NIGHT FISHING FOR BELIDA - at Suka Suka

This article was published in the July 2001 issue of Rod And Line fishing magazine.

     I was sitting at the front of the 12 footer keeping a sharp lookout for half-submerged logs and nets in the water of Chenderoh Lake in Perak. Some how boating in the dark on any stretch of water always gives me the creep. My eerie feeling was compounded by the small size of the boat. It magnified the feeling of me been so naked and exposed too.

Raymond with his belida caught at night.

     "Ng, please shine the touch to the right," Raymond's voice cut into my thoughts. Raymond really earned my admiration as he could guide our boat to the fishing location with just a spotlight. After anchoring our boat, I found to my horror that there was not even one light stick in my tackle box. With heavy heart I had no choice but watch Raymond and Soon Fong cast out their baits. In the dark, their lighted rod tips were like the magic wand of Cinderella's fairy godmother. Well as they say, necessity is the mother of all inventions. When you were frustrated and itching to fish, somehow your innovative traits would surface. What I did was to cast out my rig and held the line in my hand like a hand line to feel for the bites. Then the three of us settled down in the dark to wait for our quarries, the belidas of Chenderoh Lake.

Three proud anglers with three belidas and a sebarau.

     When Raynond suggested we go night fishing in Chenderoh Lake in Perak, Soon Fong, Richard and I immediately agreed. In the end Richard and Soon Fong brought their families along as the resort of Suka-Suka run by En. Aziz and his wife was to be our base. This home away from home is a small resort that gives one the feeling of being close to nature. The home cooked food of Mrs. Aziz can only be described with one word. SUPERB! The resort is quite near the sleepy hollow of Sauk and Kampung Janalek of the Al Maunah arm heist fame.

Being quite innovative, Soon Fong managed to retrieve his snagged lure with some big snaps tied to a weight.

Come Sunday, saw our two boats of crazy anglers and a few not so crazy families heading to the resort. When everything was settled, Soon Fong and I went casting for sebaraus. After hundreds of fruitless casts later, we decided to rest at a cove with patches of water weeds. At around 4.30 pm the water surrounding our boat suddenly erupted with the sound of sebaraus chomping on fleeing bait fish. Both our lures flew out in different directions. Luck would have it that my shad rap went too deep and got hung up with the aquatic weeds. By the time I managed to dislodge my lure, Soon Fong had two missed strikes. On his next cast his lure was stopped and a kilo plus sebarau leapt out of the water shaking its head desperately. Luckily the hook stayed and it was finally netted.

     The fish vanished as suddenly as they had appeared and we were back to casting fruitlessly. By now it was getting a bit dark and I was forced to steer our boat back to the resort. There fish less Raymond and Richard were already back at the resort.

After a tasty home cooked dinner prepared by the better half of En. Aziz, Raymond, Soon Fong and I decided to head out to the lake for night fishing. Richard chose to stay back to fish from the bank. That night the weather was quite warm. Fishing in the dark was quite interesting too. After a few minutes in the dark, the whole scene would slowly appear bright when our eyes got acclimatised. We were reluctant to switch on the lights, as it would attract hordes of irritating insects. Suddenly Raymond was seen cautiously reaching for his rod. When the lighted rod tip took another dip, he struck. The 'beautiful' X-rated adjectives that followed told the whole story. The wary belida outsmarted him and his hook came back cleaned. Being relatively new to night fishing, Soon Fong missed his two strikes too. After these, things seemed to quieten down a bit. To stave off the boredom and sleepiness, we talked about everything under the moon.

Raymond tensed up suddenly and we all held our breath.Slowly his rod tip began to dip and he made no mistake this time. Before it breaks the surface we all knew it  to be a belida as most will jump when hook. The unlucky fish was boated after a few jumps.

Richard showing off his belida caught from the bank of the Suka-Suka Resort. Sometimes you need not go too far to catch a decent fish.

     While relating an X-rated joke, I felt a slow steady pull on my line. Letting go my fishing line I held up my  rod. When I felt the next pull, I almost overturned the boat in my eagerness to set the hook. Missed that sneaky fellow though. Many small baungs and lawangs were caught. We were wondering what happened to their parents. At 3.00 am we just couldn't keep our drooping eyelid up. All our fish were released except for the belida. Back at the resort, even before my head touches the pillow, I was already snoring.

     By 6.00 am the next morning, my eyes were already wide opened. While getting my boat ready, Richard came staggering towards me with bleary eyes. The moment we could see where we were going, our boat was already heading out to the open lake. While casting for sebaraus, Richard  related to me how he landed a belida at the doorstep of the resort. He almost had his fishing tackle pulled into the lake by something big. Luckily his line broke when his reel got snagged to some roots.

I guessed E. Aziz (owner of Suka- Suka Resort) knew better. His tip to us that sebaraus only strike in the evening was true. After countless lure changes and getting a stiff arm from the hundreds of fruitless casts later, we headed back for breakfast. If only the sebaraus and belidas were as hungry as we were, the morning's outing would have been more interesting.

     By 9.00am our two boats headed out again. Soon Fong was in charge of the anchor on my boat. We anchored just twenty meters up current of a fallen tree. Plenty of bites were registered but they were all small baungs and lawangs. Anyway, all were released with a friendly pat on their buttocks.Suddenly, Raymond who was fishing with Richard about 10 meters from us was seen struggling with a fish. He triumphantly brandished his belida of about 2 kilos and thumping his nose at us.

     When the rain came at around 3.30pm it was more like the water tank upstairs had suddenly burst. Soon Fong kept on turning down my offer of sharing my raincoat. I was bailing out water more than I fish. By 3.45 pm the rain finally stopped and we decided to change place. Following closely at the heel of Raymond's boat we skimmed across the surface of the lake. Soon Fong who was huddled up in the front of the boat started gesturing and pointing to the direction of the resort. Veering off we headed back to the island leaving Raymond and Richard to carry on to the next spot. From the way Soon Fong gobbled up his lunch, I knew he was cold and hungry.

Soon Fong proudly showing off his sebarau taken with a shad rap.

     I wondered how Richard would be feeling as he was soaked to the skin. With only breakfast to fuel his body, I really pitied him.When both Raymond and Richard dismounted from their boat at 5.30 pm Richard was shivering and shaking too. Needless to say, the plates were emptied in record time. What table manners! We bade farewell to En. Aziz and his wife soon after we packed up.