REVISITING KOTA TAMPAN – Part Two (Toman Fishing)

This article was published in the January 2004 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

After our previous two trips to hunt for the sebaraus of Kota Tampan, we felt we needed a change. Too much of a good thing is dull, you know. Variety is the spice of life, so they said (Only true for fishing, or else I will get a lot of protests from readers’ irate spouses). As a result we decided to target the tomans this time.

Reaching Lenggong at 6.15a.m., James and I headed for Sen Huat Restaurant. You could get some of the best pows and tim sum (sorry, they are non-halal) around here. The proprietor named his large pows, Yip Chee Mei (a very well-endowed Hong Kong actress) pows. Anyone with good imagination should be able to visualize their sizes. With that type of pows, you got no choice but to feel bloated and burp regularly after breakfast.

Not very big, but there was a good population here.

 

With stomachs filled, we headed back to Raban and unloaded our boat. My outboard was purring slowly as we ‘tiptoed’ out to the Perak River. Why the caution, you may ask. Well, the whole stretch of the mist covered lake was criss-crossed with drift nets. One wrong move and you not only had a tough time untangling the propeller from the net, but you had also to pacify some parang-wielding fishermen too.

This chap hit James' Tail Dancer in the Perak River itself.

When the entrance of the first pond came into sight, I eased up on the throttle. Lo, behold! A ball of toman fries was rippling on the surface of the water. James’ Tail Dancer was grabbed even before I could kill the engine and position the boat. The fight was fast and furious with runs and dashes to the left and right. Anyway, the battle was quickly ended with the release of the fish to join its brood.

Inching our way into the first pond, we headed for some drowned trees. Casting to a submerged log, I started my retrieve. Suddenly a huge toman shot out from nowhere to go for my lure. Too late, for I had lifted my lure out of the water. Before I could react, that confused fish dashed off with a flick of its tail. Well, that was our only excitement here after almost an hour of casting.

The second that we headed for was very misleading. After emerging from the passageway, you would be very disappointed with the size. Anyway, we explored this small pond for signs of the giant snakeheads.

Toby also worked well here. This toman grabbed one and earned a sore mouth.

Suddenly, James’s lure was stopped in its track. Poor James, that monster was a well-trained street fighter. He lost more than RM20 when that brute headed for some submerged branches. Well, I do admit that I was a bit of a sadist. I did derive some pleasure from ribbing him on his lost lure. “Aiyoo, your heart must be aching badly loh. If you were to give me a treat with that money, at least I would say thank you,” I teased.

The fact that 'Tom Thumb' went or my lure proved that they were ferocious.

I was going to regret it later for I ended up losing more than a hundred ringgit of lures (who said that fishing is cheap?).

At the far end of the pond, there were quite a number of dead tree trunks jutting out of the water. Once we had maneuvered pass this mess, the expense of water in front was as big as two football fields. As soon as we had quieted down, the freshwater tigers began to rise.

Another fell for the Tail Dancer. This lure proved to be very effective.

The moment we spotted a rise, two lures immediately shot out pass the concentric rings. The attack would come the moment the lure wriggled pass the approximate position of the rise. There was no exploding jerk, only a sudden stopping of the lure when the toman struck.

Well, I thought someone said that ‘fishing is just a jerk at one end of the line waiting for a jerk on the other end’. The action that followed could only be described as fantastic. Though I lost quite a number of lures, I still enjoyed myself tremendously.

The condom man.

Somehow the Almighty always has his own plans. The sky darkened and the wind began to pick up, forcing us to pack. My chubby fishing partner suddenly announced that it was time to put on his condom.

Puzzled, I watched him slowly unfurled a small pack of thin plastic. He got me quite worried then for I thought that he had a slight short circuit in his head. When he finally had finished putting that piece of plastic on, only then did I realize it was a piece of disposable raincoat.

For our next trip we went to the pond that I first fished a few decades ago. This was the pond that we had to trek inland risking being shot, as there were quite a number of army patrols going around the jungles here.

This was the pond we had to trek and risk been shot to reach in the past. But now a road has been built just passing a stone throw from it.

Instead of trekking, James and I could drive across a bridge reaching almost to the edge of the pond now. Well, development has its pros and cons. My first cast at this pond resulted in a small toman. This small fellow grabbed my Abu Toby. The Toby accounted for another toman of respectable size, which was released.

The locals called this bridge 'San Sin Kiew' or 'Fairies' Bridge'. We did not fish here as it was full of criss-crossing branches. I took James on a tour here to show him where I caught my first kuang (toman bunga) decades ago. Just showing of.

Most of the tomans here were more of the below average size. Small though they rare but they made up with their numbers. There were quite a number of fry balls here too. Most of the time our lure would be grabbed the moment they were retrieved pass the fries.

There were a few groups of fries that we termed as ‘anak yatim piatu’ (orphans). No matter how many times we cast or how many lures we changed, there was no hit from their parents. Those that were caught were let off as near to the fries as possible. The fights were kept short so as not to stress the fish too much.

The pond that we fished in was still very well populated with fish. If you ask me whether the professionals have moved in, I think the number of times we had to recover our lures from discarded nets provided the answer. The number of sunken trees and weeds did offer some protection to the fish and helped to maintain a reasonable population. Let us hope the situation remains.