Tri-banded Sebarau at Giam

the tri-banded sebarau aka hampala macrolepidota

when u catch a fish, u need to pose

behind me, the infamous Giam waterfalls

my trusty berkley blade dancer securely lodged on the sebarau's lip

On 18 October 2008, Noel, me and Vivienne went for a photography trip to the infamous, Giam waterfalls. The place is located less than 20 miles from Kuching.

Since basically, we have 2 cameras only, so I brought along my light casting tackle to entertain myself. Well, I surely am glad I brought along my fishing tackle because I managed to lure a tri-banded sebarau aka hampala macrolepidota using my trusted mini berkley blade dancer.

Basically, I was doing sight fishing as the water was crystal clear. I had climbed to the upper part of the waterfalls. As soon as I reached that place, I saw 2 large sebaraus cruising the shallows. They oso saw me and swam further. I cast my lure to their direction but as soon as the lure hit the water, the swam even further. Many cast later, I decided to shift my focus. Instead of continuously casting to the open water, I decided to cast towards a shady area where the water was fast flowing. My first cast to that location, a silvery figure came out from the shade and whacked my lure, but it did not stick. Missed. Many cast to the same spot yielded nothing. Then Noel reached my location and started to take pictures. He even went into the stream where the silvery figure appeared. So, my guess was, the fish there was as good as gone and I went back downstream to take some photos with Vivienne.

About half and hour later, I decided to climb to the upper reaches again. I said to myself... a few cast at the same place, and if there is nothing, then I would go. True enough... my third cast another silvery figure came and whacked my lure again. It missed, swam back... but decided to make a U-turn. That was when the barb of the BBD attached itself to the Hampala's tough lip, and it was FISH ON!!! A few moments later, a healthy sebarau was landed. I couldn't contain my joy that I shouted so loudly that Noel and Vivienne turned to face me in the midst of the roar of the waterfalls.

Charles, if you are reading this, what say you... CNY sebarau fishing? As long as you can drive... I will bring you there.

cny fishing 2008 - pictures from charles's camera

fishing at one fishy corner of the 1st pond. i was feeling the "heat" as charles had landed 2 haruans and i was still at zero!!!

spotted a haruan and cast my trusted bbd to the area

after a few cast... this was what i got. the sp part of the bbd was no more. got 1kg kah the fish?

Charles with another strike. the fish put up an excellent fight. the haruans at this pond were really fighters

finally the haruan shows its face. peekaboo!!!

quite a good size haruan. seems well fed as the pond is full of baitfish

the surprise fish at pond no. 2. can anyone guess what fish it was?

a 1kg+ belida... on SP!!! woohoo!!! great catch Charles!!!

feeling the heat at pond no. 2. there were so many belida rises but i cast to no avail. next time belida, next time!!!

pre chinese new year leihu with bela_oo

had an idea to use just 2 types of lure today. had taken a couple of days leave to finish up spring cleaning to my home. since i finished cleaning earlier than anticipated, i took the rest of the time to do some fishing. top lure is the berkley blade dancer mini and bottom lure is the berkley 4" power worm attached to a ewg worm hook

15 minutes into casting, a car stopped opposite the road and someone walked over to see me fish. i had a glimpse of the person and immediately, i recognised him as bela_oo, a forummer from malaysian fishing net. we greeted each other and then he went back to his car to get his fishing gear. bela_oo must have brought lady luck with him, although lady luck decided to stick to me as when he was getting his fishing tackle, i got a strike on the berkley 4" worm. yahoo!!! my first wild haruan on sp worm, and not a bad size too... approximated at around 800g. when the haruan took the lure, my instinct was to set the hook immediately. however, i remembered the words of another forummer, marlin, to wait a few seconds before striking. i could see the line moved and bubbles came out from the spot where the haruan whacked the lure. 3 seconds later, i struck. fish on. it put up a strong fight on my ultra light tackle. about a minute later, it was landed. right at that the time when i hauled up the fish to land, a lorry full of passengers passed by and they gave me a shout and put their thumbs up.

the whole ewg worm hook was in the mouth of the haruan. thankfully, i was able to take the hook out without killing the haruan.

bela_oo, changing sp before continuing to cast. finally, now i know what "bela_oo" means. bela_oo aka wahid explained to me that "bela_oo" is a local Sarawak slang for haruan! i left wahid to fish at around 5.45pm. up until then, he had not catch any fish yet. just have to wait for his catch report then.

CM's pond on 13 January 2008

bro ajay_cyber... trying out fly fishing

bro zigger using a baitcasting tackle setup

chiam setting up his telescopic rod

the only haruan landed that day. 5 anglers, 1 fish

the fish was the biggest i've caught, to date, at CM's pond

size comparison. my shoe is almost 1ft long

close-up shot of the haruan and the killer bakau sp

the 3" bakau sp was securely lodge onto the lips of the haruan

the haruan stretched out on my arm. i measured my arm, from tip of finger to the elbow. it was 15". i estimated the haruan to be slightly over 1kg in weight

next target... the carps in the pond!!!

the trip was planned a day before, at the MFN forum. the trip was also the day where i finally got to meet fellow MFN forummer... bro ajay_cyber, bro ziggerx and bro alex. have been sharing fishing ideas with them at MFN for a while now and today i finally got to fish with them. we shared informations and ideas on fishing... and got to the business of fishing for the haruans.

the haruans are getting very educated... due to the c&r practice. they would surface just outside our casting range, and they don't hover around the area for long. they would come up for air and swim back to the weeds. bro ajay tried fly fishing and sp. bro zigger tried using popper and other surface lures. chiam used bakau SP and me, i used berkley blade dancer which didn't work. then i switched to bakau SP... which landed me a 1kg+, 15" haruan, the biggest that i have landed from this location. i also used another berkley sp, but to no avail. bro alex joined us a bit later.

how i landed my haruan was spotfishing. i saw a rise about 30ft away and cast the bakau SP to the location. i was on target and when the lure touched the water, the haruan hit it with such a force that my rod bent doubled. it then dove into the weeds. judging from the fight that it put up, i have a feeling it was a big fish. a short tussle ensued. but i managed to drag the tired haruan out of the weed area. took some pix and released it.

while fishing today, something caught my eyes. i was using polaroid glasses and i could see into the water very clearly. what i saw was, to say the least, damn interesting!!! it was a sebarau... a big sebarau... of about 1ft in length. it was just cruising around. i tried casting my lure at it but it was not interested and swam away. now i know there is sebarau in the pond and i will certainly find ways to lure it in the future. in the future, i also plan to try and catch one of those carps in the pond!!!

roadside longkang fishing

this haruan was landed just before it started to rain heavily. managed to lure it with my trusty berkley blade dancer. had 2 takes on the bbd prior to this haruan being landed, but because i didn't set the hook properly, i lost those fish.

the same haruan. a fiesty little fellow of about 400g. it was a healthy specimen as the body was meaty. it was release after a short photoshoot.

the location. area is used to be peat swamp. that explains the coloration of the dark but clear water. it also explains the dark coloration of the haruan that was caught.

the spot where the 3 haruans took the lure. 2 managed to escape. water was probably just 1 ft deep, in the middle of the trench.

the marker to identify the place!!!

first fish of 2008 from The Land of Kiong

over an hour of fruitless casting, i finally landed this 800g fella when i work my bbd over a patch of floating weeds, that i just heard some splashes. this haruan is a quasimodo... meaning it had hump on its back.

the same haruan, after the BBD was dislodged.

the second haruan i caught was slightly bigger. my estimate, 900g. it was deceived using the same lure... the deadly bbd. i cast over to a patch of clearing. it was a blind cast, that i had done countless of times earlier to the same spot. the dark cloud was moving towards the area where i was fishing. i was to be my last few cast. then i felt a thug as i was retrieving the lure. i did not strike immediately. instead i counted 1, 2, 3... and only then did i struck. the hook set. the fish put up a valiant fight. when i got it near the bank where i was standing, i realised i didn't want to risk breaking my fishing line by lifting the fish + weeds that were entangled. used a scoop net to lift the fish up. my tackle setup... shimano slade 2500 and ryobi 2-piece rod.

just how dark it was when i caught that fish.

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.

sungai pinang farm (re-visited)

6 january 2007

2pm, chen was right on the dot at the gate of my house. packed my stuff into his old faithful... we headed for john's house. he was not ready... as usual. soon enough, we headed off to our first location, suggested by me, some oil palm plantation near uitm, samarahan area. unfortunately, the condition of the streams there weren't conducive thus we opted for another location.

it was either we go all the way to the water gates at samarahan, kiong's pond or sungai pinang farm. the latter was chosen and by 4pm... we have arrived there. going right to the action... john caught a skinny but healthy haruan weighing close to 1kg with his berkley blade dancer (fire tiger). later, chen foul-hooked a tilapia which put up a good fight. john switched to float fishing and got many small tilapia and puyu (climbing perch). i was still zero.

we all moved to the back ponds to explore. we got to 1 huge pond, way back at the farm. it was huge... as big as a football field... but it had drained, leaving pockets of water that was 1-2ft deep. lots of action on the water surface, and with polarised sunglasses, can see that the fishes around were... red tilapia (1kg+ in size), puyu, haruan and even catfish. john was the first to catch a fish, a puyu. then chen got a haruan, but as he reeled the fish in... it tried an escape trick that would make houdini proud. i was getting restless. still zero for me. then out of the blue, my blade dancer was whacked. hook-up. a fiesty haruan (500g) was reeled in. after a quick photo session, it was dully released. soon after that, chen pulled up another 500g haruan with his halco sorceror.

then on, we moved back to the front ponds. plenty of puyu and tilapia were caught but we didn't bother to take any more photos. chen did try float fishing for the huge patins, but there were no takers. around 6pm, we called it a day after a satisfying half-day of fishing.