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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KFC - Tampines Quarry

We went Tampines Quarry this morning. I think this is not an illegal spot. Well, I don't see any no fishing sign here. In fact, there were plenty of rubbish and litter on the floor that indicated that there were lots of fishing activities here. We cast for a while and caught nothing. This place was a far cry from most of the shh spots that we go to. But there were occasional splashes from some big monsters in the water. Some quite near to us.

The char bee hoon fly


Tiny 4-5 cm fingerling. Got foul hooked on the body


I was trying out the char-bee-hoon fly and got the smallest fish ever in my life on artificial. It was a tiny PB fingerling. Probably only about 4-5 cm. But it was foul hooked on the body. I quickly took out the hook w/o any pics. I had wanted to catch a small PB to put into my tank. But this fellow didn't seem to be in good health after having the hook impale the middle of its body. But it was still alive as I put it into a plastic bag.

My 2nd PB. A more respectable catch


Tapao for my aquarium


My second fish on the char-bee-hoon fly was a more respectable small PB. It gave a good fight as I guided it in to avoid the many branches. Fish was nicely hooked on the lips. With my debarbed hooks, it was removed easily. I quickly find a bigger plastic bag from the trash around and have it nicely bagged/tapao for my aquarium. The other tiny one, I released hoping that it would recover.

Uncle stood behind me doing nothing for 15 mins until I moved to another spot. Must be I took his favourite spot


Pat and KT got nothing on both sides of me. After a while, some people came with bicycles to do baiting. Seeing what they were carrying, they were fully equipped to target the bigger monsters here. One uncle waited at my spot until I moved away. Probably his favourite bottom spot. Quite cool. His bicycle is a modified rod stand.

Here no fish, but plenty of rubbish :(
Please, if you fish, take care not to litter the area.

KFC - Why Legal Fishing Spots has no fish

We discovered a spot lately that was very productive. The last time we went, we were quite late and there was already a crowd fishing at the corner. Not wanting to crash the party, we did some fishing along the banks and only managed to hit one small fish. KT almost lost his vibe but was lucky again to save it back.

This morning, I brought Pat back to the same spot. But this time, despite all the difficult-to-walk terrain, we braved the muddy ground and trod along to reach the river mouth. Already at 6.40am on a Thursday morning, there were around 4 or 5 or so chinese foreign workers with 1 or 2 locals fishing there. Mind you, they were not only using little bait fishes, but were also on feathers and lures. Quite sophiscated this bunch. Squeezing ourselves on a narrow side, we did our casting.

Pat has reached the place earlier on while I was assembling my gear. When I joined him, he already got a big momma PB. The area here was simply amazing. There was water movement all over. At some places, it was almost boiling from all the feeding frenzy. The group beside us was on a roll. They were pulling up PBs every minute. Looking around, I saw that they were certainly not the Catch & Release type and the fishes were meant to be "tapaoed" back. From my estimate, there were already like 20+ PBs in 2 keepnets. Overhearing their conversation, they had gotten 70+ the day before. I wouldn't be surprised if they were here everyday and catching them at this rate. With some mental calculations, this would work out to about 2000 odd PBs per month. Can they really eat all that?

I can understand that they might want it for food as eating in Singapore is not cheap, and what more to have live fish for food. But shoudn't there be a limit of what they can eat? The bagging limit in this case would probably be how much they can carry back before giving up. There was no other word for it. The PBs here were simply waiting to be massacred.

That morning, my fly wasn't tied quite well and didn't swim naturally. Due to that, I only had 2 hits. Pat had 3 hits and some escaped ones. But given the crowded location, I wasn't quite in the mood to fish that much. It was just an eye opening to see how greedy people can get. When we toss the PB back to the water, one chap even got the cheek to chide us for putting it back into the same fishing area saying that it would spook all the other fishes away.

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KFC - Hit By Double Silver Bullets

Waking up early this morning, Pat and I visited the famous river. Getting there was not so easy, but after some monkey swings and leopard crawls, we arrived at the location in the dark. Setting up our gear was getting quite challenging but after some fumblings with our touchlights, we managed to start our first cast before the sun comes up.

But after 10 cast or so, nothing was biting yet. I was at the rocky area doing when Pat suddenly came behind me like a ghost and showed me his first big catch of a PB. It was his biggest so far. Strange that I didn't hear any splashes but he said it was so noisy. Hmm, the sound might have been blocked by the big tree in between us.

For me, nothing was biting my furry friend and I was starting to wonder about this location when something swooped up and hit the fly with a mighty force. My braided lines were peeling off and when the fish got close, it was another surprise of a Sebarau. Woot woot. This is my 2nd in such a short time. And bigger this time. Again congratulary rounds of photo takings for the sweet memories and then Sebarau went back home.

Pat went further up the river and missed a strong take. I saw him bending back to form a nice arc with his rod. I was about to take out my camera to video it when the fish was lost. From the initial fight, it was definitely a prize one. Too bad.

Next fish for me was a PB. Although not big, this fellow was in the prime of health and gave me a thumping good fight. After that, things started to quieten down after that. This morning, the river was rather still and the water not flowing. That might have affected the catch rate.

Times was almost up when my final few cast got on to a solid take again. This time, my reel again sung as the lines peeled out. It was noticably longer and the fish fought harder. Fish went left and right. When it surfaced, I was elated to see another silvery bullet. This one was the biggest and a beautiful specimen with a clear black mark cover the silvery scales. I tire it out and then it was hoisted to the grassy ground for photo taking. My biggest ever.

Although not very high catch rate here today, but the quality of the catch was remarkable. Good morning exercise for me and Pat. After that, it was to the SHH coffee shop. Indeed the aroma of the coffee there is better. AFter a decent breakfast and chit chat about the fruitful morning, we went home after a beautiful start to the day.

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KFC - My Birthday Present

Looks very NZ isn't it?

We almost didn't go this trip as ZW wasn't sure if the trip was confirmed. SMS was sent to me at 12am to ask if the trip was on. But that time, I was already in ZZ land and only woke up to check for time at 1am. That was when I saw the message. That morning, seeing no reply to my SMS wake up call, I called in only to find him sleepily on the other side of the phone. "Trip is on", I said. With that, he hastily got his things together and came around to pick me.

First PB that fell for my shrimpy

He was so hasty that when we reached the location, he discovered that he had forgotten his reel. Alamak! Therefore he ended becoming my fishing ahmad and helped me with my photo shooting. It was still quite dark when we arrived. To our surprise, the spot seemed very quiet and still and there wasn't any disturbance on the water that would excite us. I tried around a few places and didn't get any reaction. But thinking that the place near the canal would be best, we parked ourselves at that area to keep casting.

This one has a golden sheen

How to look cool while fighting a fish

Unusual greyish tone PB



The sun keep came up quite shortly and soon it was bright as day. Quite a number of early morning joggers came by and there was even a woman sitting there meditating. Then, we saw some fly fishermen coming to our location. I recognised one of them from my last trip to NSLK. But this bunch were rather experienced and only a few cast later, they had big splashes on the water. I was impressed and tried to edge nearer to them to get to the fishing zone where they got the fishes. But actually that didn't matter. It seemed that the PBs all just woke up and started coming out for breakfast. I soon started to hit on one after another all over, as good as the fly fishermen were doing. PBs here are no smallies, and quite a number are of decent size.

Ho Ho...I finally got you!

Hee Hee...Hee...Hee...

It felt like holding a pure silver ingot

When are you done with the photos? Asked the Sebby

I was doing like about 6 PBs already when my next fish hit on my shrimpy fly and pulled out my reel for a few seconds. Wow, that was certainly a fish on steriods. To my surprise then, when it surfaced, it had the characteristc black mark on the centre of the boday over its silvery gleaming scales. It was a Sebarau! I had quite a bit of difficulty to land it as it's thrashing was quite uncontrollable and I was most fearful of losing the prize catch of a lifetime. Seeing the danger, I quickly held on to the leader and lifted the fish up high on the ground away from the water. It was securely landed. Gleaming gleefully, I couldn't believe my good luck that I had finally had this rare specimen of a catch in Singapore waters. This was the best birthday present I have had. "Take a few more pics!", I told ZW. It was definitely not an everyday reservoir catch.

Last one for the road

AR, the fly fishermen that I recognised came over to talk to me and fish along side after that. He finally recalled seeing me at NSLK few weeks back. It was fun to make new friends when one goes fishing. We have a common goal and that is what make us ticked together.

I totalled 9 fishes that morning before I decided to leave. It was certainly an exhilarating morning. Well worth all the trouble to wake up early and deprive ourselves of our warm beds. Every once a while if you try hard enough, you would be rewarded with a catch to remember for a lifetime. This is just a moment. More stories for my grandchildren and my fishing buddies. ZW was so full of regret that he had forgotten his reel. However with results like this, we will be back.

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KFC - Fishing at Semenyih

Hazy days are back

We passed through some town

Sukida Resort came to my knowledge after reading some posts by people who has been there. This place has been well visited by fly fisherman, including the famous Uncle Amin. From their catch reports, all very nice catches. Since I picked up fly fishing, I started to go catch and release pond to train myself in this new fishing art form. All I had caught now, were just the various PBs from our reservoir. So, with the long weekend coming up, I planned a trip to Semenyih (Sir-men-nee) for some Malaysian style pond fishing. For this trip, it was just my family and TC that came along. I started the trip at 4am (ungodly hour) due to the expectation that the checkpoints would be jammed. Indeed it was, and at 4.30am, we were stuck in the jam for half an hour. Not too bad. From woodlands checkpoint, it was all the way to the NSH, and then a direct drive to Machap for breakfast.

We are here in Semenyih

Arriving at Tan Sri Haneco

Dirt road to what we thought was Sukida. (Turn out to be Fish Valley)

Nearing the entrance

The food at Machap was downright terrible, and the other Yakun-styled Kopitiam was not open (which was more decent). I threw away my first plate of rice as the chilli tasted too sourly to be edible. The second food, was unpleasant and I pushed it away too. I finally had some simple sandwiches and be done with it. From there, our 2nd stop was at the Ayer Keroh KFC reststop. There, the food was better and we had some waffles. And then from there, we went the remaining portion of the drive then we hit the GPS spot for Sukida Resort. We reached there arould 11am.

The route that my GPS indicated was a rather longish way. My maps were not updated, and the GPS didn't know about a new expressway that could have shorten the driving distance. On the way back, I relied more on TC's GPS as the routing was better. In fact, all the way up, my GPS went bonkers and it was showing my car driving in reverse gear. And at every exit, it would recalculate. Later at Ayer Keroh reststop, I did a restart of the phone and it was fine. When we arrived at the place, after talking to the owner, we found that the place we were at was Fish Valley instead and not Sukida. The rates here, RM20 for fly fishing, and RM30 for bottom fishing. From 12pm, Bottom was RM20. Cost was for 2 rods. They open only till 7pm, and don't have resorts for overnighters. In fact, they are constructing it now. The owner was downright friendly and didn't mind that we were going Sukida instead. In fact, he directed us the way there. [This month rod & line, it was said that Fish Valley had plabuks (the cat fishes similar to those in Bangkok Bungsumran.)

Lunch at a Construction site coffee shop

We followed the instructions but didn't manage to find it at the 5km distance mark that the Fishing Valley guy told us. Along the way, we had to passed by a row of Cemetaries, called Nirvana or something. It seemed that this was an area designated for this memorial purposes. We backtracked and decide to do lunch at a coffee shop built next to a construction site. It was big and clean and we also found the food to be not bad. We managed to get further directions from another group of customer who thought that we were Taiwan tourist. (Hm!).

Some kind of waterfall park here. Once we see this, we have overshot Sukida

At Sukida Resort. No Signage here

Badly maintained Signage

All the fishing cost

Tentage for functions

Scenic view to sip Kopi at the main pond

Another angle

The toilet

We finally did find Sukida Resort and it wasn't like what we expected. It was a little run- down, but the pond were quite big and natural looking. Even the signage was a smallish one, and not very visible from the road. There were a total of 3 ponds that were fishable. There was another pond where the water was full of weeds but very clear waters. I did try a little there but looks like no fishes at all. But the place was nicely layout and it didn't feel too Pondish. Fishing was only RM10 per rod. We asked for fishing dough or bait but they only had bread. (Surprise). The man said that they only encourage natural fishing here. The chalets were at RM70 and RM100, but it was fully taken as there was function going on. The lady said we could try Sri Bayu which was next door. The rooms there were at RM40 each.

A Hut near the 2nd pond

View of the 2nd pond

Sukida Ponies

We parked ourselves here

Me doing fly fishing

A wooly bugger that no fish was interested in

So we were kind of upsetted with our plans. We could fish here but was wondering how to settle the accomodation problem. Anyway, we left that aside and decided to just fish and worry about that later. My recce around the pond, I did see some small haruans at the edge of the ponds. There were some occasional big swirls in the water, going after the loose pieces of bread that others have left over. TC went on to do baiting, whereas I setup my fly rod and went about casting here and there. Despite all my efforts, there were totally no bites at all. Even dangling the fly right in front of the small haruans elicited no response! They probably showed me their haruan middle finger before swimming away. Good thing though was that my fly casting has improved. Over there, it was quite spacious at some spots and I could extend the full reach of my fly line. I tried all over the ponds, but didn't manage to get any reaction. The bread fly that I had tied at home didn't work well as it was sinking. Back to the drawing board!

TC was sitting one corner and doing boring bread fishing. The results were bad and he caught nothing as well. But the malay guy on our left side did score a small Patin. He has some kind of rig that could toss a good chunk of bread (which wasn't bought from the resort) quite a distance away. TC had some red thread multi-hooks contraption and he copied his method. But it didn't work as well probaby due to our in house brand bread. Around 4pm, I gave up my fly fishing and setup my sakura and joined him in bread fishing as well. We sat there for the next hours, and to our exasperation, nothing at all. The fishes here seemed well fed from all the loose bread and were quite smart in discerning what is edible and what's not.

Ponies liked the bananas

D scared to go near to the Ponies

Next time bring me more bananas ok?

Later in the afternoon, the resort Ponies were let our for a walk. D had some fun with the ponies that kind of roamed freely around the resort. They like the bananas that TC had, and even accepted our bread and leafy grass. Actually, for the bad fishing, they were quite entertaining us quite a bit.

Opposite side, a whole stretch of cemetary ground

Around 6pm, we decided to call it quits. From there, we aimed to look for a cheap motel/hotel to spend the night. Since we are already here, we planned to just spend the night somewhere and return to Fish Valley to give it a try. But for some unknown reasons, all the hotels/motels were fully booked. We found one that was zero star one but decided against it as it was run by an indian (got smell) and didn't look too clean. We broke off the search and went to Metro Point, a shopping mall, to have dinner first. Dinner was done at a place called Noodle house and it was quite good actually. After that, we did a spot of quick shopping and I managed to buy a car charger for my phone that worked just for RM8. Wah, my dopod has a special requirement for high current at 1000mA and most charger wouldn't even work.

We went into the wrong entrance for Sri Bayu and ended up in a construction site

A Semenyih ghost in white

After that, it was more searching for places to sleep. Finally, we decide to go back and find Sri Bayu as the Sudika owners had suggested. But the problem was that the road sign for Sri Bayu lead us through a cross-road terrain into a deserted location. But we passed by a makeshift sort of coffee-shop. We tried to ask for directions but couldn't quite understand what the people were saying. We made some wrong turns and was skirting a new looking fishing pond that had nobody and some wild dogs. We made a second pass at the coffee-shop from nowhere and had A to ask this time. We were then told that the entrance was from another side.

Backtracking to the entrance, we went to explore another way and ended up seeing excavators and bulldozers and long haired woman in white. That couldn't be right and then we went back to the signage to see if there was anyone to call. Indeed which we manged to reach them, we were told that that entrance was to a new branch and not ready yet. In the middle of the, a long convoy of vehicles came out of the darkness. TC and I were shocked and we thought we were just there and it looked pretty deserted! The old Sri Bayu as further down the road at another 5km away. We were also told that there was one last room available and we could have it. Whew, that seemed to solve our problem with a place to stay.

Finally! Found Sri Bayu

We finally arrived at Sri Bayu and found it to be more crowded than Sukida and there were plenty of people having fun fishing there. The room was paid and we were given the keys to the chalet. But when we reached there, it was just a small room with a double deck bed inside. That was quite alright but the place was quite dirty and smelled of bird droppings from the dough that people used for fishing. And all around us, were people fishing just in front of the chalet. They were smoking and making a lot of noise. How then can we sleep in such a place. While A and D went to have a bath, TC and I discussed and decided to return the room. We will then make our way back to Singapore. Problem was that I was already dead tired. The night before, I only had 2 hours of sleep. And after a hectic day, I wasn't too sure if I could last for the 4 hours drive.

All the fishing cost. This is not catch and release pond

Looks nice, but the chalet interior was stinky

The chalet

Someone caught a Patin next to our chalet

Anyway, that seemed the best course of action, and we then made our way back to Singapore. During the drive, indeed I almost dozed off while driving. Even gulging down a can of Red Bull didn't help this time. It was so bad that I was hallucinating from the lights in front of me. Sensing the danger, I decided to ask A to take over the wheels. Good thing was that she had been sleeping the whole day and did mange to let me sleep for an hour or so. The NSH at that time wasn't too busy and was managable for her.

We arrived in Singapore and by the time I sent TC back home, it was about 4am. That concluded a 24 hours drive up to Semenyih and a visit to 3 fishing ponds, all in a day. It was a bad fishing day, but a rather adventerous drive up to Malaysia Pond fishing Central for this trip.

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KFC - Nanyang Fish Farm 3rd Visit

My car servicing was up and I had to run into JB to visit my workshop. Pat had a stretch of leaves and joined me for the trip. We were planning to do some simple fishing after my servicing. I thought to go to Kulai Nanyang Fish Farm again. The last two times there, I had returned with a substantial zero. And it wasn't that the place has no fish. They are there in fact, and will sneer at me every once a while with some big splashes in the water. The local folks there seemed to know how to catch them and they were landing them quite frequently, right under my nose.

The last time, someone was doing fly fishing and was pretty successful, I must say. The short two hours there, I saw him landing about 4-5 Patins on fly. At that time, I wasn't into fly fishing and didn't think to observe how he was doing it and what fly he was using. Today, I had packed along my fly rod and gave it a try. As the farm wasn't too crowded, I had ample space to do my casting. All the flies I brought along, I tried. But all I caught were some branches behind me once a while.

Pat wasn't doing too well for his float fishing either. When we arrived, the man only gave us bread to fish as he didn't have the kng then. Although there were some bites, the fish quickly released them before we could react. But the local certainly know how to catch the fishes and was regularly bringing them up. It might be due to their customised concoction of the kng they had prepared.

After an hour plus or so, the ladies got bored and gave us another half an hour to fish. I admitted defeat for my fly rod and switch to my Sakura for some float fishing. I had a brief bite on the last minute but the fish was smart and released it quickly. Pat too had a nugde but again didn't connect. We left the place defeated. But while chatting with a local chinese guy beside us, we were told that there is another catch and release pond nearby. When we heard the word "arapamai", we all dripped saliva uncontrollably. On the way back, we did a detour to find the place but missed it. But with a carload of unhappy ladies, we better head for shopping and food else we won't be able to return in 1 piece.

Information about the fishing pond

He should be a teacher, with a whip like this

All the magic flies that I tried. None worked

With my fly rod

Back to baiting...guys opposite us having a field day



Com'on....bite please

Serene pond

People beside us got one

Took a while to coax it into the net

About 5 kg


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KFC - River Fishing At Sg Lebam

Finallly, we arrived at Sg Lebam Jetty to commence our river fishing trip. After discovering the place for quite a while, we didn't have the chance to fish this place till now. This trip, we have a couple of new friends, tan and his daughter Yali and kelvin and zu. We had met in the morning as usual under my block and had the usual breakfast fare at Carrefour Mac. TC surprisely turned up very early. So we were right on time.

Inside the forest, got lots of monkeys

You shoot, I shoot

Here got pirates or not?

The collect money lady pai kai boss

All our live prawns that KBLs can't resist

Driving up the wap to the Lebam Jetty was uneventful this time round. The friendly Buang was there preparing the boat. After some logistics of fuelling and getting baits, we were on the way. Tide at that point was rather low. Quite perfect timing for the day's trip. Howver, water wasn't clear due to the rain for the past few days.

A row of houses on the river. Fish where you live

Can have BBQ here

Setting up

Another boat polluting the air

That's how an anaconda boat would look like

Hey, a rainbow!

Everyone was pleased with the boat as it was big and comfy with ample fishing space. The weather today was cloudy and not blazing hot. We even saw a rainbow, before it drizzled a little. But nothing too wet. The various spots that Bujang brought us, didn't produce anything. We tried luring, bottom fishing with dead prawn, bottom fishing with live prawns and even trolling. But nothing was biting. The boat had a fishfinder, and occasionally we would past by some big blips on the device indicating some monster fishes at the bottom of the boat.

The white divider is where the fresh water comes from

Nice shady spot. Great for an afternoon nap

If only these were durians

Hardworking lurer

Captain of the boat

See, got toilet here

And cooking utensils

And tap for washing hands

The spot I missed my 2 KBLs!

The children playing like monkeys

We came to a spot that another boat was fishing. Bujang asked if they had anything and indeed they did. Bujang anchored the boat on the opposite side of the branch. At his instruction, we tossed out a live prawns on float. And I was elated to get a strike. But my fumblings didn't get me a hook up and prawn was gone. I tried another time and yet again another strike. But before I could do anything, a splash and it was gone. Boat at the other end got a KBL just in front of us. We couldn't see it clearly but could hear the flapping of the fish on the boat's bottom. Bujang at that time said that he would prepare lunch and said to go another place where it was windier to have lunch. I reluctantly agreed.

Can watch TV

D trying her soft rubber lure

Lunch time!

Sg Lebam River restaurant

This ninja caught a Catty

Wah! This fish so ugly!

Say I ugly, I bite you

No worry, this fish can hold

And cook to eat

Yummilicious!

At the new spot, TC had a brief excitement with a bending rod. But up came a kitty, due to his smelly prawns approach. Zu had numerous fights with a good size crab that kept trying to steal her baits. It got away but she finally landed another fellow, a Kuku (toadfish). It was a rather good size one, and Bujang said that it was good eating. He cooked it on the spot and indeed, the meat was tasty and sweet. After lunch, we went to various spots but there were no fish. I lost a lure and kelvin almost lost one, but was manged to be rescued. At 3pm, we took the slow boat back to the Jetty. The children had fun piloting the boat. Not something they can do everyday.

Find finder says got biggie below

Argh, my lure got stucked

Kel-Kar-ying on a river boat

Driving a boat is fun

Nice river view, with a smoking chimmy

The Sg Lebam Fishing Team

As fishy as it can get

For children, can rent this

Ok, shopping and eating time!

Despite the poor fishing, I did managed to inch closer to my tiresome quest to land a wild KBL. As for luring, the closest I had was to see a half beak chasing my x-rap. Beyond that, it was a risky exercise to lose the lure on some mangrove trees. But the trip was great fun. To fish in a river like this was a nice change from sea fishing. And on a boat like this, it was downright luxurious. We had good company today as well and the 2 children got along quite well. Bujang said that the boat can be used for fishing at night too, at the same cost. That sounded interesting and we might just give it a try.

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KFC - Pulau Semakau, Rubbish Island

To be honest, I was thinking that I should be catching some decent specimens for the Semakau Trip. Given the unique and un-spoilt location, there should be plenty of fishes there. Therefore, I was pretty much looking forward to it. After all the neccesary registrations and paper work, we all met at West Coast Mac to have a good breakfast before roughing it out for the day. The gathering point was at West Coast Pier, which I almost mistaken for the Marina Ferry Terminal.

We are going Semakau

Die lah, got number like this!

At West Coast Pier

On the boat (a 15 mins ride)

At the Pier, all the other anglers arrived rather punctually. We met our friendly guide, Aw, who was to take us there for the event. Aw is a very seasoned angler and have done decades of fishing, his perference being freshwater/river type of fishing. He is also one of the pioneering fly fisherman in S'pore. We also met up with tanwh, who was a friendly guy and a father of 2. In total, there were only about 10 of us. Our group already made up half of it. We were allocated number tags which double up as mearsuring tapes. In the event of catching fish, a photo of the catch was required to log it for the competition. We were not exactly there for the competition and any catch is good enough for us. I was given the number 144, which pretty much sums up the luck I have had that day.

Welcome to rubbish island

Ok, make sure you guys catch some fishes today and don't anyhow throw rubbish

Let's go!

Reaching Semakau, we were given a short briefing by Aw, before boarding a van to bring us to the southern tip. It was customary of the guide to start at this location, which according to Aw, should be good for a couple of catches. Later we will adjourned to the inner series of water enclosure at Cell 3. But the tide timing was not good, and furthermore this particular tide was not strong, and the water flow was weak.

Arriving at the Southern tip

On your mark, get set, go!

Clear water, fishing the channel

tan was definitely hardworking at luring

By the time we started fishing, it was already high tide. We had missed the incoming tide completely. Pat had some early bites on his minnow and surface cruisers. But that was it. Upon retrospection, we realized that all the other anglers disappeared from the southern tip and went off fishing in other locations. We were later to realize that the fishes by that time should be at Cell 3, which was an inner section of the area. It was percisely there that the 2 expert anglers landed 4 GTs and 2 Queens. I don't have any pictures with me, as we didn't see them in action and only know of it after the fishing from the photos from their camera.

Change Spot! Cell 3

Alex getting some Kelong Chi

Some of us trying at the opposite side of the pipes

the stretch there, rather rocky

We changed location from the southern tip to Cell 3 at around 11am. By the time we arrived there, the tide was already going out. So again, we missed the fishing at Cell 3. The place there was like some esturary area, and an angler said that there were Tarpons. For this competition, Tarpons have the highest score and he was trying to get them on Tamban jigs, but got Kelong Chis instead.

Marcus landed the catch of the day

I am 146

Marcus landed a Flathead here on his $3 lure. Not a bad catch considering what the rest of us were catching, which is nothing. ZW and I explored further into the other cells (which was supposedly out of bounds). However, it was difficult to fish there and I lost a lure, and ZW got his lure stuck there twice. We gave up and went back to the Cell 3 area. The weather got hot and we all waited at the shelter for the van to bring us back.

Evan, the angmoh landed a small Parrot fish which he felt not worth logging it for the competition. He seemed like a very experienced angler and was dressed head to toe with professional fishing attire. From his previous trip here, he had gotten a slot in the championship league from previous catches.

Going to the other Cell

Haiyo, Sangkot my Sasuke

Give up...

Back at HQ

Champion lurer

At the NEA building (which was thankfully A.C), there was a short informal ceremony of giving out the prize to the winner, which was the champion lurer for this trip and a few previous trip. I think he won himself a $150 voucher.

Boat came rather late, and we were soon back in mainland ending a failed attempt for our debut trip to Semakau. I think we should be trying this again, and hopefully recover from our mistakes and start catching something.

It was a rather disappointing day for me, but it goes to show half of the success of fishing is to know the behavior of the place. Getting to the right place at the right time is the other half of using the correct equipment and technique. We were all expecting biggies and was using a bit heavier tackle. Myself, I was casting my larger lures. I think now that smaller ones should work better. Next trip here, we should all be better experienced to get something. Till then!

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KFC - Bedok Reservoir Surprise

This weekend, there wasn't much in the way of fishing. But Andrew messaged me asking if I was doing anything. I suggested to try-out fishing at bedok reservoir as it was near his place. Even though he is staying very near to it, he had not been there before. Another reason for us not going there often is due to the insufficient parking lots. Getting a lot there is quite impossible at times. But today, we were surprised that there were free lots around. From the car park, it was a short walk to the boardwalk. We settled down at the bench.

As the boardwalk was rather crowded with quite a number of people fishing, we went to the right side of and fished on the rocky banks instead. Lots of people were baiting quite openly. We fished for about half and hour and there wasn't any action. Water was clear and I couldn't even see a tiny fish. From past experience, this wasn't a productive spot. However, someone on the boardwalk left on his bicycle and we were shocked to see him holding on to 3 large PBs. I ran to him and asked for some photos which he gamely obliged.

We were almost on the verge of giving up and returned to the bench for some snacks and drinks. Andrew said to try the middle of the boardwalk and I agreed. From the high vantage there, we could see some blurry image of a fish deep in the water. We identified it as Tilapia from the white/pinkish body. To our greatest surprise, the fish reacted by turning its body when our flies swam across. Excited, we continued to try to get its attention.

While Andrew was back at the bench to get something, I saw the tilapia inching forward to my squid fly as I dragged it past. I instinctively gave a yank. At first, I thought I had hit a rock as the fly was near the rocky bottom. But the line started to move to my delight. I peered down to the water and confirmed that I had a hookup. Excitedly, I shouted for Andrew to come help to get some pics in case the fish throw the hook. Tilapia on fly is quite unheard of (at least for me) and I didn't want to go back without any evidence. I fought the fish for a while which was fun on my new light rod, my 4 piece sakura. Andrew climbed down the banks and help land the fish. As we were deciding what to do with it, by the time we put the fish back into the water with a cord, the fish was already out of the water for a long time of 5 minutes. I was impressed that the fish was still quite fiesty and didn't die after such a long time out of water. They are definitely very hardy. A crowd had gathered and was impressed with our "big" fish.

We returned to fishing when Andrew saw another Tilapia in the water. As he had some bread with him, he quickly changed his rig to a small hook with long leader. Tossing out, we waited and went back to chit chats. Suddenly, I saw his limited edition cabelas bending and a fish was definitely on. Guiding it up to the surface, it was indeed the tilapia that we saw. For a tilapia, we were surprised that the fight was quite fiesty with tugs and water splashes. I held on the rod while Andrew again climbed down to land the fish. Crowd by this time had return again, puzzled by this 2 guy with the furry bait.

We decided to keep one fish alive and let ZW have it for his 3 feet tank. The other, we decided to Cnk for the dinner table. I had never eaten a tilapia before. When we arrived at ZW home, we decided to cook it immediately. It was surprisingly good eating and didn't have the muddy taste. Not bad at all. No wonder they do sell tilapias in Sheng Shiong. As it turned out, quite an unexpected outing and an enjoyable evening fishing with Andrew. I was really expecting nothing and results like this is quite pleasant.

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KFC - 18 Pounder Mama Toman

Early this morning, ZW and I woke up during the wee hours to do some lure fishing at the reservoir. This is the golden hour that fishes tend to feed. So depriving ourselves from our warm beds, we gathered our fishing barangs and off we went.

Reaching the ground, it was not yet light as we setup up our rods in the dark. But the day break came around 6.40am and soon we could see fish activities all over. ZW was on his favourite Avis 3 hook lure, and I was using my pink K-ten. After casting for about 20 mins, I got the first hit of a small but fiesty toman that put up one hell of a splashy fight. I released it and went back to luring.

ZW was not hitting anything this time perhaps due to his darker colored lure. Previously, it was able to get quite a number of hits successfully. But this morning, the color perhaps wasn't that conducive for the current lighting.

I went back to casting and in another 15 mins, I got an electrifying take. The thing that got my lure set off with it with the lines peeling off my reel efforlessly on my right. That went on for about 30 secs, till I got worried about running out of lines. But the fish stopped after a while and I managed to start to able to nudge it slowly back to my side. There was some see-sawing of me getting the lines back and then it took off again pulling out what I put back. But eventually, I sensed the fish tiring out and I was able to get the upper hand. I was pretty careful as I was just on a 10lb line on my 8-15lb blackrose. The lure was set pretty well and the fish wasn't able to shake it off.

I was struggling to hold it

From the feel, it was definitely a big one. I quickly called for ZW to get the boga in my back. As I pulled the fish near to the banks, it finally surfaced and did a couple more thrashes. ZW and I were shocked at the size and the broadnest of it's mouth. For a moment, we both thought it was a cat fish. But as soon as we got it on the banks, we could see from the whitish side that it was a mummy toman.

It gulped the whole lure into its mouth

Final pose to show the full extent of the body before releasing it

The fish was exhausted and didn't put up any fight when we were holding it for photos and all. I couldn't hold it properly from the sheer weight and the slippery body. Carefully, I plied open the lure from it's powerful jaws. Good thing I had my boga with me, else it would have been tough to handle it. We then released it back to the water. For a while, it was topsy turvey, but it soon recovered and righted itself and quickly swam away.

My lure after that couldn't swim well anymore. When I examined it at home, I discovered that the toman had punctured it with it's teeth and that water was seeping into the lure internal. No wonder it wasn't able to swim properly after that. Testament to how powerful a bite from a toman is. With this catch, I have set a new record for myself. A day to remember and quite worth the lack of sleep with results like this. :)

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KFC - Pontian Kelong

It was a rare occasion for Andrew's family to be out full force with us. Today, the plan to head for the Kelong at Pontian. Andrew was eager to try it after reading the write up on the last recce trip. IZ and Jean too came along for their first try at Pontian. We were to find out that Jean studied here and hence was familiar with the area inside out. Since we were rather early as the tide was to be at around 3pm, we headed for Kukup instead to have a look see.

Reaching the town of Kukup

Quaint town of Kukup with the newly built ferry terminal

There was a chinese storey telling competition going on here

Kukup GSS!

20 years ago, here got lots of fishes

Kukup belongs to Pontian

Being the first time in Kukup, it was a "nose" opener for them. Kukup has a distinct "salty fish" smell to it mixed with all the garbage collecting below the stilts of the buildings. But this is a famous place for seafood and local delicacies. We did some shopping for crackers and tidbits and such, as we are not going to get lunch on the kelong.

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Although I planned to bring them to the nearby durian farm, all thought it was best to head straight for the kelong. So from Kukup, in about 40 mins, we arrived at the jetty. I contacted the owners and soon, they came along to meet us.

Tide at that time was really low. The boat had to move slowly in the shallow waters. But once we hit the deeper waters, we zoomed away to the Kelong just ahead of us. Water turned better the further we leave the shore. Reaching there, we found the place to big and spacious. Also, not many people were there.

Yes, we are

I caught this fish!

Renovation going on

Just 15 minutes here, got commotion!

Holy cow! A 2kg or so Kurau!

Wahsay..

And into the icebox with the other big fishes *saliva dripping*

Just within 15 minutes, there was a commotion. Someone had gotten something big and his friend was scrambling for the long net. We all ran there to have a look, and I was shocked to see a 2kg+ Kurau in the net. The fishing looked promising indeed. And when the man open the icebox to put the latest catch, we found many other catches inside it. From what we gathered, the group had been there since yesterday.

Andrew also catch sight of a leaping Kurau said to be in the region of 6-7 kilos. We hastily toss out all our bottom fishing lines and kept our fingers crossed. But alas, the fishes never did come.

I am a dedicated bait fish supplier

Extreme fishing (for half beaks)

Finally got it!

I also have! female one

The group left the place around 3pm leaving the entire kelong to us. But despite the incoming tide, there wasn't any bite at all. The only one was when Andrew got a malong eel. It was lost however when we failed to navigate it into the net. Luckily I managed to catch it on video.

We did have some fun though catching the swarms of half beaks and little todaks. Iz and Jean managed to get their very first half beaks.

Quiz time..

Are we there yet?

Hoo...I challenge with you, kor kor. We swing 1 thousand times can?

A Pari left its mark here

The dried up tail

Hmm...looks like "matchbox" car

Pure, simple happiness. I am a bumblebee

We left the place around 5pm and headed for Pontian town for dinner/lunch. Jean wanted to bring us to try the famous Pontian wanton noodles. Unfortunately, upon reaching there, we found it closed. Hence we went to the only mall in Pontian, Billion mall for KFC instead. That was followed by some shopping before we headed back to Singapore via Tuas.

We all agreed that the place was rather promising and vowed to try an overniter one day.

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KFC - Teluk Sengat Rakit

A few times we said to try out the Rakit at the Teluk Sengat area. But it had been postponed due to last minute decisions to go to some where nearer. To get here, it was needed to drive up to Kota Tinggi and come down via the road to Desaru. to the other side of sg Layang. Therefore, a rather long round about drive. This time round, I decided to pay it a visit once and for all to find out about how the fishing is at the other side of the river from Kong Kong. TC was there recently to visit the Crocodile farm and informed me that he saw some Rakits there near the Jetty.

Reaching there, indeed there were rolls of Rakit around the Jetty. Being high tide, we did see activities in the water, and even some sea birds catching a herring or two. I quickly got the Rakit contact from the food stall and in my smattering of broken Malay, called the Rakit to get them to pick us up. By some miracle, the man understood me and came to pick us within 5 minutes. In fact, the boat ride to the Rakit was verynear and we could actually see him waving from the Rakit.

When we landed on the Rakit, we were immediately impressed with the place. It was big, and clean and there were lots of space to fish. The fee was an affordable RM20, and we were even given a jug of iced orange drink. A first in any Kelongs or Rakits that we have been. TC went about doing his apollo with his prawn meat and sotong, while I tried to test the water by using Tamban jig, and then doing some luring with my Regno.

But alas, the fishing was very bad. Even TC with his baited hooks, didn't manage to get anything at all. But I did see some solitary fishes swimming in the water. Water was fairly clear, but it turned to the brackish type very soon when we started fishing. We had missed the incoming tide and with the outgoing tide, water quality was rather bad.

It was only after some effort that I managed to catch 1 tiny weeny glassfish. With that, TC threw out a float with the live bait. And then he got a small Todak with it. But Todak after landing on the floor, wiggled and freed itself and gave us the slip.

We left shortly not wanting to waste our time here. On the way back, the boatman told us that the water had been spoiled by all the reclamation done by Singaore. From my experience fishing in this water, I tend to agree with them. The water had indeed turned rather bad lately.

It was such a waste that the fishing was such as this seemed such a comfortable place to spend a lazy afternoon. Hopefully, the water would get better in the near future, and we could all come back and enjoy this place again.
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KFC - Toman Fishing

Since I had just returned from the Durian farm in Segamat, we had a short meeting at LSR to celebrate Alicia's birthday and to eat durians that I had lugged back from the land of durians. The rest of the children mischievously buried her presents in the sand at the playground. The poor girl had to dig it out with her bare hands. But of course, X marks the spot and it was easily found.

Lucky for us, Marcus came to join us. And we discovered his secret talent in opening durians. Otherwise, I would probably have hacked it to pieces. The rest had a good time devouring the durians and luckily, I had brought back enough.

As we were at LSR, I tried a little fishing too. But again, the fishes were not at home. After trying for an hour, I gave up.

Remebering that ZW had a secret spot, we went to the place for recce. And to our excitement, we saw people catching some good size toman in front of us. Unable to contain our itch, ZW and I decided to come back again with our rods.

Reaching there, we tried to squeeze ourselves along the rocky bank for fishing. ZW was the first to hit on a baby toman. But alas as I was getting my camera out, it gave ZW the slip and fell back into the water. I hit the next fish and again, it was another toman. This seemed to be a Toman spot. ZW again hit on a fish, and this time, it was no baby. It gave the rod a good fight and the lines were even spooling out. But unfortunately, we only managed to video it before it again threw the hook and ran away. I took the next fish and another baby. After that, all fell quiet. And since it was getting late, we made a move back to civilisation.

It was a great short session and a very fruitful ones. ZW was very successful with his unbranded silvery blue lure. My 3D minnow also worked well. Definitely a very potential spot here.

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KFC - Ah Huat Kelong

The last time we had been in Tuas was quite a number of months ago. For the last visit to Ah Huat, we met the new owners who promised that the kelong would be nicely renovated by the next time we come again. They had recently bought over the Kelong and is in the process of renovating it. At the current state then, it was poorly maintained. There were rather big gaps in the wooden planks, and also not much of space to fish properly. I thought of revisiting this kelong thinking that it would have finished renovation by now.

This morning, it was initially decided to head for Desaru Rakit. (Probably Teluk Sengat). But as we gathered for breakfast at Carrefour, I recalled that Ah Huat Kelong should be due for a revisit to check out the new condition. All agreed and a quick call to Liman had him waiting for us at the Jetty. My last trip there, I had hit upon a huge Queenie that bent my rod like sugar cane.

I want this fish and that fish


Wah, someday he will have this kind of boat

Do I look like an actress?

Jason kelong (nicest Kelong in Tuas)



Alicia caught her fish on her own


From the upcoming tide, got some small action.
Something took off my fish head

Upon arrival at the Kelong, we found that it was still the same kelong with nothing being done to it. The so called renovation did not take place at all. At first, we wanted to change to another place. Liman told us that the Kelong at Jason would require a minimum of 10 pax at RM130. Rather steep prices. But seeing that the Kelong was empty, we decided to try it out again.

He got his Todak fishing skill recertified


Kelong dogs. They eat fish

A Fireworm (never never touch it)

Hmm...an alien is growing on this Tamban

Well, angler of the month


Who broke the plank and fell into this hole

After fishing for a while, we found that other than Tambans (loads of it), there was nothing else in terms of good fishing. TC was doing alot of apollo with prawn and sotong meat. With that, he got the biggest fish of the trip. A good size Bream. He also managed to get a decent Todak. ZW, who usually would get a Todak or two, failed in this aspect. Todaks were around, but in small numbers and puny ones.

Reclaimation works. Singapore is getting bigger and bigger

The caretaker told us that the fishing had gone down due to the reclaimation work just across the water. From this Kelong, the reclaimed land was rather near. (<1Km). For that, the water was affected and all the fishes had gone away. But the Tambans were rather plentiful and even the fishing people on boats would anchor near the kelong to get them.

They "stole" some of this cactus plant


No fish no fish, said the Kelong helper

Jason's nice Kelong

Passing by the island (there were some people on it)

The tide went down and then it was rather quiet. Live baiting would see the bait fishes still alive after an hour. We decided not to waste time and left the place around 3pm.

Durian GSS

Zhi Char from Tian Tian Lai Restaurant

From there, TC led us to him favourite restaurant near Gelang Patah. According to him, lots of Singaporean come here to eat. The regular food dishes were rather cheap. Only the live seafood was comparable to Singapore's prices.

Followed by dessert

Ready...

Being Durian season, there were some durians for sale at RM5 per kg. Very cheap prices. We ordered around 4Kg, and to my surprise, the durian was top quality and we had a good durian party. Everyone ate to their fill. Simply delicious.

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KFC - Rock fishing at Srau, East Java

Srau Beach is situated at East Java. I was there for a holiday, as well as to meet some relatives. Not knowing what to expect, I brought along my fishing rod just in case the fishing was promising.

First view of Srau beach did not disappoint me with her beauty. I had earlier check out the photos from the internet and thought they were heavily edited. But it was true down to every detail. The beach was clean and the water, crystal clear. Mixed with the greenary and open sea, it was paradise on Earth.

I was initially thinking if it was possible to fish at all. But we saw in the distant, someone with a fishing rod. My heart skipped a beat. We quickly found the way to climb up the hill and to meet the lone fisherman pearched on the rocks.

He was alone at first, but was joined by 2 others of his friends. I had a chit chat with him and found that he was in fact fishing for todaks! Over here, Todaks are a prized catch, fetching quite a good sum of money in the market.

I quickly setup my rod and started fishing. Since I didn't have any bait, I tried jigging for bait fishes. But it was uneffective, and the rocks at the bottom snagged my lines a few times. I then turned to luring, much to the amusement from the 3 old man.

They came over and out of curiosity, looked through the things in my fishing bag. Since they were kind and friendly, I gave each one of them a "souvenir" from Singapore. They were immediately greatful and I became their good friend after that. One even enthusiatically said the fishing lure was so realistic that it will definitely work. Actually, on my first cast, I saw a grouper through the clear water chasing after it. Unfortunately, it turned away at the last moment. After casting for a few times, my lure got snagged by the corals and was lost.

I left the place knowing that I have indeed been to a fishing paradise that most people wouldn't get a chance to see. If only I had some baits.

http://community.mocca.com/articles/rock-fishing-srau-beach-east-java

KFC - Ah Fatt With New Friends

The last time I had been here was actually a long 6 months. Probably the longest time period that I have clocked for the return trip. Therefore, this trip was long awaited. However, it was unfortunate that many of KFC members couldn't make it for this. There were new faces for this trip though from ChiewSim and ChinHua who joined us today with their little princess, YenHan.

After a brief exchanges of greetings under my block, the jolly bunch consisting of IZ, Pat, myself and A with the above new fiends set off to Carrefour Mac to rendevous with Yew and Family. They arrived rather punctually I must say. Therefore, we made good time reaching Leman Jetty. In fact a bit too early that we had to wait for the boat.

Reaching the Kelong, I was immensely happy that we had very clear water for this trip. This was by far the clearest water I had seen. It made me just happy to look into the water column and see plentiful of fishes swimming around. Such water clarity was rather rare and perhaps only during this time of the year. Weather however was burning hot. Kelong itself was moderately occupied with about 64pax. Not too bad and we still have ample fishing space.

We set up quickly and started fishing. CH with his cheapo rod set managed to get some good cactches. Tambans however were conspicously missing. We only managed to get some decent bait fish. IZ quickly used some and hit on his favorite Todak rather quickly. That done, he went on to target other species of fishes. (at the end of the day, he got bored with Todak fishing).

The other folks were just simply relaxing and enjoying themselves fishing with no pressure whatsoever. It was easy to get some thing on simple Tamban jig baited with sotong. Soon the make shift aquarium was filled with assortment of fishes. However, we were indeed very low on fishes suitable for live baiting. Seeing that, I bought from Ah Yong (Ah Fatt's Kelong manager/boss) some live prawns. But using live prawns were trickly as they would be quickly killed by all the peckings from the small fishes. Therefore, they don't last very long.

I was also glad to see people getting squids, no less in the day time. Encouraged by their results, I also did some squidding and managed to break my long standing squidless period of close to a year. In fact, the rest of the folks too managed to get one or two squids. They were indeed coming into the season.

Night came and I tried out luring to see if the Parangs were around. And to my utmost gladness, they were indeed. I had many strikes until I finetuned the technique and landed one. Followed by another. CH and IZ got excited and tossed out L-minnows as well. IZ finally managed to score his first Parang on lure. CH came very close and had a hookup. But it dropped on the way near the kelong. Other than that, there were plenty of Lorongs to catch during the night.

Early next morning was however a great disappointment. I woke up at 4.30am and couldn't get any action. This was so due to the abundance of Jelly fishes all over. it was so thick that my lures would occasionally scope some gooey bits of Jelly fishes. Rather irritating.

The next morning, the Jelly fishes started to disperse and the water got a bit better. However, we start cannot get enough of Tambans. From the little we got, these were quickly used by Yew and others to try out Todak fishing. And it was very successful. Todaks were rather dumb here and they would go for the live bait in a short waiting time. CH and Yew with Family had good fun catching them.

We packed rather early as most of us were quite tired from the fishing under the blazing hot sun. After a hearty lunch, we departed from the trip with some pleasant memories. Although not a fantastic trip, it wasn't too bad and a rather enjoyable one due to the great company of new and old friends.

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KFC - Search For KBL Part 2

The boss at the Kong Kong Jeti told us to return this week as the current would be slower. He said that KBLs bite during the slower tide. ZW and I were keen to try out for our first kbl again and planned to return for our revenge. Alas Andrew couldn't come this time round. At the last hour, Pat and Ros decided that they could join us. That made for a good 5 pax to a boat with the boatman.

Upon arrival, we almost couldn't get any boatman. The boss, Yarkob made some frantic calls and managed to find someone to be our boatman for the day. We were informed to book before hand as the weekends would usually be fully booked. The boatman soon arrived and we moved out around 9am.

This time, the boat went kind of far for our first spot to fill up our bait well. ZW as rather lucky to hit on a small queenie on his tamban jig. With the cherrywoord, the fight was a good one.

The river system that promised of > 10 kilos KBL

First cast, and he was on!


Up came a nice baby trevally

Doesn't he look like a trishaw man??

He caught something, a grunter

Thereafter, the boatman brought us rather far into an estuary system where he said the kbls here would be big. He mentioned 10 kilos at least. That kind of number certainly made our mouth wet with saliva. The moment the boat was parked, he immediately had a hit. From the action, not a bad one. After some muscling with his conolon rod, up came a beautiful baby trevally. I was shocked to know that one could get them here. We were definitely all keyed up with this success and toss out our rigs with the greatest of hope.

But the minutes ticked away and nothing was biting at all. Initially, there were some disturbances to our live prawns which came up half eaten and all. But half hour later, it was largely untouched. At this time, the sun was blazing hot and we were all suffering from an overdose of UV. Pat and Ros were not too prepared to be baking directly under the sun. Seeing that, I suggested to take a break and return to the jetty for lunch first before carrying on.

Coffee shop from the 60s

Food was ok

Toilets from the past!

Kopi Lim shop

The road where we were at

But I was caught unaware that we had actually ventured very far from the Jetty and the return trip alone used up half of our fuel. We had lunch at a very quaint looking shop that was reminisence of the 60s. Even the toilet was old school complete with a "the ring" kind of well.

Wah, not easy parallel parking!

Tower of Pisa, in Kong Kong

Our venerable Anchorman!

Workers fishing from the top

He knew exactly where the tambans are

After a respite from the burning sun and cooling ourselves down with gassy drinks, we ventured out again for attempt number two. First stop again was to refill our bait well which by now was left with half the live prawns and no tambans. Boatman brought us to a construction site which to our amusement, the workers were even fishing from the platform.

The weather took a sudden turn and it began to drizzle. Luckily, it wasn't heavy and we managed to stay fairly dry. After filling up our bait wells, the boatman brought us to another river system. We were later to find that it was just barely 1km from the jetty.

The crab that caught the Tamban with the fisherman that caught the crab

KBL not at home today

Ros had some fun with grunters

waiting...waiting

So, it was no surprise that we didn't get any bites at all. Ros had some fun with catching some small grunters but that was about it. Pat had a funny catch of a crab grabbing on to his dead tamban. I again caught a tree fish...and lost my xrap. Around 4pm, just as the tide was filling up the river, we ran out of baits. I called it a day and returned back to the jetty defeated with our tails limping behind our backs.

But the timing was just right for us to drive back to Singapore via the woodlands checkpoint. From the voice traffic system, we were told that traffic was smooth flowing. However, it was not the case and we were caught in bumper to bumper jam. But it was indeed moving rather fast and we cleared it in like half an hour. Not too bad.

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KFC - Kong Kong Boat Fishing

The trip originally started out with OTC wanting to visit Kong Kong again after his last fruitful catch session at the Rakit. ZW and I were interested in trying out the boat fishing that we changed upon the last trip. Andrew also made time to fish with us, quite rare given his busy work. One thing was foremost on our minds: KBL.

It was a beautiful day

At the Jetty

All the prices you need

They sell live prawns here

We arrived at Kong Kong around 9am after some delay. But with a tide time of around 12pm, we were just about right for the boat trip. TC and friend decided to head for the kelong instead. For the 3 of us, after some enquiries with the owner, we soon boarded the boat with a young guide. At the jetty, there plenty of pictures with mighty good catches. We couldn't help focusing on the Kims in the picture and imagining ourselves holding on to the prize trophy.

Beautiful river system


Bait fishing at the Ujam

A Lorong (Big eye herring)

Boat is equipped with bait well

First stop was to fill up our bait well with Tambans. We were brought to a abandoned Kelong. Tambans were indeed plenty and soon we had enough. And it was back to the river system again to target our Kims.

Fishing makes people happy


Nice marshy area

Start your engine

Alamak...caught a Tree fish

These buggers are terror

Scenic spot


Naughty lure, never get me anything

But alas, the Kims were not around. Although there were some signs of fish activites (splashes in the water etc), we were not getting any bites. At some places, the mozzies came to bite us instead. Andrew got quite badly bitten as he was dressed rather skimpily. ZW and I fared better as we were covered from head to top, more so to protect ourselves from the hot sun. But for this trip, the weather was nice and not too overly hot.

Since no KBL, we decidied to go "deep" sea

And then to "surecatch" spot

Not everyday can touch a oil tanker "ass"

I also want

Wow...big grouper!


ZW broke the egg

The boat is huge!

Plane heading towards Changi Airport


Andrew's ibu gelama

We could sense that the guide was noticibily desparate for us to get some catches. As a last resort, he brought us to his "surecatch" place. And to our greatest surprise, it was under a mega oil tanker, just next to its giant propeller.

But true enough, there were indeed lots of fishes down there. We had to aim at the properller and there would be some bites. But due to the postion of the boat, it was rather hard to get to the sweet spot. Boatman had numerous strikes but got snagged for some. But he did brought up a beautiful 1Kg grouper. There was another catch that was estimated at 3kg, but it escaped just at the surface with the boatman spilling some malay expletives. Andrew had a beautiful catch of a ibu gelama (mama gelama) and ZW had a smaller one. I too got a small grouper (ard 300g) which I let go.

Place for the firefly trip

Yummilicious!!

We called it a day around 4pm and headed for Kota Tinggi to check out the route to the firefly for Andrew. At the corner restaurant, we asked to cook our big grouper and had our dinner there. Grouper was yummilious and as fresh as it could get. Just nice for the 3 of us.

We were rather disappointed that we didn't get any Kims, but it was an interesting trip overall. I had never done a river boat fishing before, and not to mention, a boat trip fishing under a boat. Not an everyday location. As for the Kims, we will be back.

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KFC - Kelong Pontian

In all my years of kelong fishing, I had never heard of a kelong in the waters at Pontian. It was only by a chanced web browsing that I discovered the whiff of it's existance. Being the nosy Kelong explorer that I am, we decided to pay it a visit this Labour day.

A clean beach that was devoid of rubbish (rare find in Malaysia)

Getting there was easy, but finding where to board the boat to the Kelong wasn't. Equipped with our trusty navigational tools, we found our way to a possible boarding area. The beach looked clean but it wasn't the correct place. Only after some calls to our contact, we finally managed to find ourselves at the right places.

Gangster lizard says cannot pass!

When we arrived there and was walking to the Jetty, a humongous monitor lizard came slithering out of the bushes and blocked our way down the stairs. Luckily, he was heading for another kelong and went off shortly. Otherwise, our this recce trip would need to be postponed to another "lizardless" day.

The ride was a short 10 minutes ride and we soon were in view of the Kelong. From the distance, it was way beyond my expectation. I had thought it would be smallish and dirty old kelong. But boy, I was wrong. In fact, it looked on par with the ones at Sibu in terms of size and facilities.

Kelong flyer (guarantee won't jam)

Lots of green to the brown and blue here

We settled under a shelter that was thoughtfully placed around the kelong. The kelong had a longish extension further into the sea, and the area for fishing was abundant. We started fishing and found that the fishing here was not that easy. Most of the bait fishes that we got occasionally were rather smallish and not suitable for use as bait. However on the surface of the water, there plentiful of fishes which were at first thought were todaks. However, we confirmed them to be half beaks. Seemed like this was a half beak paradise.

Sip your tea and enjoy the island view

At the far end of the extension, one could see Palau Pisang. Something tells me that there would be plenty of monkey business on the island. The kelong was still undergoing upgrading works. It looked to be better and bigger in the future.

Float rig

ZW first half beak

Anchrovies on Jig

Beautiful half beaks (with a pinkish tint)

Lots of these which got irritating after a while

Tiny todaks here

Selar Papan

The half beaks could be gotten on tambans jigs, as well as throwing out a float with a small hook baited with some fish meat. There were some todaks too, but small ones. As they mix in with the half beaks, they all looked alike.

My lure got chomped into two by huge monster (aka, the kelong plank...hehe)

ZW tyring out the lasso rig

I think plenty of these here

The fishing was generally slow and no one was getting big catches or anything. Gelamas were evidently around when we saw some people fishing for them with sarong worms.

The happy boy with his surprised catch

Around 4+pm just as the tide was coming up, the fishing got a little better. Our neighbour had a seemingly stucked line. They did some "guitar twanging" with the lines and managed to loosen it. As the guy was reeling in, out came a decent sized grouper. First sign that this place could yield some surprises after all.

this guy is cool and frequent visitor to Ah Fatt

Good table size Kurau

Next, our malay neighbour saw his rod twitching and went on to engage the fish. Without much commotion or anything, he reeled up a Kg+ kurau. We were like "wow!". His rod was rather heavy and there wasn't much fight at all.

Another tick for fishes caught for him

Size 8 Kurau

My rod got some disturbances but alas, I couldn't connect with anything. However, ZW got lucky and he too pulled up a fair sized Kurau. Another first for him at this kelong, along with his catches of half beaks.

This view very much like the one in Labrador Park

Kelong in the Sunset

Another Singapore car behind mine!

We left the place around 6+ just as the sun was going down. While waiting for the boat, we had a friendly chat with a group of girls (family) who incidentally were from Singapore. Quite an unusual sight to see Singaporeans here, and a all woman fishing group somemore.

Fishing in the Kelong was generally slow but showed promises of some big catches if one is patient enough. Not a bad recce and another addition to our long list of future kelong visits.

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