KALUI KEBAB.

Kalui Kebab was published in the
 January 2000 issue of Rod and Line
fishing magazine.

    


     Mention kalui fishing, normally there will be either of the two types of reactions. One is an enthusiastic, "where?" The other is a contemptuous, "cheh!"
     As a dish, the kalui is not rated as mouth-watering (thanks God for that). But as a fighter, it should be among the top ten Malaysian freshwater fish. Being flat bodied, it will not run like the toman or leap like the kelisa. It is a bruiser that fights doggedly to the last, giving short powerful runs in between.
     A few weeks ago, Kok phoned me about his 'secret kalui spot' in Tanjung Tualang. "My line was broken three times!" he exclaimed excitedly. "We are going there this Saturday and you can come provided we blindfold you all the way, he offered. 'We' here meant Kok, Chow and Chan...my buddies from my Chenderoh days around the seventies. In fact Kok and I were classmates in Clifford School, Kuala Kangsar. Blindfolding was a trick we played on one of our friends back in the seventies. We had him salivating with our many colourful tales of giant tomans at our 'toman secret spot'. After a few days of tarik hargaing, we had him eating out of our palms. What really happened was we showed him a dead pet toman of one of our friends, weighing bout 12 kilos. Tales of imaginary fight was related to him with pepper, chilly and spices added in. It worked beautifully for he begged and even threatened us with bodily harm to take him along. At last we promised to take him, provided he was blindfolded to prevent him from knowing the way. When his blindfold was eventually removed, he found that the pond was the one he took us to a month earlier. We ran helter-skelter when he pulled out his parang. Well, as close friends, everything was forgiven after a day of sulking. Today we even laugh together about that very incident.
     Early morning at 5.30a.m. we assembled at Chow's place. Breakfast in Tanjung Tualang was a hurried affair as we were eager to fish. Parking our car, we still got to walk almost another kilometre before we were at the pond side. It was a big pond with weed and water hyacinth covering the edges.

Ripe juicy buah ara. The smell itself
makes you want to eat them.

     After tackling up, Kok took out his secret bait. No wonder the car was having an aromatic fresh fruit smell. The buah ara were just ripe and juicy. Some were chopped finely and thrown into the water as ground baits, while others were diced and gingerly pierced by the hook and strung like kebabs. We settled down to wait after tenderly casting the baits out.
     The water surface was calm, except for some tomans chasing their preys, Once in a while some big head carps could be seen playing in he center of the pond. Judging from the splashes and the occasional tails jutting out of he water, they must be big! A few professionals were seen collecting their catches from the numerous nets and rawais strung all over the pond like spider webs. Their catches were mostly big head carps, kaluis, belidas and lampams. The one-man sampans they used were almost sinking from the weight of their harvest, which consisted of many whoppers. It seemed the grass carps here were even bigger, but were very smart.






Encik Hasmzy with his
 sampan full of the day's catch.

     When all the fishermen were gone, Kok hit pay dirt. His line went taut and he struck and played this fish well. All of us got to reel in our lines to give him room to fight. A 3.8 kilo kalui was the reward,. This fellow really gave him a good run for his money. Subsequently, he landed four more kaluis of about 2 kilo plus. Talk about luck, we asked Kok which bomoh he consulted as he was the one to get all the bites. We began to budge in on his hot spot. In the end he was kicked out like the proverbial Arab. Almost immediately he hooked another two kaluis of about 3 kilos from our just vacated spot. I guessed we fitted the name 'stingko' with no room to spare. Boy! You should hear how Kok crowed and bragged. We were already planning to throw him into the pond, but the idea of us spending our lives behind bars with no fishing saved him.

The kalui kebab. Fruits
were cut and gingerly strung
 onto the hook and line.

     Kaluis sometimes can be very finicky feeders. There was one incident many years ago, where the lotus plants in one pond all died leaving the kaluis with no cover. Scores of heads were seen bobbing up when kaluis came up for air. One guy was pulling up fish after fish while my friend and I  got nothing. Other than James Bond, I think I am the next best spy around. He was using 10lb trace while we were using 16lbs. My other talent was thick face begging. Armed with the new 10lb trace I was in business too. You see, if your line is too thick, the kaluis will not bite, and if it is too thin the tiny teeth will cut the line.

Kok and his big kalui. I think he
could 'jampi' them into taking his baits
 as he was the only one who caught
 eight!  Notice his hairy legs? Try
 to guess his nickname.

     There was a lull in the activities and I took this opportunity to ask Kok the estimated size of the kaluis that broke his lines. Smiling devilishly he explained what actually happened. Twice his kalui entangled themselves around some rawais and once his line scrapped  against some underwater snags. One thing I learnt was when anglers tell you their fishing stories, especially those about the big ones that got away, you got to read the fine prints with a microscope. At around noon, I changed over to float fishing. Casting to a far patch of hyacinth, I let out line so my float could follow the floating weed. After just five minutes, my float disappeared and I struck. Immediately, I know I had a big one on. There were three long runs and another five short ones before we could see the fish. It was my biggest kalui at 3.6 kilos. Half an hour later I landed another 2.6 kilo kalui. Now Kok and I belonged to the same camp and we started to needle the other two have-nots. Well, that was part of the fun of fishing. Kok caught one more kalui of about 2 kilos. All were released except for the three biggest. We finally called it quits at around 2.00p.m. as the sky was threatening.
     Seeing the number of bighead carps and spotted belidas being caught daily, I think these migrants had transplanted well and are breeding themselves in our water. If that is the case then the future of freshwater fishing in our country could be improved by breeding and releasing more fish. We are fast becoming a notable player in the fishing tackle manufacturing industry. So if we don't nurture and actively encourage angling, I think we may suffer from lack of field test feedback for our research and development.

Encik Aziz with his day's
catch. Look at those carps!.

STARGATE POND, TANJUNG TUALANG.

This article was published in the December
1999 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

  

   It had been quite sometime since I went toman fishing at Temenggor Lake. Needless to say, the pull of a toman was getting the better of me. Anglers are such if you own an outdoor vehicle, you're quite popular and if you have a car-topper, your rating will double up. My friend Ronnie, had both! The main problem was he had lost interest in fishing since joining our photographic club. In fact, he had stopped fishing for almost a year. Luring fish to take baits have been our specialty. Enticing Ronnie to fish, well.....



   Stories of giant tomans (blown up a few kilos of course) chewing up Rapalas were told within earshot of him. Exciting tales of our fights with the freshwater tigers were discreetly circulated during our photographic club meetings (Much to the chagrin of our club president). Slowly but surely, the tales sank in. He swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker. The day he invited James and I to go fishing with him was the anticlimax.

   Being quite busy, we decided to go on a day trip to Tanjung Tualang. This small town near Ipoh had being a toman fishing paradise for ages. Lately, the uncontrolled harvesting using nets and rawais is devastating the toman population. To be able to have a reasonable good result, we have to go to places, which are quite inaccessible to most others.

   Our favourite is the Stargate Pond. Just like its namesake, this pond is accessible at certain time only. The narrow and weedy passage between two adjoining ponds is closed most of the time. Our boat must be pushed with us standing on the floating weeds. If you are unlucky, one of those giant leeches might home in on you. Most of the time, you'll be unaware until you feel the sharp pain. Pulling out one of these aquatic Draculas is no easy task and the bite mark resembles that of a bearing scraper puncture.

The perpetual nuisance. Water hyacinth
 near the entrance of the Stargate Pond.

   After passing through the Stargate, the other side is an immense pond. Here the tomans are quite ulu, as most have never seen a Rapala before. One word of caution though. While you are here you have to be knowledgeable about Feng Shui. What I meant is the wind and water flow. One moment of inattentiveness and your exit will be cut off by water hyacinth, which are in abundance. Now you know why the name Stargate? Being stranded mean you have to spend a night here as the wind direction will only change the next day. Well, if you don't mind being sucked dry by those flying bloodsuckers that come to you by the million at night, then you need not worry.

   On Sunday 5.00a.m. sharp, Ronnie was at my front gate with boat and everything loaded on his van (His employees helped to load the boat the previous day). After picking up James, we were on our way. Breakfast was the delicious loh shi fun of Tanjung Tualang.

    By 6.45 a.m. we were unloading the boat. Ronnie is always boasting about his unbreakable reinforced boat. The boat is unbreakable, our backbones aren't. Unless you are in pretty good shape, lifting his boat is a torture. After unloading everything we still had to break our backs holding the boat steady for our Emperor James to board.




Ronnie and his huge toman.
 The keli bait still intact.


   Anchoring near a water inlet, we cast our keli to one side of the boat. James and I were casting lures to the other side. After just ten minutes, Ronnie shouted excitedly that something had taken his bait. Sure, line was shooting out from his Calcutta. When he struck, the bend on his rod told the whole story. He could only hold on to his rod while the fish ran. Grunting and pumping, he had the fish close before it shot out of the water. Wah so big lah!" we exclaimed in unison. When it jumped, water sprayed everywhere. The keli bait rode up the line swinging left and right, just like marlin fishing, but on a much smaller scale. There were two more aerial displays before it was finally netted. We guesstimated its weight to be around 7 kilos. It was released after photos were taken.

Tail-walking toman.
 Just like marlin fishing,
but on a much smaller scale.

Emperor James and a
 battered toman. Notice
the teeth marks?

   We moved off to another spot after an hour of boring wait. Here, my bait was taken.  Allowing it to run with the bait for some distance I closed my bail manually and struck. Splat..... Oh, no! The bail arm had opened and that toman would be inviting friends for thanks-giving kenduri that very night. I think it is true that fish communicate for we never got a nudge for more than an hour after that.


   Moving to a narrow channel covered with weeds, the three of us were casting with lures. James, being a good cook, fried us a plate of sing chow mai with his bait caster (You must be well verse with bait caster jargon to know what I meant). It was the first of the two fried mee hoon he had that day. Ronnie soon had a strike, but the fish had the last laugh. After untangling his fried mee hoon, James was casting with a jig head which promptly invited an attack. Following a short struggle a 2 kilo toman was boated.This fish must have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. There were teeth marks on both sides of it tail end. My outstretched palm and fingers could barely cover them all. Only a granddaddy of a toman could have made those teeth marks! The fish was kept as it would never survive if released.

The monster that did this must be huge.

   The proof that giants did lurk here gave us renewed energy and enthusiasm to cast. But tried as much as we did, there was no taker. James practised his frying skills again, serving chin heong mai this time. While he was busy getting untangled I was observing the surroundings. Once in a while the water surface was broken by some monsters coming up for air, but there was no hits. Maybe the hot sun was making the fish lose their appetite.

   The wind direction suddenly changed bringing the hyacinth our ways. Being a bit anaemic I suggested we leave, as I was not generous enough to give blood donations that night. Loading the boat on to the van took us almost an hour, as it was very heavy, especially when we were very tired. During the drive home we were excitedly planning our next trip. With teeth marks like that we must be crazy not to go back for more.
.