Rods on broke down wheels...

What a week...work doesn't get much better....my sister's wedding is getting nearer...it rains almost daily....and just as the weekend about to come....my bike broke down...

It was on Wednesday and I was on my way home from work near the KPJ Selangor Medical Centre when my bike (I was running at about 100-110 km/h at the time) suddenly lost power.  The engine doesn't died out but there were this strange sound from the engine like the sound of metal hitting each other.  I stopped at a Bus Stand and tried to figure out what was wrong.  Initially I thought that the exhaust might have been leaking due to the sound but I quickly realize that it was something inside the cylinder that is causing the sound and there's nothing I could do at the side of the road.

I did mentioned that the enigine is still running right?  Well it does but at a very low rpm...so a very slow ride home for me that day.  I couldn't go any faster then 40 km/h...just imagine how awkward it was riding a bike at 40 km/h wearing a riding jacket, gloves and full-face helmets while the bike is emitting the loud strange sound...

I went straight to the workshop near my place and upon inspection, was told that one of the piston ring had broke and caused a very deep scratch on the cylinder wall.  More bad news was the fact that there are now oversize piston for the bike model available in the market so a re-bore job is not possible.  The only solution is to replace the block and piston....and the cost is about RM650...

There goes my plan of buying a new Round BC (I had planned to buy a Shimano Calcutta Conquest 101 reel this week)...

But as usual...there's always light at the end of the tunnel...the weekend is almost here and so does the fishing...bike or no bike...I'm still going to this new place I found on Monday...I believe it has potential of harbouring snake heads communities...and I'm going there by car...arghhh...how I hate driving...

So...Ride On...Fish On...or should I put it...Drive On...Fish On...

Rainy days...

Wow...it has been raining daily for the past 2 weeks now.  I have had to cancelled 2 trips and another trip is looking very likely to be shelved too.

As bad as it is, it also gives me the opportunity to do some maintenance work on my fishing gears and also my bike.

So off goes the line from my Shimano Caenan BC reel and my Shimano Alivio Spinning reel, a WD40 spray and wipe followed by re-greasing the gears and moving parts.  My Okuma BC and Spinning rods also had a rinse and a wipe off, followed by all my lures.

Next is my trusted Yamaha FZ150i with an engine oil change, new oil filter goes in, re-greasing the chain, new air filter elements and finally a snow wash....

All cleaned and shining now...ready for battle....if only we can have a good sunny day this weekend...

While waiting for the weekend to come and hopping that the weather will be kinder this time around, I paid a visit to the RM3 Siakap Pond in Jugra.  I ddn't bring any fishing gear as I was only there to see the place and if the fishing is still good (with all the rain, the water may loose it's salinity and fish tend to be more passive when this happen)...

It seems that the fishes is still biting, albeit at a lower rate.  A guy using a top water lure had numerous strike on a single cast but none was a solid hook up.  Closer inspection reveals the reason, the fishes are so much smaller in size ranging between 300 to 400 grams each.  Previously the fishes are slightly bigger averaging 500 to 700 grams each.

When the weekend finally arrived, the rain is still coming down.  In fact, the rain is worst now compared to the previous days.  I took what little window of opportunity I had in between the rains to go and have a cast or two.  It doesn't take me long to get my first strike on Saturday only for the rain to make a come back, and it returned with a vengeance leaving me soaking and shivering on my ride back home.

My little sister wedding is coming up in 2 weeks time so its time to hang up my rods for the time being and focus on the event.  My next trip will most probably be either at the end of the month or after the start of next month.

Off goes this 20 lbs braided line

A strike and solid hook up from the first cast...

Ride On...Fish On...

New Reel...new hope...

I've been considering to buy a Bait Casting reel for some time but there is this hesistation that has stopped me from buying one.

It was few years back I tested an Abu Revo BC reel belonging to a friend.  The first cast itself produced a messy bird nest and my friend immediately took the reel and was not very amuse with the mess he had to clear up.

It was a very bad experience indeed and coupled that with stories about how a beginner had to sit out the whole fishing trip due to bird nest on his reel put off my interest in the reel.

It was not until early this year that my interest towards a Bait casting reel re-surfaced.  It was in a trip with Toman Harimau when he offered me to try out his Abu Garcia BC reel.  After a few casts, I managed to get a strike and the experience of hooking up a fish using a BC reel is totally different to using a spinning reel that I'm so used too.  He also gave me a lot of encouragement of using a BC reel as it offer better casting distance and accuracy.

So after going through numerous options of BC reel in the market, I finally made up my mind and bought a Shimano Caenan 101 Bait Casting reel.  I coupled the reel to a medium light Okuma Nemesis BC rod (6-12 lbs), equipped it with a 15 lbs Ajiking braided line and 20 lbs Ajiking mono shock leader.

The only down side of the whole thing was that I only bought everything on Saturday and I couldn't go fishing on Sunday due to other commitment (wife didn't approve application to go fishing) .

Anyway, a fisherman will always find a way to fish no matter what so I'm going over to Tasek Biru in Kundang after work today to cast using my new Bait Casting set for the first time.

Wish me luck guys...Fish On...Ride On...

The newest member of my family

Life goes on...

Wow...it must have been a week since I posted my last entry here...

It has been a very hectic few days...it still is...with my sister's wedding in less then a month away, everyone in the family is busy helping out with the preparation.

In the midst of all these, we still managed to find some time to have a barbecue night together on Saturday.  It's always good to spent quality time with family, sharing jokes, laughter and happy memories.  My kids are the happiest as all kids do in such occasion.

With everything that goes on, there are very little time left for fishing.  I had turn down an invitation for a jigging trip in Pulau Jarak over the weekend.  Toman Harimau went in my place and he managed to land some nice catches- a King Mackarel or Tenggiri Batang, a Kerapu (Grouper) and a 4kg (approximately 8lbs) GT.  However, those were his only catch as he suffered Sea Sickness and also cramp due to the heavy jigs he used and rested for the remainder of the trip.

I actually wanted to go for the trip and had already got a blessing from my significant half but changed my mind due to what happened earlier in the week.

I had just started in this new job for about 2 months after spending almost 9 years is Tesco.  It was an offer too good to turn down, also I needed a change of scenery that prompted my decision to join this company.  It's an established Logistic Company owned by a Dato'.  Everything was fine in the first month as one would expect when coming in to a new place.  However, the ugly side of things started to show itself by my second month.  Apparently, it is a company that is not good -and that is an understatement-when it comes to treating its own people.

The way the company is run is simple really, everything and every single effort is focused towards what the owner wants which is a normal practice in a Private Limited company anywhere in the world.  The problem is, the owner change what he wants more frequently then a cuttlefish change its colour.  So whatever he want you to do today may not be what he would want you to do tomorrow.

The owner is not a morning person and I learnt this since the first day I joined.  He would normally come to office at around 3pm, that is if he even come at all.  His meetings would normally starts at 4pm and would last till very late even on Saturdays.

I was in 'the' meeting on Tuesday.  It was scheduled to start at 3pm but 'he' had overslept and only arrives in the office at 5pm.  It was the most in-organized meeting I had ever attended in my life.  There was no agenda, just the owner rambling through his thoughts.  And this goes on and on for hours without any indication of when it would end.

In the middle of this, he suddenly ask me a question that is not at all related to what he has been talking or what I have been assigned to do since I joined his company.  My natural reaction was to say that I have no idea about it but his reaction towards this was beyond my wildest imagination of how a jackass a person can be. He started shouting and slamming the table.

I have had enough experience facing such person in my previous employment but there are customers who are not happy with our services or products.  This is the first time I have to deal with such character who is also my Boss.  My GM who sits next to me held on to my hand and tried so hard to prevent me from arguing.  My body was trembling with anger at the time so it was a good judgement by him.

It went on for about an hour or so before the jackass of a company owner then turn his attention to another person in the meeting.  These would go on for few more hours before he finally call time at 1.30am...YES...it's 1.30 in the morning!!!

What rubbish of a company does such things?  I may not be an expert in human brain but I do know that your brain can only function at its best for roughly 10 to 12 hours a day.  It was 8 1/2 hours of meeting without any break...after about 8 hours of seriously working out the company's SOPs, my brain was basically asleep halfway in the meeting.

The only thing that prevented me from leaving this bloody company is the fact that I have a family to feed and I need to get another job before I can say F#$K OFF to the Dato'.

But this is a new week and I would now put all my focus on finidng a new job and looking forward to my next fishing trip...life still goes on...

Ride On...Fish On...

Yamaha FZ150i....My Ride...(still a work in progress)

A standard Yamaha FZ150i 

As my main mode of transport on my angling trips, my trusted Yamaha FZ150i has been somewhat neglected.  More attention has been given to my fishing gears and the trips compared to the bike.

One of the reason for this is the fact that the bike is very reliable.  Few months back I had missed out the service interval by almost 2 months and when the mechanic wanted to empty the engine oil, there was nothing...absolutely nothing...not even a drop of oil was left in the engine.  The oils has basically dried out most probably due to the distance I travelled on daily basis.  I was surprised that the bike still runs perfectly without even a hint of problem.

The mechanic explained that this is one of the best 150cc engine ever built.  Not only does it comes with fuel injection but the engine is very reliable.  Since it's launch almost 5 years back, he has not seen any with major breakdown...no matter how badly abused the bike.

One of the reason I decided to buy the bike 4 years back was the fuel injection system.  It was the first bike of its size to be fitted with such system.  Over the years, the reliability of the bike made me appreciate owning it more.  It has gone through several changes it terms of how it looks, from a naked street fighter look to half fairing look to what it is now, a small touring bike.

I was inspired to start this blog during one of my fishing trips on the bike several months back.  It was a short ride from my place to Kota Puteri in Ijok but going fishing using a motorcycle has it challenges.  I had to carry a backpack just to enable me to place my fishing rod.  In several other ride later, I tried securing the rods at the side of the bike using ropes.  I later instaled a Givi box and it helps as I no longer need to carry a backpack.  But the rods still need to be secured using ropes and when it rains or when riding through muddy laces, the rods end up having to face the elements.

I learnt from friends that most anglers would place their rods inside a PVC pipe when travelling so decided to come up with my own rods carrier that would be attached to my bike.  After several try and error, I finally have a design that I'm happy with...

The rod carrier I designed and are now semi-permanently 

attached to my Yamaha FZ150i

With the rod carrier done and the Givi box giving me the required space to carry all my gears (for now), the next phase is to beautify the bike.  I started with sticking some angling equipment brand stickers.  It is still a work in progress so some of the stickers will eventually be removed.

I'm also planning to install side panniers to add to the storage space and to replace the wind shield with a taller one that will give me a better protection from the elements.

Givi side panniers and wind shield I plan to install on my bike

Once this is done, the next phase will be to add stickers and maybe some airbrush painting.  I'm working with my wife and some friends on the design, hopefully I will have the final design in the next few weeks.

Till then..this will be my ride...

Ride On...Fish On...

Conservation through the eye of an angler...

I had a chat with my office mate earlier today on my fishing.  Among the things we chatted about was about my passion not for fishing but on conservation.

He told me that conservations are normally for the westerner, we Asian don't do such thing...

This is a very worrying sign...when probed further I found out the reason behind such attitude...lack of understanding on the importance of conservation...

Why in a 21st century Malaysia, such attitude still exist?

With so many campaign by the Government, Corporations, NGOs and even individuals on raising awareness towards conservation, one must be very naive not to understand right?

Well, as human we normally discards things or news that are not related to us.  This may give us a clue on how much impact has all the campaigns managed to garner...also, it brings us to another question...are we using the right campaign towards the right group of people?

As for myself and my fellow angling enthusiast, the closest things related to us apart from our family is definitely our hobby...it's the one thing that brought us anglers together...

With that, I strongly believe that by relating conservation and fishing will have a much better impact on raising the awareness among anglers in the country...

Consider this...

Fact #1- Fishing is no longer as good now as it was back then...

Fact #2- More and more fishing spots disappear as development is reaching further and further towards what was once remote areas...

Fact #3- The size of the fish caught are considerably smaller...

Has all the fishes gone due to over fishing?

With all the development, are we reaching a stage where all natural fish habitat are replaced by buildings and roads?

As for the size of the fish, are they in some kind of evolutionary mode and reducing size in order to survive in a tougher environment?

I believe that as an angler, I have the responsibility to protect the fishes for future generation of anglers.  It doesn't matter where one comes from...Europe, America, Asia...conservation is the responsibility of every single human on earth.....I may not be able to change the world on my own but that does not mean I can't try...

I myself started fishing without a single thought about the environment and the effect of fishing on the habitats.  Fishing is a hobby I shared with my old man and when I first started, conservation was never in my mind.  Why do I need to think about it when there are abundance of fish.

Why do I need to release a mother snakehead I caught?  It's my catch and I have all the right to bring it home...even if I don't really eat the fish...and most of the time the fish would end up becoming cat food...

But exposure better understanding and awareness change the way I think.

I use to bring back all my catch regardless of size or whether or not I'm going to eat it. Now I've adapted "Catch & Release" practice.

I now understand that a mother snakehead need to be released back to ensure the survival of it's young.  Without a protective mother, the young snakehead has no chance to survive in the harsh environment.  No snakehead equals no fishing...as simple as that...

In trips to the river or sea, I teach my son that if we catch 2 fish and take only one back for a meal, the one we release will have a chance to reproduce and that in turn will give us more chances of catching more fish in the future.

All these seems a reasonable effort by an individual...and it was at first....that was until I went back to my old hunting ground over the weekend

-It was a place me and my son use to go and spent sometime together fishing for snakeheads.  We use to catch between 6 to 7 snakehead a day, and that is just roughly about 2 to 3 hours of fishing.  It's located within an abandoned oil palm estate that is waterlogged due to the development in the surrounding areas. The shades provided by the oil palm tree made it a nice place to hang out especially during the hot mid day sun...although the presence of wild boars may not be to your liking-

It has been a while since I paid a visit to the place so since I had nothing much to do on Sunday, I decided to pay my old hunting ground a visit.  As I reached the place, I stood in horror at what I saw....what used to be a mini melting pot for swamp fishes has now turned into a dumping ground for rubbish.  It seems some rubbish collector had found a quick way to dispose off rubbish without having to travel to the actual site.  They must have made a huge saving in both time and operational cost by doing so...but they have also caused a huge environmental disaster to the place...

Rather then snakehead, it is now way easier to find an actual snake -a cobra was resting under one of the fallen branches during my visit- as the rubbish has attracted rodents and other pest.  A group of wild dogs was also seen approaching the area and it was the clearest of indication that I should leave the place.  You wouldn't want to be having a confrontation with them in the wild with only a fishing rod as weapon...

The condition of the place hurt me deeply, so deep that I had difficulties falling asleep that night.  I used to complain that some irresponsible people are overfishing the surrounding swamps.  This is simply far worse...

Could this have been prevented?

The answer to that is YES, it could...if there are awareness among anglers in the area of the importance of maintaining the place, I doubt anyone would dare to dump all the rubbish there.  I remember the story of a group of anglers chasing a rubbish truck driver away from a swamp in another place to protect their fishing spots.

This shows that with awareness, not only we can save fishing spots but also helps in ensuring the survival of the fish species and the environment at the same time.

Now, it is my personal mission to spread the awareness.  Like everything else in life, I'll start small focusing on those close to me.  Through this blog, I hope that the awareness is reaching a wider audience not only here but everywhere in this planet we call home...

Ride On...Fish On...

Baramundi aka Siakap

If there is just one thing I learnt during my Project Management Green Belt course in Six Sigma, it is that even the best laid out plan does not guarantee success...

So the weekend is over and I did catch me some fish but it was not how I had intended it to be...

I had planned to ride on Saturday afternoon (after work) in search of fishing spots but my tummy had other plan...so I had to make a de-tour home for a supposedly quick pit stop....

It was a very hot day...very hot that once you're indoor, it is hard to imagine going back out...especially on a bike...

So I decided to wait for the temperature is bearable before riding, I was planning to ride towards Ijok near Kuala Selangor.  I remember someone told me that the many lakes (formerly mines) there harbour lots of Giant Snakehead.

As the temperature started to cool down a bit, I suit up and was ready to go when my wife told me that she had a craving for steamed siakap...my son followed this up with the most dramatic plea to come along...let me tell you this...no matter how tough you are....requests from wife and plea from your kids will render all that toughness useless....

Reluctantly I accepted defeat and to avoid listening to more pleading...move all my gears into the car and off we go to Jugra RM3 Siakap Pond...

It was already 6pm when I reached the pond, there was about 8 other people fishing and a quick conversation with the pond owner reveal that there was a party like atmosphere in the morning.  The pond had remained closed for roughly a month during Ramadan and was only re-open earlier in the day.  They had released a little over 2 tonnes of fish 5 days earlier and the catch rate was very high.

I started with my trusted green colored Storm Flutterstick Madflash 7g and my first cast was immediately taken as the lure hits the water.  With my first catch safely landed, it's time to change lure...

This time I wanted to test if a very cheap lure can get a strike.  It was a tiny Bakau lure in white and red colour with both the treble hooks discarded in favour of Owner single hooks.  The first 2 cast yields no strike but the 3rd cast towards a wooden structure near the corner or the pond results in a violent eruption on the water surface.  A good size siakap has taken the lure and made a quick burst of speed toards the far end of the pond.  With 2 catch safely landed, I handed the rod to my son and change the lure to a white SP Grubs...the most reliable of artificial lures...

He went on to catch another 4 siakap before we call it a day...in just approximately an hour of fishing.  In total, we landed 6 siakap and 2 of them went into the steamer for our dinner that day...

My son was happy and now his sisters are demanding to be taken on a trip also....but the most important thing is we had a great time and a wonderful dinner together...

My son with the 6 siakap we landed in Jugra

Ride On...Fish On...(errr...but sometime you need to drive rather then ride...hahaha...)

Weekend is here at last...yeah...

The title sound like the week has been a complete hell...well, not really.  It has been a mixed week with some highs and lows.

It started well enough on Monday, the roads are clear as most people still on holiday.  There were only 2 of us in the office and I took the opportunity to spend time clearing my inbox and completing all pending works I had.

Mid week was even better.  I took one day leave on Wednesday for a fishing trip and it turn out to be one of the better trips I had in years.  There were plenty of strikes and most of it was landed.

Thursday was forgettable with nothing interesting happening but Friday was a mix of both good and bad.  The day started with a good news that my Shakespeare BC rod is ready for collection and moments after that a confirmation that my purchase of Shimano Caenan 101 BC Reel is successful.  I finished work early so off I went to celebrate the good news in Sementa to catch some PB.

That is where the "good'' ended and the bad shows up...a miss judgement of time saw me arriving late at the spot and the gate was locked.  It was a good 10 minutes wait before the gatekeeper came.  In my excitement to leave the house, I have forgotten to bring my lure box so I was left with 1 spin fly lure and 2 sp grubs with no jig head.

The fishing was no better and trust me...no matter how much an angler try to convince you that catching a fish is not as important as the trips and they are still happy to have gone fishing even without any catch...you never like spending few hours fishing without catching anything.

It was just after a rain and the water was high but the rain had also brought another problem....rubbish...so many of it that I actually ended up losing all my lures snagged at them.  My leader was reduced to mere inches away from the main line as a result of it snapping every time it hit a snag.

The one good thing is I can safely declare that my FG Knot is perfect as it holds up against all the snags and it was the leader that snapped...away from the Knot....

So with the weekend here...it's time to break the duck and catch me some fish...as mentioned in my last entry to this blog...I'm planning to ride on and look for new fishing spots with a good potential to reel in a good size catch...

So hold your breath...(if you passed out doing it....it's not my fault...)...let see if I can catch me some big fishes today....

Wait for my next entry hopefully with photos of me and my catches...

Ride On...Fish on...

Its Friday...any plan for this weekend?

I'm still stuck in office with all these SOP's to be completed....dateline is Monday....and this can only mean one thing...no fishing this weekend....arghhhhh....

Then again, I can always find time to fish no matter how busy I get.  So where will it be this weekend?

Sementa seems to be a fair option but there's only mainly PB in there so not much for adventure.  Also the fact that I've been there for almost every single weekend for the past few weeks is making it less attractive choice.

Next option, Jugra's RM3 Pay Pond, they'll be re-opening the pond this Saturday after a month long closure.  The owner told me that he has placed almost 2 tonnes of Siakap into the pond a week ago so they must be very hungry now...but I won't be the only one eagerly waiting for the re-opening...there'll be hundreds of people waiting at the gate on Saturday morning...not a very conducive environment to conduct bait casting....so let's put it aside first...

Another option is the RM6 pond in Kundang but this is definitely for bottom fishing only.  The question is not about the fish or the location or even the people...to choose this place would mean I need to accept that I'm going to cast my bait once and wait for a bite...something I haven't done for a while....not sure if I have enough patience to do it again...

Last option I can think off at the moment is Tasek Biru....only thing is the strike rate is very low.  From 10 visits I made to this place, I managed a disappointing 2 strikes and only once did I managed to land a fish...no a very tantalizing prospect...

So...considering all the above....the best option would be to ride my bike and look for a new spot...that's the original idea of this blog is in the first place anyway...

So come Saturday afternoon...if everything is in order...I'll be riding into the unknown....Ride On....not sure yet if there'll be any Fish On....

My trusted Yamaha is ever ready to be of service in my quest...

How it all started...

I was wondering through an old photo album (an actual photo album) and came across some of my old fishing photos...

The best thing about photo album is how it touches you...bringing back the memories...the good times, the bad times....

The trips captured in the photos was ages ago...some are when I just started fishing....

Sometime it's good to sit back and reflect on how far life has taken us...

When I first started -or should I say "re-started"- fishing few years back, my targets are just the small fishes that make up the ecosystem of the local Palm estate streams.  The catches are 'Puyu', Selat and the occasional Haruans.  Equipment was as basic as it gets, a pole rod, 5lbs line, a small enough hook and earthworms as baits.  It was fun though, and it gave me the opportunity to spend time with my son teaching him some life lesson along the way.

Just like everything else in life, progress is inevitable.  The next phase was of course an upgrade of equipments, so pole rod is safely tucked in the store room and in its place a new (but cheap & basic) spinning rod with a spinning reel.

No more small fishes, target has now move to predatory fishes...haruan or snake head...and the baits has grown larger...no more earthworms...its live frogs...

The dwindling  fish stock in the Klang Valley meant that I was having a very tough time catching fish...out of 5 trips, I would end up empty handed in 4 of them...

In order to have better success rates, the best place is pay ponds.  So I paid a visit to several ponds that I know off but didn't fish.  It was more of a visit to check out the action and learn the resident anglers best practice.

It was not untill more than 2 months that I started to fish at these ponds.  I started in a pay pond in Kampung Subang as it was the nearest and also the cheapest pond around.  It was after work and I was a little nervous since it was my first time fishing in a pay pond.  The time was almost up -fishing is 3 hours per entry- and I was going through what I did or didn't do right that is resulting in not getting any catch when something took hold of my bait and started to make a run...my first strike in a pay pond...after brief battle, the fish finally show itself and it's a Mangrove Jack, estimated to be about 2.5kg.

These pay pond trips becomes my only fishing trips for almost 2 years.  Although there are times when I returned home empty handed, most of the time I would be bringing at least 1 fish home.  The catches varies depending on the pond from Siakap, Mangrove Jack, Jenahak, Kerapu and Senangin Taiwan.

I grew tired of fishing at these pond mainly due to the fact that my fridge at home is full of fish...(you basically eat what you caught from these ponds)...Then I found this pond in Kundang that practices Catch & Release...it's a fresh water pond and this is where I record my biggest catch to date...a 11.3kg Patin (a type of Cat Fish)...and to make it more impressive (and a bragging rights among my friends)...I caught the fish using a very light rod, a tiny reel and a thin 8lbs braided line coupled with a 10lbs mono leader...it took me a good one hour to finally land the fish...

Although the fishing was good, I was not really satisfied with the experience and there seems to be something missing.  I wanted to try my luck fishing the sea or river for wild fish but there are very limited place to do so in Klang Valley nowadays...I did went to Kuala Selangor and managed to catch some cat fishes but they are simply too small to give a good fight.

It was then that I found out my neighbour is actually an avid angler, and a writer for an angling magazine.  Sharing the same interest made us a close friend and I started to tag along on his fishing trips.  He was the one who teaches me the art of lure casting, jigging and fly fishing.  After my first outing to a lake in Perak where I made my first catch using artificial lures, I was hooked!

Below are some photos of my fishing from my album over the years....I hope you enjoy watching at them as much as I do...Ride On...Fish On...

Starting small....very small...

 

These are among my first catches...a Puyu or Indian Tree Climber, a baby Haruan or Snakehead by my son and a juvenile Haruan using live frog as bait...

  

Some of my catch from a pay pond in Kundang, Selangor...

Catfish (Sembilang and Duri) caught in Kuala Selangor

My first ever Peacock Bass caught in Clear Water Sanctuary in Batu Gajah Perak.  I used a River2Sea Rover Pencil bait but note that I was using rod meant for bottom fishing instead...still very novice in lure casting...

Not yet an expert but still a very impressive catch...my first Giant Snakehead aka Toman...

This Toman or Giant Snakehead was caught at Empangan Subang

Rod: Berkley Atack 8-17 lbs

Reel: Banax Iris 2000

Line: Main-Tuff Line 30 lbs, Leader-Toman Shock Leader 40 lbs

Lure: River2Sea Popper

My Tarpon Lincense

Indo-Pacific Tarpon or "Ikan Bulan" in Malay, a type of predatory fish found mainly in brackish water throughout South East Asia may not be popular among anglers in Malaysia compared to the snake head family or Siakap (Sea Bass/Baramundi).  I believe this is due to 3 main reasons;

1. It's not popular as food as it is too bony, if you are going to eat bony fish might as well go for the better option like "Terubok" or "Parang" fish.

2. It's not popular among Malaysian anglers for it's size.  The species calling Malaysian waters home does not grow up to the sizes of their North American cousins.

3. You normally have a very limited window of time to catch them.  You either start your cast early in the morning or late in the evening as they would normally becomes passive as the temperature rises.

Despite of all the above, it still has a fan base among casters preferring light rods and reels.  Fishing them can be a lot of fun especially when they do their acrobatic leaps.  Although considered as small in size, their strong runs and acrobatic leaps more than made up to the fun factor.

For those who are staying in the Klang Valley, the nearest location if you're looking for this sneaky little fish is in Sungai Lang in Sabak Bernam.

A trip was set up by a good friend during the last week of Ramadan.  We were suppose to depart at 4 am, all 4 of us.  Since I was the only 1 in the trip that has yet to have a tarpon license, I was a little excited by the prospect of finally landing one that I find it difficult to sleep.

I paid the price of being overly excited when I woke up and realized that it's already 5 am and the group has departed a good 40 minutes earlier.

Although I had been left behind, it actually gave me the opportunity ride and fish...so after a quick meal (Sahur), I jumped on my Yamaha FZ150i and off I go in pursuit of Sungai Lang's tarpon...

Cruising at a steady speed of 120 km/h, it took me about one and a half hour to reach Sungai Lang where my freinds had just arrived about 15 minutes earlier and only just started casting at a promising spot overlooking a row of food stalls.

As I was about to finish setting up my rod and reel, the rain decided to pay us a visit...and my wait to land a tarpon continue for another hour or so.

As soon as the rain starting to die down, I wasted little time in pursuing my first tarpon only for the rain to make a return, this time it had company in thunder and lightning.  Holding a fishing rod in a thunderstorm is a perfect recipe for disaster so I did the wise thing of running as fast as I can to find cover...

It was almost two hours later when the rain and it's companion finally subside and the sun starts to shine.  I made the most of what little time left there is to fulfill my objective of the day.

Armed with my trusted Okuma Nemesis 4-10 lbs rod, Toman Peacock 15 reel and a Storm Fluterstick, I made several cast under a tree branch that finally results in a strike and a solid hook up of my first tarpon....yeeehaaa...

I've finally got my tarpon license...just in the nick of time...

Peacock Bass @ Sementa, Kapar - additional photos

Fish On!!!

It was still in Ramadhan and I'm still fasting but that doesn't stop me from feeling the urge to fish.  So I started my trusted Yamaha and off I go to this place I found out from a local angler's forum.

It used to be a pay pond (still is depending on your luck) but the size resemble a small lake and there were virtually nobody but me standing under the hot sun...

Scouting around for someone to get more information on the place without any success, I decided to start casting using all the lures I have and see if any of them would work in enticing a bite...

I started with a 'Berkley Grub SP' that is the most universal of artificial lure I know off.  Several blind cast mostly towards some sort of structure in the middle of the pond yields nothing.  I wanted to change to a hard body lure but decided to cast one last time towards the structure.

A slow jerking retrieve yielded a strike...a solid hook up and the fish started to make it's run.  After a brief battle, it finally reveal it's identity...a Peacock Bass....and a good size one too...

A feisty fighter, it gave a good fight before I managed to reel it in...

After a quick photography session, it was released back to the lake to fight another day.  Subsequent cast with the same SP did not yield anymore strice so it was time to change the lure.

'Strike Pro Minnow' was my choice and the shallow swimming lure did not disappoint when it was taken on the first cast...the run was more aggressive this time and I had to make several adjustment to the drag to avoid the braided 6lbs main line and 10lbs mono leader from snapping.

A good 5 minutes latter the fish finally gave in and what a surprise, it's my personal record of 39cm Peacock Bass!

After a quick photo and measurement, it went back into the lake to grow even bigger for me to break my record again...hehe...

It went silent with no more strike after despite me trying almost every lures I had in my lure box so I decided to call it a day.  It was also almost time for Ifttar.

Here are some views of the pond...

I can't find the name of this fish in English but locally it is known by several names- Belungkor Pasir, Haruan Ubi and Haruan Bodoh...

A double hook up...

Fish On...!!!

Smaller in size but still as fiery as its bigger siblings...

Next trip will be Sungai Lang in Sabak Bernam for my Tarpon Licence...

My trusted companion...Yamaha FZ150i

It may not be a big bike but it has been a very dependable companion...

 Notice the black tube? That is where I place my rods when I'm riding....it's made of PVC pipe and I spray paint it to match the color of my bike...

The bike itself is still a work in progress...wait for an update on this entry to see the development...

My second attempt at blogging...

It has been a while since I actually visited my own blog...a shame really considering how much enthusiasm I had when I first started with my first posting...

Naturally, I would blame work and other commitment for it but the truth is it's the diminishing interest after the euphoria of the first post...the realisation that I'm not blessed with a brain that can churn out ideas after ideas to write on daily basis.  With that, come the 'L' factor...'Lazy'...

A soul searching was required and it doesn't take much f
or me to realize what was the missing link...its the reason why I started bloging in the first place.

The initial kick starter of the idea was my hobby...fishing...

I had wanted to share my fishing experience with the world!!! Well, at least the world that is confined to those who knows me...

Why on earth did I post something about Pakistani selling carpets really beats me, I guess there are some things in this world that will remain a mystery.

So this is my second shot at bloging.

This blog is about my journey, my fishing journey.  Exploring my country on my bike in search of fishing spots...

Care to join?