Pantai Sabak Kelantan

Date: 29th Nov 2007

Location: Pantai Sabak, Kota Bahru

Line Up:

Farmi

Abby

Amriez

Every year, the months of November and December are the months of monsoon . Normally, the fishermen are rested due to the rough wind and sea. For anglers, they switch either to the Paypond or inland fishing spot such as small river, lakes and ponds.

Last night, the news reported a very high tide was occurred in the east coast region of Malaysia. Few villages near the sea shore was experienced flash flooded.

We decided to head to pantai Sabak near Kota Bahru to witness the aftermath and trying our luck fishing.

When we arrived at the location, the villagers were busy cleaning their houses. We surveyed the location, and there were no chance for us to do surf fishing. There were heavy waves and the wind blew at 30-40km/h .

We then traveled 10km inland to fish at the Sabak’s River. 3 hours fishing, and we caught only small baji around 100gm. We set the creature free. Farmi tasted the water, and its too salty for the normal condition. The fish may went up stream more than we could imagine. We spoke to the local, they reported, the netters caught an amazing numbers of silver barras and mangrove jacks. We decided to go home fishless

Pok tih and his monster pets.

Date: 27^th and 28^th Nov 2007

Location: Pok Tih PayPond, Kota Bahru

Line Up:

Farmi

BabyFace

Amriez

Its my holiday. For a month. A month without office works in my mind. A month full of fishing. For the whole month, I’m in Kota Bahru. A state with hundred of promising fishing spots.

27^th November

It was a second morning I’m in Kota Bahru. Farmi was waiting his next construction project to be launch. He just need an approval letter from the municipal council to start working again. With me in Kota Bahru, he can’t resist to set a fishing trip for both of us.

First on the list was Pok Tih’s.

I really have an issue with this place. Since the day one I set foot there, not a single Pacu could be landed by me. Farmi was different. He landed the fish many times before. To make it legal, on a trip with me, the score was 2 to zero. Unlucky is the perfect word to describe my experience fishing for Pacu at Pok Tih’s.

Purposely, we brought lots of rambutans for Pacu’s baits. This time, Patin is not on the list as we targeted the ferocious pacu. We fished for 2 hours, and yet, we landed few stupid patins using the special bait for Pacu. As we puzzled by the situation, Pok Tih came with couple of chicken’s heads. He ordered us to change the hook to the bigger one. Using a steel leader (15p) and 3/0 Mustad hooks, he set the baits. The only reason was simple, Patin’s mouth is not big enough for the chicken’s head.

An hour went by, I just landed a freaking 3 kg keli (African catfish) . The fish fought harder than patin but a little less than Pacu.. As we settled down, Farmi’s rod shook violently and flew a couple feet from the floor but he grabbed the rod on time, a second away before the rod took a swim. Almost an instant with the incident, the water about 15m in front of us exploded. A smile was spotted on farmi’s face. A Pacu was struggling to get free from the deadly hook. But the hook was deep inside its mouth and its not a seahawk hook. It was Mustad. Twice stronger than seahawk. The fish jumped several times. It dashed, to left and right, every creatures in the pond jumped away shockingly. It was a chaotic moment. Finally, the fish swam toward us. With a tremendous speed, it tangled the line between the pier’s pillars. Pok Tih’s son came with a fish scoop to make the ritual easier for Farmi. Finally, the score changed to 3 – 0.

Satisfied? I am not! I wanted the bad ass Pacu.

A fish this big can fight like a satanic army.

The catch of the day

28^th November

BabyFace was also in Kota Bahru to visit his mother. I broke the news about my trip to Pok Tih’s. He agreed to follow us this morning. I let him used my Daiwa set as he brought nothing. He was happily landed Patin after Patin.

Farmi had to went home early as he had few things to be settle. Using the same baits as yesterday, yet, I landed another Keli about 5kg in weighs. 3 hours went by, BabyFace was really enjoying his sweet time fishing and torturing my daiwa set. We changed location, tired of sitting on the obsolete pier, we went to rest on the green grass on the other side of the pond. It was noon. We got no reaction from the pond’s community. We left the rod on the rod stand and retreated under the cool shady of mango tree.

As we chatted , we heard “zeeeeee……Zeeeeeee….Zeeeeeeee …..” My daiwa Crossfire bent. The butt of the rod was not on the ground. Made a quick dashed but it was too late for me. The rod, was not on its stand anymore. The rod went swimming in pok Tih’s pond. At the same time, we heard a scary splash under the pier as the fish trying to break free. Not a word spoken. Just Pok Tih screaming about his pet thrashing the pier’s pillars and asking why I’m not retrieving my line. I just answered with my week voice about I lost my favorite rod.

Without thinking twice, I took off my pants and went into the pond to salvage the rod. The thrashing under the pier had stop. I spent 30 min in the waist deep pond to look for the rod. Finally my bare feet got tangled with some sort of line. I pulled it out, it was almost transparent light blue line. Without a doubt, it was a line that I use for the lost set. I pulled it out , and yes, I got my favorite rod back. On further inspection, the 15p steel leader, was broken. I don’t know how big the fish was, but estimated around 5kg.

We packed our stuff and went home. I promised to pok Tih to come again soon just to fight his monster pet. I spent the whole evening cleaning and servicing my set and wondering how on earth I’m going to beat farmi as the score remain 3-0.

BabyFace 1st visit to Pok Tih's
















I waited too long for pacu to take the bait. A happy ding dong spidey nested on my rod.

















There is no way i'm going to eat this ugly creature.

















A 5kg specimen.


















BabyFace caught 6 patins at a total weighs of 4kg.















I was looking for my rod... if babyFace was the one who fell into the pond, i'll let him drown for good. But this was my favorite rod. Daiwa crossfire and Rapala fsi















a 30 min search and rescue. To get my rod back is far to good than catching any pacu. i'll be back to fight you again!

Pure Fishing QuickDry T-shirt

23^rd November 2007

It is my birthday. I decided not to go fishing today. But, I brought my family to a diner near a fishing spot in Tanjung Lumpur. Well I guess, an angler could not be too far away from a water source. Even when you are not fishing, to be near a fishing spot is a must.

My wife gave me a cool quick dry T-shirt from PureFishing as a birthday’s gift . It is a lovely T-shirt with PureFishing products’ emblems.

To my wife and junior, thanks for supporting my hobby and for the coolest birthday gift ever , I love u both.

A farewell trip.

Date: 22^nd Nov 2007

Location: Kemaman and Kuantan Port

Line Up:

BabyFace

Epulkoi

Amriez

We didn’t really planned this trip. It just happened as we stumbled upon each other at the office due to unfinished job need to be settled. At 10 a.m, we done with our work, and decided to play with SP at either Kuantan Port or Kemaman river.

We need to practice and experience catching fish using SP. So off we went.

This time, we decided to practice bottom fishing as well, we stopped at Beserah to buy some fish for bait.

God have reasons… and we caught nothing big but a couple of baby Duris and surprisingly, epul caught a crab. We spotted a long and big net along the river. It was about 2-3 km long. And they installed it zig zagging along the river. There was no way we could catch any fish that day. So we decided to change location, kuantan Port.

My big brother, Jojie, is now working with a construction company belong to a Dato (VIP). Previously, I had covered a story in this blog about Kuantan Port Breakwater. It is the same spot. The spot now closed to public due to the security reason. That piece of land is belong to that Dato. What we knew as an access road to the breakwater, is now fenced and there are security people guarding that place.

Despite all that, we still managed to get in as we using a different path either to the north or south . We spent 3 hours casting just to watch our SP been carried away by a big wave. I changed to eupro crank bait, then, eupro 7cm popper, but it was useless… the wind blew the lures away and smashed onto the rock….

We witnessed so many Tenggiri so close to the shore jumping and chasing small creatures. We stopped fishing and just enjoying the drama. It was amazing that such thing usually happen far out from the beach. The drama happened less than 100m from the beach.

We headed home around 6pm that day….

Kemaman River

Epul with his first catch, a baby Duri
















Crab?




















Netters were terrorizing the place.


















Kuantan Port. Closed to the public?




















trying my luck using berkley SP

Rough sea... a no 9 sinker could be washed away easily.

The SP trip

Date: 20^th Nov 2007

Location: Kg Kurnia Kuantan

Line Up:

BabyFace

Epulkoi

Amriez

It is a school break. That’s mean a whole lotta fishing days for us. Before each and everyone of us goes back to our hometown, we decided to fish together.

It was Kg Kurnia . There is a small water way to guide the rain as well as the domestic

Waste. The water flows into Belat River which is famous for its GP. But, we wasn’t really looking for GP. Our main objective was to catch any species using Berkley Soft Plastic. We were using 3 types of SP, Gulp, minnow and grub.

We were experienced many strike from what we believed a Haruan ( snakehead sp). But to no avail, we landed nothing. We lost so many SP and we had to quit earlier than we planned.

What went wrong? The lack of skill was the number one reason. We are new to this SP thing and perfection is what we are looking for. Secondly, the fish who took away the SP were juvenile. The SP were too big for them, so when they strike, they managed to bite only at the tail section of the SP. Finally, the hooks we used were not suitable for the SP as they were to big and not meant for the SP. So we had to invest some more money to buy hooks that purposely built for the SP.

Date: 10 Nov 2007

Place: Sri Tembeling Resort – Kuantan

Host: Pahang Anglers world (Anglers World Tackle Shop) and Pure Fishing Malaysia

Speakers: 1. Aznir Malek – Kelah / Mahseer

2. Mr Novice – Fly Fishing

3. Mr Rob ‘Marlin’ – soft Lure technique

4. Mr Asri a.k.a Oakinn (PAW)

Participants:

1. Sunday Fishing team ( Amriez and babyFace)

2. Malaysian Fishing .Net buddies (MFN)

3. KakiPancing.net (KPN)

4. Pahang Anglers World (PAW)

5. PeMM

6. Mr Fong from ROD N LINE Mag.

It was an oppurtinity of a life time. I couldn’t say no eventhough my schedule was packed and there is no weekend to spare. My office work is up to my chin and the deadline is a corner away. Everything must be done by the 16^th of November. But to hell with work. With Great names coming for the talk, work can waits. Furthermore, it was the 1^st seminar ever in Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu. Tembeling resort is a cool place and the participants only have to pay RM5 for the whole package. We signed up as soon as we got the news.

BabyFace and I arrived 15mins after 8a.m which was too early as the program started at 9a.m. But our anxiety proved to be worthy as early birds got lots of goodies which was limited. We took our sweet time ransacking the Soft plastic box for our favourite SP. I chose to have Berkley Gulp! Minnow Grub while BabyFace grabbed Berkley 7” Power Worm. Those who came late didn’t have the pleasure selecting as the ‘Q’ got longer and longer.

Mr Aznir Malek... The King of Kelah

Mr Quek Received a birthday gift ( fenwick rod 1960) from Aznir

The weapon Mr Aznir used to hunt Kelah and mahseer

The program started at 9 something. Mr Aznir Malek was the first ‘guru’ to take the stage. He revealed the secret and tips on fishing Kelah. I have to admit that he is a funnyman. The participants never stopped laughing. But deep in the process, so many thing to learn, absorb and practice. This guy really knows his topic and he is really a master on Kelah. I watched his video a couple years before. I never dream to meet him in person. He came with his wife, who is very supportive and shares the same interest with him. What a guy!

Our Respectful boss... Mr Oakinn

Next , Mr oakinn gave his talk on river conservation in Malaysia especially in Pahang . You can read more on this topic at the previous post. Well, he is a noble man. Doing it for free without expecting more than satisfaction and to heal his broken heart over the dead rivers all around us.

Mr Novice

Mr Novice is a well known man in MFN and Fly Fishing Society . Fly Fishing is beyond my interest but still fun to learn. To me, to conclude, Fly Fishing is way too technical for me. And costly! But the society is growing everywhere in Malaysia. Maybe in the future I would consider the option. I know a thing or twos about flyFishing. Essentially, coming to this seminar, made me understand more about this ancient sport.

Rob


















with his ultimate weapon

Actually, Soft Plastic is still new to me. I started to use this Lure about a month ago. I still hasn’t catch any fish using it and I am the one to blame. My technique sucks! Having Mr Rob to talk on this new craze is something like someone giving you a good pillow when you are sleepy. Using SP as your ultimate lure is a good move. The SP not only look like a real thing, but that clever stuff can imitate real actions. To add , those clever yummy things, come with scent and flavour . What I learned from Mr Rob :

1. Rod- should be as light as possible with cork handle. Abu Garcia had produced purposely for softlure. I am using Sabpolo 5’ rod which is as close as it get to any Jap’s made soft lure rods.

2. Line- main line should be braided. Small in diameter and poundage. The ultimate reason is to feel when the fish bites. The use of shock leader is advisable but again, vanish or fluorocarbon is a must.

3. swivel- is not good. From braided to fluro, use uni-knots, and from there, directly tie the line to the soft lure (hook or jighead).

4. Presentation- the line should be free. Keep the line slack as when the fish take the lure, they will get spooky if the feel any resistant.

There are so many things to share. May be next time I’ll write about it.

Lucky draw prizes

Lucky B@st@rd with his lucky draw price...

A happy babyFace

Fisherman eating frenzy

posed with free goodies

KPN from KL

Yummy nasi goreng

We have lunch at 2pm. Tasty fried rice with fried chicken. In the middle of the frenzy, the organizer decided to have a lucky draw session with 10 rapalas and 3 Abu Garcia cardinal 101 to give away. I was not so lucky but babyFace was the luckiest among all. He got the no 1 price, Abu Garcia 101 Special Edition with 5 bearings. What a lucky B@st@rd... Hi hi hi.

The session restarted at 3pm. We were divided into 3 groups. Kelah lover with Mr Aznir, FlyFishing with Mr Novice and SP Junkies with Mr rob Marlin.

experiment

The Pure Fishing (Malaysia) took the advantages to reveal their new product associated to the SP. What caught my attention were 2 things. Abu Garcia rod made specifically for SP and Berkeley SP attractants. BabyFace and I had to go home earlier that day due to some problems we couldn’t avoid.

New Product revealed

The participants