crocodile sighting!!!

7.30am: resident croc (RC) can be seen sunbathing at the right side river bank

RC eyeballing myself and theflyingdutchman

RC decided to move off to the middle part of the river

RC with it's head, body and tail surfacing. is it a sign of intimidation?

squatter residents are either oblivious to the presence of RC or are they fed up to see RC already?

went fishing at the bako coastway earlier today with theflyingducthman (an angler that came out of retirement). brought 2 setups, i.e. bottom fishing setup and casting setup. also brought along my dad's kodak dx7590 digital camera (with 10x zoom)... hoping to capture my catch if any. at the back of my mind, i knew of a resident croc that has been around the area and was hoping to immortalize the fella in digital format.

upon reaching the spot, i went to scan the horizon for the bugger. then my eye caught a glimpse of something on the far right river bank, which water was receding fast due to low tide. as the sun was not really up yet, i had to settle for a guess that the "log" i spotted was the resident croc. i took a few snaps of photograph nonetheless. we moved to the fishing spot. rigged our gear and waited. as the water recede and the sun rose, it became clear that it was indeed the resident croc, having a sunbath. it was about 50m or so away, so theflyingdutchman and myself weren't that worried, so we continued to fish away.

an hour into fishing, the resident croc decided to wakeup. it slid slowly into the water and started swimming at our directions. we were on our toes by then. it then decided to keep a distance of approximately 30m and stated swimming parallel to the shore that we were standing at. it just kept it's head up and eyeballed us for a few minutes before swimming further to the middle of the river. soon it was hovering in the middle of the river but this time, it's head, body and tail broke surface as well. i didn't know what it was up to? maybe it was trying to show aggression, maybe it was sunbathing i will never know.

now that the resident croc moved further away from us but nearer to a squatters settlement. we continued to fish but we never took our eyes of the fella. then suddenly it dived into the murky depths. just as that happened, we could see much further away... maybe 200m away, 4 people from the squatters were walking/swimming in chest high water to their boat, anchored far from shore so as not to get stuck during low tide. i must have mumbled something like "those people got balls ooo!!!"

anyway, after that a few more anglers came to fish around the area. there were hardly any action beside the sole eel that i caught. we decided to call it a day at around 10am.

mangrooveDan vs 1.2kg parrotfish

during the last sematan fishing trip, john managed to take a short video while i was busy fighting a parrotfish. i have since obtained the video from john and upload it onto youtube.com for all to watch...



or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfXg302dPbI

points update

points at last count = 74.35

____________________________________

points from 8-9 september sematan trip

1.2kg parrot x 3 x 1 = 3.6
0.2kg angkay x 15 x 2 = 6.0
total for the trip = 9.6

____________________________________

points from 16 september trip

0.6kg MG x 3 x 2 = 3.6
0.5kg MG x 3 x 1 = 1.5
1.0kg snakehead x 2 x 1 = 2.0
0.1kg pbs x 2 x 1 = 0.2
total for the trip = 7.3

____________________________________

points total to 17 september = 74.35 + 9.6 + 7.3 = 91.25

sunday surprises at kiong's!!!

the 14 ft pole that was left unattended for a split second, took a dive into the pond!!!

the haruan was slightly over 1ft long. i rated it at around 1kg

the 2nd marble goby that took live shrimp bait. it's weighs about 500g

the small and fiesty peacock bass. weighs around 100g i presume. good fight on ultra light tackle

one of the other 3 PBs caught yesterday. they are all about the same size

a 600g marble goby to start the day! the BBD hardly ever fails to deliver

it's sunday. plans were made earlier during the week to go back to kiong's pond to say "hello" to the inhabitants there. as usual... john was again late. however, i could forgive him because the weather was wet and cloudy. anybody in their right mind would have just stayed in bed!!! save for us anglers.

we headed straight for batu kawa old town for breakfast with the delicious meat & fish ball soup. once our stomach were stuffed, it was a short drive to kiong's. he was already up and as john went to give kiong some mooncakes, i headed straight for the pond. it was still drizzling and the water in the pond was murky. immediately i took to casting while john played catching up. 15 minutes passed and yet i had nothing to show for my casting. john was still setting up his tackle and kiong was saying something "the leihu have turned vegetarian. now the only take bread." i continued blind casting and while retrieving, suddenly my trusty berkley blade dancer (BBD) was taken with a burst of force. the fish swam hard and strong but the fight was brief. i had thought it was a haruan, but to everyone's surprise, it was a 600g marble goby (MG). considering that john released a couple of MG almost 2 years ago, we had never seen any MG since, that is until today!!! well, it was a good way to start the fishing session.

as we berley the area with bread, we could see at least a dozen haruans, both big and small, cruising around the area and munching on the offering. we tried to entice the haruans with lures, namely, BBD, but to no avail. what kiong said earlier was true. the haruans have completely changed their diet. my personal deduction was that due to our practice of catch and release, the haruans have actually "learned" that BBDs are dangerous and are keeping their distance.

soon, we switched to bait fishing instead. we set up one tackle each for the grass carps which could be seen cruising around in the distance. i had also managed to scoop up some live shrimp and seluang (bait fish) to be used. john had moved to the other side of the pond to try to improve his luck. i set up a 14ft pole to target the haruans. some time passed before john registered a strike and managed to land a small peacock bass (PB). while he was walking back to me with his catch... suddenly, there was a take on my 14ft pole. however, it was unattended and the fish managed to pull it into the pond. we had a hard time retrieving the pole but by that time, the fish had already got away. john and kiong sure had a good laugh at me. knn!!!

a while after that incident, it was my turn again to catch a fish. i had just rebaited my grass carp setup with fresh bread and cast it far to a weedy patch. i then placed the rod on a rod holder and tended to my 14ft pole. it was less than a minute when i saw the grass carp setup bend. i threw down my 14ft pole and ran to the grass carp setup and gave it a strike. there was a brief fight and then the whole thing was stuck. my thinking was that the float had got stuck in the weeds and the fish had gone. so i pulled in the line with a bunch of weed stuck at the end. as the weed approach the bank, suddenly i felt another tug. the fish was still there. i then used a net to scoop up the whole weedy mess. i thought that i had already had the fish in the net before i realised that the fish was still in the water and trashing about trying to gain its freedom. quickly i reached for the 10lb leader and try to haul up the fish. as the fish came out of the water, the line broke, however, luck was on my side as the fish landed on dry land instead of back into the pond. it was a 1kg haruan and it had taken the bread bait meant for the grass carps.

after that, there was no more takes on my grass carp setup even though i periodically rebaited the hooks with fresh bait. however, luck came to my 14ft pole. i caught another fish that i had never caught before... a PB with live shrimp as bait. the size was the same as the PB john caught earlier, around 100g. not long after that, i caught another PB of the same size from the same area. looks like i had found the lair of school of juvenile PBs. i was hoping to catch more PBs at the same area so i continued to fish around the same spot. then my bait had a soft take. the float submerged but it didn't move. i waited a few seconds before i struck and immediately, the unknown fish turned on its turbo power. because my 14ft rod was super soft, there was no way i could stop the fish run. it had gotten stuck in some weed. i tried to pull in the fish and weed but to no avail. i decided to loosen the pressure. i could feel the fish trying to make a second escape, but this time, i was ready. i pulled it in and was rewarded with a 500g MG. after that, we decided to call it a day. all fish were photographed and released.

LOK CHIAK! LOK CHIAK!... ARON!!! (8-9 September 2007)

john and the BIG MAMA

what a whopper!!!

my consolation. will be served during my wife's birthday dinner

dayang oh dayang!!! so few of them that night

kaci oh kaci... u smell like soap!!!

close-up of part of my catch. the reddies are angkays!!!

another part of my haul

my half of the overall catch

this was the last sea trip for me. actually, my last sea trip was suppose to be august, but due to a mix-up, i was left out of that particular trip and john booked this september trip so as to fulfil my sea fishing quota for 2007. two other seats on the boat were still up for grabs but our usual fishing buddies had other plans so it was basically me and john. actually... i almost "fly aeroplane" on john because due to another unforseen circumstances i thought my license was revoked, but at the 12th hour, i was told it was not revoked so i made the trip. thankfully, john... who is forever late, managed to be late again... thus arriving at my place at the 13th hour, thus i had time to get ready for the trip. confusing? haha...

anyway, the drive to sematan was uneventful and when we arrived at the beach, hashim (our ever helpful boatman) and michael was already to load our gears on the boat and get on our way. by that time, it was around 6pm. the weather was overcast with the cool and refreshing bayu laut (breeze from the sea) blowing. 30 minutes into the boat ride, hashim shouted "laut merah kat depan!" we didn't know he meant until he explained to us that the sea ahead of us, the water has been mixed with fresh water from overnight rain that drained into sg samusan and discharged to sea in the immediate samusan area. there goes our plan to fish at samusan so hashim decided to anchor at a spot nearby to wait for darkness so that we can catch squids as bait for the rest of the night's fishing. at the same time, we did some fishing where the only fish that was landed was a palm sized angcho.

once enough bait were caught, hashim decided to move to another spot. that was arouns 8.30pm by then. that was the time when we experienced the 'lok chiak! lok chiak! phenomenon. it started at the front of the boat where john, michael and hashim (on the roof of the boat) got a fish each at every cast. fish such as angkay, kaci, angcho and pisang, but angkay were by far the dominant species around the area. the palm size fish put up quite a good fight despite their size. i, however was getting restless as i was missing out on the action as the now bayu darat (breeze from land) was making my casting ineffective. then hashim shouted to us, 'do not need to cast far... just lower your bait beside the boat". we did as instructed and was seeing the results immediately. i had landed my first ever angkay. i stopped counting when i caught 5 angkay in just a few minutes. however, the action died down a bit after 30 minutes of non-stop action. around that time, a shout from the neighboring boat, hashim's dad, had just lost a big fish. i just shrugged off the "information" but the others had all re-baited and cast further out. not long after that, john's rod had a nibbled and hashim asked him to check it. john picked up the rod, felt something at the end of the line and gently lift the rod. what was to ensued was a 'wicked' fight between men and beast. line peeled out of john's tica dolphin 10000 as if it was a small udang galah reel. the pull was constant, as if the fish was huge st bernard leading it's owner on a fast jog!!! john held on. when he managed to gain some lined, the fish fulled out more. then john said he felt the fish shook it's head!!! just as john thought had gained the edge on the fish, it decided to changed direction to the back of the boat. the 40lb monoline would easily be cut buy the barnacles that infested the hull of the boat. quickly, the rod was passed to hashim who was on the top of the roof. the fish continue its sprint to the back of the boat. i had to clear my lines out of the water so that hashim can fight the fish better. the fish rounded the back of the boat and again, it showed no signs of weakening in strength. hashim also felt the fish shaking its head. by now, the fish decided to move to the front again. john took over from hashim, and he could just hold on as the fish was not giving up easily, the tug of war felt like it was going on for ages. by now, i had speculated that the fish was an eron... nope, make that a BIG ARON (BA)!!! the BA decided to make another run around the boat. john almost lost the tackle to the sea. thankfully hashim got a hold of it. john joined hashim at the back. the tug of war continues. again the fish decided to swim to the front of the boat. by now, the fight have been going on for around 15 minutes. there we no more sudden burst of energy by the BA. it was now just banking on its body weight. as the BA surfaced, the squid light ray bounced off the shiny scales. a silvery shadow swims passed and broke surface. it was no BA... it was a HA... HUGE ARON!!! 20 kg by my estimate. 20 kg of pure muscle. hashim handled the fish with experience. he slipped his hand under the gill plate and hauled up the HA. there were cheers all around. i had to shake the hand of the "owner" of the fish. john was exhausted... but elated and lost for words. we did the usual, took photos. as reality set in, john now has a dilemma. "how in the world am i gonna bring the fish home since it can't fit in my 100 qrt ice box!!!"

while john was sorting his fish, the rest of us started fishing again. it is said... aron travels in pair when they breed, so the griefing mate should be around. one of my rods got a huge take a while later. lined peeled out from my penn 940 reel even though i had locked the drag. thankfully, the rod managed to take the shock else my 20lb mono mainline would have easily burst. it was something big. i was ahead of myself... thinking could it be another aron. 5 minutes later, the fish surfaced. it was a let down. a 3kg sea catfish. we continue to get angkay but at longer intervals. so we hashim decided to move to the third location.

once again we encountered lok chiak phenomenon... of angkay. goodness me. 3 years of fishing in sematan and i never caught them before and suddenly i am catching bus loads of them. (that's just a figure of speech). john had alreadi called it a night. there was just 3 of us fishing. as the night wore on, the bites lessen. i tried to fight the tiredness but i couldn't fight it. by the time i woke up, it was 7am.

time for parrot!!! the next best bait for parrot is fresh prawns and we got a kilo of it to catch ourselves some parrots. i rigged 2 my rods and decided to wait for action. so did everyone else. some denizens at the bottom kept nibbling on our baits. half kilo of prawns left and we still had nothing to show for. i rebaited and waited. not too long after that, the smaller of the two rods twitched!!! i decided to check it out. as i lift my rod, the line tightened and the rod 15-30lb rod bent doubled. the 20lb stren line started to peel out from my abu garcia 6500 pro rocket cs. suddenly everything stopped. rod bent, line stiff. bladdy ell... sangkut!!! the fish had managed to go into a hideout. i kept the line taut. by then, hashim and john had rushed to the back. john brought out his camera and hashim had the landing net in his hand. i decide to lower my rod. i think because of that, the fish felt that there was no more harm and decided sprint for safety, not realising the hook is still in its mouth. the fight was ON again. the fish fought for its life. line peel out but i lift the rod higher, not giving an inch. soon enough the fish tires and i reeled it in. it felt like i had reeled a long time and yet the fish didn't surface. i was cussing something like "this better be a good fish!". when it surfaced i was overjoyed. it was my second ever parrot fish. slightly bigger than my first parrot which was 1kg. so i say this parrot is about 1.2kg. to top it all, john got the whole event on video. woohoo!!! i will be posting it on youtube soon.

we decided to call it a day around 9am. trolling back to the beach, we didn't get any strikes. as the curtain falls on my sea fishing forays for 2007, i hope my points haul holds until the end of the year for my championship with sharma aka crazyfisherman.

Noel's Trengganu Trip (2-3 Sept 2007

3.44kg banded trevally

3.0kg cobia

overall catch for noel and his FIL
pisangs, gopengs, merah suman, snappers, MJ looking fish, cupak, banded trevally and cobia

the star catch... 3.44kg banded trevally

over the merdeka weekend, a fishing buddy of mine, noel, went deep sea fishing again. this trip was with his father-in-law and some other fishos. the area they fished was the famous terengganu spot. overall the trip was decent. he'd like to share his catches with everyone who reads this blog.

points update after merdeka weekend

present points haul = 67.55
kbl at kpg stoh = 0.7 x 2 x 2 = 2.8
channa straita at kiong = 1.0 x 2 x 2 = 4.0

total = 67.55 + 2.8 + 4.0 = 74.35

fishing at The Land Of Kiong

The 1kg Haruan

The 2kg fat sultan

Posing with John's grass carp

What a fat fella! Estimated to be around 6kg

Sunday, 2nd September. Early morning. This time I partnered John to The Land Of Kiong. It was "pre-planned" 2 weeks ago... ever since John was defeated by the giant grass carp. This time around, John came prepared with a 14 foot telescopic rod with a Surecatch reel spooled with 15lb mono specifically to haul up the tough and "dirty" fighting fish.

We stopped by Batu Kawa old time for a hardy, meat balls and noodles (THE REAL BREAKFAST FOR CHAMPIONS), before we headed for the fishing spot.

Owner of the pond was still asleep when we got there. We went ahead to fish, expecting him to join but when he woke up, he went for breakfast instead. By that time, I had started casting. I try to look around for haruan rises but seems that the haruans were still asleep. I spotted a clearing about 15m right ahead of my. I had a feeling that a haruan or two would be around that area, so I started casting at the spot. Sure enough, after a few cast, something took my BBD. The pull was strong, but the drag on my Shimano Slade 2500 was stronger. My Ryobi 2 piece rod though, bent double to absorb the shock. When the fish surfaced, it was a big haruan. It fought all the way to the bank, before John helped me scoop it up. The haruan was estimated to be 1kg. It had some scratches over its body. I can't imagine what other fish would dare attack a 1kg haruan... save for tomans... (which I am told, that pond has 4)

After that, I didn't see any more action. John on the other hand, was just starting to get busy. His 14ft rod that was baited with bread and thrown to the middle of the pond bent double!!! He was like 20m away, and you should have seen him sprinting and hurdling over the pineapple crops in between. The fish was still at the end of the line when he got a hold of the rod. However, the fish had gone to the weeds. The fight was long!!! John had to practically haul up 50kg of weeds + 2kg of fish. It was a delicate task. Soon, the whole bundle of weeds came next to the bank and it was time to clear the weeds before netting the culprit!!! A 2kg sultan aka jelawat.

We had to wait about an hour before the next strike, again on John 14ft rod. This time it was one of the grass carps which took the bait near to the bank. Again, John was far from his rod and he sprint to action again. This time, the fish didn't fight dirty. Nonetheless, it put up quite a fight. Only when the fish was tired did I managed to scoop it up. The grass carp was really well fed. It had a very round tummy. I estimated the weight to be close to 6kg. Well, John had his revenge.

All in all, it was a good trip. All the pictures for this entry were from John's camera. For more pictures, pls visit my buddy's blog at... http://jahuong.objective-solutions.com/index.php?set_albumName=september-pond-fishing-2007&option=com_gallery&Itemid=&include=view_album.php

Rambungan Jetty & Kpg Stoh

4 inch brand "X" minnow lure with 700g barramundi

Saturday, 1st September 2007. Kicked-off with fishing at the above mentioned places. 2.15pm, chen and I set off from my place. It was nearly 4pm when we arrived at Rambungan Jetty. There were already many anglers at the end of the jetty by then, so we decided to fish around the mid section of the jetty. Bottom fishing was the order of the day, but the current had picked up and it was not productive at all. Many of our baits were stolen by small fish or flowery crabs... and we decided to stop fishing there around 5.15pm.

Then we moved off to Kpg Stoh. Also there were some anglers there before us, but they had also just arrived. We brought out our casting tackle and started fishing. Chen moved off to the smaller pond in hope to get one of the over 3kg barramundi that allegedly inhabit that pond. I on the other had started casting at the bigger pond. Within a couple of cast, I landed a 700g barramundi. Then 2 more smaller specimens of 300g were landed. (However I forgot to take pix of them).

Soon, Chen moved to the bigger pond as there was totally no action at the smaller pond. He managed to land a few barramundi and decided to keep a 800g table size barramundi for consumption.

I was a bit dissapointed with the growth of the barramundis. Thought that they would have been bigger by now. Anyway, we plan to have another trip there, just before harvest time. Hopefully by then, most of the fish would have reached the 1kg mark.