KFC - Mamod Kelong

This was done as a by-the-way thing on my recent mega long distance road trip round the whole of malaysia peninsular. The trip was shorter than I expected, and I had time to spare to do a kelong trip for a couple of hours, before the long drive back to my comfy bed in Singapore.

My last trip to this area was to visit the Kelong at Bagan Lalang, called Nazri Kelong. From my chat with some people there, I was informed that there were some more Kelongs in the area. I had originally thought that the Kelong was also in Bagan Lalang and hence headed for the famous beach again.

Road to Lukut

Kg Chuah

Finally located the Jetty

Eh, turn where?

After lunch, we made a call to Nazri and was informed that there were only 1 Kelong (his) in Bagan Lalang. The other Kelongs were in the vicinity of Lukut. Where in the world is Lukut? I asked. I was informed then that Lukut was near to Sepang (further down south) and would require an hour of driving to reach there. I considered about it a while and decided to do it anyway. But searching my trusty GPS, I couldn't find any POI for Lukut Jetty. Darn.

Mamod (the man we called) gave us the general direction to head downwards from Banting and then to look for Kg Chua, and then turn into the Kelong. Sounded simple, but we were in unknown territory. I anyhow marked the KFC at Lukut and headed towards the general direction.

But lucky for us, along the way, we saw all the landmarks that Mamod told us. In fact, his direction giving was very accurate, and we found the Jetty with no trouble whatsoever. We reached the Jetty on time and was soon waiting for the boat to bring us there.

Finally at the Jetty parking

Boat house here

Yep, the right Kelong

Hmm, can fish from here too

But no shelter. Quite hot

Pictureque view of boats

The worker there was fetching a group of 3 pax to another Kelong which was smaller and according to him, no people. The other bigger Kelong was full and already had 30 pax onboard. We tagged along but when we reached the smaller Kelong, I asked if I could go to the bigger one instead. At one glance at the small Kelong, the fishing would not look good as it was quite near the shore.

The smaller Kelong

What happened to girls who talk too much

Arriving at the bigger kelong

Boatman agreed as the other Kelong was quite on the way back. Soon we were on board the Kelong. It was indeed rather crowded, but nothing that we had not seen at Sibu. There were rows of rods all over.

No Tambans, but quite a number of these tiny anchovies

Man with a Silver biddy. Good catch

I rigged up a tamban jig and a light bottom rod and went about trying to get some bait fish. But jigging was not effective and there were hardly any Tambans at all. I kept getting tiny anchovies instead, which I gave to the people on board to use as bait. According to them, it would be effective at night. From my observation, most were using Sarong worms, prawn meat and sotong strips.

Resident mouse to "decompose" all the leftover food

Quite crowded

Hmm. Important house. Toilet

One of the only 2 tambans I caught

Somone left the puffer here to die. Very bad :(

Mummy doing cross-stitch

Catching a Kekek here is a cause for joy

The catches were slow, and even a catch of a Kekek was something to shout about. With the above bait that those guys were using, there were some catches of Pasir pasir, Kekek, Gelama and a nice Silver Biddy. A little boy also caught a flounder as I was about to leave.

So the fishing was rather slow and did not improve when the tide was coming up.(I had arrived at the low tide with the tide coming up). I had instructed the boatman to come get us at around 7pm so as to be on our way again with some light before we hit the expressway. But boatman was late, and despite our frequent calls, he only arrived at around 8pm much to my unhappiness. By that time, the Kelong was dark and going up and down the rickety steps would be quite dangerous.

Rooms at the Kelong. Very basic

And very small kitchen

Hung like a chinese sword

Some records of bigger fishes caught here

Before we left, a boy caught a flounder

Anyway, we were soon back at the Jetty which there were some people fishing on the Jetty itself. Since it had lights and all, it was properly payable to fish there. We unboarded, paid the man who charged us only RM80 probably seeing that I was unhappy. (normal is RM40 for adult and RM20 for child).

From there, the village was rather dark and the drive out quite spooky. AsI was leaving the village, I suddenly saw a cow on my right side in the darkness. It gave me quite a scare as what is a cow doing hiding in the dark?? Shouldn't it be at the cow house or something.

Dark errie night at the Jetty

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Labrador Park

It had been a very long while since I was here. ZW and I did the crazy thing of trying out luring on friday nite, and then back here again to try out the Jetty the next day. I was hopeful of hitting a possible chermin, and we dropped by Regal Tang to get ammos(live prawns).

We reached there around 4.30pm, by which time the sun wasn't so hot. Water looked good and some folks were getting good strings of Tambans consistently. Not sure what's wrong with ZW and my tamban rigs. We just weren't hitting them and the people next to us were like filling in their iceboxes. I sheepishly swallowed my pride and asked the lady what's her secret. Apparently, it was no other than using the "unbranded" tamban hooks of size 3-4. Mine was a elephant size of 8 and hence can only catch elephant fish. ZW was using another type of brand. Tambans here are brand conscious.

We let out some bottom with live prawns and did the waiting game. ZW also tried a floating rig. At the end of the day, all were unproductive. Although there were some signs of some sea monsters killing our live prawns, we didn't bring anything up from the deep blue sea.

Some someone caught a small green eye(sotong) and that proved to me that eging was still quite possible, although tedious here.

*Sigh*

KFC - Trip To Rakit Atan (previously Known As Rakit Reiza)

This trip was completely not planned. ZW called out of the blue the friday before and said that his project was extended and had time to go fishing. So I decided to push forward the layang trip. As usual, we set off at the early hour of 5.30am. This time round, his other daughter Amanda came with us. (to be fair mah)

Plenty of cats here

View of the Rakit. Used to be Red roof, but now became multi colored

Checking the tide table, high tide would come early. So we spared the leisurely breakfast and grabbed some fast food from a drive through Mac. We arrived at the Rakit around 7.30am. From there, I found that the Rakit was no longer known as Reiza. It has probably changed hands, and now would be called Rakit Atan. It is still known by the other name of Tiram Fishing Resort.

Manageress of the resort

This chap was using sarong worms. Got a decent Sickle fish. (Chow Xi)

We touched down, and ZW was impressed with the comfortable and spacious Rakit. The facilities here were indeed not bad, as well as the going rate. It was only RM20 per adult, and they charge a RM5 for children. So, it was quite cheap fishing. However there were quite a lot of people this time round, as compared to the previous time. Still it wasn't too much of a problem as there were lots of fishing space.

Another good thing here was that it provide live prawns (RM0.50 each). We tossed out some lines for bottom after setting up. My first attempt at bait fish jigging didn't work. Water wasn't teeming with Tambans. But further tries yielded me a small tiny queenie. ZW also attempted a float rig at my bidding.

Finally something from the bottom. Sea dragon king heard our prayers

First decent fish for the year. Looks ugly but is fast to cook, good to eat

This trip, I was hoping to break the egg for this year's fishing. We were teasing Amanda that we needed her power to help with that. She gamely agreed to impart "power" to us. And it worked and my bottom line went twitching and I hauled up a good flat head. With that I considered myself to have at least kicked off the fishing for the year. ZW did well too, and soon he got a small Todak to his count.

The malay group catches

Todaks were fairly plentiful here, and ZW got numerous strikes. Very soon, he was adding a couple of todaks to his catch for this year.

Come to daddy!

Alamak, fish is fake one~haz

Yahoo!

I went to try out luring and was pleased to finally successfully get a good sized Todak on my X-Rap lure. Wahoo! That added a first to my luring history. What a good way to start off my year of luring.

From my last trip, I noted that Gelamas were also plenty here. One got sit under the shade and do Gelama fishing for the whole day. We tried, and indeed managed to get some Gelamas.

Lunch time. The children befriended a Malay speaking boy who yak and yak despite the children not understanding what he is saying


ZW first Pasir Pasir (Swa chiam)


But soon, the tide went down and the current flow became very strong. High tide was at 9.30am and I was thinking that the fishing would be a goner by 12pm. However, we found that the todaks were still around behind the Rakit where the current was blocked and the water was still fishable. I had thought that we would leave this place by noon, but instead we stayed through lunch and until about 4+pm. Everytime I said to go in half hour, some fish activity became evident and we continued to extend the time. :). ZW caught a grunter but lose it due to the line being only 4lbs. Line broke and the Grunter fell back into the water. Quite a waste.

I lured until the lure "mouth" dropped out. (actually I hit it against the chair and it broke...keke)


We did more luring when bottom fishing slowed. I managed to hit a small Tengirri on lure! Although just a small one, it was a good catch. Another notch for my this year's lure history. Perfect for a personal Saba dish.

Changed lure, and hit a Tengirri (small one)

The children were given a starfish by a friendly uncle

Use net to catch arh? (half beaks)

Going back from successful fishing trip

We left the place and headed to Permas Jaya to visit a tackle shop. From there, it was dinner at that place and then back to Singapore. The Jam at first was ok, until we hit the Singapore side where it was maddening that the lanes all merged into two and then one. We spent about an hour in the Jam and then hit home at around 9.30pm. Not a bad trip today and we were considering an overniter in the near future.

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KFC - Small group trip to Tuas Kelong 3

This trip took a year to organize and we finally made it. We were to meet the other car at the coffee shop in Perling. The group consisted of IZ, Jean, Eric, ZW with her daughter and of cos myself and family.

Still dark in the morning

By order. Better eat

At the coffee shop, the sign said "parata" inside and we were all curious what parata was and had it for breakfast. Furthermore, it was "by order". It turned out not bad, but it did cost ZW a hefty amount of money, since he treated us, as it came in a set at RM5.50 each. After the hearty breakfast, we headed for the Jetty.

The Jetty

My GPS went a little kooky today and routed me to the PTP port where I had to make a merry go round and then back to the highway. We finally made it and were slightly late. The boatman was already there. However, the live prawns that I ordered didn't arrive. He said to get it for me in the afternoon. That didn't arrive later either.

Better than theme park

The ride was a breezy one to the Kelong. As expected, the children loved it. The weather however looked a little iffy and was in fact drizzling a little. IZ informed that the it was expected to be raining the entire day. Luckily, that turned out to be untrue, and the weather for the trip was quite good with overcast clouds all the time.

Drop inside, sure become skeleton

Here got space

ZW 2nd Whitefish

This fish very nice

The kelong was rather crowded with a group of Malays overniters and 2 chinese guys, totalling 8 pax excluding us. But there were still space for us to fish although a bit squeezed.Upon arriving, the rest took a tour of the Kelong and when the Kelong helper started feeding the fishes, everyone was wahing at the size of the fishes being kept beneath the Kelong.

The tide was expected to be around 3pm, and the fishing should be starting to be better at around 12 to 1. At the moment when we arrived, it was rather low tide. However, I managed to get some scarce tambans and we sent it out to wait out the bigger fishes.

Playing Fish

The children busied themselves with "playing" fishes and treating them as pets. Since the school of Tambans didn't come visiting, we let them have their fun with their own games. Otherwise, it would be a good experience for ZW's daughter to try out some fishing of her own.

String of Selars from the toilet area

My first Tenggiri!

However, the fishing was quite poor, and there were no signs of any big fishes around. The expected school of tambans came, but were out of reach away from the Kelong for some reasons. I had to cast my stinger more than 50m to get one or two at a time. It was far from the just drop and retrieve a string of them kind of thing. Due to that, we were also running low on baits. Furthermore, there were hardly any Todaks around. ZW and I only managed to see 1 after some persistent tries. ZW did manage to get 2 hits, but it let go of the bait fish rather quickly. I visually confirmed it to be a todak when it followed my lure and then made the standard turn away when it neared the kelong.

Like CNY reunion dinner?

This fish good to eat. My Papa caught one

A whipped up a rather sumptous lunch by Kelong standards, and we all had a good meal followed by more fishing.

Desparate fishing lady resort to play cheat and use the net

Catches from the Kelong Nets. Lots of Kunings

Washing up and ready to go

Last minute drama. Man rod took a bend

but it turned out to be a snag

In the afternoon, more people came, and it was getting crowded. The tide was going down, and the fishing didn't improve either. So it looked like this trip wasn't a good one, and the only thing that we could boast of was ZW and Jean's catch of a whitefish, and Eric's catch of a small tenggiri. All on tamban hooks.

We decided to leave the place after 4.30pm and made our way back to the Jetty. From there, we headed for the newly opened Jusco at Bukit Indah and had a pleasant dinner. The children had a treat of a magic show. All in all, a fun trip mainly for the kids. For us adults, the fishing was quite a bummer, unlike the first time I was there. Like life, fishing can be so unpredictable.

Sing your way home

Shopping!

Evil looking clown

They wolfed down the cake in 1 minute!

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1st Fishing for 2009

Being the new year, I was hoping to start it well with a good catch. I had arranged with ZW to do some early morning luring at LSR. It had been some time since I have been luring here, since the construction started at the stretch on the left. However, LSR had been a rather productive spot previously and I was hoping that it would reward us with a good catch of a PB or two. Since it was the first time ZW was doing fresh water luring, it would be a good experience.

Reaching there at the ungodly hour of 6+am, there were already quite a number of people fishing. Probably some had stayed over the night. Most of them were baiting. We kept to our own corner casting out our lures. But there were no bites entirely, even though we saw some water movement every now and then. I saw a belida coming up for air and diving back again.



However, the baiters did have some action and managed to bring up a huge mummy Toman. We were impressed, certainly a big fish. The toman was caught on live soon hock baits. Quite a surprise to me as I thought it was usually catfishes as bait.

We lured till the sun came up till about 8am. Still nothing. We changed to flies to increase our chances, but yet again nothing. Conceding defeat, we left that day without getting our first fish for the year.