 1 hour (light jam), the drive there was a quick one. The area there was entirely new to me. In fact there was an entire obscure village just under the road leading from the 2nd link. To the right, the whole place was taken up by the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP). My guess is that most of the villagers would have some sort of work there.

Giant birds looking for breakfast

Reaching there, the restaurant was dead quiet. The tide at this time was at the lowest and the water had receded quite a long distance away. There were plentiful of mudskippers crawling around on the exposed sand, and quite a number of birds looking around for their morning meal. (probably fat juicy mudskippers)

Long Jetty extending from the Restaurant

There was a lone man there, which we found to be the caretaker of the restaurant. He was a friendly chap. We asked him about the kelong and it turned out that there were quite a number around. He didn't have the contacts to the kelongs either, but he took us that the boatman's boat was parked there, and he would be around here later. We could then check with him.

Simple place for Roti Prata

Since we had to wait, we drove out to look for food and morning breakfast. We found someplace with hot piping Roti Prata about 1 km away. The meal was simple and nice since we were all hungry as hippos.

Jetty near the 2nd Link

GT for sale

After the meal, I drove around to check out the location, and at the end of the road, we came to a Jetty. Over there, there was a small fish market of sorts. On the right, we saw many cars parked and people going in and out. We too went there and found it to be a boat parking lot. From my little understanding of Malay, I took it that people could get the boats and go fishing from here.

Some locals and Singaporeans fishing here

We then went back to Yeos and waited there. The water by this time had come in and the exposed beach was now all covered with sea water. To our surprise, there was a singapore plate car parked outside Yeo's. At the restaurant Jetty, and we found some chinese and malay folks fishing. But we later found out the singaporeans only consisted of the two young chinese chaps. We had a chit chat and found that they were just checking out the area for some R&R (but my guess is that that were probably looking for the Kelong too). They were fishing on Apollo and using dead prawn. We also talked to a malay chap and asked about the Kelong, and he told us that there were no more kelong here as it had collapsed and he was the kelong owner brother in law. He said to go to the jetty to ask about the boat to the other Kelongs there. Confused, we decided to wait for the boatman to appear.

The boatman waiting in the boat

Someone appeared on a motorbike and we were told by friendly helper that he was the boatman. However, he was a mute and we couldn't even talk to him. Communication was difficult and had to engage the helper of the Restaurant helper. But the message was that we had to wait as he was waiting for the ice-truck to appear for his delivery to the Kelong. We asked how much it would cost to go over and I was indeed surprised that the asked for RM30 per head for the round trip. But since it was our first time, I agreed.

We waited awhile and another group of 2 persons appeared, this time carry icebox and fishing gear. These 2 persons seemed to know what to do, and from my guess was definitely going to a Kelong for fishing. We struck up a conversation with them and it turned out that they were really friendly and were also Singaporeans. They were indeed going for the Kelong and they had the contact number. And what was amazing was that they came by BUS! ZW got the number and gave the Kelong owner (Ah Guan) a call and asked about price and so on. The cost of the kelong was $60(Sin) per person for overnight, inclusive of the boat trip. When we asked how much for the day trip, it was only $10 cheaper and not quite worth it. We decided then to rough it out for an overnite trip even though we didn't bring any clothes for changing nor any washing toiletries. Not even a towel.

On the way to the kelong

Soon, we hopped on the boat and was making our way to the Kelong. The boat was a fast one (Speed-boat) and it took us about 10 minutes to reach it. From what we can see, the kelong was in fact nearer to Singapore than to Malaysia. Our mobile lines had no difficulty to register to our local telcos. But it was legally in Malaysia water. Ah Guan(the Kelong owner) told us that he used to pick up people from Tuas, and they needn't have to chop passport previously. But it is not possible now.

Kelong security guard

Boarding our destination

Our dining and fishing area

Fearsome Tambans

Nice bend on my Green Arrow from a Duri

We were greeted by 2 angry barking dogs when we reached, but it turned out later that the 2 dogs were very friendly once we were inside the Kelong. The Male dog was the fierce one, but the lady dog was very docile. We settled down and started to setup to fish. Our first impression was that there were plentiful of fishes around, and it was very easy to get bait fishes on Sabiki w/o any baits. The bait fishes were mainly tambans, kunings and occasionally Selars and some Kekeks (pony-fishes). Once awhile, we could even get some junevile queen fishes. And be warned, the Tambans here are Killer Tambans and could bend your rod. I have never seen Tambans that fight like bigger fishes. With such plentiful of bait fishes, it was no problem for us to do bottom fishing, and we parked 2 rods to hope to get some biggies.

Rod bending fight (Another Duri)

ZW's first Catty

We did indeed get some strikes on our bottom rig and had some rod-bending fights. But it turned out to be Duris and mostly cat fishes. Not to good catches. We kept 2 duris (they are actually not bad eating), and threw back most of the cat fishes. We need to find out how to avoid them and target better fishes next time.

We have the whole deck to ourselves

Fishing was wonderful here, as it was very relaxing and peaceful. The other 2 persons(Zhou and Chen) did more fishing for Gelama, and fished in their own corner. We mostly have the deck to ourselves, and there was plentiful of space for everyone, unlike the "competitive" fishing in Sibu.

Best porridge I ever eaten

This fish is tasty (Gelama)

Ah Guan was a good cook and the food we had there, was in a word: Superb. Furthermore, all the fishes and squids were fresh food, unlike the other kelongs where the food was actually from the market. We had plenty to eat there he kept us well fed during the trip.

Lightning flashed across the sky

Beautiful night. As peaceful as it could get

However, fishing in the night was disappointing too as it was all cat fishes throughout the night. At night, the bait fishes all disappeared. But Ah Guan was hoisting up the fishing net every once a while, and we did have some supply of live bait and fresh small squids for live baiting. We did some luring but it was ineffective.

Darkening skies

The weather for this trip was heavenly. There was only a small window of hot sun for about an hour and after that, it was cool weather all the way. There were some times when the sky was darkening for a heavy downpour, but the rain was in the distance and didn't affect us.

Due to us not having more preparation, we were a little uncomfortable since we couldn't bath and all. I was feeling quite dirty and was probably smelling of Tambans. I slept mostly on the deck out in the open, but it did get very cold later in the night.

Easy to get an entire string of Tambans

Basketful of Tambans

Beautiful half-beak

Early next morning, the entire sea was rippling with bait fishes and there were lots of fish activity everywhere. We filled up the basket with bait fishes and was busy all morning filling up the icebox. But still no big fishes despite us doing some floating drifting with live baits. They were all untouched throughout. We also saw some boats carrying people fishing that came near to the kelong to do their fishing. The male dog was unhappy about this and went around barking and yapping at them.

Our entire catch with just 2 person fishing

Ah Guan and a very shy D

We left the kelong about 1pm, and by this time, we were pretty friendly with Ah Guan and the 2 chaps with us. Ah guan took a liking to Desiree and even asked to have a photo taken with her.

The water came in during the high tide!

The speed boat brought us back to Yeo and we were shocked to see the tide water at such a high level that it even covered the cemented carpark outside the restaurant. I had even parked the car there previously but luckily they did warn me to park the car further up. But the car was parked at a place where it was surrounded by seawater. I decided just to drive over and have the car washed later on the way back. From there, we went for some drinks and a visit to the tackle shop before heading back via Tuas.

Definitely a good trip, and an enjoyable time. However, I do find the price a little steep and almost on par with Sibu Kelongs. But I thought that it was not that he is charging high, but the kelong could only accept limited number of people and he had to make it worth his while. A revisit here should be in my calender here pretty soon.

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