last post for 2007

today is new year's eve. what a great fishing year it has been. caught many fish that i have never caught before in my life, namely, parrot fish, angkeh, coral stingray (the blue dot type), sebarau and grass carp!!! one of the parrot fish that i caught was even captured on video, courtesy of a fishing buddy... john.

on top of that, i won 2nd prize at a fishing competition. the fish that won me that prize was a 1.55kg haruan, and the prize was an electric oven.

but the icing to top all that was the friendly wager that i had with sharma aka crazyfisherman. at the beginning of the year, we came out with the idea. set some rules and the we started fishing. the prize at first was RM100, but somehow or rather, that prize ballooned up to a DAIWA FREAMJ. i am no gambler... but with a DAIWA FREAMJ at stake, i was beginning to have cold sweats. i had to come up with a strategy and that was to fish at any chance i get... no matter how small the fish... just to get the points. my strategy was to get volume. from sematan... my fish biggest fist was between 1-2kg. and from kiong's pond, my heaviest catch for the year was a 6kg+ grass carp. i didn't know what sharma had planned but sometime during the middle of 2007, he started to pick-up jigging... and he seemed to have abandon the idea of fishing at ponds. he had a few trips to very productive places for jigging and i was so sure he was gonna hooked on some BIG fish and rack in the points. unfortunately for him (thankfully for me), somehow, the potential of his trips to hutan melintang, pulau sembilan etc... didn't materialize. as the seas became rough due to the inevitable monsoon, i concentrate on land based fishing and continued to raked in the points. sharma however, kept looking for the window trip to bag the big one... but it never came.

a few days ago... sharma declared defeat in his blog... crazyfisherman.blogspot.com

finally the fat lady sings. i win the DAIWA FREAMJ.

thanx for the competition you gave me Bro. too bad, i taking a sabbatical next year. haha.

for anyone who wanna challenge sharma aka crazyfisherman to a friendly competition next year, you can either approach him directly or... email me at shakerouni@gmail.com, and i will try to arrange a competition between you and him. (subject to his agreement, of course). haha.

beginner's luck @ CM's pond

one of the 2 tilapias that were caught on lure that day. this one was caught by me using mini berkley blade dancer. the other (no pix) was caught by chen using eupro upside-down top water lure.

my first and only haruan for the day. caught using BAKAU 2" softplastic swimbait. the haruan was about 500g. after posing for the camera, it was tagged and released.

the same haruan from another angle

another haruan (800g), caught using the same type of BAKAU lure, by the newbie

chiam (the newbie) proudly posing with his catch. the haruan was his first ever fish on lure.

chiam dislodging the hook from his second haruan. a 400g feisty fella. chiam put me and chen to shame as he was the only person to catch 2 haruans that day. i only managed to catch one while chen caught none.

with that kind of luck, i'm sure chiam will continue to fish for a long time to come

i have long believed in "beginner's luck" when it comes to fishing. many a times, i personally witness newbies at fishing either catching the most fish or catching the biggest fish of the day. today was no different. chen and me had made plans for a short fishing session at CM's pond today. i met chiam last night, during our regular badminton session and invited him to join, since i happened to know that chiam has started lure fishing quite recently and he has yet to catch any fish on lures. well, i'm sure he's glad he accepted the invitation for he put myself to shame by catching 2 haruans on lures and one of his haruan was the biggest caught during that session.

chiam, care to join me and chen to fish at kpg stoh sometime soon? we plan to go there to stock up on siakap aka barramundi aka kimbakloh, for the coming chinese new year.

an afternoon at stoh

casting at rambungan ferry ramp while waiting for the ferry to arrive

the first barramundi caught that day... in less than 3 minutes of casting, using soft plastic swimbaits. sp swimbaits out performed hardbody lures that afternoon. i attribute that to the realistic swimming action of the sp swimbait and its life like appearance

Location: Kpg Stoh, Rambungan, Lundu
Time: 2.30pm - 5.00pm
Fish: Siakap aka Barramundi
Style: Lure fishing. Soft Plastic Swimbait vs Hardbody lures
Tackle: Light Tackle
Results: Soft plastic won the day. Lost count on the number of fish. Hardbody lures 2 fish only.
Findings: Soft plastic swimbait lures did not last for long. Lost 1 and damged to 2. 1 was lost because the fish swam to some snags and my 12lb mono was cut. 2 SP the hook snapped!!!

CM's Office Pond (14 Dec 2007)

1st haruan of the day. i estimated it to be around 800g. my reel, shimano slade 2500 which cost around rm100. line is 12lb no brand name mono.

bakau soft plastic lure which cost about rm1.33 a piece. it comes with a jig head and treble hook, but i have removed the treble to avoid sangkut.

2nd haruan, also using the BAKAU sp that looks like a baitfish

close-up of the haruan with the sp in its mouth

an even close up view of the haruan. with a single hook jighead, there was no problem in dislodging the hook from the haruan's mouth

took a few days off work to clear some outstanding stuffs and since i have managed to get the things out of the way, i went fishing today. i revisited the CM's Office Pond. the rain the night before caused the water to be murky but that did not deter me from fishing there from 8-11.30am. the first haruan was caught less than 15 minutes after i started casting. i saw the fish rise and hover a few inches below the surface. a few cast to the area using the newly bought BAKAU soft plastic minnow lure managed to entice the fella. the fish was landed safely and after a couple of snap shots, it was released back to it's habitat. then there was a long wait before the next fish. i moved around the pond, blind casting at "potential" places with both the BAKAU sp and also the yozuri banana boat lure but there were no takers. about an hour later, i saw another haruan rise near where i was casting. casting the yozuri lure, i tried to walk the dog over where the haruan was but, it did not attack the lure. after a few more cast with no result using the top water lure, i switched back to the BAKAU sp. immediately, there was a take on the lure and i had a solid hookup. after that, i decided to stick to the BAKAU sp only... and i also tried sight casting. meaning, when i see a haruan rise, i would cast over that location and bring my lure swimming right in front of the fella. i managed to get 2 more taps on the BAKAU sp using that technique however, the hookup was not solid and the fish managed to get away. BAKAU sp is cheap. RM5 for 3 nos. of 3inch sp... complete with jighear and a treble. i took out the treble cos the location i was fishing at, is full of weeds. the action of the lure when retrieved it really mimics that of a baitfish (eg. seluang, bilis etc).

an advise to newbies at fishing... the haruans at the cm pond is getting smarter so you must continue to change the presentation of your fishing style. my last trip there... i caught all the haruans on top water lures like popper and banana boat lure, however, today those did not work at all. another thing is, some of the haruan rises far out in the middle of the pond. so u need a proper setup of fishing tackle to win them over. so... invest some $ for some good fishing tackle.

One Night In Beijing

First listened to this song last Saturday, on a program on Astro. Could not make head or tail of what the fella is singing but somehow that song stuck to my head like super glue. I found out from my wifey that the song is actually quite old... coming to 10 years (or more). So I did a youtube search for the song, and guess what I found. The MTV... by the original singer Shin Yue Tuan. Many cover versions have been made but, the original tops them all. Let me share with you this song... One Night In Beijing.

food tasting!!!

the final product, served in traditional bowl

a wholesome meal in itself... the bubur chacha

the bubur chacha project

peel the sweet potatoes and yams

dice the potatoes and yams

50 cents worth of shredded coconut

first pressing for the shredded coconut. the santan aka coconut milk, is the thickest at this stage and it will be kept for the use at the later stage of the cooking process

subsequent pressing of the shredded coconut. this diluted coconut milk would be transfered to a pot an brought to a boil

boiling the second pressing coconut milk

it is always handy to have a pandan plant at your home

cutting the pandan leaves

wash the leaves throughly

put the pandan leaves into the boiling coconut milk. the pandan leaves would give off a nice aroma to the taste of the bubur chacha

add in the diced sweet potatoes and yams. bring the whole concoction to a boil

in the meantime, prepare the sago pearls

prepare some ice water

pour hot water into the sago pearls

transfer the hot sago pearls to the chilling ice water. this is to prevent the sago pearls sticking together forming lumps

transfer the sago pearls into the boiling concoction

this is how bubur chacha looks like with the sago pearl

finally, add in the thick coconut milk and to sweeten the whole dessert, add sugar to taste. in my case, i added around 3 table spoon of sugar

a sudden craving for bubur chacha, i decided to cook this famous local delicacy today. went to the market and bought the necessary ingredients for bubur chacha, namely sweet potatoes (yellow & orange color ones), yams and 50 cents of coconut shreds (for its santan aka coconut milk). this is my second attempt at cooking this dish. the first time around, it turned out ok, save for comments that i did not cut the sweet potatoes into smaller chunks. i let the pictures do all the "cooking" then.

Keep Getting Haruans!!!

it was a foggy morning. steady streams of participants walking to the registration place

the pond where we decide to try our luck at

open up now!!!

the most successful lure that day, by eupro

my first haruan for the day!!!

that's 1foot long and about 1kg in weight

you've heard of dances with the wolf, that's me running with the haruan!!!

another 1kg+ haruan in the bag

posing with the 1.55kg haruan, that won me 2nd prize!!! woohoo!!!

that's over 60cm in length!!!

another pix of the champion fish. 2.30kg haruan

ok!!! one last take of the champion fish!!! what a fat belly!!!

commotion at the weighing area

ooos!!! and aaahs!!! could be heard during the weighing of the heavyweights

prize giving ceremony!!! now i got an electric oven, all i need are recipes for bbq haruan.

Sunday, 18th November 2007, as early as 5.15am, I was already wide awake. Took the time between then and 6am, to get ready for my second fishing competition of the year. The first, being the Sarawak State Library Competition which was rained out and the result was a one to forget. This time around it was the Kuching Golf Club Family Day Fishing Competition. My Dad had registered me, Chen and himself for the competition.

6am sharp, Chen was outside the gate of my house. We proceeded to my Dad's place and from there we transfered our gears to his car and proceeded to KGS, detour-ring along the way for breakfast at Mr Brown. 7am, we reached KGS and confirmed our registration before proceeding to one of the 4 ponds that was opened for competition. The time of the competition was quite short, from 7.15am to 9.30am. Without much haste, we proceeded to one of the potential looking pond. What we had as weapons were baitcasters and spinning sets. The night before, I had also bought some live seluangs and shrimps as bait for bottom fishing.

Opening the account between the 3 of us was Chen. He had caught a sizeable haruan with his eupro lure that he bought recently. Throughout the competition, he only used that top water lure and he also landed the most haruans between us. He must have caught at least 10 haruans... and 6-7 of them were above the 1kg mark, with his biggest 1.35kg. I was the second person to land a fish, a haruan of 800-900g. I had used the berkley blade dancer. And once again, it showed that it is one deadly lure. I caught a couple more haruans before I changed to the yozuri banana boat (YBB) lure. The lure proved effective when we were fishing at the CM's park pond so I brought it out for testing. Eventually, the banana boat proved it's worth when I managed to land my biggest haruan to date with it... a whopper weighing 1.55kg. I was casting blindly from then pond bank when I spotted the fella about 20m away, using my polaroid glasses. Without much ado, I cast the YBB lure to it's direction but missed. I retrieved and recast as many as 5 times as my aim was not great. Finally one cast landed just over the haruan. Thankfully it was not spooked. I played the YBB by twitching the rod tip. The YBB moved from side to side. The action as they called it is Walking The Dog. As the YBB passed a foot in front of the haruan, it began to follow the YBB, but it didn't strike. I stopped the YBB's action and the haruan got closer. Then I retrieved the lure again. And that haruan became agitated and followed at a faster pace. I stopped the lure again. And now, the haruan was practically an inch or two from the lure. Within a split second, WHAM!!! the haruan whacked the lure and tried to swim into the weeds for cover. I reacted by striking the rod and held the rod tip high. Although the haruan was big, it didn't fight nasty. It trashed a bit and when it tires itself I quickly retrieve the line. It was basically hauling dead weight of fish and weeds. When I managed to get the fish to the pond bank, I quickly realised that I need a net to haul up the fella. My Dad, who was watching all the action quickly ran to get the scoop net. The first attempt to scoop the fella, it jumped 2ft and landed further away. Thankfully, the second attempt to scoop the fella, was successful, and as the fish trashed in the net, the YBB came off!!! A closer inspection of the trebles showed that they had opened!!! As for my Dad, he tried casting but the lines kept entangled, until he gave up. He continued with bottom fishing and caught a whole lot of tilapia and flowerhorn. He could have caught more fish, if only I had provided him with right-handed spinning reels, as he is a left hander. I promised to get him one of those for next year's competition. Among the other lures that I tried were bushwhacker, but it brought it weeds and no fish at all. By 9am, I had decided to call it quits. Chen and my Dad kept on fishing and hauled up more haruans and tilapia respectively.

9.30am, we packed up and went to the registration area to weigh our catch. All in all, we had about 10 fish above the 1.0kg mark. Chen's biggest was 1.35kg and mine was 1.55kg. Things were looking great, I was leading the score board with my catch. The joy didn't last long. As more and more anglers came back with their catch. One haruan that was brought back was HUGE... and I mean, it overshadowed even my 1.55kg tiny fella. When it was put on the scale, the pointer stopped at 2.30kg!!! KNN!!! That is a freaking godzilla of a haruan!!! I was bundled to 2nd spot. More big fish came, but when weighted, they all came in at 1.4+kg. Chen was out of the top 5, and there were only prizes for the top 5 heaviest fish. When the result was final, I was still at 2nd spot, even though there was another haruan which weighs 1.55kg.

10.30am. I went up to stage to received my 2nd place prize, which was a electric oven!!! It was the first time ever that I have won anything in a fishing competition. Truly a memorable day for me. Mainly because I was able to spend quality time with my Dad and friend... and winning 2nd place was icing to top off a great day.

CM's Office Pond (3 Nov 2007)

That's me, casting away at one corner of the pond. Pictures are all courtesy to Chen.

havana cigar size haruans using mini berkley blade dancer

BBD is the one lure that I have in my tackle box when I go casting for snakeheads

The haruan is more than 1ft long. Chen has big feet

First ever fish using surface lures... yozuri banana lure

such a peaceful scenery

that's CM's office at the background

Me at another end of the pond

getting the yozuri popper out from the mouth of the biggest haruan of the day. it put up a valiant fight

another pose with the biggest haruan of the day

the biggest haruan, just before it was hoisted onto safe ground.

Early Saturday morning, I went fishing with Chen. It was at CM's Office pond. I didn't know the place existed until I saw some pictures being posted at MFN by some Sarawakian anglers... namely bela_oo and kobisbungo. (thanx guys, for sharing the location. Anyway, it was a pleasant place to fish at. The water is clear. There are weeds around... however I find that the big haruans are way in the middle in the pond and casting lures until that far can be a tall order. Still I managed to get 5 haruans (all released after the pictures were taken) 2 biggies was estimated at around 800g and 900g each. they were caught using yozuri banana lure and yozuri popper respectively. the smaller specimens were about the size of havana cigars and estimated to be from 150g to 300g were caught using mini berkley blade dancer.

Sharma... total fish weight, I take it as 2.0kg. Haruans are grade 2 fish. All on lures. That's 8 more points to my tally.