TENGAS RECONNAISSANCE.

Be careful here, as it is a
 long way from home should
 you hurt yourselves.
(Tengas Reconnaisance was published in the August 1999 issue of Rod and Line magazine.)

     People your age should be comfortably fishing near some pay pond instead of climbing and trekking up mountain stream to fish. That was my wife grumbling while rubbing ointment onto my tired and aching calves. I had spent the whole Sunday trekking from 9.00a.m. up to the reservoir near Gopeng before reaching our car at the base at 6.45a p.m. with three new friends, Foo, Tan and Leong.

     Sometime late last year I met Foo at a tackle shop. You know lah,  when piscatorial crazy friends got together, they yakked about nothing else but fishing. My eyes brightened up and my ears straightened when Foo related his fishing  and trekking experiences. I made him promise to call me the next time he goes hunting for fish. After a few months of silence, I decided that when the mountain does not come to you, you then have to go to the mountain.

     This trip was the culmination of many persistent calls (I think he really got fed up.). Maybe to get this VIP (Very Irritating Pest) off his back, he told me that he and his friends will be going on a discovery trip up Sungai Kampar. "There are tengas in the river," he said. I too heard about it sometime back, but never got to go for lack of like minded crazy kakis.

     Four of us set off for Gopeng for breakfast at 7.00a.m. The three of them are young men in their thirties, while I was already an old man of fifty. Breakfast was also time to get to know them better.

     We parked our car at Kampong Sungai Itek and started walking. Actually, a four-wheel drive should be more comfortable and easier, but we were more interested in scouting for lubuks. To do that effectively, nothing can beat rice power. OK lah, I admit it. A 4X4 is out of my financial capabilities.

Orang Asli, Bah El, advising Foo
and Leong on how to rig for tengas.

     Joking and laughing, we trekked up hill. For most part, the river runs parallel to the dirt road. Stopping now and then, we checked for promising spots. A passing Orang Asli, named Bah El, showed us a lubuk and taught us the finer point of baiting a hook with oil palm fruit. But he also advised that night fishing produced the best result. (Maybe, but the idea of ending up as Pak Belang's main dish was not worth all the giant tengas in the world).

One of the lubuks where
 we fished. Night fishing
should be good here.

     After almost an hour of patient waiting, Leong's rod got a good pull, but there was no hook-up. Ten minutes later Tan got a bite too. He struck and the fish shot down stream with the current. Due to the previous two days of rain the river was quite full and swift. His line parted when it scrapped against some rocks. Poor Tan, his face was full of disappointment. Soon another hour passed without any action. As the trip was more of a reconnaissance, we packed up and moved on. Our destination was the reservoir at the end of the pipeline that supplies water to Gopeng Town.

     At the 7 km mark was a promising lubuk. The water here was calm, smooth and deep. Pictures of big fat tengas kept dancing in my mind, but the trouble was the lubuk lies on the opposite side of the  river. Promising ourselves to fish the spot the next time, we pushed on. Soon the road branched out into a "Y". The right one led to a Buddhist temple 5km further uphill. It seemed there was a huge statue of Lord Buddha. The left branch was just a footpath up the hill. Other than walking, a scrambler would be convenient.

     Trekking up hill, we could see the river far below cascading and winding like a snake. Now I am beginning to feel my age. How I wished I had a scrambler. Crossing two more hills, our path met the river again. Clambering down to the river edge, we surveyed this stretch of river for a place to fish. There was a deep pool here, but the current was quite swift. Worth fishing during the dry season though. Small fish could be seen darting here and there in the clear mountain water. My childhood past came flashing back and soon saw us splashing in the cool water like kids. It sure was invigorating. The water was so cold that I could feel energy surging through my body charging up my tired muscles again.

We later teased Foo about
his sun-tanned bra strap mark.
 He should be featured in
Playgirl magazine-centerfold.

Rajah Brookes abandoned.

     As we still had a long walk ahead of us, we reluctantly pushed on. Nearing the upper reaches, we were literally walking on the pipeline itself .A few Orang Aslis were seen catching butterflies to be sold to collectors. There was a lot of wastage as those that were slightly damaged were killed and thrown away. Many magnificent Rajah Brookes were seen strewn all over the place. What a waste! So much for conservation.

The Orang Aslis were living in relative
 comfort as there were solar panels in
front of almost every house.

     Entering the first of the four Asli settlements, we were surprised to see TV aerials everywhere .Where did they get their electricity? Solar panels! Almost every house had a solar panel outside. They sure lived in comfort, as many possessed refrigerators. The other settlements were almost the same. One house was standing on stilts of which one had branches and leaves growing too. I guessed I know where those ignorant Mat Sallehs got the notion of "Malaysians living on tree tops" now.

Anymore groans about your
 life being full of hardship?

     At the third settlement we passed a small built, pregnant Asli woman carrying a bundle of firewood much heavier than her. She had to do it four more times. That shut us up permanently as we were moaning and groaning all the way.

An Orang Asli boy with
 his day's catch. Look at
 his modern tackles.

     A faint roaring sound told us that the reservoir was near. Quickening our pace, we finally were standing at the reservoir. Baits of oil palm fruit were cast. There were some nibbles. Some small fish were caught and thrown back. Nothing big to shout about though. An Orang Asli named Zainal told us it was pointless to fish as his people always jala and spear the fish here. We nodded in agreement as we passed a few boys carrying spears, fishing rods and bags full of palm size fish. Weaving a story of big lubuks further up river with giant tengas, he offered to take us there. The plan was to come during the dry season, pass a night in one of the vacant huts and push up river the next day. "Four days three nights, living 'Rambo Style' should be sufficient," he said. Looking around I noticed my three young friends drooling with saliva dripping down their mouths. We promised Zainal we would be back soon.

In search of upstream paradise.

     After resting and filling our stomachs we bade our Asli friend farewell. I uttered Mac Arthur style, "I shall return!" and pushed off. It 4.15p.m. Walking non-stop, maybe we could reach base at around 7.00p.m. How I wished I could fly. If only Quicksilver could lend me his flying sandals. My legs were really hurting.

     The trip down was faster as we didn't stop to fish. For most parts we were going downhill. Blisters began to form on my feet and toes. My respect and sympathy to our soldiers who trekked for days through the jungle.

     Maybe God took pity on us, for after two hours of walking and stumbling we saw a 4WD coming up hill. I rubbed my eyes and pinched myself. "Your car broke down ah?" the driver, Mr. Lee asked. " No, but we went fishing," Foo answered. He smiled and asked, "Want a lift?" Before he could finished saying "lift", we were already on board. It took us twenty minutes to reach base. I dare not imagine how long it would take us by leg power. He bade us farewell and even offered us a durian treat during the coming durian season. Smiling, he drove off, maybe thinking there were still a few coo-coo fellows not locked up in Hospital Bahagia yet!

A leafy stilt. Probably the reason
why ignorant Mat Sallehs said
we Malaysians live on tree tops.

     Looking back, the fishing on this trip was almost a disaster. Most of the rivers in Malaysia are in similar condition. To really get to taste the cream of freshwater fishing one has got to go deep into the interior where angels fear ato tread. Soon such fishing will only be the domain of the few rich kakis with plenty of money and time to throw.

     I fully agree with what Mr. Charles Ogilvie said in his article in the Malaysian Angling Association Journal (Vol.1, No. 1 June 1953). Quote: "The further one proceeds from man's beaten track the more surely will the anglers find paradise he is in search of." He continued, "It is not the taking of a few fish with rod and line that causes the denudation of fish population in rivers; but the indiscriminate taking of all manner of immature fishes by every conceivable means to hand." I would like to add. "The uncontrolled use of detergent, pesticides, chemicals and also the unbridled logging, that is causing all the depletion of our once abundant fish stock.

     I am hereby appealing to the power that be to heed the anguish cries of all sport anglers (Please do not lump us with poachers and fishermen.) and PeMM to please do something, and fast too.


Note: Many years after this article was published, this place is now dotted with resorts that cater to holiday makers and other adventurers. The Orang Asli here together with the resort managements can take people on trekking adventures,  river rafting and climbs to watch the Rafflesia in bloom.
For more reading on Rafflesia trip please read about it in my photography blog: Shoot The Hooker. http://shootthehooker.blogspot.com/

The big water pipe is now gone...taken down and sold as metal scraps. Other than the upper reaches, the whole place is now easily accessible by car.
    

THE LOST WORLD

My Guiness Explorer Award winning article published

in the June 1999 issue of Rod and Line Magazine.

      "Why are you walking like a duck?" asked one of my colleagues last Monday afternoon. "Oh! I had being to the Lost World." was my reply. He gave me one of those "Mr. Bean look" which made me laugh and told him it was a long story.

      When I first heard about The Lost World, I was in standard five, Clifford Primary School, Kuala Kangsar. It was a book I got from the school library. This Lost World was a plateau isolated from the outside world. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really wrote a winner there.

     The second time was the sequel to director Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. This Lost World was hidden from the outside world by vertical cliffs on all sides. It being an island isolates it further. Access was only by helicopter.

     Therefore, last Sunday when I was standing at the edge of the pond, which was surrounded by sheer vertical limestone hills in Perak, my first thought was, "God, this must be The Lost World."

Wong Kai said the leaves from
 this climber can be made
into lengkong drink.

      My friend, Wong Kai, was the first to tell me about his place. Being crazy about herbal medicine, he goes round climbing hills and trekking through jungles looking for them. The picture he painted of this place was very mystifying and exciting. All of a sudden I was extra nice to him (Some people call it jacking). It took me three days of pestering before he finally agreed to take me along.

     A trip was arranged and I was told to bring the barest minimum. Different people have different standards. Barest minimum to me was a tackle box full of all sundries including panadols, Band Aids and even safety pins. The horror on Wong's face was enough for me to start throwing everything away. Finally I did indeed settled on the barest minimum of two spinner baits, three hooks, a bottle of 100 plus and a piece of bread. Of course the indispensable light rod and reel. Not forgetting my SLR camera too.

Watch out for poisonous creatures
 like his cobra.

     We all parked our bikes under a tree at our designated meeting place at 7.00a.m. The walk of three kilometres to the foot of the hill was very educational as Wong Kai was showing us medicinal herbs along the way. Sure there were the usual streams to cross, leeches, holes and poisonous snakes to avoid, but these were all part and parcel of hiking.

      At last we reached the foot of the hill where we were supposed to climb. One look at the sheer face of the limestone hill is enough to turn my face pale. My concern must have shown for when I turned around there were three smirking faces grinning from ears to ears. This reminds me to be more selective on who to put on my friends' name list. My pragmatic side told me to go home as my wife is still young and I still have two school going children. My Kiasu side admonished me for being a chicken, and be sure not to jatuh muka in front of everybody. In the end, the "want face" half of me won and I shouted with false bravado, "Let's go!"

This is one of the
 easier part of the climb.

      Ah Ngien led the way, with me following. Coming from the rear was Ah Koo and Wong Kai. Ah Nien was giving me advice and warning on where not to put my feet. I had to hold on to tree roots, tiny shrubs and rock crevices to pull myself up. Certain stretches were relatively easy. Easy in the sense that there were many steps cut into the rock and I could get quite a good foothold. Others were just like the movie "Cliffhanger" where I had to pull myself up, jamming my feet into crevices to get some leverage. Most of the rocks were slippery, as they were damp and covered with moss. All my friends were giving advices and encouragement to me. At one point, the 30 meter-mark, maybe, my feet began to have a mind of their own. Messages from the brain didn't seem to be getting across. My lungs were on fire and tongue was hanging out like a panting dog. Luckily I had my camera with me. Sitting down, and meddling with my camera was my way of getting a breather without losing face. With shaking hands I shot off a few frames. My friends refused to move on without me, even though I protested as I was slowing them down (Not bad friends after all.).

      Slowly I began to get use to the climb. Just tackle the next obstacle without looking anxiously to the top will ease the pain a lot. I didn't know how but I managed to reach the top. Summit was just a two-meter wide ledge. Drops of water were pattering on the dried leaves around me. Oh no! It must be raining. Raining yes, but not water but salty, smelly sweat. My sweat! Half of my 1.5 litre bottle of 100 plus was gone. Real teruk man!

Ah Ngien with his king-size
tilapia which are aplenty
in this wonderland.

My bujuk taken
 on spinnerbait.

      Going down the other side after a short rest was like eating tow foo fah when compared with the ascent. Of course, care must be taken if you want to delay meeting the Emperor of Hades. At the bottom of the hill was a piece of flat land no bigger than a basketball court. Here was more like the tropical rain forest, very shady, because of the trees. Unloading my haversack and dropping on the ground, I just couldn't move, but laid on the ground panting. What do you expect lah? 100 meters of dragging my overweight body and haversack up and another 100 meters of going down is no picnic. Only after half an hour of gasping and heart pounding before my body could really regain itself.

Rain drops keep
falling on my feet.

Not a bad haul.
Those in good shape
were released later in the
spirit of Guiness Explorer.

      Looking at the pond from the edge, I could see big tilapias nesting everywhere. My aim was to go for wild haruans, bujuks and sebaraus. After torturing myself this far I was not going to waste my time on tilapias. Climbing on to a fallen log, I began to cast my spinner bait to some dead tree trunks. At the third cast a dark torpedo rushed out. Maybe it was because of the crystal clear water for it turned back without hitting. Another one followed Wong Kai's spinner cum frog for some distance before turning away. On the fourth cast, it followed as expected, but this time it rushed forward and grabbed the frog. Everything happened like those documentaries in slow motion. The haruan jumped and shook its head. Water droplets were spraying everywhere. Very interesting! It was very unceremoniously hoisted up to the log after three short runs. Nothing to shout about though, a haruan of only 1.5 kilos. I was casting along the log where we were standing, when a dark shadow grabbed my spinner bait. A bujuk of about 0.9 kilos was the culprit. Wong Kai moved over to the end of the log and started casting near some overhanging bushes when he was connected to another fish. I nearly lost my balance when he shouted excitedly that he got a big lam koh (marble goby). On looking closer, it was another bujuk. Some people just refused to wear glasses.The other two guys managed to catch four tilapias between them. Not too bad, as the average weight was about 1.5 kilos each. All in all we caught three haruans, four huge tilapias, a baung and eight bujuks.

Wong and his bujuk
 on spinner com frog.

      While having my long deserved rest, I noticed a few whopper grass carps cruising nonchalantly at the far end of the pond. Wow, bigger than my thighs! I noticed too that the bottom of the pond was covered by some aquatic weeds, half submerged in about 1.5 meter of water. Most of the fish were hiding underneath the weeds, except for some big nesting tilapias. The pond itself was about the size of three football fields. Fishing was only confined to a small patch of land at the bottom of the climb. The other areas can only be accessible by small inflatable. Maybe we will bring along some tents and a cheap inflatable so as to cover the other areas. The main problem is how to lug all those equipment over the ridge?

      The tranquillity of this place was really therapeutic for the nerves. Once in a while, it was broken by loud splashes of giants chasing after their preys from the other end of the pond. Troops of monkeys were heard making raucous noises, and jungle birds were serenading us with their melodious songs. If this Lost World is not Shangri-La, I don't know what is.

      Soon we could see dark clouds above. As the rocks will be very slippery when wet, we decided to pack for home. The way back was even worst than coming in as the climb was more vertical. Thanks God we all reached firm ground safely.

      On seeing that I was walking with a funny gait, Wong Kai gave me a bottle of his own concoction to rub on my tired muscles. The herbal ointment must have worked wonders for I only walked like a duck on Monday. By Tuesday evening the pain had subsided. I even played ping-pong for one hour non-stop! Okay, okay, I lost all my games......And very badly too.

Note: I am rather sad as my friend Wong Kai has left this world a few years back.

ANGLERS' ITCH (A day trip to Dinding Estuary)

My fishing article featured
 in May 1999 issue of Rod & Line
 fishing magazine.

      Mankind suffers from many types of itches. The usual kind is caused by tiny insects or bugs. Those ungrateful fellows not only get a free meal from you, but spread some incurable diseases like J E too.
Another type of itch is mainly confined to the males. It comes in periodic cycles of of the seventh or fortieth year of a marriage. Be careful of this one as it can cause untold miseries. Do avoid eating shellfish, seafood, tongkat ali, ginseng or Viagra.

      The type of itch that we are concerned here is the anglers' itch. It usually starts on Tuesday every week and grow in intensity until satiated during the weekend fishing trip. Should there be any reason that caused the trip to be cancelled then the itch can temporary be eased by cleaning or servicing your reels, rods or even just meddling with your tackle box. Yakking at the anglers' favourite haunt do sometimes help a little.
Of late our weekly yakking sessions seemed to have increased as we could not get enough people to hire a boat to Pulau Jarak. Should we go without getting enough kakis to spread out the cost, our bank managers will be calling us up about negative balance in our accounts. Your see, most of us are just poor wage earners. After a few weeks of yakking, without any relief from our intensifying itch, three of us itchy guys decided to do something about it. If we could not afford deep-sea we go shallow-sea.

Unloading our gears
 at Ah Seng's jetty where
 plenty of boats are available
 for hire.  The camera lens flare
could be caused by Foong's head.

      Sunday14/3/99, saw us (James, Foong and I) unloading our equipment into a 22-footer fiberglass boat powered by a 30hp Suzuki outboard at Ah Seng's place in Kampong Sitiawan, Lumut. (Ah Seng has a lot of boats for hire. (Refer to Rod &Line angling directory). Our target was the famed sar choi or Malaysian Whitings of the Dinding River Estuary. The white flesh of the whiting is very tasty if fried or steamed. Though small (biggest is about 300gm), it will give a good account of itself on ultra-light tackles. Some snobs will smirk and say, "Where got thrill lah?" "Going all the way for tom thumbs." Well nobody ask you to shoot burung pipit with an elephant gun. Furthermore fishing is not just catching big fish, but rather a combination of the art of catching fish, the breeze, sunshine and right company to ease the stress of the rat race.

A cooperative husband and wife team.
 The wife controls the boat and the husband
 catches the live baits for their fishing.

      Foong being a mechanic was our captain at the outboard. James wanted to be in charge of the anchor, leaving me at the centre. (The Tuan need not do anything). As we moved slowly down river the tide was just coming in. We passed a couple, the wife controlling the engine and the hubby casting the net for live baits. If more couples could be like them, a lot oaf marriage counsellors and divorce lawyers can seriously start thinking about changing jobs.

      James and I started to troll at the deeper part of the river without much success. Suddenly there was a loud clanking sound coming from the outboard before it stopped. Fearing for the worst, Foong lifted the outboard to discover an old crab trap entangled round the propeller. Muttering to himself while removing the trap, I overheard something about Rod & Line educating people on "Love our rivers campaign."

      We decided not to troll anymore and headed straight for the Malaysian Flour Mill Jetty to catch the incoming tide siakaps. On the way, Foong was grumbling about the boat not being able to achieve planing speed. All the blames were heaped on the worn propeller being too small to be efficient.

      Live prawns were drifted out after securing our boat to the jetty. As usual I couldn't sit and wait. Casts after casts were made with my rapalas without any hits. When the tide had peaked we moved over to Pangkor Island area for whitings. Using ultra-light tackles, we pulled up many trigger fish, which really can fight. Our targeted fish seemed to have gone off on holidays. It is the same, no matter where we anchored and I can tell you we really changed many places. Actually the best time to go for whitings is the 1st and 15th of the Chinese Lunar Calendar. But there are always exceptions. We anglers are an optimistic lot. When the itch is unbearable we are willing to try out luck against overwhelming odds. All of us kept on pulling up and throwing back unwanted fishes. James and Foong nearly overturned the boat, laughing, when I hooked the smallest fish of my life (smaller than my little finger).

The smallest fish caught by me.
 Look at the way Foong was laughing.

James Wong and his flounder.

      No matter how optimistic, there will come a time when you have to admit defeat. So we headed to some fish farms. Here James managed to catch three jenahaks of about 1.5kg and a flounder. Foong again grumbled about the propeller being not efficient as we were down to our last 30 out of 50 litres of fuel. The idea of rowing the 22 footer against the tide and wind for 5 km dampened all our enthusiasm to go any further. Heading back to the flour mill jetty was the best decision we made. The moment we maneuvered our boat underneath the jetty, the sky opened up, pouring catfish, dogfish, jellyfish and the kitchen sinks. Luckily we were not caught out in the open as the rain was real heavy.

Fishing underneath the
Malaysian Flour Mill Jetty.

      There were two other boats here too. Most of the anglers were up on those concrete beams happily pulling up gelamas after gelamas. Well, adaptability is our strong point. Out came our ultra-lights and we were in business. Anything less than 6 inches were thrown back.

      On the whole anglers are a very friendly lot. We began chatting and laughing with our new found friends and learnt that they were using sand worms as baits. These worms could last and last while our prawn baits got taken quite fast. Of course, we practised the helping and sharing concept (translated, it meant thick-face begging). In no time we were also using the worms too. Out of the blue, James mentioned that he read in the paper about a guy using similar worms to fry bean sprouts. It was quite tasty according to him. Aaag!
Maybe it is God's way of reprimanding him for spoiling every one's mood. James head hit a metal beam when he stood up. Blood was running down his face, which scared the daylight out of us. On closer examination, it was only a light laceration of the skin. The bleeding stopped after pressure was applied to the wound.

      Action continued without respite except for short intervals of a few minutes. Surely the gelamas were having their annual convention down there. Actually gelamas travel in school of thousands. If you hit one there will be many more. As a dish they are quite tasty if well prepared, but most people prefer to make salt-fish out of them. Beware of nose cancer.

We were wondering why the boat
 cannot achieve planing speed.

      The rain stopped as suddenly as it had started and we decided to leave for home. As he was wounded, James was relieved off his duty at the front. It was getting late too. So Foong really let go on the throttle. The boat was flying on the water surface like a flying fish. Boy, was it thrilling! Did I mention flying? All of a sudden it dawned on Foong and me as to why the boat was not planing earlier. (No prize for guessing correctly). Reaching the dock was a cinch and in no time we were driving home, happy and contented with itch relieved. Well.....at least until the next Tuesday.

Note: It is with deep regret that my friend and fishing partner, James Wong, has passed away some years ago.

Another Peacock Bass Story.

March 1999 issue of Rod and Line magazine.

Kree...Kreeeee...Kreeeeeeeee. Hold on! Hold on darling! Alright now, pump...wind, pump hard. Well, that was me shouting out uncalled for advice to my wife as though she didn't know what to do.

Well you can't blame me for committing one of the cardinal sins of fishing, You see, my wife was connected to quite a large peacock bass (estimated to be 1.2kgs) on a 'Tiny' 5'3" rod and a 'Tiny Surecatch' reel filled with only 6lbs line. The yellow-golden bass was almost in the landing net when the 6lb leader parted with the final lunge. 'Oh no!' My wife couldn't hide her disappointment. On closer examination, the leader was rough and was cut by the tiny sharp teeth of the fighter.

A peacock bass caught by my wife.

It all started at the Peacock Bass Fishing Contest organised by Rod & Line at Lawan Kuda, Gopeng, three years ago. After fishing for half a day without a bite, my desire to catch and land a peacock bass was unbearable. The itch was so unbearable that I jumped at every little hint of peacock bass. One of the most recent disappointment was running like a mad dog to a pond near Gopeng only to discover that the 'very expensive peacock bass' was another type of cichlid.

Therefore, I was overjoyed when I heard from a small boy that his father's pond contains a sizable amount of peacock bass. This population of bass comes from a few fish that the boy caught from Lawan Kuda and threw into the pond about a year ago. With the pond full of small tilapias and small freshwater prawns, the bass thrive and multiply like crazy.

Being a keen angler and a thick face one at that, I started to beg and bribe in that order to get the small boy to take me to his father's pond. The answer was as usual, negative. Well, you can't stop a determined angler, can you? We thick skin anglers are very creative, innovative and determined. if there's a will there's a way. I started to dig, korek and inquire and finally my persistence paid off. It so happened that a friend of mine is also a close friend of the pond owner.

That was how I found myself standing in Mr. Lee Fatt Choy's farm one Sunday morning. After exchanging the niceties, Mr. Lee excused himself as he had to attend to his corn plants.

I started to tackle up while my friend Ah Wee, made himself comfortable under a tree. Well, not everybody is an angler, you know. I was using a one piece Team Daiwa 6' casting rod matched to an Ambassadeur SM3600 reel spooled with 14lb Spider fusion line. I started to brag and make promises to my friend that the first fish will be his and then I'll release the rest. Forty-five minutes and hundreds of casts later I was beaten. Not that I didn't try. My boxful of Rapalas, Yozuris, spinnerbaits and jigs and you name it held testimony to my effort. Finally I declared that there is no fish here. Disappointed, we left without informing Mr. Lee as he was no where to be seen.

Two weeks later, Ah Wee called to inform me that Mr. Lee's son had caught and given him two peacock bass to eat. He told me that Lee junior caught the fish with rod and line. My interest was fired up again and I begged Ah Wee to make another appointment. This time I am a bit smarter. I requested Lee junior to accompany us.

Come Sunday morning saw us assembled at Mr. Lee's pond again. Of course I came with all the niceties to bribe the 11 year-old boy to divulge his secrets. Well sometime we old hack got to kow-tow to small masters too! Let's say for the advancement of the art of fishing.

My happy little sifu took me to another pond. Using a fine mesh net he scooped up some small prawns and asked me to use them as bait. I was too obsessed with the idea of lure fishing that I'd totally forgot about baits.

Little sifu had another peacock bass.

Hitherto, the little knowledge that I accumulated about peacock bass was that it was a sport fish. To me sport fishing means lure fishing. Anglers have a funny way of acquiring funny snobbish attitude. I must confess that I am bias against bait fishing, just like those Mat Salleh fly fishermen. Well, that is another story.

That Sunday morning proved to be heaven. The moment the prawn baited hook landed on the water it was taken within minutes. I think I hooked and landed more than twenty fish and released them all except the one I gave to Ah Wee and another for myself.

Before we left I went to thank Mr. Lee and of course my little sifu too. Mr. Lee could not understand why I released most of the fish that I caught. The look on his face told me I should belong to Hospital Bahagia.

As you know, we anglers could never keep a good fishing spot for long, especially to your better-half. That whole night my wife kept on pestering me to take her bass fishing. She is my late mother-in-law's daughter, remember? At last I got to sleep after promising her I'd take her the next time.

This time around, I was prepared with camera, lenses and all my fishing equipment. After collecting prawns for our baits we settled down to fish.

My wife started to catch bass almost immediately. In between the bass, she caught a few tilapias. On very light tackles, I think the peacock bass gave a very good account of themselves as most of them are still quite small-less than a kilo. After half an hour my wife tangled on with the bass mentioned at the beginning of the story.

My wife and the little sifu.
Notice the umbrella and the comfortable seat?
 My wife loves fishing, but hates the sun.
 She is scared of getting dark.

Personally, I think peacock bass as a wonder game fish is a little bit over-rated. Being a layman, I wish to offer my two-cents worth of opinion. The bass found here could be the smaller species, as such they a smaller in size.

But on the claim that it would push other local species into extinction, I think we are crying wolf too early. The fact that I can catch tilapias quite often together with the bass in a small pond shows that the other fishes can co-exist with the bass. The fact that they don't attack lures as readily proved that they are not that aggressive either.

Well, if they are aggressive, like some quarters fear, then they are a bonus to eco-tourism and sport fishing too. Therefore, we have nothing to worry about as we are in a win-win situation. Please hurry-up with the stocking exercise as many like me are already in our fifties.

Correction: Since this article was published in March 1999 issue of Rod and Line, it had been proven the peacock bass can be quite destructive. Due to its aggressive behaviour, lures and flies are rather effective in catching this fish. Readers are advice not to release them indiscriminately into the wild. But I am totally against the wanton killing of the peacock bass.

SALTWATER TEASERS



February 1999 Rod and Line magazine.

(This article was my first contribution to Rod and Line, a Malaysian angling magazine. It was published in February 1999 issue. Since then I have written quite a number of articles on a monthly basis for Malaysia's first fishing magazine. In addition to Rod and Line, I have contributed to the Asian Angler's World of Singapore and the In-Fisherman of USA).

Pay pond fishing has been around for years. Ponds owners who don't like the hassle of harvesting fish or can't harvest for one reason or another have been opening up their ponds for fishing. Some of them just collect a flat fee and you can take all the fish home. Others will let you fish and pay for the fish later. Yet, a few will just organise fishing competitions. Whichever way they choose the end result is the same. The fish farmers get back their investment and the anglers get their thrill.

Paying to fish in ponds serve many purposes. Family outings at pay ponds can be very interesting. Many parents take their children to such ponds to introduce fishing to them. Here, the kids can fish more safely in relative comfort. The readiness of the fish to strike will reinforce their interest in fishing.

Pond fishing can be very relaxing for the family.

For the adults, especially the social anglers, they would find fishing in well-populated ponds interesting too. Once a while, you might hear pond owners cheating by harvesting their fish before opening them to the public. But these are rare occurrences.

Today, we have a mutation of freshwater pond fishing. A few enterprising entrepreneurs started the saltwater fishing ponds. Some are located near brackish water where water can be pump into their ponds, while those located inland have to make do with salt solutions. the most popular species are the barramundis (siakap) and mangrove jacks (ang ka tia). Huge specimen of 7 to 9 kilos are also put in to entice the anglers. To make things more competitive, jackpots and cash prices are offered.

I heard from many friends about these ponds quite sometime ago, but was not too keen. I was more inclined to fish in the wild. Casting plugs around Pulau Sembilan, Pulau Jarak, mangrove swamps and lakes is more my dish. For bottom fishing, the sea lanes off Pulau Pangkor, rivers, ponds and lakes are my hunting grounds. So how to get interested?

The La Nina phenomenon changed all that. My gang's whole year's booking of our regular boat kept being cancelled due to the lack of numbers. There are always so and so who could not make it. Sometimes the reasons they gave were so ridiculous that you just can't help laughing.

After a few months of forced abstinence, the itch became so unbearable that I told myself 'bo hoo hei pun ho' (meaning no fish, prawns also can (in Hokkien) or half a loaf is better than none.

So when the next time I heard that my friends were going to fish in a saltwater pond at Templer Park, I swallowed my pride and followed. From 11.30pm to 7.00am, I caught 3 mangrove jacks which gave quite a good account of themselves. The trip was very enjoyable, though I got to drink liters of black coffee to stay awake.

The next trip was up north, at Bukit Tambun (famous for its delicious seafood). There were quite a number of ponds there. the one that we fished in was near the highway, just after the tollgate at Bukit Tambun interchange. Named the Bukit Tambun Fishing Recreation Centre, it was started on 3rd Jan 1998 by Lim Joe Heng. Here I really got to know more about saltwater pond fishing. I caught four mangrove jacks and a barramundi. Not big, but they put up  good fights.

In fishing, if you are persistent and try to do everything right, sooner or later you will be rewarded. This happened during my second trip to Bukit Tambun. I was into the final half-hour when I saw my line shooting out. Taking up the rod and cranking to tighten the line I struck and was rewarded with a run of almost ten meters.

On my Daiwa 14lb spinning rod fitted to a Shimano Stradic 1000 filled with 12lb line, the fight was quite an experience. When it stopped, I tried to pump, but I manged to crank only twice before the fish started to run again. This time it headed straight for the aerator wheel at the far end of the pond. Fearing for the worst, I feathered the spinning spool to slow down the fish, but was rewarded with three powerful jerks as the fish attempted to swing its head trying to dislodge the hook. Somehow I managed to turn the fish around and after another three short runs I netted the siakap, which pulled the scale down to 4.2kg. Surprisingly, it did not jump. Subsequently I landed two more siakaps and mangrove jacks.

The third time in Bukit Tambun was with my 13-year-old daughter and my wife. I didn't fish as I had to act as their 'consultant' cum 'servant'. We started at 3.30pm. my wife was using live prawn with float and my daughter was bottom fishing with kembung strip. luckily I wasn't fishing as both of them landed 5 fishes between them. A Singaporean businessman named Chen chipped in to help too (He is a regular at the pond as he is always in Penang for business. He is an authority in saltwater pond fishing, and I learned a lot from him). One of the fishes that my daughter landed was a 2.9kg siakap, which really tested her limits. She stopped fishing after this and was seen sobbing at one corner because the fish died and could not be released.

My wife waiting to net a small
 jack for my daughter during the drizzle.

My most exciting saltwater pond fishing experience was at the Guiness Fishing Contest held in Port Klang recently. Though I only  managed to land four bawal pinang I still get a lot of excitement from my good friend Wong Keat Hong, who connected, fought and lost a RM10,000 (1st prize money) ray. Imagine what we (3 of us) did to him in the car on the way back to Ipoh?

Wong Keat Hong made sure
 this one did not get away.

After my limited fishing foray into saltwater pond fishing, and also with feedback from my kakis, I have come to the conclusion that most of the fish will feed in the morning up to 11.30am and again around 4.30pm to midnight, before slowing down. As for the method of fishing, my favourite is to cast out the bait (prawn or fish strip) and slowly move it along the bottom. When the fish hits, which is a light nudge most of the time, I will give some slack and strike when the fish pulls the line tight. Many use floats which are quite effective too. Attached to a live prawn or fish, the float will move around the pond as the bait swims around.

Keeping a sharp lookout for signs of fish is also important. Sometimes we can see the fish if we are wearing a pair of good Polaroid sunglasses. The surface of the water also tells a story. If a big fellow is near the surface, there may be some disturbances or small fishes will jump.

Of course saltwater pond fishing will never replace the real thing at sea or rivers. But it is a good substitute at times. To many it might be the only way to fish.

Pacu Fishing In Malaysia

Fly fishing is very
effective for catching pacu.

 Pacu (pronounced paku in Portuguese), is a common name for several species of fish from the Amazon Basin, which are related to the fearsome piranha. That is why the Malaysian Chinese called it the “sek yan chong’ or the man eating pomfret. Actually the pacus found in Malaysia are of the Colossoma genus and can reach the size of about 30kg. Being omnivorous they feed on nuts, seed and vegetations, but do relished small fish and insects too.


Just like the peacock bass, the pacu was first brought into the country as aquarium pets. Later, because of its fast growing abilities and size, some fish farmers reared them as food fish. The Malaysian public never cultivated a taste for its meat so it never gain as much popularity as the tilapia. As a result it was relegated to be stock in pay ponds, where anglers pay to fish for them.

With its flattened and deep body, the pacu was really built for sport fishing on light tackles. They never acquired the nickname “freshwater GTs” by accident you know. As an omnivore, it can easily be caught by using oil palm seeds as bait. I would like to stress here that circle hook is highly recommended so as to cause the least damage to these flat warriors. As they also feed on insects and small fishes, they can be caught on flies and lures too. The fly patterns that I normally use are the clousers, minnow looking flies and dragonfly nymphs. Tough tippet should be use for fly fishing as the teeth of the fish can easily gnaw through most mono lines. Rattling minnow like lures of 10cm to 15cm are known to be effective for catching pacus too.

The general understanding is this fish cannot breed in Malaysian water and climate. But lately rumors have surfaced that juvenile pacus were caught somewhere in Johor. So to be safe, this alien species should not be release indiscriminately into our water.

Fish that bites off testicles

www.malaysia-chronicle.com

I found this report about the pacu fish at this site. It seems some pacu were released in Papua New Guinea some 15 years ago. Due lack of food, they turned carnivourous. A number of fishermen had their testicles bitten off resulting in deaths. What I suspect is the pacu, now nicknamed, ball cutters, mistook the testicles for nuts or seeds which were their staple diet back in the Amazon River.

This pacu was caught
when it grabbed the clouser fly.

You can see the teeth of the pacu.
They can easily gnaw through
monofilament leaders or tippets.

This nice specimen fell
for a dragonfly nymph fly. 

A Halco lure was its downfall.
This one really put up a good fight.

After about fifteen minutes of fight,
 the tippet was cut by this pacu.

This too was caught when it grabbed my Halco lure.

Indo-Pacific Tarpon (Megalops cyprinodes) Of Malaysia.

There are two species of tarpons. The most prized fighter is the Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus). Found mostly at the Western Atlantic coast bordering Virginia to Brazil. The coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, the Carribeans and also the Eastern Atlantic coast from Senegal to Angola too are good hunting grounds for this fish. The Atlantic tarpons are giants of around 5 to 8 feet and can reach weights of 80 to 150lbs.
Comparatively, the Indo-Pacific tarpons, or the ox-eye (Megalops cyprinodes) are very much smaller. Most are around 1 to 2 feet long and weight of a kilo is already considered good. Maximum weight of about 18kg have been recorded, but this bigger size one can only be found in the open sea.
The ox-eyes can be found along the tropical coastal regions of Eastern Africa, South East Asia, Japan, Tahiti and Australia. The ox-eyes look exactly like the Atlantic tarpons with olives green colour on top and silver on the side. The large mouths are turned upwards, and the jaws are quite hard and bony. Having the distinctive elongated last dorsal ray reaching to almost the tail, this fish is beautiful.They normally spawn at sea and the young larvae migrate inland to brackish water.
Fly-fishing for them can be very effective though tying small jigs, spinners and tiny spoons can catch fish too. When caught they are real acrobatic fighters.

This was taken on fly (shrimp fly).
Behind me can be seen rises
 denoting the presence of tarpons.

This irrigation canal is a good
hunting ground for tarpons.

A small specimen which is the common
 size in brackish water. Bigger fishes
can be found in the open sea.

Fly-fishing is very effective
 for the tarpons. But they can
 be taken on small jigs,
spinners and spoons too.

Normally, canals leading to some
river mouths near the sea will contain
good population of these tarpons.