overcast skies threatened to cancel fishing plans but came afternoon, the clouds were blown away and it was sunshine all the way. by 2.30pm, me and chen were on our way to pasir pandak beach. when we reached the location, the tide was alreadi half full. experience and heresay is that the higher the tide, the chances of catching fishing from shore gets harder, but since we were alreadi there, we went ahead to fish. i did some casting, while chen rigged up for bottom fishing. the water was murky, coupled with strong head wind made casting extra challenging. well, after 30 minutes of casting, i switched to bottom fishing and was rewarded/cursed (depending on how you look at it) with a buntal.
30 more minutes at the beach and we decided move and try the mangroves along the road side instead. this was the place where i caught my first and only wild barramundi last year. water condition was good in the river system. lots of belanak could be seen swimming around. we even saw a tilapia/lohan looking fish swimming around. i tried lure casting and almost lost my favourite lure. (i think it is high time i retire the lure.)
i went over the other side of the river (separated by a twin culvert) and did casting there too but there was no action. then i switched to bottom fishing. that was when i got a surprise. as i was winding an undesirable cast, my live shrimp bait was tugged. with my polaroid glasses, i could see a silver flash. my heart skipped a beat. could it be the day i caught my second wild barramundi? i recast and retrieved slowly again. immediately, i felt the tug again. this time i waited a little while before i struck my rod. hook-up!!! and a silvery while figure torpedoed out of the water!!! and did a few more acrobatic jumps. it was a fiesty tarpon... my first ever wild tarpon!!! the fight didn't last long as my setup was mid class and the tarpon was around 750g. took photos with my trophy, tried to released it but it was gut hooked, so i brought it back for dinner. tarpons is much like the cousins to the terubok!!! lots of fine bones that can make you gag and choke if u are not careful at eating them. my advise next time to anyone who catch tarpons before... do C&R!!! anyway, i asked chen to cast to the location where i caught the fish and retrieve slowly, but to no avail. i noticed that his leader was short so that might be the reason the tarpons didn't attack his live bait. after i re-rigged, i cast to the same spot and was again rewarded with another fiesty tarpon. managed to land the bugger... but it managed to unhook itself and after a few flips on land and loosing some scales... it plopped!!! back into the river. from then on, no more takes on our offering. i figured, the fishes might have been spooked!!!
we then moved on to fresh water fishing at a pond right next to a muslim cemetary... no action there at all. around 6pm, we called it a day. thanx to chen for the pictures!!!
my tarpon, estimated 750g and after conferring with u... tarpon is top grade fish. so is 3 points per kg. so the fish is 2.25 points. so total points to date is 20.3 + 2.25 = 22.55!!!
