About Me

My photo
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
At present I am retired and spending my time mostly on fishing and photography. I bought my first SLR way back in 1982. It was a Minolta XG1. My last film camera was the Maxxum 9000. When the fantastic Sony Alpha 100 was launched, I changed over to the digital system. My Alpha 580 was acquired followed closely by my Alpha 77.

My main interest in photography is lifestyles, sports, sceneries, nature, birds and macro shots. Lately, I have spend more time on bird and nature shooting. As a regular contributer to some fishing magazines, I shoot quite a lot of photographs of anglers too....hence my photography blog is named 'SHOOT THE HOOKER'.



Having grown up near the confluence of two, the Kangsar and the Perak Rivers, it is not surprising that one of my main interest is fishing. My younger days were spent swimming and fishing.... with a bamboo pole, line and small hooks.Now while fishing, my friends and I do take a lot of photographs of anglers in action. The anglers must be careful so as not to accidentally hook on to a photographer. So I think as a reminder, I would like to name my fishing blog as 'HOOK THE SHOOTER'.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Peacock Bass Of Malaysia.

A nice one from Batu Gajah area.
This took a fly.

Kota Bahru of Perak too
has many large ones.

This beautiful fish took a crankbait.

It went for a fly.

Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort
 at Batu Gajah, has a
 good population of them.

These are only a small sample
of the lures and flies effective
for catching peocock bass.

Another one from CWS.

A good and cooperative fish
for ladies to take up fishing.

Air Kuning of Perak is a place
 for whoppers. This is small
by comparision.

This snaggy pond is one of the most populated pond at CWS.

Minnow lures are
very effective producers.
Peacock bass is a misnomer. Actually this fish is a cichlid originating from South America's Amazon, Orinoco and the Rio Negro basins. With its bass like look and behaviour, it attracted a lot of attention from anglers the world over. There are many species of peacock bass in South America, of which the cichla monoculus is one of them.
It is this specie that was transplanted by the acquarium trade into Malaysia. Many years ago, an acquarium fish farmer spread the news that he had a few ponds full of the peacock bass and they possesed great fighting qualities when hooked. A fishing magazine took up the story and some pond and resort owners quickly stocked their ponds and lakes with these fighters.
Some of these fish escaped into the Kinta River system of Perak. As a fish that tend to occupy lentic (slow) moving water and dense underwater structures, they slowly found their ways into most of the ponds and lakes. And the rest is history.
Named as one of the greatest freshwater fighters around, they readily strike subsurface lures including jigs, flies and crankbaits. Poppers and gurglers are also known to be effective early in the morning.
Now many anglers specifically target these acrobatic fighters, which in my opinion is a great sport fish. As a word of caution though, I do hope they will not be release into places where there is no such fish as they are rather carnivorous and predatory.

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