KFC - Hot Boys Kelong Fishing

We arrived at Sibu rather early, after meeting up and having breakfast at the usual haunt of Mac near Carrefour. Going via the Sedili route, the going was rather speedy despite having to navigate over some bomb craters on the otherwise nice-to-drive road. Within 1.5 hours, we reached the Jetty. We would have been earlier if not for the detour fo find the fishing pond for live prawns. We saw a huge sign, but asking the locals, none of them knew where the pond was. :(

We exceeded the limit. There were 15 of us on board. :)

At the Jetty, we had to wait a little for the other group that was a little bit late. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that there were only the 6 other people in the kelong. That makes a total of 17 pax for the trip and the fishing was very relaxing indeed. Probably due to the exam period and also the fear of fishing during the ghosty month. Also, the malay folks were fasting, so fishing was too exerting for them. :)

Only 2 tables for meals
f

Therefore, we almost had the whole kelong to ourselves. I had not been to Hot Boys for the longest time. In fact, in all my trips to kelongs in Sibu, this would be only the 3rd time that I would have set foot here. Although the beds were not that clean, generally they were quite comparable with the other 3 kelongs. The main reason for me not going is the advertised price on their website which was rather steep compared to the other 3.

fThe 3 rascals that bullied my little cherrywood!

Double hookup of 3 in a row of Snooks

Got a basket of these

We had the cook prepared it for dinner

The other group, were just doing recreational type of fishing. so there weren't any long rods around to impede casting in any direction. Unfortunately, the bait fishes today weren't too cooperative and it was rather difficult to get bait fishes to throw out for live baiting. We hit on a school of baby barras and we kept getting them enough to fill up a basket. We decided to have the cook prepare it for us for our dinner. Occasionally, we would also hit on some big selars which ready put up a good fish. Once, I had 3 of them on the same line and my cherrywood rod was bent to the max.:O

The food for this trip was rather good, I should say. For lunch, we had a table sized chermin. For dinner, we had steamboat. For the lunch the next day, we had 3 pieces of Kurau. With the good eating fare, we were rather worried that the trip would indeed cost us. :S

Ros's first todak

For the day fishing, due to the limited live baits, I didn't manage to help KT get his first todak. With one of the lucky live bait, Ros managed to land one under my guidance. Andrew was getting them with dead prawn meat which worked quite effectively. Except that those that came up were rather small. But it was better than nothing and KT had a few go at it. However, all the strikes thrown the hook when they thrashed and leaped out of the water. That impressed KT quite a bit having tasted the powerful of the acrobats of the sea. Still, none was landed for him.

Jetty to Sibu Island

A Beetle came a visiting KT's hat to give a dose of good luck

They certainly had fun

Hmm...hot boys?

We were relaxing one corner. All missing is bacardi and rum and maybe some bikini girls to give us backrubs :P

That afternoon, the children said that they wanted to go to the Sibu island. Seeing that Dezi and Ely hadn't been there, we decided to make a trip. Andrew, KT and I took our luring rods there thinking to try out some luring. But the island wasn't too suitable for luring and we just sat there relaxing instead while the children had fun burying each other in sand. On the way back, while waiting for the boat, we did some luring at the jetty. There was some activity and a few times, we see splashes and some reaction on the lures. But we didn't have enough time and had to stop when the boat arrived.

Pat looked like an escape convict

It rained for half hour for so around 6. But nothing serious. It was back to fishing after the rain stopped.

Hoho! The green squid jig was a killer

Eric is now on a squidding row

Night came and we went on to do some squidding. Eric had with him a new green squid jig which worked very well. He was first to haul up a very good size squid around 6+pm, when it wasn't even dark yet. KT got excited and tried it out himself and was rewarded with one. There after, he was grinning to himself the whole night (Ha! Say me some more).

Nice evening. Hungry ghosts coming out

Elyn admiring the sunset

I set off to test the water for parangs as it was the intention to help Pat and KT land their very first. Indeed they were around, but not alot. I got a number of strikes but didn't manage to connect. My lumi SS minnow wasn't working well. That I reviewed logically that it was due to the rather tall height that we were from the water. For some reasons, the water level this trip was rather low. SS minnow was a super shallow runner and with too steep an angle from the lurer, it couldn't run well. So I changed to my standard L-minnow and that was better.

KT's first squid! See how wide the grin

KT helping to land Eric's fiesty parang

One for the album

Dal also had a squid (again on the green thing)

Eric was on a roll this trip and got 4 parangs in a space of a short time which impressed the parang newbies of Pat and KT. KT was trying out with his x-rap at one corner when I passed him and asked him to try for parangs. But he told me that he had gotten a todak and was in the midst of fighting it. I was shocked and stood around to see his todak. As he was reeling in, the fish at the other end decided to take a leap. That moment, I saw that it was a parang instead. Not bad at all. But parang swam too close to the stilts and the line got entangled with it. Then parang was lost thereafter. After that, he went on to use his other lures which I think wasn't quite suitable.

After so many misses, finally a good size one

Elyn was fishing the whole night till late

Andrew was too tired from the trip and knocked out quite early. Therefore, not much action from him during the night. That night, I only managed to land 1 parang. Elyn was sleeping mostly in the day and fished till rather late at night. She managed to get some interesting variety of fishes that I seldom seen. I too was rather tired and went to sleep. But the bed was rather warm and I sneaked off to sleep at the karaOke room on the sofa. It was rather comfy and I really slept tight till the alarm woke me at 5am. I heard that there was a 2hr manhunt for me when they saw that I was not on my bed and might had fallen into the water fighting off a 15kg barracuda. :D

Early morning luring, and a small consolation catch

That morning at 5am, the parangs were more cooperative and I hit 3 parangs and lost quite a number. Pat and KT too joined me. But alas, Pat was using the SS minnow too and I didn't realise till it was rather late. I passed him an L-minnow. But for some reasons, he had no bites at all. It might be due to the strong current and his weights were not enough. Once the morning arrived, the parangs would be gone.

Hmm..this should qualify for the Guiness book of record!

Elyn got a fierce fighter of a Leatherjacket

Alien looking fish

Fresh catches from the sea

Again, the bait fishes were hard to get that morning. But very interestingly, Andrew and I saw a big cobia circling around the kelong. We tried hard to target it. But there wasn't any live bait and we settled for a dead one. We saw the cobia coming near to the bait and took a sniff at it and turn away. Andrew and I were holding our breaths when that happened. What a waste! If that had been a live bait, we should have a good fight with it. We tried couple of times until time ran out and we had to pack.

Although the fishing wasn't spectacular, it was relaxing indeed. It was also nice to see big fishes circling round the kelong. It was such a pity about the poor availability of bait fishes. But parangs and squid were also there to entertain us for the trip. All in all, a rather good kelong family fishing trip. Definitely a relaxing one :))

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