THE FEATHERBACKS OF RABAN, CHENDEROH.

THE FEATHERBACKS OF RABAN, CHENDEROH.
Published in May 2000 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

    


     Featherback is a very gentle looking fish. It moves slowly through the water by rippling its dorsal and ventral fins, which stretch from the center of the body to the tail in one unbroken piece. When observed through the aquarium, it sure looks graceful. My first encounter with this fish was at Lubuk Mat Anjing in Kuala Kangsar when I was just a kid. This victim was a small specimen of around a kilo, taken on worms. As a lad, I was quite ignorant of the names of fishes. Later my father told me that it was a "sai toh" or belida in Malay. Actually, Lubuk Mat Anjing was never famous for featherbacks. Maybe, this one lost its way. Lubuk Temoleh should be more appropriate as it was at this area that most of the famed temolehs were taken by my father and his contemporaries, the Ming Brothers. (Remember Ming Ah Man?). My real baptism in featherback fishing was around late 1960s to early 1970s.

     The hot spot then was just behind the Chenderoh Dam wall where most of the staff quarters were located. River prawns were the preferred baits, of which there were plenty along the grassy banks.

     Night fishing here was very exciting. While shinning a powerful torch into the water the featherbacks could sometime be seen cruising along the bank looking for prawns and small fish. The reflection from their eyes could be very unnerving to the beginners. Could be that the numerous stories of aquatic demons and devils originated from the featherbacks.

     Featherbacks can be taken on river prawns, small fish or even worms. When a featherback takes the bait, it was a gentle affair considering its size. The rod tip will only dip slightly before your bait is stolen. Curses were heaped on the poor terobols and lampams at first, before we finally wised up. As a result, soft tip rods are very much preferred by the Lenggong and Chenderoh folks.

James with his baung. The baungs
 here taste a lot sweeter. Maybe it is
 due to the unpolluted water here.

     Sometimes they do attack lures, but must be dragged past their field of vision to entice a strike. My first lure taken featherback was at a small pond near Tanjung Tualang. To elicit a featherback to strike a lure, one must be very alert. The moment a featherback comes up for air, the lure must be cast beyond and dragged pass the spot of the swirl. Normally, you can see the featherback gulf the air, then turning and exposing its flat silvery body before diving. The telltale sign of a few bubbles floating up is a sure indication of the featherback. The dreaded DBI catfish will do the same thing, but it will suck the air in with a loud gulp, not unlike a giant toman. After tasting steamed featherback bellies and fish balls, I began to target it more specifically. The flesh of the featherback is rather firm, smooth and of course tasty. The only catch is the thousands of tiny bones, which can get stuck in your throat. Most of the time a lump of rice will dislodge it. Next on the arsenal list is a piece of banana swallowed whole. If both failed, then you are in trouble, mate.

     The next hot spot is the "Sek Pek" (The stone Wall) of Kota Tampan. If a boat is not available you can walk through some rubber estates (enduring thousands of hungry female mosquitoes) before facing another torturous climb down the cliff to reach the water edge. You will be in real trouble if you catch a few whoppers unless you practiced 'catch and release'. Since knowing Old Man Ho, I began to fish in relative comfort (discounting carrying the boat and outboard, that is). With our mobility, we began to explore and discover more places.

     At Raban, we got to know a real friendly towkay by the name of Ah Bong (The locals called him Awang). He collected fish from the local professionals for resale. Most of our spots around Raban were credited to his unselfish and gracious nature. At one of these spots, I tied on to two huge featherbacks of about seven kilos within half an hour. Try imagining that you were hooked onto a huge log, as that was how it felt. The first was lost at the boat side and the other , when it jumped and threw the hook. The upper jaw of the featherback is very hard and bony, so don't celebrate until you have it in the boat. Old Man Ho broke two of his fingers in a boating accident and thus ended our trips to Raban.

     While easing the boat out to the Perak River from Raban Lake, I kept on asking myself why in heaven did I agree to take Foo and James for featherback fishing? It had being years since I last came here and the feedback that I got was not that encouraging. Should we not catch anything, I might be branded as one of those"story telling anglers".

Foo and his tilan.
 I had seen specimens
 of about a kilo. Better
 tasting than chicken.

     Live fish and worms were our backup baits. The plan was to catch small river prawns found in abundance at some aquatic weed patches. Familiar sights were passed before we finally reached our prawn catching patch. My two young friends refused to get into the waist deep water so we had to forgo the prawns. Anchoring at one of my old spots, James immediately hooked a half kilo baung with live fish. We continued pulling up and throwing back juveniles.

     Suddenly Foo shouted that he got a featherback, but from the way he was reeling in the dead weight, I told him it must be a tilan. You should see how happy he was as this was the first time he ever caught one. Luckily for him that I shouted in time or else he would have got a nasty cut from grabbing the tilan with his bare hand (the tilan is not called the spiny eel for nothing, you know). "Try catching a few more and we can have a tilan feast, " I encouraged. "They are better tasting than chickens (tip from my Malay friends), mind you" I added.

Ah Wah and his featherback.
 Immediately after this photo
was taken my two friends
 became very well-mannered
and friendly towards
Ah Wah and his friend.

     After two hours of featherbackless fishing, my two friends began to add the very uncomplimentary adjectives 'cannon' to my name. Luckily for me, another boat anchored just next to ours and immediately pulled up a a kilo plus featherback. You should see how my two friends bodek! I had never seen them so well mannered and friendly before. Not to me but to Ah Leong and Ah Wah, the other guys in the other boat. They were the exemplary specimens of a mother-in-law's dream come true. Result spoke louder than words. The guys from Lenggong kept pulling up all species of fish with river prawns as baits. And as though to answer my prayers, two local professionals caught two very presentable featherbacks of about4 kilos each. This proved beyond reasonable doubt that I was not a "Tai Pow Yow" (liar). But the place where they cast their net was just a few meters from where we were fishing. Sigh! We decided to pack for home.

Ah Wah with another baung.
They were pulling up fish as though
 fishing in fish cage. It was so easy.

Another tilan caught by the Lenggong guys.
They were using only river prawns.
 Their past catches here included temolehs,
huge patins and of course the featherbacks.