sunday fishing: Belat River : A paradise for GP hunters

Date: 12 Aug 2007
Location: Belat River. Kuantan
Objective: Giant Prawn
Line up: Jojie
Madie
Sarul
Didie
Amriez

With GP season is nearly come to an end, our team decided to concentrate more on GP than anything else. Madie made an arrangement with the boat owner to charter 2 boats . With RM10 per day, with no engine, the price can be considered cheap.

Using a boat to hunt GP is far more successful than fishing from the river bank. The reason is simple, to access any potential place that couldn’t be reach by land. Most of the GPs, love to seek for shelter around Nipah’s tree , close to the river bank ( but deep, around 2-3 m) . The GPs normally stay in group or pack. If you can land one, there are plenty more underneath you.

GP is a scavenger. It likes to eat anything that is stink and emits strong scent. Thus, using anything that is stink for baits is okay. Normally , GP hunters will use earth worms, fish meat(fillet), hotdog, guppy fish, squid , shrimp, or whatever you could think off. An adult GP, when it takes the bait, normally, it happens very slow and hard to notice. You have to constantly check your rod by retrieving the line a bit. The juvenile GP is another way around. They tend to take the bait aggressively .

Jojie with his 1st catch of the day

Sarul and madie

We reached the spot at 9.30 am. Madie and Sarul in one boat, and I was with Didie and Jojie. We decided not to go very far from the Jetty as rowing was a gruesome task.
Belat river is rich with GPs. After 2 hours, we landed few kilos of GPs.

At 2pm, it rained. It so heavy that we had to seek for a shelter under some nipah’s tree. It rained so hard that within few minutes, the boat almost sank . In the middle of the chaos, my rod, which was jutting out from the boat, shook violently , I quickly retrieved the line, and it was the biggest GP of the day . The rain stopped an hour later.

I went home at 3pm that evening as Didie had to catch a bus. Sarul and Madie kept fishing until 5pm.