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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