Hook The Shooter

POLE-NET FISHING

2017-08-23T07:02:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the August 2004 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

Whenever I was free during the rainy seasons, I would be surveying around rivers and streams, on the lookout for sebaraus hunting for food. They would normally hang around lubuks, eddies or any place that offer them some shelters from the fast water current, to lie in wait for the unsuspecting small fishes.

During one of my rainy season forays, I came across a group of fishermen, lined up along the bank of the swollen Kinta River fishing with long poles. My curiosity was immediately aroused as I wondered how these people could do pole fishing in such swift current.

Here all the fishermen were lined up along the swollen Kinta River. The river to the left actually was part of the Kinta River that broke its bank nd flowed into a former mining pond.

That normally shallow river where one could wade during the dry season was almost like the Niagara River just before the Niagara Fall. The poles they were using were of 4 meters to five meters in length. The funny thing was all of them dipped the tips of the poles into the water. My! This was something new to me. Judging from the number of fish they had in their keep nets, their method was definitely successful.

How could any fish escape the nets when they were lifted up

Suddenly one of them lifted up his pole and only then did I realize that they were having nets attached to the ends of their poles. In the net was a lomar fish of very presentable size. Now, this was something I must learn, I told myself. Walking over and putting on the most presentable smile, I introduced myself. A few minutes of pleasant talking, I was examining their contraptions.

The loop reopened for the next victim. See how successful this method could be by the catch of Pak Cik in the background.

What an imaginative and innovative way to catch fish. Instead of hooks, lines and sinkers, a piece of flexible spring wire of about 4mm in diameter and up to 2 meters in length was tied to the tip of the pole. The other end of the wire was looped back to the wire and wound about five times round it so that it could slide along itself thus forming a loop of variable diameter. A net of 2 cm mesh was the strung across the loop.

4A: A diagram of the whole pole net contraption. 4B: The fish swimming furiously in the fast current hits the net and got itself entangled. 4C: When the pole was lifted up, the loop slid close and the fish was trapped in the net.

To use this device, the loop was lowered into the slower moving part of the fast flowing river. Whenever a fish (most fish moving up stream would travel through the part of the river with the slowest current) hit the net, it would get entangled in the mesh. When the net was lifted up, the loop

This jelawat was caught in a pond fed by the Kinta River.

would close and the fish trapped in the net. After the fish was removed, the loop was reopened and then lowered back into the river for the next victim.

For this device to work the river must be swollen with rain water. Most of the fish caught that day were lomars as the water was muddy. Whenever the water was less turbid, lampams would constitute most of the catch, my new friends told me. Mind you, some can be as big as 1kg to 2 kg in size.

This net full of lampams were also caught here.

The following weekend, I made another trip to the same place. By now, the water level had subsided considerably. In the place of the pole fishermen, I found many anglers with the normal arsenals fishing. Using oil palm seeds, their catches now consisted of jelawats and lampams, Instead of fishing in the main Kinta River, they were fishing in the pond where the river broke its bank (hint, hint). Sigh! If only the stretch of the Kinta River flowing through Ipoh City can be that productive.

SATURDAY NIGHT PRAWN FEVER

2017-08-16T23:44:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the July 2004 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

While having our after fishing dinner at Chenderong one evening, I was distracted by a group of boisterous and noisy anglers walking in. From their behaviors and body languages, one need not be a psychologist to deduce that they had a successful fishing day. Suddenly, my eyes locked onto a tall dark handsome guy walking in. He was none other than my friend Seng Ha Lek.

One of my prawns caught on the first trip.

Putting on my most innocent look, I went over to inquire about their outing. Soon the lid of their icebox was opened showing scores of “lam kongs” (blue pincers). The level of the melting ice water began to rise with my dripping saliva. Telling myself to keep calm (must not show that you are too eager), I congratulated them on their good harvest.

Engaging my ‘bodeking’ gears into overdrive, I subtly began to ask for more information. After securing a promise from Ha Lek to take me prawning in the near future, I happily rejoined my group. Well, there was more dripping saliva, Ha Lek and his friends were served their steaming hot prawns.

The greatest insult to an angler was when you got to beg your kakis to accompany you to go prawning. That was what I faced when the day neared my prawning trip. As there was no more room in Ha Lek’s boat I had to bring my own.

Most of my regular fishing friends were either not interested in prawning or were not free. In the end, Foong, one of my regular prawning kaki took pity on me and agreed to go (bribed with fried koay teow). His favorite time to do prawning was at night, but my source was going in the daytime, hence the bribe.

This 'Tom Thumb' made me a laughing stock.

Tagging along closely to Ha Lek’s car we negotiated along a winding and pothole filled gravel road for what seemed like hours, before we stopped at a pond. Soon, we were slowly cruising out to a part of the pond where a small stream was flowing into it. As we were new to that place, we had to follow them closely. Quite similar to the remora and the shark. If you cannot imagine it in your mind.

The morning calm was suddenly broken by whoops of delight from the other boat. One by one they were seen struggling with tiny bent rods, with tip jerking up and down from the frantic prawns.

For those not into prawning yet, you can be forgiven for thinking that fishing for prawns with rod and line is like eating ‘tow foo far’. In actual fact, the opposite is true. One had to employ ‘tai chi’ or kungfu techniques to subdue the prawns.

I had to suffer mosquito bites, cold and sleepless night to catch prawns this size

Most of the time the prawns were hooked in their mouths. Sometimes they got entangled on their legs or the pincers too. Any hard pull would cause the hook to pull out from the mouth and you would get an empty hook back. As a consolation you might a leg or a pincer attached to your hook.

Ha Lek and his gang were pulling up prawns after prawns, while we were sitting there getting more desperate by the minutes. Though we tried to change the position of the boat using oars to move around, we were still not getting any pull. By the time we had circumnavigated their boat and still not getting any bite, we decided to move off to another spot.

One of my rods started to dip. I held my breath, and waited and waited (boy, it was hell). When I could not bear the suspense any more I slowly lifted up my rod and (s_ _t) there I was, holding up the smallest prawn landed on hook and line in the world (hoping to get into the Guinness Book of Record).

Chan Chong Kit proudly showing off some of his 'blue pincers'.

From then on my luck began changed. At least I started to land prawns. After lifting up my fourth prawn, I loudly declared that it was my FORTH prawn. Poor Foong had to suffer my jibes in complete silence (of course he had to grin to appear civil).

A day before, he had declared confidently that I should not buy his share of earthworms as he had his secret baits. “The prawns would queue up to get my baits,” was his confident declaration.

Well, result spoke louder than words. I was not surprised when he meekly asked for a packet of earthworms. I prided myself in my bargaining skills; he was given a packet of earthworms only on condition that he agreed to throw his secret baits away.

Whew, thank God, for Foong’s secret bait was brine soaked saltwater prawns. In the hot sun, those baits stunk to high heaven.

From left to right: Chong Koor Gie, Gary Tan Kok Suan and Seng Ha Lek posing their biggest 'lam kongs'.

All in we managed to land only about fifteen prawns between us. Of course after deducting the ‘Tom Thumbs’ and egg laden females. When shown to Ha Lek and friends, their sniggers were the most unbearable insults we had to endure. They being regulars here, of course had another bountiful harvest.

Foong had to throw away his secret bait first before he caught his first prawn with my earth worms.

On the next trip, Foong got his way, as I had no choice but to agree to night prawning. Our plan was to launch our boat at 6.00pm. Saturday evening and fish throughout the night to Sunday morning. According to Foong, night prawning produces the best result this side of the planet (period).

Good harvest was one thing; getting drained off your life sustaining blood was another. The mosquito menace in Tanjung Tualang was the worst kind in Perak. Those pesky pests possessed the longest and hardest proboscis. They could easily punch through your clothing and skin to feed on you.

One of our pastimes during the dull prawning sessions was to swipe at those blood sucking pests with electronic rackets. You know those that give off a crackling sound when you hit your target. These sounds did not compensate for the horribly painful itches those flying syringes did to us. but they sure gave us a sense of revenge

Cruising out to the middle of the pond around 6.00pm, we settled down to our nocturnal prawning session. In the glare of the fluorescent light, I could see one of my rod tips dancing away. Gingerly reaching over, I lifted up a terbol. Next to be released was a small baung. After the fifth baung, I shook every fish I landed in front of Foong’s face. He got the message alright and started giving some lame excuses as to why the prawns were not biting.

By 2.00am, I pulled up a small prawn that would be holding thanks giving kenduri the next day. Foong then landed two very presentable ‘lam kongs’. What really irritated me was the way he would laugh like a hyena (with emphasis on the ‘heee, heee, heee’) every time he pulled up a big one.

Luckily for me he could only laugh twice, for around 3.00am the fluorescent light began to dim. Even though he swore that he had charged the battery that morning, I still gave him a mouthful (how else to let go the pent up frustration of a prawn less night?).

At least Foong's prawn was very presentable.

When you could not see you could not fish, so we headed to the bank slowly. Just in time though for the sky opened up and we scurried into my car to sleep. Slowly we drifted off to dreamland even those pests were droning around our ears.

It was already light when we readied the boat to continue the morning session. Before we could push off, a group of ten noisy men came carrying tire tubes and casting nets. Thinking to myself that they could not sit on the tubes and do casting, I was wrong.

Straddling on their folded tubes, they paddled themselves forward with their legs and cast out the nets at regular intervals. No wonder our catches were getting from bad to worst as they traversed the pond shoulder to shoulder casting out their nets just like the carpet bombing of World War Two.

How could anything, I mean ANYTHING escapes from their nets? Outnumbered ten to two, we had no choice but to pack up cursing under our breath (as softly as possible, so as not to get pulverized).

One thing I learnt was, prawning in ponds was a different piece of cake to river prawning. In the river, whenever your rod tip started to dance, the prawn was as good as yours. Prawns dwelling in the ponds were more wary. Even if your rod tip had bent down for more than 15 seconds, the chances of a solid hock up was still not assured.

The cause of our almost 'pak kor' trip.

Foong and I hypothesized that the river prawns, facing more competition for food from all sorts of creatures had the habit of ‘eat first and think later’. Those living in ponds were the more leisure feeding type. Maybe, they carefully examined the food (with hooks) held in their pincers first before putting in their mouths.

With due respect, Foong’s secret actually was a very poor substitute for the usual worms that we used. For it to work, they must be used in brackish water. Maybe the prawns in fresh water are not used to smelly bait.

ROLEX IGFA LABUAN INTERNATIONAL FISHING TOURNAMENT 2004

2017-04-20T19:38:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the June 2004 issue of Rod and Line Fishing magazine.

This year’s Rolex IGFA Labuan International tournament held from 2^nd to 8^th May 2004, attracted 166 participants from six countries, the best turnout since it was started several years ago. It is also now part of the yearly colorful Labuan International Sea Challenge.

Team Wahoo with a 45kig Dogtooth Tuna. The team won 3rd placing in the tournament's team event.

The fishing tournament consisted of two categories, i.e., the team and the individual events. Every team is allowed a maximum of six members. And each member was entitled to put up one fish for the team event. The winning team was decided by the heaviest total weight of all six fishes. Team members were allowed to enter another fish each for the individual event.

Fully armoured Billion Chang engaged in a tough battle with a whooper.

A cash prize of RM1000 would be awarded to the heaviest Marlin/sailfish, dogtooth tuna, yellow fin tuna and giant trevally. The heaviest shark, escolar, barracouta, wahoo and rosy job fish would be worth RM500 each.

100 foot long Tournament mother-boat, Sea Maiden 1, raising the shark on crane.

To encourage conservation, there was a minimum weight for the following fishes. The fishes and their minimum weights were as follow: 1). Marlin-60kg. 2). Sailfish and spearfish-30kg. 3). Shark-70kg.

To help the anglers decide the weight of the fish caught, a rough guide was supplied. Marlins and sharks would be 10kg per foot and 5kg per foot for sails and spearfish. Anyone or boat found having fish that did not comply with these minimum weights would be disqualified.


(A)


(B)


(C)

(A, B and C are small specimens by Spratly's standard)

To further drive home the conservation message, a new category was included this year. A challenge trophy and assorted prizes would be given for the most number of billfish caught and released (evidence by photographs). A very wise move I should say.

A wahoo caught with the popular Bonito.

To inculcate a sense of caring for the environment, any boat found disposing non-biodegradable rubbish into the sea would have all its anglers disqualified from the tournament. Another feather in the cap of the organizers.

Another trevally, quite common on jigs.

Overall the tournament was a success. Everything went on smoothly with only minor hitches. Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Song were everywhere taking care of and directing the participants and correspondents. All the other members of the organizing team were actively contributing their parts to the smooth running of the tournament.

Major Alias, with a good size dogtooth.

Other than the Calliban having some slight drive shaft problem and the boat 03 some engine hitches, there was no major problem affecting the boats. Towards the end of the competition, the Crystal Coral went to the aid of a sampan based angler.

Shallow reef at Mariveles.

2004 can be said to have produced the best result in nine years of competition. The large number of huge dogtooths caught stood testimonial to that. The few 100kg plus marlins that got hooked near Dallas was a phenomenon itself. Team Alu Alu lost four marlins in one day and got spooled 3 times in one night. Popping near Mariveles and Dallas produced many huge GTs and bluefins too.

The winning team from last year, Team Ikan Bilis, will be proudly flying the Jalur Gemilang at the Roles IGFA Tournament, Mexico, representing Malaysia. Team Odyssey, this year’s winner, will also be invited to the Cabo San Lucas 2005 Tournament.


Some of the participating boats.


Lifting up this 45kg dogtooth is easy for this boatman. It took 3 other anglers to move the toothy beast.


The dreaded jaws no more

The catch on display.

A marlin must exeed 60kg to qualify for this tournament.

The much hated line cutting barrcouta.


Anglers must fish within the competition zone in these sensitive water.


Team TCE

FISHING WITH THE CHAMPIONS THE ROLEX IGFA LABUAN INTERNATIONAL FISHING TOURNAMENT 2004

2017-01-15T19:34:00.004-08:00

This article was published in the June 2004 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

When Patrick (Tournament Organizing Chairman) requested me to follow Team Odyssey for this tournament, my heart dropped. You see, I wanted to join my friends in boat number 10. Sensing my worry, Patrick assured me, “Do not worry, you will never regret it.” Well that was how I got on boat number 11, the Puteri Shahidah for the whole duration of the much talked-about Rolex IGFA Labuan International Tournament from 3^rd to 8^th May.

The barracuda held up by Harvey was caught with a skirt.

That night after been introduced by Patrick to Team Odyssey’s captain, Lam Choon Ming, I joined them for the buffet dinner held at the Labuan International Sea Sports Complex. There I found out that the team consisted of captain: Lam Choon Ming, second in charge: Harvey Tan, member: Ricky Ong, all Singaporeans. Our Jalur Gemilang was represented by Mok Ong Hye of Johor Bahru, while the Bodas brothers, Pradeep and Raja represented India. A tri-nation team of six very capable anglers I should say.

Mok Ong Hye posing with his huge dogtooth tuna.

I was already waiting on boat number 11 on the morning of 3^rd May at around 8.00am. When Team Odyssey arrived with their arsenal and luggage, I joined in to help load them on to the boat. By 10.00am the convoy moved off in single file through the narrow channel to the open sea.

The moment we were cleared off the channel, the whole team started to prepare their tackles. Watching them in action, I could not help but be awed by the way they moved. One would be fixing up the rod holders while the others were adjusting the outriggers. Knots were tied and rechecked while reels and rods were inspected before stowing them away. Boy, were they prepared. There was nothing much I could do, but to stay out of their ways as I told captain Lam Choon Ming I was at kindergarten level when it comes to fishing at the Spratlys. When all was set up, we literally ate and slept our ways to the fishing ground.

Lam happily holding up his tuna.

Before the light began to slowly cut through the dark sky over Layang Layang on the morning of 4^th May, we were already waiting for the rest of the convoy. As soon as the announcement came over the radio for the commencement of the tournament, we started to troll.

Five lines were let out in a “W’ formation with the teaser in the center just behind the boat. The two outrigger lines were tied to skirts. While bib-less lures were connected to the two reels on the left and right of the boat. Of course another skirt was used in the center. After three hours of fruitless trolling, we decided to move off to Ardarsier Reefs.

The Ardarsier Reef was an immense reef just below the surface of the water. Certain parts could be seen jutting out of the surface of the sea. Many passes were made by us round the reef without any result. By 5.00pm we decided to drop anchor. As moving around this area in the dark was trying to tempt faith a little too far. The experience of Captain Lam here was very evident. With the help of the chart, GPS and the sounder, he skillfully guided the tekong to anchor the boat exactly where he wanted us to be. Baited rigs were immediately dropped overboard, while some of us started to jig. Just after half an hour I was attracted by excited shouts from the back of the boat. Moving towards the back, I saw Raja struggling with a bent rod. That whopper must have spat the hook after a seesaw battle of twenty minutes. Disappointment was written all over his sweating face.

Harvey got robbed on the high sea.

Everything seemed to quieten down after that. The whole night the boat was rocking quite badly, rendering fishing rather difficult, but we still managed to land some trevallies belonging to the blue and big eye family. At one time in the night, Mok hooked on to a monster while jigging. His jigging rod bent, the tip almost touched the water. In the split second that followed, his rod snapped back. It was tackle failure that lost him his fish. His snap and swivel were twisted beyond recognition. All of us crawled into the cabin after midnight as the wind picked up making fishing dangerous.

Early nest morning, 5^th May, Mok started to fish at around 5.00am. When a 2kg kerisi was brought up and fixed to his gigantic hook, positive result was almost immediate. His grunts and gasps woke most of us up. After a titanic struggle of 25 minutes, the oldest member of the team was declared the winner. This giant dogtooth tuna later pulled the scale down to 48kg.

The Chinese consider the word double happiness very auspicious. When the pint size Rick Ong (Winner of two past individual winner awards) leaned back on his rod at 6.00am, we all knew it should be double happiness.

This shark was released as someone from another boat caught a bigger one.

When you were struggling with an adversary equaled to your size, you better be careful. We were all concerned for him. With the boat rocking and the fish trying its level best to gain freedom there was a fair chance of him being pulled overboard. Nobody complained when Rick crawled back into the cabin to rest after his 25 minutes of struggle. Rick’s 50kg grouper was the catalyst that pushed the whole team to another level of activities.

By 8.00am, all lines were out and the boat trolled at a steady pace around Ardarsier. Luckily for us, for we had just finished eating our breakfast, when the left outrigger release clips suddenly snapped open. Harvey jammed his rod butt into his gimbal belt and the battle was on. The sizeable barracuda immediately put the whole team in line for either one of the first three places.

Anyway, Harvey was the one who scared the daylight out of everyone at last year’s tournament when his fever nearly exploded a thermometer. Until today, he was still peeved over being termed as a SARS suspect. His only consolation was he got a free helicopter ride thrown in.

Our plan was to head for Dallas Reef, trolled for a few hours before heading for the Mariveles Reef to pass the night. Everything went smoothly as planned. At Dallas Reef, one of the reels sounded and a wahoo of about 6kg was brought up with the bib-less stuck to its mouth. Not to waste too much time at Dallas Reef, the tekong pointed the boat towards Mariveles. Moving at a steady pace, with 5 lines trolling out at the back, we took time off to rest.

Suddenly our radio crackled with a call, “Bravo 08 calling Bravo 11. Come in please.” It was my colleague Poh Chuan Maye rom Rod and Line (Chinese) inquiring about our catch. Before I could answer, I heard a lot of whisperings from my friends behind me, “Demoralize them, demoralize them,” they urged. “We are definitely the winner,” I answered. Actually, it was meant for everyone who was in radio range.

See what a giant could do to your snap?

Well, I was not wrong when I said they would win for judging from all the talks over the radio our team was in the lead. Furthermore, being outnumbered on a rocking boat, the possibility of me being accidently bumped off was very high.

Please pardon me for using the word ‘we’. Being cramped up fishing, eating, sleeping and bathing with them for a few days, I somehow felt I was already part of the team. This feeling was reinforced with their friendly and jovial personalities. When they started to share their planning and strategies with me, I was totally ‘bought’ over.

Mariveles was the outer most reefs that fishing was allowed by the Malaysian navy. As we moved slowly round the reef, the whole team was on high alert as it was still comparatively an unfished reef. Everyone rushed to their fighting station when one of the reels screamed in protest. A 14kg wahoo was the reward. Not big but did add up to the total weight. Since landing the wahoo at 4.10pm there was not much activity from trolling.

By 7.30pm we were already anchored securely. Even though the sea was quite choppy and the boat was rocking, everyone was busy fishing. Watching Lam and company at work, I was quite sure they would emerge the champion if lady luck were to chip in a little bit. The whole night many fish were caught and released.

Harvey’s jig caught a good size fish that gave him a run for his money, when it suddenly pulled hard and went limp. Surely fish do not die of heart attack, I wondered. When it was brought up, we realized that a dogtooth had an easy meal that night. Had it chomped a little bit higher, that tuna should contribute quite a lot to our total catch weight.

Half an hour later a foot long squid jumped onto the boat, which Lam immediately secured to his hook. Rubbing his hands in glee, he was saying something about landing the giant of the day or rather the night. We all laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks when he landed a small nasty looking barracouta.

Oh how I hated them, those barracoutas. They were the same low down leagues as the puffer fish…sneaky line cutters.

Early in the morning of 6^th May, around 1.00am, a 20 kg grouper was brought up. By now we were very sure of at least a 2^nd placing. Everyone seemed to gain his second wind. The Bodas brothers though a bit quissy in the stomachs were busy fishing too. Raja was rewarded with a huge barracouta. We jigged and fished until 8.00pm when the anchor was raised and our boat headed for Ardarsier again.

Anglers always smile their best when holding up big fish.

Two hours later, Lam locked on to a huge wahoo. Pumping and winding, he slowly gained line back into his reel. Just when we thought he had that fish beaten it shot out again gaining most of the line back. This went on for some time when the most dreaded nightmare happened. Lam’s hook tore out and he reeled back his limp line.

Jigging at Ardarsier that morning was quite productive. Many dogtooths were caught and released. Only those few big ones were kept for the competition. As the fishing competition ends at 8.00am, and we had to be at Layang Layang Island by 10am of 7^th May, we decided to fish at Layang Layang that night. Fishing here saved us a lot of travelling time in the morning which could be put to productive fishing.

By noon most of us were worn out by the continuous jigging and winding, so we headed for Layang Layang, trolling as we went. Anchoring at Layang Layang at 3.00pm in the evening most of us were either lazing around or just doing leisure jigging as we were quite sure of a good placing.

Our cocky grins were replaced by worried frowns when we heard over the radio that Leong from Team TCE caught a grouper of about 100kg. Out came the chart and we all crowded round Lam to plan our next move. We decided to re-anchor at another more promising spot and to fish through the night.

Team Odyssey with their two largest fishes. At this stage they were quite sure of at least a good placing.

That night everyone in the team was very hard working. The whole boat was a hive of activities. Even the marshal, the crew and yours truly were feeling the excitement. The efforts contributed to many big dogtooths, ruby snappers, flame tails and rosy jobfish.

Lam caught a shark of about 45kg, which fought him tooth and nail for quite a while before been subdued. It was released after its photo was taken as we knew that a 150kg specimen was caught by another team earlier. Tried though they did, but they just could not land another huge dogtooth or grouper to seal their victory.

Reporting back to the mother ship at 8.00am on the 7^th of May was a cinch as we were just nearby. By 9.00am we settled down for our long trip back to Labuan. That night our convoy was hit by strong wind and rain. Most of us were wet and miserable huddled up in the cabin. It was the longest boat ride of my life. At around 7.00am of 8^th May, all the boats were back at Labuan International Sea Sports Complex Jetty. Spies were sent to the other boats to find out where we stood. When all the reports came back we were very sure of at least a 2^nd placing. Later at the official weigh in, Team Odyssey was proclaimed the winner.

Looking back. I think Team Odyssey deserved to win. Their team spirit and cooperation was very high, even though they hailed from different countries.

Another reason for their win was that not one of them ever question their team captain. Every request by the captain was carried out without a squeak…at least not openly. All of them are very knowledgeable and experienced in fishing but were very humble about it. Even though they had fished in much more comfortable environment, not one of them grumbled about the cramped boat. Most important of all was everyone was well equipped for the battle. As a novice in fishing in this area, I am very grateful to all of them or the amount of knowledge they unselfishly shared with me. This was especially true for captain Lam as this ‘old story telling machine’ was a little slow in grasping some intricate big game knots.

The champion team comprising anglers from three nations.

TEAM ODYSSEY

Success in fishing, as I have always stressed, involves many factors. The most important of which are experience, knowledge and a little bit of luck. Here I have listed out the profiles of all the members of Team Odyssey. I think the most important contributing factor to their win was their experiences. Success in fishing, as I have always stressed, involves many factors. The most important of which are experience, knowledge and a little bit of luck. Here I have listed out the profiles of all the members of Team Odyssey.

Captain: Lam Choon Ming.

Nationality: Singaporean.

Age: 42 years old.

Profession: Professional charter fishing guide.

Experience: 25 years of game fishing experience. First trip to Pulau Tioman was in 1972 on an outing with his teacher.

Second in Charge: Harvey Tan.

Nationality: Singaporean.

Age: 32 years old.

Profession: Professional fishing guide.

Experience: 12 years of game fishing. First trip was round the sea off Singapore.

Member: Ricky Ong Hwee Leong.

Nationality: Singaporean.

Profession: Aquarium shop owner, specializing in exotic beta fish.

Experience: 20 years of big game fishing experience, mostly in Indonesia. Was in the winning team in year 2000. A past winner of the individual event in year 2000 with a 36kg marlin. Also won the individual title in 2003 with a 164kg shark.

Member: Mok Ong Hye.

Nationality: Malaysian.

Age: 58 years old.

Profession: Retire businessman.

Experience: 5 years of game fishing. First trip was to the Prince of Wales wreck.

Member: Pradeep Bodas.

Nationality: Indian.

Age 33 years old.

Profession: Lawyer.

Experience: Fished in Mauritius and Takabonarate before. A lot of experience in fishing for masheers using spinner baits.

Member: Raja Bodas (brother of Pradeep).

Nationality: Indian.

Age: 31 years old.

Profession: Lawyer. Partner with his brother in a law firm specializing in company laws.

Experience: Same as Pradeep as they both always travel and fish together.

HUNTING FOR MY DREAMFISH – THE TEMOLEH

2017-01-11T02:47:00.004-08:00

This article was published in the May 2004 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

When you mysteriously went missing most weekends and could not be contacted by hand phone, all your regular fishing kakis would accused you of ‘peh loh’ (Secretly fishing at some secret spots).

Well I do admit that I was guilty of ‘pei loh’, but it was not because I was selfish. You see, this spot required that I climb down a steep bank of about eight meters to reach the river edge. Then inch my way along a narrow ledge, holding on to tree roots, branches and climbers for about fifty meters before settling down on a piece of rock jutting out to the river.

My good friend Shamsuddin or Din Siam, as the locals call him. Shown holding up Ma'at's 12.6kg temoleh. Pity though, his 16.4 kg temoleh was not recorded on film.

The climbing part ruled out quite a few of my not-so-fit friends. After crossing out those not so-patient ones too (Temoleh fishing was just a matter of hours of patient waiting for that pull), I think I was the only one left (See how easy it is t get rid of unwanted companies). On top of that I had to prove to my source that I was not a ‘tourist guide’ (Someone who would bring a busload to your secret spot complete with flags and whistles).

This rong took Ma'at's oil palm bait and landed in trouble.

Since time immemorial, mention the word temoleh, I would somehow break into the cold turkey symptoms. Well, you cannot blame me for that. When temoleh fishing fever was at its peak in Kuala Kangsar, I was just a kid ‘to be seen and not be heard’. Those huge temolehs caught by my father’s peers really stemmed their marks in my mind. Whenever I could sneak away to fish, I was always dreaming about catching those giants (Even though I was using bamboo rods, 4lbs line, small hooks and split shots as sinkers). By the time I could go fishing on a sampan without getting the daylight beaten out of me, the temolehs were gone. Even then, I never give up my dream, for every time I go fishing along the Perak River, I am always pestering the locals for news of this illusive giant.

Mohamed Faizal told me that this kelah was small compared to a few whoppers caught here before.

Din Siam must have cursed the day he was introduced to me. As one of those blessed individuals, who had caught a temoleh before (16.4kg to be exact), he immediately became a V.I.P. to me. Being thick skin, I must have worn him down with my persistent pestering and begging. As a result (Leave out the boring details of how I got him to disclose his secret spot), I found myself sitting next to Din at his temoleh spot near Kuala Kangsar one day.

The multi-hook rig used with cut oil palm. Very effective for a variety of river fish.

Fermented oil palm seed was the standard bait here instead of bananas, worms and yow char kwai of Lubuk Mat Anjing, Kuala Kangsar. Din introduced me to his gang too. After many trips there just to fish for temolehs, I was accepted into his inner circle and considered as one of them (In my heart I knew they had their doubts about my sanity going for that one fish only).

Li saw the tiny water sprays on the water surface, cast out his bait and got this krai.

I met Ma’at, a handsome young man, who related to me how he landed my dream fish one day. After hooking on to a runaway roller coaster, he panicked as his line kept on going out. Someone had the presence of mind to ‘hijack’ a boat for him to continue his fight in, thus making his job a lot easier. That Cyprinid pulled the scale down to 12.6kg.

There was one occasion when Din’s brother hooked on to a giant. The poor fellow was fighting a losing battle, until He intervened and the fish somehow got entangled onto another angler’s hook. With its mouth and tail hooked, that temoleh never had a chance.

Many others had close encounters with the temolehs too. Most of them were just fishing for other fish with light tackles and not really prepared to do battle with the giant. You guessed it; the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Try hunting for an elephant with a peashooter and you will know what I mean.

Huri, a professional, was the one credited with most of the catches. His exploits and the number of temolehs caught by him could be compile into a book! Of course, he used a cast net to catch them. As always the case everywhere when anglers and netters are going for the same fish, there will be a clash of interest. Maybe we should emulate the friendly spirit practiced here.

There was an unwritten understanding among the netters and anglers in this kampong. The netters would end their hunt by 9.30 am after which the lubuk would be left to the anglers to fish. Of course, many stretches were still criss-crossed by jarings strung at certain discreet corners. Their stories of torn nets and broken lines only made me more determine in my resolve to catch one.

The numerous trips I made in the months of April, May and June of 2002 were pak kor (empty handed) trips as it was then way past the temoleh season (Normally the temolehs would move upstream in the months of November and leave in the month of March). Therefore, in 2002, even though I made numerous forays here, the end results were still naught.

When the North-East Monsoon ended in 2003, I started to fish here again. From the numerous feedbacks I got from the locals, the population of temolehs that came here was rather dismal. I did see splashes made by a few of these frolicking giants, but never land one. News from the netters was the same story.

These were some of the scales from the temolehs caught here. Din kept them in a photo album as souvenirs.

The result in 2004 was even worst. Not a single landing was reported. Even the netters reported pak kor outings. I made a few halfhearted peanut eating trips here this year. The pathetic result spoke for itself. We all concluded that the whole temoleh population that came here in 2002 was almost decimated. It is always the same old story all over Malaysia. Without any legislative control, whenever a promising fishing spot was located, the whole place would be ‘cleaned’ in the wink of an eye. If the powers that be do not intervene, then the temolehs would follow the footsteps of the dinosaurs.

I would like to suggest that certain stretches of the river be close to any netting activities, and be open to fishing (Strictly catch and release) during certain time of the year (Not during the spawning time please). One do not need to be a Ph.D. holder to deduce that, when protected and regulated, the temoleh fishing industry can be on par if not better than the masheer fishing industry in Cauvery, India.

My forays to this temoleh hotspot did bring me some good though. First and foremost, I made friend with a bunch of very friendly and sincere anglers. From them I learnt how to look for krais. Whenever they were around, the surface of the river would be splattered with numerous tiny sprays of water. If a bunch of climber shoots (Found in abundance along the river bank) were tied and one or two tiny hooks embedded in them, catching the krais is considered as almost 90% of the time.

The locals used to cut up the oil palm seeds into tiny cubes. These were then attached on to the gang hooks they were using. This method was proven to be very effective from the number of lampams, rongs and kelabaus caught. I even witnessed a kelah been landed using this method (This one was rather small compared to the few whoppers they had landed in the past).

This climber plants found in abundance along the river bank proved to be very effective bait for catching krais. Notice the two small hooks embedded in the shoot (Marked X).

What about using boats, you might ask? I was toying with the idea, until I saw what happened to some outsiders who came in some boats. The aims of the locals when casting with their number 7 or 8 lead sinkers became very bad suddenly. They almost always land near or in the boats.

From my many trips here, I gained a lot of fishing knowledge from the kampong folks. Would I try to fish for my dream fish even though catching one now is just like trying to catch a T-Rex?

Come the next season, I hope to make a few more trips here, hoping….just hoping for that one gigantic pull from my dream fish.

CATCHING THE GOOD LIFE HARUANS

2016-10-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

This article was published in the April 2004 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

“Ng can you help me cull some haruans from my friend’s pond ah?” asked Phang Yee Seng. “Huh!” I replied not trusting my ears. He repeated the request, which made me laugh like a hyena. Phang’s request was just like asking a tiger whether it can help take care of the lambs in a pan.

According to Phang, this pond belongs to his friend, Ah Foo. Adult fish from other ponds were transferred here to be fattened up for the market. Recently, he (Ah Foo) decided to stock this pond with thousands of tilapia fries. What followed was the biggest “kenduri” held this side of the Kinta Valley. Hordes of hungry haruans were circling schools of fries and picking them off like the RAF fighters downing German bombers during the famous Battle of Britain.

Meng with one of his haruans, taken with a spinner-bait. He was very successful with it.

You see, the pond being too big and deep to be harvested by the usual netting, had been left untouched for seven years. The method used to harvest the fish here was by dumping food into a satellite pond. When the fish rushed in to feed, a net was lowered to close the connecting channel and the trapped fish could then be harvested at will. Imagine what piscatorial monsters would lurk in a pond not harvested for seven years! Add to that, a gigantic haruan was caught recently.

Here Phang was posing with one of his shell-spoon taken haruans.

Standing on the edge of the pond and watching the mist slowly cleared from the water surface, my hands were shaking as though going on my first date. My heart was drumming like crazy, pounding something like IGFA, IGFA, IGFA (IGFA record lah).

Ah Meng, using a weighted spinner bait and was the first to lock onto a kilo plus haruan. After a few short runs (as all haruans do), it was netted. This was followed by another, and another, then another. He seemed to be the pipe piper for haruans. Phang was really frustrated after Ah Meng caught his fifth haruan and started calling him Elvis (Chinese referred to Elvis Presley as Mow Wong or King of Cats) in the process. Just when Phang was at the point of exploding, a haruan hammered his frog bait and his scowl turned into a smile.

It had been a long time since I got a haruan of this size.

After taking some photographs for them (I had not started fishing yet), I went off to a deeper part of the pond to fish. This part of the pond had its banks covered by some overhanging shrubs. My theory was that, if kid haruans of a kilo plus were hanging around the shallower parts then the great-grandpas and great-grandmas must be somewhere else……where else?

Being relatively snag free, here I chose to use the shell spoon, introduces by Robert Goh of Taiping. Surprisingly, there were no giant strikes, as anticipated. A true follower of the concept of “The magic of thinking big”, I kept on casting and retrieving the spoon. Maybe the haruans and I went to different schools, for I just could not get any fish. From the corner of my eyes, I could see that Phang and Ah Meng were catching and landing scores of them. In the end, their “Got ANY (with emphasis on ANY) fish ah? “really got on my nerves.

Surprise of all surprises, a marble goby took Phang's frog.

Somehow, the IGFA record mission was abandoned and I rushed over to where they were (All motivational training about being positive and persistent went down the drain, or rather the pond). When my spoon hit the water, I allowed it to sink a few seconds, before starting to retrieve. Giving my rod tip a couple of twitches, I felt a light tug and wham, a kilo plus haruan was my reward!

The haruans here were so plentiful that many a time, my shell spoon was grabbed the moment it hit the water. Human beings are such, when the pickings are good, they become choosy. Yours truly was guilty of it too. You would not believe me if I were to say, we chose to cast to the big rises. Remember, that the size of the swirl was directly proportional to the size of the fish. This was the ultimate snobbish haruan fishing of the highest order, I presumed.

This tilapia, held up by Ah Meng, was one of the few that hit my spoon.

Haruans were not the only fish that were plentiful here. We were surprised when Phang pulled up a marble goby (ketutu) when it grabbed his frog bait. More surprise followed when a marble goby gobbled up my shell spoon. Mind you, the shell spoon attracted the tilapias too, as proven by the few specimens that I landed.

We were enjoying ourselves so much with the very cooperative and presentable haruans that we forgot the time. My mission of catching the IGFA record haruan was temporary forgotten too. Somehow the aim of catching record size haruans was discarded quite fast when everyone was getting fish and you got none. But your stomach always has the last say at the end of the day. When it started rumbling and my hands started shaking from hunger, I had no choice but to rest and have something to eat.

Plonking myself onto a piece of plank (of course making sure there is no protruding nail) I made myself comfortable under a shed before tucking into my ‘lunch’. Phang joined me later. While eating, he suddenly announced, “Ng, do you think you are having a good life so far?” I was taken aback by his question. Pondering for a while I answered apprehensive, “I think I am ok.” “Go take a look at what the fish are eating and then answer my question again,” he laughed.

Sauntering over to where Leo, the Indonesian worker, was preparing food for the fish, I got the surprised of my life. He was cutting open packets of large prawns, meatballs and Chinese silver pomfrets (Pamus chinesis) into a big cauldron. Yes, Chinese silver pomfrets or ‘tow tai yee’ in Cantonese! I headed back to where Phang was with head bowed and ego deflated. On the way home all of us were in deep thoughts, maybe reflecting on our lives.

Leo, the Indonesian worker, putting pomfrets, meatballs and large prawns into the cauldron.

The pond was so infested with haruans that it took us ten more trips there before we encountered a pak koh (empty handed) day. Most of the days we landed more than twenty haruans of over a kilo in size. Of course we took only one or two for our kenduries, with the rest being returned to a beaming Ah Foo.

THE SPOTTED FEATHERBACKS OF BATU GAJAH

2016-09-08T02:52:00.002-07:00

This article was published in the March 2004 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

Illegal immigrants have always been a problem in this country. If they are of the human kinds, they pose a very serious problem here. Our law enforcement and health authorities are been stretched to the limit of their capabilities trying to overcome them.

Those that are other than the human kinds also contribute a lot of troubles too. Most of these non-human illegal immigrants came into the country through the exotic animal and tropical fish trades. The problems they created to the environment and ecosystem will take a number of years to be felt.

At this very moment most of the hues and cries were over the indiscriminate release of unwanted pet tropical fishes into our waterways. The devastating erosion of the banks of our rivers and ponds by the sucker catfish has been proven beyond reasonable doubt. Recently, alarms were sounded regarding the peacock bass and the hybrid flower horn fish. Both these cichlids are predators and they do breed as though tomorrow is the end of the world (Heh, scientists, think of the opportunities and riches if you can extract the hormone responsible for making them horny).

While our concerns and attentions are directed at these fishes, the spotted leatherbacks are slowly but surely colonizing the ex-mining ponds around the Kinta Valley. Ponds that we used to catch kaluis, haruans and tilapias are now full of this graceful fish. Maybe being slow moving, the featherbacks do not threaten the ecosystem so much, but their diet does consist of small and tiny prawns. Thinks of the consequences, for when there is no small fish there is no big fish.

To catch fish we must ‘match the hatch’. Goh Tiong Boo was given the task of procuring the scissor tails (it is always the new fellows of the group that are been bullied). Kong, the one who was taking us to his secret spot, of course, was treated like a boss (One of the techniques to secure secret spots). My duty was to provide the car and be the driver lah.

Kong holding up his featherback.

Standing on the bank of the pond near Batu Gajah, Kong was telling us the few hotspots where the featherbacks like to hang around. Being quite early, those belidas have not come out to play yet. According to him, the moment the fish come up for air, the bait should be cast to the vicinity of the rise. If it is in feeding mood, the bait should be taken in a short while.

Our guide was the first to get a bite. In less than five minutes after he had cast out his bait, it was picked up by the belida. Holding up his rod, he struck the moment all his slack line had been taken up. We held our breath as the fish headed for the surface. When it exploded through the water, we ooh and aah in unison... That fish should be given a gold medal for gymnastics. The way it somersaulted and shook its head was truly spectacular. That day must be its unluckiest day for that fish failed to gain it freedom.

This was the way we rigged our baits for belidas.

I got impatient with the waiting and went lure fishing with my casting outfit. There was not a single strike even though quite a number of sinking and deep running crankbaits were tried. My method was to cast to the vicinity of the rise, allow the crankbait to sink before retrieving it. Maybe, the featherbacks were not that aggressive that day, as my efforts drew a naught. Changing to a floating Fat Rap, resulted in a tremendous strike. The rod was nearly yanked out of my hand when the lure was allowed to float up. That monster headed out, taking line with it. When it turned to my right trouble was staring at me straight in the face.

You see, my view was blocked by a tree jutting out from the bank of the pond. Stretching my hands, at the same time leaning my body out as much as I dared, I had a hard time controlling that monster. It headed into some submerged branches and stopped running. The fishing line transmitted all the jerking and shaking of its head in the water.

En. Isa, who was in a sampan nearby, came over to help. After handing my rod to him, I ran over to the other side of the tree and waited. My rod and lure minus the fish, was handed back to me. It must have dislodged the hook using the branches as leverage. We unanimously agreed that the monster could be a toman, for belidas do not fight that dirty. Thanking him for his help, we bade En. Isa farewell. Of course, only after he agreed to allow me to take a photograph of him and his jelawat.

Turning my attention back to ledgering for leatherback again, I eased my aging body into my fishing chair, and settled down to wait (My wife always complains that I am very impatient but yet can enjoy fishing).

When Goh’s rod, which was to my left suddenly started to jerk, we shouted to alert him. The trouble was he had gone to ‘buang sueh’ somewhere. When the rod was pulled out of its holder, there was no choice but for me to dive for it. As getting out of my fishing chair required some effort on my part, I lunged forward, sliding on my tummy (Try to imagine a walrus, no, no a penguin is more preferable, sliding on ice), down the bank.

My reward for a few hours of fishing. Featherback meat is very good for making fish balls.

Luckily I managed to grab his rod, but the fish had let go of the bait. Muttering under my breath all the #@!$ (Goh belongs to the other class of people where all the exclamation marks are non-existent in his vocabulary), helped to ease the pent up frustration.

Sometimes helping others has its rewards. It came in the form of a sudden movement of my line. Being agile and acrobatic did not help to save that belida for we had our photograph taken together. As Kong had some previous appointments later, we decided to call it a day.

Our usual method of fishing for the spotted belidas in ponds is by ledgering. As the ponds do not have current, the weights used need not be very big. After the running weight has hit bottom, we normally reel in some line, but still maintain some slack line for the belidas to pull. Strike when your line tightens. The fish will normally be gut hooked.

En.Isa was kind enough to pose for my camera. Here he is holding up his very presentable jelawat.

If catch and release is your way, then reel in the slack in your line. Strike as soon as your rod tip moves down and your fish will normally be hooked in the mouth.

POPPING AT THE RUSSIAN WRECK OFF PENANG ISLAND

2016-08-17T03:59:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the February 2004 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

“Sorry guys, it is no go,” declared Sia, our taikong. Six smiling faces became very long. (Try to imagine the faces of horses, got it?) Yes, disappointed was too tame a word to describe our feelings. We have planned this trip for quite a while. As we had tried popping at Tukun Perak a few times, we felt the change of venue and scenery really could do wonders to our enthusiasm, you know.

There we were bobbing in the sea with heavy rain and North-westly wind slamming into our boat. Our fading hopes were kept flickering by the fact that the taikong did not turn the boat around and head for port. We rode the storm for almost half an hour peering through the rain-splattered windows and scanning he horizon. Slowly the sky at the distant horizon started to clear. With our combined pleading, Sia relented by gunning the engine and steering the bow westward. Being only eighteen nautical miles west of Penang, we were soon circling the wreck.

James with his trevally. He did not look too happy with his size.

Sia took his time to observe the wind and tide before dropping anchor. We were all lined up at the side of the boat, rods in hands (popping rods lah, what else?) and craning our necks like giraffes, scanning the sea for signs of GTs. Sia announced nonchantly that the time and tide was not right yet (no wonder he was resting in the cabin). When he started to prepare our meals, we knew he really meant it was not time yet.

The taikong's assistant helping to unhook a GT.

While having our tummies filled, Sia told us that the time and the current must fit together for the baitfish to surface. Following closely behind would be the thugs and hooligans, we called giant trevallies. He added that our boat would be parallel to the wreck. That was when we had to be ready. Either we had to cold cast to entice the fish to the top or wait for them to follow the baitfish to the surface.

After our meals, we were sitting around talking and joking. Yours truly took the opportunity to narrate my fishing stories (as all old goats do), boring everyone to death in the process. I was so engrossed in my yarn spinning that I failed to see James picking up his rod. With a yell that nearly gave me a heart attack, James strained back against his rod. At the other end was a GT fighting desperately for its life. I guessed that GT was fated to be caught.

Most of the time it was a waiting game. Here we were scanning the sea for action.

Suddenly, Sia was onto another fish. That was when everyone wised up and started scrambling all over to grab their popping rods. Tan’s popper was gulped the moment it started to skip on the surface. With a lot of groaning and swearing, the fish was finally landed. Looking around, I saw Sia leaning back against a hard running trevally. I was rather worried as he had one leg jammed against the railing and another on the deck. Though not very religious, I was praying hard that his line did not snap. He would be in for a nasty accident, should that happened. Well, he not only did not fall but won the battle too.

Thang was helping his best friend, Tan, to charge up his luminous jig with a small torch light during their night jigging session.

When Thong yelled, his rod was already bent into a perfect C. Thrusting the rod butt into his belly cup, he could just managed to move into a Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do stance. All the while the fish kept on taking line. There must be something wrong with his drag, for that turbo charged submarine emptied his spool again (He was spooled once at Tekun Perak). Above the din of crashing waves and excited shouts, I could not clearly make out what he was saying, but I could make an intelligent guess. Most of the time, those @#$% do help to ease tension and frustration, you know.

Thong’s fish must have led the whole school away as everything quieted down after that. When all the casting di not bring us any result, we had to give up. Taking the opportunity from the lull, I asked James how he could sense the GTs was coming. Putting on that cunning smile of his, he said, “You people not only got to work smart, but to fish smart too.” He added that when he saw the taikong standing against the railing, popping rod in his right hand and his left hand shading his eyes (just like the legendary Monkey God) he knew the GTs were coming.

The lull lasted into evening when Tang suddenly tied onto a trevally during one of his random casting. That was the signal for all of us to move into action station. My skipping popper suddenly disappeared from the surface of the sea and I was into my first fight of this trip. Moving along the boat, I slowly fell back to the stern. Line was slowly but steadily been peeled from my spool. There was nothing much I could do, except to use the railing as a leverage to prevent myself from been pulled overboard (The boat was rocking and rolling quite badly, mind you).

Feathering the spool ever so lightly, just to make that thug work harder, I could feel the heat from the overworked drag radiating onto the spool. Suddenly, every angler’s nightmare happened. My line went slack and I nearly fell backward. Reeling back my popper, I noticed that the center treble was missing. Well, who was I to be blame except myself for been too lazy and careless. While changing the hooks and split rings to stronger ones, I was aware that the split ring had developed a gap, which I was too lazy to close. The hook must have worked its way out through that gap. I paid the price for underestimating the power of the GTs.

That night everything was quiet. Tan and his best friend Thang were jigging for the GTs that we knew were around at the bottom. All methods and jigs were tried with no result. In the end they had to give up too.

Our taikong and Tan holding up some of their catches.

Even before the sky began to lighten in the morning, we were already scanning the water surface with rods in our hands. Everyone did their duties by taking turns to cast, hoping to trigger the fish to strike. When there was no result from all our efforts even the most persistent guy would rethink. In the end, the motto “if you do not succeed try again” got to make way for “if you do not succeed just give up lah”.

On the way back, everyone were teasing me about been luckless again. I hope this bad luck streak does not follow me around too often or else the will attach the initial “P. K.” (Pak Kor) to my name.

REVISITING KOTA TAMPAN – Part Two (Toman Fishing)

2016-08-08T01:17:00.000-07:00

This article was published in the January 2004 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

After our previous two trips to hunt for the sebaraus of Kota Tampan, we felt we needed a change. Too much of a good thing is dull, you know. Variety is the spice of life, so they said (Only true for fishing, or else I will get a lot of protests from readers’ irate spouses). As a result we decided to target the tomans this time.

Reaching Lenggong at 6.15a.m., James and I headed for Sen Huat Restaurant. You could get some of the best pows and tim sum (sorry, they are non-halal) around here. The proprietor named his large pows, Yip Chee Mei (a very well-endowed Hong Kong actress) pows. Anyone with good imagination should be able to visualize their sizes. With that type of pows, you got no choice but to feel bloated and burp regularly after breakfast.

Not very big, but there was a good population here.

With stomachs filled, we headed back to Raban and unloaded our boat. My outboard was purring slowly as we ‘tiptoed’ out to the Perak River. Why the caution, you may ask. Well, the whole stretch of the mist covered lake was criss-crossed with drift nets. One wrong move and you not only had a tough time untangling the propeller from the net, but you had also to pacify some parang-wielding fishermen too.

This chap hit James' Tail Dancer in the Perak River itself.

When the entrance of the first pond came into sight, I eased up on the throttle. Lo, behold! A ball of toman fries was rippling on the surface of the water. James’ Tail Dancer was grabbed even before I could kill the engine and position the boat. The fight was fast and furious with runs and dashes to the left and right. Anyway, the battle was quickly ended with the release of the fish to join its brood.

Inching our way into the first pond, we headed for some drowned trees. Casting to a submerged log, I started my retrieve. Suddenly a huge toman shot out from nowhere to go for my lure. Too late, for I had lifted my lure out of the water. Before I could react, that confused fish dashed off with a flick of its tail. Well, that was our only excitement here after almost an hour of casting.

The second that we headed for was very misleading. After emerging from the passageway, you would be very disappointed with the size. Anyway, we explored this small pond for signs of the giant snakeheads.

Toby also worked well here. This toman grabbed one and earned a sore mouth.

Suddenly, James’s lure was stopped in its track. Poor James, that monster was a well-trained street fighter. He lost more than RM20 when that brute headed for some submerged branches. Well, I do admit that I was a bit of a sadist. I did derive some pleasure from ribbing him on his lost lure. “Aiyoo, your heart must be aching badly loh. If you were to give me a treat with that money, at least I would say thank you,” I teased.

The fact that 'Tom Thumb' went or my lure proved that they were ferocious.

I was going to regret it later for I ended up losing more than a hundred ringgit of lures (who said that fishing is cheap?).

At the far end of the pond, there were quite a number of dead tree trunks jutting out of the water. Once we had maneuvered pass this mess, the expense of water in front was as big as two football fields. As soon as we had quieted down, the freshwater tigers began to rise.

Another fell for the Tail Dancer. This lure proved to be very effective.

The moment we spotted a rise, two lures immediately shot out pass the concentric rings. The attack would come the moment the lure wriggled pass the approximate position of the rise. There was no exploding jerk, only a sudden stopping of the lure when the toman struck.

Well, I thought someone said that ‘fishing is just a jerk at one end of the line waiting for a jerk on the other end’. The action that followed could only be described as fantastic. Though I lost quite a number of lures, I still enjoyed myself tremendously.

The condom man.

Somehow the Almighty always has his own plans. The sky darkened and the wind began to pick up, forcing us to pack. My chubby fishing partner suddenly announced that it was time to put on his condom.

Puzzled, I watched him slowly unfurled a small pack of thin plastic. He got me quite worried then for I thought that he had a slight short circuit in his head. When he finally had finished putting that piece of plastic on, only then did I realize it was a piece of disposable raincoat.

For our next trip we went to the pond that I first fished a few decades ago. This was the pond that we had to trek inland risking being shot, as there were quite a number of army patrols going around the jungles here.

This was the pond we had to trek and risk been shot to reach in the past. But now a road has been built just passing a stone throw from it.

Instead of trekking, James and I could drive across a bridge reaching almost to the edge of the pond now. Well, development has its pros and cons. My first cast at this pond resulted in a small toman. This small fellow grabbed my Abu Toby. The Toby accounted for another toman of respectable size, which was released.

The locals called this bridge 'San Sin Kiew' or 'Fairies' Bridge'. We did not fish here as it was full of criss-crossing branches. I took James on a tour here to show him where I caught my first kuang (toman bunga) decades ago. Just showing of.

Most of the tomans here were more of the below average size. Small though they rare but they made up with their numbers. There were quite a number of fry balls here too. Most of the time our lure would be grabbed the moment they were retrieved pass the fries.

There were a few groups of fries that we termed as ‘anak yatim piatu’ (orphans). No matter how many times we cast or how many lures we changed, there was no hit from their parents. Those that were caught were let off as near to the fries as possible. The fights were kept short so as not to stress the fish too much.

The pond that we fished in was still very well populated with fish. If you ask me whether the professionals have moved in, I think the number of times we had to recover our lures from discarded nets provided the answer. The number of sunken trees and weeds did offer some protection to the fish and helped to maintain a reasonable population. Let us hope the situation remains.

KOTA TAMPAN REVISITED - Part one (Sebarau Fishing)

2016-07-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

This article was published in the December 2003 issue of Rod and Line Fishing magazine.

Mention Kota Tampan to most folks and they will blink and give you the blank look. You cannot blame them as this small village, situated near the Perak River, just a few kilometers from Lenggong is considered a sleepy hollow.

This is the house that Datuk Sri Ong Kah Ting grew up.

Lately Kota Tampa seemed to be getting into the limelight quite often. A team of archeologists had uncovered a prehistoric settlement, and as a result a museum had been built nearby to keep all the artifacts. The other reason for its claim to fame is one of its illustrious sons, Datuk Seri Ong Kah Ting, was elected the president of the MCA. Surely this sleepy hollow will be expecting a lot of changes soon.

More than two decades ago, a few of my friends and I were exploring and fishing the Perak River area. The flow of the river been slowed down by the Chenderoh Dam further downstream was very conducive for fishing. The occasional big floods that occurred created quite a number of ponds (these were before the building of the few dams further up river, which alleviated the flooding problem). The flood water trapped in the valleys by the surrounding hills, and with it all kinds of fishes too. These were the ponds that we were fishing long ago.

This one grabbed James' Tail Dancer.

To access these ponds, we had to hire a sampan, row across to the other side of the river and then trekked to the ponds. I still remember on one of the trips where as always, I was given the task of rowing the sampan.

All my friends were teasing and telling me to row harder or else they would not provide me my meals. The most vocal of the lot was this guy who was a non-swimmer. He went on and on until I got fed up.

It shot out from under a log to grab the spinner bait.

Using my leg, I dislodged a piece of river clay used to patch up a hole in the sampan bottom (Kota Tampan sampans were famous for having holes on their bottoms those days. To prevent water from swarming in all one got to do was to dig up some river clay to patch up the holes).

Water was rushing in through the knuckle size hole fast. I stopped rowing (or rather downed tool to be more exact). You should see the panic look on his face. Even though he was pleading and begging, I stood firm. Only when he had meekly agreed to patch up the hole with his shirt, that I resumed rowing. Well, as they say, ‘revenge is sweet’.

Be very careful of these mengkuang leaves.

Actually we were rather foolhardy to trek into those areas, as army patrols around those areas were rather frequent. Being mistaken for terrorists and accidentally shot could not be ruled out. But when you were young, you always throw caution to the wind.

Goh Tiong Boo (an ex-classmate) and I decided to explore our former hunting ground again just for old time sake. James Wong was roped in to make up the crowd. With my boat, access to these ponds was a lot easier now. Many passages were cut from the river leading to these ponds allowing us to just slowly maneuver our way in. But still we got to be very careful inching in as the cuts from the mengkuang leaves were not unlike being cut by saws. We passed many overhanging branches and vines. I was pulling Goh’s leg about pythons and cobras dropping down from the overhanging jungles above (he is rather squeamish about those reptiles).

This fellow bit more than it could chew. Do you think it can swallow the balsa imitation?

At the first pond we moved very slowly as most part of the pond had water weeds growing just below the surface of the water. Drowned tree trunks were aplenty too. Shallow running lures were used to avoid frequent snagging.. Our luck was not so good here, for quite frequently while casting at one spot, the schooling sebaraus would frustrate us by surfacing at the other end. Maybe the water was too clear for we had many striped gladiators following our lures before veering off near the boat on a few occasions.

The sebaraus here are more colorful than their cousins from other areas.

At the second pond, our luck was better. James’ Tail Dancer was hit after only the second cast. Not too big, but still a good fight on light tackle. After releasing a few ‘tom thumbs’ we decided to move on to the third pond. Here too the small fellows were the more aggressive ones. A few more were caught and released before we decided to call it a day.

On our next trip, only James and I could make it. At one of the ponds, I noticed a ball of kuang fries among some sunken logs. James’ red spinner bait was grabbed the instance it was cranked pass the fries. When it was landed, instead of a kuang, the culprit as a sebarau. It must be eyeing those fries for some time.

My Shad Rap gave this small fellow an aching jaw.

Not to be outdone, my Shad Rap was hit too. Pulling up that sebarau, I was rather dumbfounded why that ‘ikan bilis’went for my Shad Rap. I doubt, it could get that piece of balsa wood pass its throat.

We headed to the next pond when there was no more action here. After we cut the engine, sebaraus rises could be seen intermittently. My Red Head was the first to connect on to a jungle perch, followed closely by James’ Tail Dancer.

I take my hat off to who ever invented this lure retriever.

Between us we caught and released more than twenty sebaraus here. Tried though we did, we never encounter the elusive giant loner that we were always hopping for every fishing trip.

On a good day when everything clicked together here, a bountiful and fruitful harvest can be expected. One thing angler cannot leave home with is a lure retriever. The plentiful remains of drowned trees and bushes made sure that your investment for one is a must.

CATCHING TILAPIA WITH BARE TREBLE

2016-06-27T21:11:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the November 2003 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

Lately I have been spending a lot of time in Taiping on some family errands. Like ants attracted to sugar, we anglers somehow will gravitate to some tackle shops whenever we have some time to kill. The shops that I normally hang around was none other than Syarikat Weng Hwa, which belongs to my friend Chong Peng Kuan.

Being the “thick skin” fellow that I am, I began to ask, beg and threaten for secret fishing spots from the anglers that came to the shop. Maybe he was scared that I would drive away all his customers, Peng Kwan introduced me to Tan. When Tan told me they have been catching tilapias with bare treble hooks, I was not impressed. In fact, I was quite contemptuous of all foul-hooking methods. Sensing my disdain, Tan immediately added their method was above board. All the tilapias were hooked in their mouths! Don’t tell me that they were using lures, I thought to myself.

Immediately my attitude changed from that of disinterest to that of an inquisitive angler. Instead of explaining to me the method of fishing, Tan gave me the direction to the pond where he and his gang normally fish with fantastic results.

This was one of the sheds built over the edge of the pond.

Luckily I was not booked by any traffic police for speeding, for I think I drove quite fast to that pond. Situated near Taman Kaya, this pond was fed by a tiny stream. Following the direction given to me by Tan, I headed to two sheds built over the water edge. Here, a number of anglers were already waiting patiently with rods in their hands. A few of them were seen leaving, struggling under the weight of their catches. I regretted that I did not bring my camera along.

While here, I was made to feel at home by all the friendly anglers. Their comradeship was very infectious. A seat was immediately vacated for me (Actually one must possess some good “jacking” skill). Making myself comfortable, I began to observe those friendly anglers in action.

Their method of fishing, in fact was very innovative. It took advantage of the unique characteristic of the cichlid family….that is their obsessive habit of keeping their nests clean.

A piece of strip lead was attached to the shank of the treble hook to add weight to it.

The tackle used was just rods, reels and lines or telescopic rods and lines with tiny treble hooks attached. The tiny trebles had tiny pieces of strip lead attached to add weight to the hooks. Above the trebles were attached small sliding floats. The distance of the sliding floats to the trebles were adjusted so that the floats would just be floating on the surface of the water when the trebles were resting on the bottom of the pond.

The hooks were lifted up a few centimeters occasionally and then allowed to drop on another spot. This procedure was repeated until the float sank below the surface of the water. They were then allowed to rest there for a few minutes, as the hooks should have dropped into the depressions of the tilapias’ nests.

A piece of colorful cloth was sometimes tied to the hook to make the 'debris' more attractive.

Yes, the tilapias always dig depressions into the sandy bottom of the pond as their nests. They then proceed to clean their nests of any debris so as to impress any prospective mates. This obsessive cleaning habit was fully taken advantage of by the anglers.

If there was a fish guarding the nest, sooner or later it would pick up the hook and deposit it some distance away. The moment the float pooped up to the surface or moves, the angler would strike, thus hooking the tilapia in its mouth. All fish caught this way were lip hooked. Some anglers would decorate their trebles with tiny pieces of colorful cloth to enhance the “piece of debris’, I presume.

Wong proudly displayed his very presentable catches.

Needless to say, my camera was by my side the next time I sojourned to the pond. A few of them were kind enough to pose for me with their catches. I found out too, that the sheds that were built over hanging the water were done the ‘gotong royong’ way.

Not to be outdone, En. Mohd Azlan too held up his trophy.

One peculiar thing was the tilapias were normally caught around noon to 2.00pm. After 3.00pm the catches would taper off. According to the locals, the fish would have moved to the middle or the deeper part of the pond towards evening as the cast net kakis would come in droves after that time.

The water condition too must be right for a good catch. If it is too muddy, the fishing could not see the hook and the ‘debris’. If it is too clear, the fish could see the hook and line clearly and would shy away.

How the float works: a) Float adjusted to just float on the surface when the treble touches the bottom of the pond. b) Float sinks below the surface of the water when treble drops into the depression made by the fish. c) Float moves or floats to the surface when the fish picks up the hook.

Some purists might condemn this method of fishing. In my opinion, it could be considered as legitimate. After all, lure fishing take advantage of the aggressive nature of certain fish to protect their youngs or territories. Some were caught because the lures looked like some familiar food. Thus fooling the fish to pick up the hook is also the same.

To me, as long as it does not involve wild casting and wild jerking with trebles, it is ok with me. Well, I will leave it to the anglers to make their own judgment.

NIGHT POPPING AT TUKUN PERAK

2016-06-15T06:08:00.002-07:00

This article was published in the July 2003 issue of Rod and Line magazine.

Once upon a time, spinning and trolling in Perak were mostly done around Pangkor Island. In fact, trevallies were quite easily caught by just doing spinning around the rocky shores of the island. Trolling past the area where the present naval repair dock is could catch whopper barracudas and queen fish. Yours truly caught quite a few good size barracudas trolling in front of the fishing village of Pangkor too. Due to over harvesting and pollution, we had to move out to Pulau Sembilan to get our thrills.

This giant 26 kg GT caught by Thang on a previous trip was the culprit for giving us the itch.

At Pulau Sembilan, we used mostly Abu and some self-made chrome lures (copies of some Australian lures). Catches were limited to the junior leagues as our tackles were more suitable for catching trevallies of between 2 to 3 kilos in size. Anything more than that meant busted lines and lost lures. We sure were enjoying ourselves back then. All good things must come to an end. Slowly but surely the netters, bombers and bubu layers moved in and our catches began to diminish.

Tales were heard of giant trevallies at Pulau Jarak then, but we could not muster up the courage to go there. Maybe it was because of the professionals’ way of keeping us sport anglers away. Stories of visitors coming to collect money, fishing gears and sometimes kidnapping some poor souls for ransom abound those days.

Thong straining proudly to display his 10kg plus GT.

Many years later when some of my old kakis were catching trevallies at Pulau Jarak, I had lost interest in fishing temporory because I found a more rewarding hobby (making money). When I finally could make the trip there, the catches from popping were limited to the occasional featherweight trevallies.

Recently when Thang invited me to go hunting for GTs at Tukun Perak, I balked at the idea. Being a pensioner financially handicapped and physically out of condition you would feel the same. I guessed that was the biggest mistake of my life for when Thang and Tan came back with photographs and tales of gargantuan GTs, I bent down and asked James to kick as hard as possible, on you know where.

However Thang informed me that another trip was been planned soon. This time I did not wait for an invitation. I just announced that I am going too (being pushy does help sometimes, correction: all the time).

Friday morning saw us at the jetty at “The End Of The World”. (There is this restaurant named “The End Of The World Restaurant”, so this place must be known as The end of the world). Actually it was the jetty at Teluk Bahang, Penang.

The hot sun drenched morning saw the seven of us unloading our gears onto tekong Lim Cheng Sia’s boat. When everything was stowed and the boat prepared for the journey, it was already about noon. I crawled into the cabin to sleep as soon as the boat headed to sea. Being rather excited and impatient, I woke up four times to inquire whether we had reached our destination of not.

At around 6.00pm we finally reached our destination. You guessed it, we immediately started popping. Out flew poppers of all shapes and colors. After a few trips round the island without any strikes we were losing our confidence. Suspicious glances were thrown at Thang and Tan. Our tekong kept encouraging us to carry on.

According to him a group of poppers skipping on the surface of the sea would trigger strikes sooner or later. Talking about experience, I think he was very right, for no sooner has he finished talking my popper was attacked. There was a sudden splash and a plop sound and my popper disappeared. Striking hard to make sure of the hook-up, my rod bent with the strain. Almost immediately it whipped back and I was a little poorer.

Our tekong, Lim Cheng Sia, with his more than presentable GT.

That monster snapped my line just like that. Of course I took the opportunity to brag. Just like the “body count formula” used by the Americans during the Vietnam War, the practice was to add more bodies to everyone found. So my formula in fishing was to add 20kg to the estimated weight of any fish that broke my line or straighten the hook. Well, I guessed they were really mad with me for rubbing it into them.

Thang struggling with his GT. My poor friend was sweating profusely from the exertion. It was real hard work, you know.

Thang was the next to have a hit. He lost and gained line numerous times before that GT was finally subdued. At a little less than 11 kg, it was a real good start. Following Thang’s catch, everyone was landing fish one after another. The fish provided good fun, but not much satisfaction as they were rather small (Tukun Perak standard). When all action died down we settled down to freshen up and to wait for our GT porridge. Remi, the assistant to the tekong really could cook up a concoction of delicious porridge with the minimal ingredients. Of course nothing was left in the pot.

It was not all GTs. Sometimes we do hit the odd amberjacks and big eye trevallies too.

After dinner, our tekong was urging us to do more popping. According to him, the GTs would be attracted to the surface if all of us were more diligent in our popping. You know lah, after a good porridge dinner and with distended stomachs, most of us would rather have our cup of coffee. Those of us with that black hearted streak were actually giggling at someone curled up at the back of the boat chumming for fish with his half-digested meal.

Even these hooks got broken and bent out of shape.

“GT!”GT!” screamed Lim, our tekong immediately, everyone was scrambling all over the place to grab their rods. Those who were out of shaped and normally move like a snail suddenly became very fast and nimble.

In the dark, all we could see was our poppers creating some flashes on the surface of the water. When the fish struck, we could hear the plop sound and the sudden pulling of the GTs. Pandemonium reigned with our shouts and the screaming of the reels piercing through the darkness. Those with fish on would move to the back of the boat and the next guy moved up to the bow.

Our tekong managed to land a reasonable fish of about 11 kg in weight. He was followed by Thang, who after a tough fight managed to bring up a 12 kg plus GT. I was the next to lock on a 5.6 kg fish. Though it gave a good account of itself, I was not happy as I wanted one of at least 20 kg (The magic of thinking big). The action was so thick and fast that everytime I lock on to a fish that did not run like a locomotive, I would pray hard for it to throw the hook (Wasting time lah).There I go bragging again.

Proofs of the power of the GTs' jaws. These poppers belong to the tekong.

This frenzy action lasted until about 10.00pm, before tapering off. By now all of us were worn out from the exhausting encounter with the GTs of Tukun Perak. Over a hot cup of black coffee, we reminisced about the furious action that had just ended. Slowly, one by one, we crawled into the cabin to dream about the hard fights that we went through.

GT! GT! James’ screams were piercing through my mist cover mind. At first I thought I was dreaming. Or it could be him up to his pranks again. When the commotion became louder, I woke up and realized that everyone was scrambling to cast his popper. Doing the same but with clouded sleepy mind, I started to cast. At 4.30 in the morning, mind you! My wife always complains that when it comes to work I need a siren to wake up.

The guy on my left connected and moved to the back. The one to my right also moved to the back. They came and went came and went while I stayed put. Then I noticed Ah Piuh sitting nearby watching the action. “Are you alright now?” I asked. When he nodded, I asked him why he didn’t join in. At his first cast, he was hit by a GT and he went screaming to the back of the boat. How would you feel if you were in my shoes? Finally, because of divine pity maybe, I had my first strike that morning. Two more tough fights later I was nearing exhaustion.

When Thong’s popper was grabbed, we were thinking it was another of the usual size. All of us stopped fishing when his line kept on going out. After gaining some line Thong had to just hang on while the whopper took out more line. Finally he could not take it anymore and tried to stop the spool with his hand. You should be there to see it happened. His 60lbs braided line just snapped like a pistol going off with water droplets from the bursting line looking like gun smoke too, whew!

Our tekong also lost a fish through busted line. At the end of the action, we lost count of the number of lost fish through broken lines, broken poppers and opened hooks. By 6.00am before daylight, all the action died down again.

The rest of the morning we went casting round the island but here was not much action. Maybe it was because we were exhausted from the action and from lack of sleep too. The whole afternoon and evening saw us lazing around and resting to prepare for the fight in the late evening. When evening came we went round the island again. Other than I catching a 2 kilo plus specimen, there was no strike. We finally anchored our boat at one hot spot and cast until sunset. When 9.00pm came we still could not raise any strike, we decided to leave for home as we had ran out of adrenaline.

Looking back, I feel that all the trebles on most of the poppers should be changed to 5X extra strong to prevent heartaches when you connect to a giant!

MITCHELL C.A.P. 304

2016-04-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

This article was published in the April 2003 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

When I first saw this quaint looking fat round spinning reel sitting melancholy on the display shelf, I was immediately attracted to it. From the look of ate reel, I deduced it to be an antique.

Mr. Looi of IGFA sports, Ipoh, was kind enough to loan it to me for further examination. The name printed on the side plate was Mitchell 304.This beautiful reel fitted snugly into my palm. The operation of the reel could be described as functional. Compared to the present modern spinning reel, it seemed a bit lacking in finesse department. But during its heydays, I am sure this reel must be one of the most sought after.

Mitchell, a reel manufacturing outfit from France needs no further introduction. It had a long line of pedigree reels that was much copied in the past. Thus any old reel from this famous company triggered my curious instinct. Removing the side cover, the inside looked sparse compared to the modern reels, but was adequate for the job.


The "O" ring was a good design. It acts as a spring washer and at the same time prevents water from entering through the side plate shaft.

The round body design actually belonged to two French tackle companies called “La Canne a Perche” and “Pecos”. They contracted out to another company named “Carpano & Pons” to mechanically enhance this reel from mid to late 1930s. Leon Carpono and his brother in law founded “Carpano & Pons” around 1927. All reels manufactured then had manual bail pick up as the Hardy-patent for full bail was jealously guarded. When the patent expired in 1954 the reel was then fitted full bail and an optional manual pickup system. Later the name Carpano & Pons Company was changed to Mitchell. When Mitchell Company adopted this reel with round design into their stable it was named Mitchell C.A.P. In 1957 a decision was made to name all their reels with numbers, thus the Mitchell 304 was born.

Mitchell Prehistory – How the never ending Mitchell history began.

A photograph of Charles Pon and Leon Carpano.

Well, it all started not in France but in Haute-Savole (High-Savoy), then part of the former kingdom of Sardinia (now Italy). The small town of Cluses, on the banks of the river Arve, was famous for its highly experienced gear-makers.

The Swiss border and the city of Geneva were just a stone’s throw away. Many of the parts used in “genuine” Swiss watches, were made elsewhere, even in the region which later became a ‘department’ of France.

It was also in another part of the kingdom of Sardinia, in Val-de-Mosso in the province of Navarro, that Louise Carpano was born in 1832. In 1851, he entered the Clockmakers School in Cluses.

At the age of 19, he became very familiar to gearing systems. Gears were used not only in watches, but also in engines of the first factories in these early years of the expanding industrial revolution.

After leaving school, Louis Carpano went to work in France and Switzerland. His first invention dates from 1860 and was an improved milling machine for the carving of gears. In 1860, Savoy was annexed by France, but Louis preferred to keep his Italian nationality. His craftsmanship was soon noticed when he came back to Cluses in 1868.

A.M. Jacottet offered him a partnership, and together they founded a company to produce and sell watch gears, milling machines and watch making tools. At the death of Jacottet, Louis Carpano became the owner. The company prospered and by the end of the 19^th century, in 1892, a hydroelectric power station was installed to provide the power necessary for the engines.

Louis did not have children, but his nephew Constant entered the company in 1896 and was trained by his uncle for six years. Louis retired from business in 1902 after spending more than 40 years in industry and trade. Constant took over and Louis lived in Turin (Italy) until his death in1919.

Constant Carpano had a daughter (married to Charles Pons) and when Constant Carpano died in 1927, the son of Constant, Leon Carpano and his brother in law Charles Pons founded the company “Carpano & Pons”.

Charles Pons was the moving spirit in the company. In the mid–thirties, he created a research and study bureau, and put Maurice Jacquemin in charge of it. Now almost all elements necessary for the birth of a legend were in place.

Carpano & Pons were credited with patenting one of the first electric shaver called “Carpo”, a lady’s cigarette lighter called “Cop” in the shape of a lip-stick, taxi meters, electric power-meters, electric windshield wipers for automobiles, and an open face spinning-reel were designed prior to World War II. The first prototype model of this reel was made in the later part of the 1930s.

First, let’s take a look at some historical background on the origin of Carpano & Pons & C.A.P. reel. During the mid-to-late 1930s ‘La Canne & Piche’ and ‘Pecos’, two French tackle companies , contracted Carpano & Pons to refine their existing reel designs.

During the years that followed, these reels were mechanically enhanced and manufactured by Carpano & Pons for these two companies. Both round-shaped reels were mainly made via sub-contract by Carpano & Pons.

Carpano and Pons now finally had the experience (by making reels for other companies), the skill (by making high-tech gears for decades) and the right man (Maurice Jacquemin) to develop and produce their reel. Jacquemin wasn’t an angler at all: he was an engineer and a very good one too!

Maurice Jacquemin had to cope with many requirements for the design of this reel. Pons, being an engineer himself, interfaces with Maurice on many of the design changes. To avoid line being captured between the underlying windings, turning speed of the rotor had to be different from the speed of the vertical movement of the spool. Therefore, extra gears were installed into an egg-shaped housing. The spool had an instant- release button on top, which allowed easy removal and replacement. A multi-stop anti-reverse device (a knurled button on the side plate) was present on the very first model.

The reel was fitted with a collapsible handle and the wooden handle knob was the same used in the first C.A.P. and Pecos models. The half bail arm-mechanism was the same as the one used on C.A.P. and Pecos models. Jacquemin had to use a half bail-arm. Hardy jealousy kept their patent on the full bail arm until it expired in 1954.

The finish was a very decent satin black on a priming coat. An application for a first patent was deposited on July 28, 1948 and the patent was granted on May 24, 1950 under number 969.584.

In the early 1950s, Mitchell offered manual pick-up for a very limited time (approximately 2 years) on the Model 300.

The true origin of the name “Mitchell” remains mysterious: legend tells it was the Americanized name of the deplored brother (Michel) of Charles Pons, along with several other stories.

Another Carpano & Pons had the firm intention to name their reel ‘Michel’, they found out that this name was already used and patented as a part of the name of another great French tackle manufacturer Pezon & Michel. So, they didn’t have a lot of choices: giving the reel an American sound was not only legal but also very commercial. This way they avoided a lot of discussion with their major competitor I France.

The Mitchell 304s part list.

LURE FISHING FOR TOMANS

2016-03-24T21:56:00.001-07:00


This article was published in the June 2003 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

“Aiya, it is very warm and humid today lah!” I complained while unbuttoning my shirt buttons with deliberate slowness. Four pairs of eyes were locked in focus at my chest.

No, no, I do not have a sexy and hairy chest. Neither do I have hormone treatment to enhance my cleavage. The object of all my friends’ attentions was a Rapala Stainless Inox (dehooked) hanging loosely around my neck (no prize for guessing where I got the idea).

This magnificent specimen grabbed my Redhead during one of my previous trips.

What was so special about this Rapala was the number of teeth marks on it. Toman teeth mark of course, what else? The lure was so badly punctured it looked as though my dog had chewed it up. When all of them had examined it, two bottles of my favorite beer magically appeared on our table. (It is our favorite weapon for prying out secret spots).

Well, of course I finished the whole lot before I started talking so that I do not have to share it with them (Just to rub it in, as they would have done the same to me).

I wore this badly punctured Rapala (dehooked of course) around my neck just to make my friends envious.

The secret spot was actually one of our regular hunting grounds. There was nothing spectacular about that place. But that day when Baskaran eased our hired fiberglass boat into the cove, we knew we were going to hit jackpot. Rises could be seen everywhere on the surface of the water. Once in a while, some corners of this vast stretch of water were boiling with juvenile tomans tearing into some baitfish schools.

Flipping my Cobra Jig fitted with a rubber tail to a rise nearby, I immediately had a hook-up when the jig was reeled pass the disturbance on the water. That 3-kg giant snakehead was released with just its pride dented. That was the only time that a jig was taken.

Changing over to a ‘Rapala Deep Running Shad Rap’ I tossed it to another rise nearby. After only a few turns of the handle, my tackle was almost pulled out of my hands. A few fast runs later, another toman was released.

Baskaran was the next to see action. He got a specimen that weighed about 5 kg. Wow, could that brute fight! Baskaran had to dig deep into his reserve to subdue that fish. This type of action was repeated many times. It was either Baskaran or I grunting and fighting the ferocious snakeheads.

By 1.00pm Baskaran had enough of the action. Fighting ferocious tomans in the hot sun was no easy task. From the look on his face I realized that he needed a rest badly.

Dropping him off at a landing with some trees, I eased the boat out again (strike while the iron is hot, as the saying goes). Changing to a Rapala Stainless Inox, I almost immediately tied on another brute. I did not know what got into the toman, as almost every three casts resulted in a hookup. If this was fishing paradise, then I want part of it.

In the end I had no choice but to stop fishing, as I was too exhausted from all the action. Looking at the Rapala, I suddenly got the idea of wearing it around my neck to rib all my other friends. Picking up Baskaran we headed for home happy and satiated.

The following week, James and I were heading out in my newly bought aluminum boat (partly to test my new boat and mostly to get him off my back). Just like a child with a newly acquired toy, I was happily soaking up the qualities of my new love.

Along the way, I was extolling about the qualities of my new boat to James. Taking the chance to brag, I went on and on. Of course I had to shout above the din of my outboard. I even bragged that my boat could plane with him sitting in the front. When I noticed that he was looking up to the sky, I had no choice but to stop (never seen him to being so religious before).

Reaching our destination, we began casting. The result was a total disaster. Even though it was not the fasting month, the fish seemed to have lost their appetite. It was when we decided to move to another spot that was when realized our exit was blocked by a floating mass of weed and water hyacinth the size of a basketball court.

To our horror, we suddenly became aware that our oars were left at home. After discussing, we decided that I should sit at the bow to pull up the weeds to clear a passage for us to row forward with our umbrellas (because I do not have a big waistline to hamper my work). Progress was painfully slow.

After one hour of back breaking work, we were stuck two meters inside the weed patch holding two broken umbrellas.

Baskaran releasing one of his tomans.

With the hot sun beating on us (no umbrellas, remember?) our tempers were worn thin. James was blaming me for not washing the boat with pomelo leaves before using it. Suddenly we heard sound of outboard in the distance. I removed my T shirt and stood on the bow waving like crazy (I wouldn’t have done it if it was Jenny instead of James. Getting trapped in a small boat in the middle of nowhere with a lady is God sent lah). After many attempts, I finally managed to throw my anchor line to the other boat. Attaching our anchor line to his boat, the boatman gunned his outboard. Half an hour of maneuvering and pulling, we did not make much progress. Another boatman saw our predicament and came to our rescue. With two boats pulling at full rev, my boat just skimmed on top of the weeds to open water. Thanking our saviors (a bit poorer in the process) we were busy stowing my cameras and gears as the sky was opening up.

Mong and one of his prizes.

Suddenly that mass of floating vegetation started moving with the wind and our previously blocked passage was open water again. We both looked at each other and up to the sky and asked, “Why?” No wonder all the religions stress on the virtue of being humble and not to brag. He definite dislikes braggarts.

Only Mong and I could make it the next time around. This time we were more adventurous. Many coves, passages and ponds were explored. My main problem was I got lousy memory for recognizing landscapes. Most of the time I couldn’t find my way out of places I first explored. That is why I never take my boat to Temengor. Got nothing left for the GPS after buying the boat.

With Mong as navigator I felt more at ease. We came across a pond, which looked quite deep. When everything quieted down rises began to appear on the surface. Out flew two Rapalas, I struck when I felt a tug. My tiny Morrum’s drag handled the initial rushes with ease. When the rushing stopped, my boat was been pulled steadily around the pone by that fish (heh, heh, another great fisherman’s story on the way by adding just a little pepper, sauce and monosodium glutamate). This type of action was repeated many times. Suddenly the boat rocked wildly. Looking back, I saw Mong struggling with his bent rod. The grimace on his face told the whole story. In the end he still had his photo. After catching and releasing many tomans (we lost count), we called it a day. Mong declared that lure fishing for tomans is still the best way to enjoy the sport.

The 'Shad Rap Deep Runner' also accounted for some fine specimens.

I dislike using any steel leader on my lures for toman fishing. In my opinion catches will be drastically reduced if I use it. My lures are always attached to the mainline by snap and swivel. The snap and swivels I used were mostly those with wide rounded snaps to allow free-swimming action and also the fast changing of lures. An occasional lost lure is still worth it if the numbers of hook-ups are increased many folds. Of course, if you are one of those overworked and underpaid guys like me, then you have to stinge on some other department to replace lures.

SAILFISH & THE OLD MAN.

2016-01-20T05:07:00.000-08:00

This article was published in the April 2003 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

Five fence foil-like bills were slicing through the water surface. “Sails!” gasped Thang. We sprang into action station immediately. Suddenly a sailfish lunged with opened mouth and landed on Thang’s trolled skirt. His Tiagra screamed its protest. Looking at his sweat drenched, reddish puffed up face, I was thinking why he was paying so much money to torture himself like this. Standing up and fighting a sail was already very taxing on him. Add on the wildly rocking boat, it was a wonder how he could keep his cool. Tan immediately fitted the gimbal belt on his good friend and only then could we see some relaxation on his face. The 22kg sail was tagged and released alive without been lifted out of the water.

James helping to tag Tan's sails. It's advisable to tag the fish in the water.

The fierce action followed by many false alarms. Every time we trolled pass the hotspots, outstretched fins or bills of the sails could be seen. Sometimes the jerking of the rod tips would be followed by the reels’ alarms going off for a few seconds. All the false alarms really kept us on our toes.

The result of not using a gimbal belt.

Exactly one hour later, Tan was the next lucky one. His Trinidad jigger TN30 handled the initial run brilliantly. As the boat turned towards the direction of the sail, Tan was cranking like mad to gain line as well as to keep his line taut. When the sail was near the boat, it suddenly sounded. Now Tan was in for some hard work, I thought to myself. True enough, he was heaving and panting as though running a marathon.

The folly of not using glove while holding the bill.

Once the fish went under the other side of the boat with the line scrapping the hull. He had the presence of mind to dip his rod into the sea so as to prevent his line from being cut. Somehow our taikong managed to swing the boat to the left and ease up the tension. Another sail of about 19.5kg was tagged and released to fight another day. As Tan was using 25lb line, the fight was prolonged thus he had to drag the sail through the water a bit longer to revive it.

Our method of trolling to was to pay out four lines with skirts at staggered intervals. This was to prevent lines and lures from tangling with each other. Right in the middle was our bunch of teasers. The teasers were always the first to be examined or attacked by the sails, thus proving the importance of their roles.

As soon as our skirts were let out after the release of the sails, James connected a reasonably big fellow. He never give me a drink for helping to wipe sweat off his forehead (Luckily, he is not a rich Datuk, or else people would think I was bodeking him). Seeing the way he struggled to hold his rod, I helped him to put Thang’s gimbal belt (he forgot to bring his own). To our horror, no matter how I adjusted the belt, it just could not fit James! In the end he had no choice but to jam his rod but into his tummy. Poor James, the blue black mark left on his stomach looked as though he had been kicked by a horse. Needless to say, he was bragging and showing it off to our other friends who did not go on this trip.

Always use glove while holding the bill of bill fish. This one shown here is cheap and gives a good grip.

After many slashing by the sails’ bills, my adrenaline finally gushed out because of the TLD’s alarm sounding off. Ten seconds later, everything went silent .When everyone else was getting fish after fish, and you only got false alarms, it would somehow get to your nerves.

I had my fair share of fishless days to let such bad luck affect me on a normal day. But after James had tagged and released his 29kg sail, he was singing and crooning like crazy (not that he can sing, you know). I knew I would be in for a sleepless night if I did not catch one fast.

The three of them seemed to be hogging all the sails. After Thang had released another of bout 12.5kg, James had his circle hook bent open by another. When the sail chomped down his trolled dead kembong, he free spooled for about ten seconds (but it somehow felt like hours), before pushing his lever to strike. When the line tightened, the sails headed for Timbuktu. It tail-walked for some distance before slamming down onto the water. When it left the water for a second walk, the hook pulled out.

The tag secured on the tag pole with a rubber band for easier handling.

By now, my self-built rod with an image of a sailfish, meticulously woven on with loving care was the butt of all the jokes. “To catch sailfish, you must weave images of garfish or rabbit fish lah,” James gleefully dug at me. Though fuming I could only ‘Yan’ (meaning tolerate with patience, in Cantonese).

I did not know whether it was a good virtue or not, but that word seemed to appear in most training centers in all the martial art flicks. I guessed it should be good, for my ‘Yan’ paid off with a few taps on my rod. It was followed by the sweetest sound that I had been waiting to hear all day….. my reel‘s alarm going off.

This was the type of retractable tape used for measuring the length and girth. Easily obtainable from embroidery shops.

Praying under my breath (I had no choice) I heaved a sigh of relief when my sail leapt out of the water, tail-walked for quite a distance before splashing back into the sea. Out it came again.

This sail never seemed to stop. After all its disco dancing, I finally settled down to a long drawn out pump and wind. You see, this fellow took out quite some line. Surprisingly, I took only a short time to subdue this 33kg sail. At long last I had my name on the tagging report card. From then on until nightfall there were no more hookups, thus we settled down for our meals.

Our taikong woke us up at 5.30am to prepare for our battle with the GTs now. As soon as there was light, we let out four bibbed lures. Though we trolled round Jarak many times, the GTs did not seem to be around. Changing back to skirts and dead baits, we waited with renewed anticipations. Surprisingly Sunday was a boring day. Other than releasing a small sail of 17kg by Tan, there was no more action. By midday, we had no choice but to retrieve our lures and headed for home.

The result on this trip was a lot better than all our previous trips. We were proud that none of the sails were brought up to the deck for photographs.

These were the circle hooks we used. James' hook (lower one) opened up, thus losing the sail

All measurements were done in the water (it took some acrobatic balancing to do that as side of the boat was quite high). This method is highly recommended as the sails should be subjected to as little trauma and stress as possible.

On our way back, our taikong, Pak Intan, wisely summed up the scenario on our Malaysian sport fishing scene.

Most of our local boats are not built for sport-fishing, let alone for catch and release operations for big fish.

“If you fellows want to enjoy fishing for sails, you better do it now before the professionals find a use for the fish. Even the todaks are not spared now as the price is RM4.50 per kilo! Sooner or later, the sailfish will be wiped out unless those entrusted with the power step in to conserve them”.

MAINTAINING LEVER DRAG REEL

2016-01-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

This article was published in the February 2003 issue of Rod and Line Fishing Magazine.

The mainstay of sea fishing reels is the star drag and the lever drag reels. Both these types of reels are been used, with the lever drag reel slowly getting more popular. Whatever reel you used, you still have to take care of it so that it can serve you for a long, long time.

If you are one of the lucky few that ‘God must have spent a little more time on you’ then you can afford to change to a new model with every launch. On the contrary, should you be like me, where the ringgit and I have the same magnetic pole, then you have no choice but to streeeeetch your ringgit to the fullest. In other words, maintain your reel to prolong its life so that you can squeeze the last drop out of it.

As the star drag reel is quite similar to the bait casting reel (covered in the January issue of Rod & Line) I will concentrate on the lever drag here.

All reel bodies are either made from metal or polycarbonate. No matter what material is used they still need to be looked after, cleaned and lubricated so as to give you trouble free service.

Shown here are the low and high gears. To unscrew the hexagonal nut turn it clockwise. Apply grease to the gear teeth only.

THINGS TO HAVE:

1. As any job worth doing is worth doing well, I suggest we should be well prepared for the job at hand. Therefore a little preparation at the beginning can save you a lot of heartaches later.

A tray where you can put all your parts in proper order so that they cannot be misplaced is good to have around.

The gear assembly dismantled. Clean properly and oil all parts. Gear teeth must be grease.

2. Any tools supplied are a must as they are specially made for the job.

3. Solvent (petrol or kerosene) for cleaning the parts should be in sufficient quantity for the job. Do ensure that any naked flame is not near you while working as the solvent is flammable liquid. Working in a well-ventilated area is definitely very sensible.

4. For cleaning out dirt, grease and grime, a good stiff oil painting brush is very suitable.

5. Lubricants in the form of molybdenum oil and grease are very much preferred in this case.

6. Toilet and soft cloth are very absorbent material. Being soft they do not scratch your reel bodies too.

7. Any device like a big safety pin is very useful for keeping all the bearings and washers in their proper sequence.

The right side plate with gears removed. Grease the brass bush and bearing. oil the anti reverse dog. Check for damage to the dog spring.

8. A can of water repellant spray is a must, as it will help to loosen all the grit and grime stuck on the reel.

9. Box sockets, Allen keys and screwdrivers of the correct sizes must be used to prevent damages to your reel parts.

10. Lastly, the schematic drawing of the reel is a must. I have ‘friends’ who came to me for help with all their dismantled reel parts in a box. If you have lost your diagram, try your regular tackle shop dealer. Of course a cup of coffee or a bottle of coke does smoothen the path to a photostat copy. Failing which, I think you have to relearn your ‘jacking’ skill.

The spool and all the assembly parts. Oil all parts and grease all bearings. Make sure the drag washer and the drag pressure plate is free of oil and dust.

DISASSEMBLING THE REEL

All lever drag reels work on almost the same principle. I have chosen TLD30 II as an example here. Most other reels are almost the same with a little difference here and there.

a. Unscrew the pre-programmed dial, lever shaft body and the drag control lever. Clean and grease especially the shaft body for tightening the drag.

b. Remove all the screws and detached the side cover of the reel.

c. Please use a proper size socket and wrench to unscrew the hexagonal nut holding both the drive gears in place. Remember that the screw threads are anticlockwise or left-hand thread. Clean all parts dry and grease.

d. Lift up the pinion gears, clean and grease.

e. Gently use a bent paperclip to lift up the bearing. Check for corrosion by spinning on a pencil. Replace if it is not turning smoothly. Clean with solvent and grease the gears and the bearing.

f. Clean the right side plate, the brass bush and the anti-reverse dog. See that the spring of the dog is in good condition. If not replace by using thin spring wire (lock pin springs or wire leaders will do).

g. Now gently lift up the spool (do not lose the cross pin of the spool shaft). Unscrew the drag cooling shield wit the tool supplied. Wipe the drag washer clean with a piece of tissue paper to remove dirt (do not leave any tiny pieces of tissue behind).

h. Unscrew the click gear on the left side and slowly pull out the main shaft, bearings and spring washers. Arrange them in their proper sequence. Clean, oil and grease them. For the lever drag reels I normally use grease for the bearings as smooth casting is not that important here. The main problem here is they encountered a lot of friction and pressure. Re-assemble all the parts.

i. Oil and grease the click mechanism on the left side plate of the reel.

j. Put a few drops of oil to the handle knob and gear changing mechanism.

k. To reassemble just reverse all the steps you have taken to disassemble the reel.

Oil the handle knob and the gear changing mechanism.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

A. As the lever drag reels are mostly used for sea fishing (bottom and trolling) they faced a lot of very harsh conditions. The saltwater will no doubt encourage electrolysis where it will corrode and fuse different metal parts together. Therefore servicing reel regularly is a must.

B. All gears and bearings must be greased. As the reels are used mostly in hard fighting conditions, a well-lubricated reel will definitely last longer.

C. Any spring. Circlips and small parts must be detached with care as they can easily get lost in some crevices in your house.

D. The drag cooling shield, drag washer and pressure plate must be kept clean from dust, dirt, grit and oil.

E. Spray a layer of water repellant on your reel and wipe dry before every trip.

F. After a trip out to sea, the reel must be rinse with a slow running stream of water. Push the lever to the full position to prevent water from seeping in to do any damage. Wipe off the excess water and spray on the water repellant before storing.

G. After fishing all reels must be detach from the reel seats of the rods. More so if the seat is made from metal as they might fuse together by the saltwater.

H. One week before each trip do take out your reel to check its condition. It will be disaster when you discover that your reel is not working right in the middle of the sea, miles away from nowhere.

I. If possible fishing line must be strip from the spool, soak in fresh water, dry and re-spool onto a clean spool.

J. When tightening the screws, do not over tighten as the threads might be stripped.

Always pull the lever to the "Off" or "Free" position before doing any adjustment to the pre-programmed dial.

REEL MAINTENANCE – BAITCASTING REEL

2015-12-03T22:21:00.001-08:00

This article was published in the January 2003 issue of the Rod and Line fishing magazine.

Contrary to popular beliefs, the bait casting reel in my opinion is more fragile than the spinning reel. No doubt the one piece aluminum body does give one a sense of false confidence.

According to my experience, the main trouble point of the casting reel is the level wind mechanism. The level wind pawl to be more exact.

Unscrew these tow thumbscrews to remove the right side plate.

The level wind pawl is so thin and delicate that should sand and grit be allowed to accumulate it will cause hell in the slot. The main shaft of the reel can be damaged by a sharp fall too. The gap between the spool edge and the reel body is so slight that any bending of the shaft is enough to render the reel useless. Sometimes, the spool and body can be corroded by saltwater if one is not too meticulous in cleaning them after every trip out to sea or brackish water.

Slowly remove the spool, and make sure you do not lose the brake blocks.

Salt water can easily get inside the reel and damage the bearings. The pinion gear, due to neglect and misuse can get worn and will not drive the spool properly. Sometimes, the reel does not engage, as the parts are not lubricated. As the reel can give a lot of casting problem if the centrifugal brakes are damaged, they need to be in pristine condition all the time.

The level wind mechanism and all the parts. Use light oil on these.

The distance achieved in casting depends a lot on the spool shaft bearings. They must be kept well-oiled and in very good condition. Therefore I would like to discuss here some maintenance tips with our readers. Of course there are many great sifus out there who know a lot more, who I beg to share their knowledge with us here in the future.

Do oil this spring and the thumb-bar mechanism.

THINGS TO HAVE

A. The small spanner cum screwdriver supplied together with the reel.

B. A good Phillips and flat screwdriver that fit the screws of the reel to be dismantle.

C. A tray to keep all your parts. A discarded egg tray or those plastic trays for mixing watercolor can be used too.

D. Tissue paper to clean and dry the reel parts. They are very absorbent and cheap.

E. A small stiff painting brush to clean the parts.

F. Thin machine oil. (Mixed 1 part molybdenum disulfide oil with 2 parts sewing machine oil.) Alternatively use Rocket Fuel oil.

G. Some molybdenum disulfide grease.

H. A pair of sharp tweezers to pick up fine parts and to remove springs and cir-clips (e-clips).

I. The schematic diagram of the reel.


The handle taken out. Oil the handle knobs and the star drag knob screw threads.

DISASSEMBLING THE REEL

1. Unscrew the two thumbscrews to remove the right side plate.

2. Gingerly pull out the spool. Do be careful so as not to bend the centrifugal brake pins. In some reels, the brakes can slip out. Do keep them in proper storage.

3. Unscrew the level wind pawl cap and remove the pawl.

4. Remove the spring clip holding the level wind worm gear bar and slowly pull it out. Be careful with the bearings so as not to lose them. Wipe them clean with tissue and put one drop of thin oil in each.

5. Clean the worm gear bar and worm gear with solvent (petrol), dry and oil.

6. Clean the reel frame, oil and grease all moving parts. Pay special attention to the thumb-bar.

7. Reassemble the level wind mechanism into the reel frame.

8. The mechanical brake cap must be removed so as to take out the retaining clip holding the spool shaft. The spool shaft can then be pulled out. Clean and oil. Use only thin oil as the free turning of the shaft contributes to the casting distance.

9. If the brass plate in the mechanical brake cap is worn, flip it over and add a drop of oil to it.

10. Clean the spool and oil (thin oil only) the bearings on both sides of the spool.

11. Turning back to the right plate, removes the handle. Clean and oil.

12. Unscrew the star drag knob. Do keep all the spring washers, spacers and cir-clips in their proper sequence. (Refer to the schematic diagram if you are lost). Remove the two retaining screws and slowly lift up the side cover to expose the inside of the mechanism.

13. Gently lift the drive gear. Clean the drag washers (careful with the sequence) dry and reassemble them. (Some makes do need oil or grease on their washers).

14. Now gingerly clean the center pinion gear, spool freeing mechanism and automatic re-engagement levers. Dry before applying oil and grease.

15. Slowly reassembly all parts, applying oil or grease where necessary. Please do not overdo the lubricating parts the excess oil or grease might smear onto places where they are not supposed to be. Try your best to keep the centrifugal brake blocks and brake plates free from grease or oil.

16. Please do remember that other than the gears, the spool disengaging mechanism and the drag washers and all other moving parts and bearings must be lubricated with thin oil only. Too much viscosity will defeat the free turning of the spool and thus the casting distance.

Clean all the drag washers and gears. This particular reel does not need oil or grease on its drag washers. Some makes require the drag washers to be oiled and greased.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

a. Most of the things to remember are the same as in spinning reel maintenance which I have covered in the November 2002 issue of Rod & Line.

b. For bait-casting reel, I would add that the reel must be oil before every trip so as to keep it in tip top casting condition.

c. Do oil the spool bearings, mechanical brake cap, handle knobs and most important, the level wind. Make sure it is free from sand and grit all the time.

d. Remember to use thin oil (Rocket Fuel oil or molybdenum disulphide and machine oil mixture). On the spool bearings and shaft, as the free turning of the spool is the main reason for achieving the distance casting.

Unscrew these two screws to access the inside mechanism of the reel. Lift up the entire spool freeing mechanism, clean, dry, oil and reassemble.

e. Cover any springs or cir-clips with a finger before trying to pry it out or else you whole family will suddenly get the urge to go shopping every time you decide to clean your reel. (They will get a phobia crawling on all fours helping you to look for missing parts).

f. Do use a bent paper clip to help you remove bearings from the reel body. When putting them back all you got to do is to the bearing over the hole and press firmly with your thumb.

g. Check every bearing by putting a pencil through it before spinning. It should spin effortlessly. Should there be any problem, it should be cleaned and oiled. If the problem persists, the bearing should be replaced.

h. Please bear in mind that this is a total cleaning and oiling job, which I do at least once a year. Other time, do remember to oil the handle knobs, the spool bearings and to clean and oil the level wind pawl before every fishing trip.

These parts free the spool for casting and reengage it to recover lines. Oil all moving parts where there is metal to metal contact. Grease the pinion gear.

UP THE JUNGLE TRAIL FOR HARUANS

2015-11-23T16:40:00.001-08:00

This article was published in the March 2003 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

The place where Mong and Azhar were standing will be a haven for sebaraus during the rainy seasons.

Have you ever had the feeling that you were going to get the whopper of your life while on the way to your fishing ground?

Well that how I felt, while sitting next to Khairul Azhar, skidding and sliding our ways along the logging track. Leading the way were Mong and Lai in another 4 wheel. The way we were heading was thick jungle just opened up for logging (more man-eaters will be on the way). All along the way, we kept seeing tractors pushing down trees and clearing up roads for the ‘san tai wongs’ (timber carrying lorries). Any sane fisho would dream of the catch of his life in this type of situation.

Lai was the one who told us about this spot. His stories of jungle ponds, streams and waterlogged valleys fired us up. Due to our busy schedules we had to squirm in our pants for a few more weeks before we could finally put together a trip. Our plan was to have Lai leading us to the fishing ground before leaving for his logging camp to oversee his logging operations, as he was very busy.

Breakfast in Parit was a hurried affair, after which our convoy of two 4X4 would bump and roll slowly up the jungle track. Being in the logging trade for a long, long time, Lai was literally driving his 4 wheeler like a formula 1 in the jungle. Khairul Azhar and I had a tough time keeping up with him.

This jungle river is worth exploring in the rainy seasons. My spinners were not even nudged here.

Every time, after we had maneuvered round a band, we would lose sight of Lai’s vehicle. Many a times Khairul Azhar had to shift gear stick to L4 before we could extricate ourselves out of the mud holes left by those ‘King of the jungle’. Any fallen trees across our track would be cleared in no time by Lai and his trusty parang.

Once in a while struggling up a slope, a ‘san tai wong’ would come bearing down on us. Quick evasive action by my friend saved us from been pushed off the track down the ravine below. That logging truck was just skidding and sliding as though out of control. I did not know about Khairul Azhar, but I detected some dampness in my underwear after that incident.

Somehow we made it to our destination in one piece. Standing there we realized that we were just at the foot of Menglembu Hill of the Kledang Range. The transmission towers and buildings could be seen clearly bathe in the morning sun. This area could only be reached from Parit.

Surprise was written all over our faces for right here in the middle of the jungle was an old abandoned palong. Scattered all over the place were mined out ponds with sparse vegetation. After warning us to be careful as pug marks had been seen around here, Lai left for his logging camp.

Fanning out in different directions, we went looking for our quarries. I headed in the direction of a jungle stream to try my luck. Lady luck was not with me as my spinner and lures was not even nudged. Azhar had just landed a ‘cheroot’ when I met him again. According to him, he had failed to hookup on a few occasions. As the taps were light and the subsequent patch of bubbles that floated up was small, he deduced that the haruans had yet to develop their full sets of dentures. These incidents were played over and over again.

Feeling frustrated, we headed deeper into the jungle where Lai had told us about a few ponds that were much more promising. These two older looking ponds lifted our spirits. The banks were covered with rises and shrubs. The jungle grew right up to the water edges at the far banks.

Out flew three frogs and back came the same amphibians looking as good as new. We were at a lost as to how ponds in the middle of no-man’s land could be so deprived of fish? Chopping my way through the shrubs, I found a promising spot. When my frog was reeled pass a clump of grass, a dark torpedo shot out and stole the frog right under my nose. If that haruan could understand those #?!+& that I was mumbling under my breath, it would have thought that I lacked proper upbringing. My second legless frog was the downfall of that crafty critter. I nearly yanked its jaws out of its skull. Only 600 gm. and it was such a sly fellow.

We were not the first people here.

The jungle around me was suddenly became conspicuously quiet. My hairs were standing on their ends. Gripping my parang harder, I made a hasty retreat from there. By the time I met up with them, Azhar had caught another haruan of about 500gms. After relating my concern to them, we decided to move to some other ponds where the surrounding was more open. At least we could see what was coming for lunch.

A series of interconnecting ponds were our next hunting ground. There was a jungle stream flowing into one end. Here Mong caught a haruan of almost the same size as Azhar’s. I lost a few more frogs to those hungry creatures. Have to increase my twice weekly session of exercise to sharpen up my reflexes later on, I guessed.

Lai came back to make sure that we did not end up as lunches for some striped monsters. He pointed out to us a place where water was cascading from one pond to another. “Come back during the rainy season and you will catch sebaraus by the dozen,” he said.

According to him, the sebaraus will move upstream against the churning water. “Not big though, but they make up with their numbers,” he explained. We sure pricked up our ears to listen. Accessing this region during the raining seasons has its sets of problems. We have to use off track tires, winches and chains to move up the muddy slopes of those hills and to extricate ourselves in any eventualities. Driving during the wet season will definitely be hardcore 4X4 adventure, testing us and our vehicles to the limit. Before Lai left us again, he made us promise to call him as soon as we emerge from the jungle. We continued to fish for another two hours. Other than the light taps, we did not register any notable catches. By 4.00pm we were already exhausted from the heat and exertion. With open mouths and drooping tongues we crawled our ways under a shady tree to rest. To continue would be pushing our endurances to the limits. In the end it was a unanimous decision to leave. Azhar by now was already a veteran in semi hardcore jungle track driving. In no time we were out onto the comfort of the paved road. While having our meals in Parit, a concerned Lai called inquiring our whereabouts. We embarrassingly apologized for not informing him that we were safe and sound.

Here both my friends were holding up their catches. Not big, but ok lah.

From our inquiries, the Orang Aslis and some locals have known about the ponds for a long, long time (that explained the absence of XXL haruans). As a consolation, we spotted quite a number of marshy patches and waterlogged ravines. Our next trip there will see us chopping our ways down those ravines.

KELLIE’S CASTLE BUJUKS

2015-11-10T06:35:00.002-08:00

This article was published in the December 2002 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

Kellie’s Castle is a well-known tourist attraction near Batu Gajah in Perak. Standing majestically on top of a green lush hill with the Raya River flowing serenely in front, one somehow always feel overwhelmed, just looking at the scene. William Kellie Smith, a Scot, started the process to have it built in 1915, but never completed it as he died suddenly in 1926.

Kellie's Castle with the muddy Raya River lowing past. To us the building had lost its mystical charm after it was 'discovered' and cleaned up for tourists.

Many moons ago when the castle had not been ‘discovered’ by the tourist trade people yet, we few young guys were already exploring this place. Back then the building was covered by the jungle. Huge trees grew on top of the roof with roots clinging to the walls all the way to the ground. The quiet shady building with its many dark passages gave credence to our ghost stories related to our not so adventurous friends. Not many people could savor the beautiful sight of this mysterious building as access to it was blocked by the muddy Raya River.

Maniam holding up two of his bujuks. From the sound emanating from the center of the pond, there should be bigger monsters in there.

Crossing the fast flowing river required us to strip right down to our underwear, holding our belongings above our heads (African style) and gingerly picking our ways across the waist deep water. Of course, fictitious crocodiles were added in to make our story more interesting. We used to laugh our heads off at the naivety of some of our friends. When they asked how is it that none of us were attack, we would show them our mud tainted underwear with the label of a reptile. Some of them would kick us playfully when they knew we were pulling their legs.

I just could not resist photographing these pitcher plants. They were endemic to this area.

During those forays to the castle, we also go trekking and fishing at the vast hinterland behind the castle. To access this area, we got to go two kilometer further down the road. Those days the place was pockmarked with ponds. And rubber estates were the usual scene. Most of the ponds were snag free and our usual method for catching bujuks was with spinners and spoons. Boy, those were the days.

This one got hungry in the late evening.

Recently an old friend, Maniam, dropped by. He is one of my long time fishing kakis. I still remember vividly one of our trips, where we had a good laugh. One of Maniam’s friends brought along his young son on one of our toman trips. While tackling up, the small boy called out to me excitedly, “Unker, unker, see, bootfly, bootfly”. Puzzled, I looked in the direction of his pointing finger. The most beautiful Great Mormon (Papilio Memnon Agenor) I had ever seen was perched on a flower, feeding. Suddenly the boy’s father cut in, “Yanna deh, blah, blah, bootfly, bootfly. Blah, blah, betterfly.” (Translated it meant, “What heck! Bootfly, bootfly. It should be pronounced as betterfly.”) The rest of us ran behind trees and bushes to laugh our heads off.

That weekend saw Maniam and me on our trusty cub-chais slowly meandering through the oil palm estates and former mining lands. Reaching our favorite pond, we found that it is now almost totally covered with a type of plants called “shooi koong chew” in Chinese, literally meaning ‘water banana trees.’

These plants had runners as thick as my arms and they crisscrossed all over the place. While surveying the place the unmistakable sound of snakeheads gulping down their preys were heard. Along the banks were clearings cut into the vegetation. Taking advantage of these clearings, we swung out our worm baits and waited. Because the bottom had some weeds growing, the method we used was having the the bait above the weight. Camouflaging ourselves behind some trees, we made ourselves comfortable.

Maniam wading into the pond to cut a clearing for fishing.

My friend was the first to get a bite. The unlucky juvenile bujuk was kept for my daughter who just had her appendicitis removed. Another small haruan ended up with the same fate. That ended our trip to our old haunt. As if to prove to us that giants do live there, Maniam had his 18lb line broken, when he went for his ‘buang suei’(urinate) session. He found his rod snagged on one of the plants on his return minus the fish.

The next week we were more prepared. Our knives were sharpened and lengths of raffia strings were brought along. Clearings were cut into this ‘jungle’ using our knives tied to long branches. Even with long branches, we still had to get into the water once in a while.

My God, you should see those aquatic Draculas gliding silently homing in on us. Just a few minutes in the water were enough to have hordes of these hungry creatures gleefully clinging on to our legs. They never failed to send shivers up my back. Wish we had a stove and wok as I would like to fry the whole lot of them crispy. How that Mark fellow sat in a bathtub full of leeches (20,000 to be exact) in that ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ program is beyond my comprehension.

This was the type of 'jungle' wee had to fish in. These 'shooi koong chew' had runners crisscrossing all over the surface. Underneath, hide many monsters, including bujuks.

Again my friend was the first to have his bait taken. This time we were using floats to keep our worms above the weeds. That beautifully patterned bujuk was landed after some thrashing in the pond. Fishing about five meters away, I saw my float slowly dipped below the surface. Bujuks do not feed like that, I thought to myself. When the culprit was lifted up, it was found to be an eel. That day must be its lucky day, for I dislike eels.

The bujuk that took my bait next must have a guardian angel looking after it. After thrashing and tugging, I lost it to the plants. My friend was luckier as he landed three snakeheads of reasonable sizes.

Our method of fishing was to ground bait out targeted place. Earthworms were chopped up finely and mixed with earth. This mixture was then strewn into the opening cut by us. Every now and then we threw in more mixture. This method had proven to be effective for fishing in such conditions. One thing that bugged me was the many tiny sepats, prits and other small fish that came for lunch. They could be a nuisance and be very irritating at times.One method of overcoming this problem was to use lizard or frog baits. At least we do not have to keep on redbaiting all the time.

This greedy eel got itself into trouble by not keeping its big mouth shut.

Rebaiting had its drawback. First you might get snagged and lose your rig. This was a constant occurrence. Secondly it reduces the time your bait was in the water thus reducing your chances of a hook-up. Thirdly it would make you very short tempered.

With the numerous gulping sound and broken line, we must be very uncommitted not to go back there again. Cutting our way into the pond and climbing up one of the short trees to fish is a very attractive idea. Our main problem was how to keep those bloodsuckers at bay. Most important was how to keep some of the more adventurous one from going up our orifices. Other than using plugs or rubber stoppers, I still could not see how we could solve our problem.

This was one of those aquatic Draculas. They could sense the vibration in the water and home in on you immediately.

The choice of partner in this type of fishing is a very important factor to consider. It is one thing to sit comfortably on the bank to fish. The whole scenario will change when you are been coiled and crushed by one of those big 'Tai Kors’. It will be ‘pocik’ (die) for you if your partner runs away.

REEL MAINTENANCE – SPINNING REEL

2015-11-06T03:02:00.000-08:00

This article was published in the November 2002 issue of Rod And Line fishing magazine.

In my many years of fishing, I have seen all sorts of characters fishing with all types of reels in various condition of neglect. Some would give off a grinding sound when cranked. Others looked as though they were going to fall apart at any moment. It was a wonder how the anglers could keep on using them.

Use a tray to organize the parts to prevent losing them. A discarded egg tray is very handy.

To me a smooth and well-serviced reel is an ecstasy to use. You do not feel exhausted spinning the whole day. The most important thing is when you were locked on to a whopper. You do not have to divide your concentration worrying about whether it will let you down or otherwise.

There were also some “friends” who came complaining that their reels were not working properly. When confronted, they would swear on their ancestors’ graves that they have never opened the reel before. The funny thing was that the reel that they had ‘never opened before’ had parts fitted in all the wrong places. Some even had their shafts, springs or pins bent out of shape. How they chose to buy a reel that was not working properly in the first place is beyond my comprehension. I had also come across reels (costing four figures) so corroded and fused by saltwater that I had to use a plastic mallet to know them apart!

A safety pin is handy for keeping the parts in their proper sequence.

I am not claiming to be an expert in reel maintenance. But when you see many beautiful and expensive reels being ruined by neglect or clumsy dismantling, I feel it is my duty to share whatever little knowledge that I have with our readers. At least we can pass our time fruitfully during off seasons.

Every reel comes with a schematic diagram. Do keep yours, as it can be very useful.

To start off, I would like to choose the spinning reel, as it is the most widely used reel around this region. The number of models of spinning reels in the market is mind-boggling. Some are quite cheap, while others may cost thousands. No matter what price of the reel is they somehow work on almost the same principle with some refinements here and there.

Always remember to keep your reels well lubricated and clean after every trip. Spray a coat of WD40 or any water repellant spray before and after an outing. (Bear in mind though, some water repellants are harmful to some PVC). At least once a year, do strip it down for a total overhaul. If you are using it for saltwater fishing then the strip down should be more frequent.

Before we start to strip our reels we should have some of the things listed below.

Turn the knob anti-clockwise to unscrew. Pull out the spool and remove the drag washers for cleaning and oiling.

THINGS TO HAVE

A: Have a tray ready so that you can keep all the parts in their proper places. The tray will save you a lot of heartaches looking parts that suddenly sprout legs.

B: Please do use proper tools for the job at hand. The screwdriver should fit snugly in the screw slot or else damage will occur and thus lowering the resale value of your reel.

C: Proper solvent should be used to clean the grease and grimes from your reel. I normally use kerosene of petrol. Petrol will dry totally, but will leave a layer of additives on your reel parts, while kerosene must be wipe dry. One way of overcoming this problem is just dip it in spirit after cleaning with kerosene. Never use thinner, as the corrosive nature of thinner will damage the rubber parts, paintworks and plastic in your reel. Be careful when using these solvents as they are very flammable. Use them in the open as the circulation of air is better.

D: A good stiff paint brush is very useful in getting rid of sand, grease and grits from your reel parts. The fine bristles can reach into most crevices.

E: To lubricate spinning reel bearings, I normally use light oil with molybdenum disulfide. As for grease, those with molybdenum disulfide are my preferred ones. This grease is to be used on the shafts, gears and other moving parts that encounter a lot of friction.

F: Have a roll of toilet tissue handy. They are good absorbent of solvent and are soft enough to be used for cleaning the bodywork.

G: A big safety pin or any other device to help keep washers, nuts or bearings in their proper sequence is very helpful to have around.

After removing the ratchet gear and washers , unscrew the hexagonal nut to take out the rotor.


Uncover the bail arm spring to clean and grease. Remember to grease the bail-tripping lever at the bottom.

Unscrew all the screws and detach the side cover of the reel. To remove main shaft, unscrew the small screw "X" holding it to the oscillating slider.

The drive gear, oscillating gear and slider can now be removed.

DISASSEMBLING THE REEL

1. Remove the drag knob and pull out the spool.

2. Slowly take out the cir-clips and then the drag washers from the spools. Soak in solvent, dry thoroughly and apply oil or grease (depending on the make of the reel). Do make sure they are arrange in their proper order before putting them back in.

3. To detach the rotor, first pull out the ratchet gear and washer. Unscrew the hexagonal nut holding the rotor before pulling out the rotor.

4. Open the cover of the bail arm spring. Clean and grease. (Be careful with the spring. Once it springs out you will have a hard time finding it).) Oil all moving parts.

5. Remove the reel handle, clean and oil.

6. Detach side cover plate.

7. Unscrew the screw holding the shaft to the oscillating slider. Detach shaft and the slider. Clean and grease.

8. After the shaft has been removed then only can the drive gear be taken out. Clean the gear, bearings and then apply grease and oil.

9. To access the main shaft bearing and the anti-reverse bearing, unscrew the cover situated on the front of the real body.

10. The anti-reverse roller bearing needs to be clean and grease too.

11. To re-assemble, reverse all the steps taken.

Unscrew the cover to remove the main bearing, anti reverse bearing and the rotor drive shaft.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

a. All moving parts must be oiled or greased to prevent metal to metal contact. This will reduce friction and dissipate heat thus prolonging the life of all parts.

b. All springs, cir-clips and the likes must be treated with care. Once misplace or should they spring out accidentally, a lot of time will be wasted looking for them. Replacement is difficult to procure.

c. All reels come with schematic diagrams in their boxes. Please keep yours, as it will save you a lot of time and heartaches when assembling your reel.

d. Screws must not be over tightened as the threads are very easily stripped.

e. All exposed bearings must be cleaned thoroughly so as to remove sand and grits. They must be totally dry before oiling or else the solvent will thin the oil too much to be of any use.

f. Sealed maintenance free bearings are exactly what the name implies. Please do not clean with solvent as it might seep into the bearing compartment rendering the lubricant useless.

g. To check for the proper working condition of the bearing, put a pencil through it and spin the bearing. The bearing should spin smoothly. Should there be any grating sound then it should be cleaned and oiled properly. In case there is not improvement, the bearing concerned should be replaced.

h. Please bear in mind the grease and oil are there to:

i) Prevent metal to metal contact

ii) Dissipate heat

iii) Prevent rust.

iv) Stop water from coming into contact with metal or washers.

Bail roller bearing. Make sure the roller turns after reassembly.

HARUAN BONANZA

2015-10-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

This article was published in the October 2002 issue of Rod And Line Fishing Magazine.

After a few half-hearted casts at the three sterile looking ponds, I almost gave up. These three ponds looked very quiet. There were no weeds covering the edges of the ponds. Instead of ever expanding concentric rings, the water surface was like a giant mirror. Seeing my dejected look Raju suggested I try one more pond about a hundred meters away.

Ronnie at work. Look at that pond. How can there be no grandfather haruans.

Standing on the edge of this pond, my heart was beating like a racing car engine piston. The edges were covered with over hanging weeds and shaded by some trees in some parts. The water surface was full of floating plants and runners. This, my friend, was the perfect haruan pond.

Being a businessman dealing with fruits, Raju has all the connections regarding orchards and fruit plantations. He first told me about these ponds about a month ago. These ponds were located in a huge neglected durian plantation near Ipoh. Fenced up, neglected plantation ponds translate into haruan Shangri-La.

The gang with the catches.

My first cast was passed, but not the second. Subsequently almost every second cast produced a strike. Seeing a small water inlet, I cast my frog beyond it. After a few turns of the spinning reel handle, my frog was whacked. What followed was haruan fishing beyond my wildest dream. James waiting some twenty meters away could not take it anymore and came bulldozing through the bush. The whole area, covered with tall grass was flattened by him in no time. I had to shift to another place when James budged in and placed his bulk in front of me. All in he landed about fifteen haruans before our supply of twenty frogs was exhausted (reconnaissance trip lah). Raju was beaming from ear to ear on the way back carrying all the haruans we gave him.

That night, James and I sensed a lot of hints and veiled threats coming from Mong and Ronnie. In the end we had no choice as we were threatened with erasing our names from their “friends” list. Furthermore, that night all the delicious food that we had was fully paid for.

Come Sunday, James and I had Ronnie and Mong tagging along. Fanning out to the four sides of the pond, we settled down to fish. The whole surface of the pond was covered with a kind of runners crisscrossing each others. Mong was the first to land a fish. Next was James. Everywhere I looked at least one of my friends was either landing or fighting a haruan.

In haruan fishing, it is not a matter of blind casting all over the place. We must either think like a haruan or “attend the same university together with them” to improve our chances of landing one. The usual places to look for them were the banks (weed covered and undercut) of the ponds. Shaded banks with floating vegetation were also their favorite haunts. Another regular hang-out would be some sunken logs. Water outlet and inlets were normally productive areas too.

Yours truly casting out to the pond. See the floating runners on the surface? They made landing the haruans quite difficult.

Contrary to the usual practice, fishing for haruans here did not require the usual camouflage tactics or the need for us to be quiet. Haruans were so plentiful and hungry here that even if we were to use spoons, we could land plenty of them. The only reason I did not use lure was because of the abundance of weeds. With my pay, I would have to work in three different jobs to cover all the lost lures. We were of the opinion that any new angler who did not know how to fish would catch at least one.

There was this corner of the pond, shaded by an overhanging tree that caught my interest. My deduction was, being shady, that place should at least housed one haruan. Instead of one, I caught four of them. All one got to do was to cast the frog to the weed edge, twitch it slightly and then retrieve.

Ronnie unhooking one of his haruans.

Bang! The frog would be grabbed. Well, landing the haruan was another problem though. The floating runners were always a nuisance. Most of the time, the snakeheads would tangled themselves around these weeds and achieved their freedom. The beauty of this place was after losing one, all you had to do was to keep on casting to the same spot and you would be rewarded again.

As the haruans that we caught looked like being produced from some cookie assembly lines. They were all of the same size and length, plus or minus a few grams. None of them weighed more than 800gms. They could not be from the same set of parents nor being born on the same day. Being 800gm in weight, their parents must be bigger. That was what was going through my mind. Every cast that I made was full of the eternal hope of landing those parents or the whopper grandparents. Somehow images of those XXLs lurking under the weed was always on my mind.

Sauntering over to where Ronnie was busy unhooking his haruan, I inquired about his result. That satisfied grin on his face was his answer. Looking closer I noticed that his eyes were wide and twinkling with indescribable satisfaction.

Our rigs here were the usual haruan rig. All our rigged frogs had their legs cut. If the legs were not cut, then the haruans would get free lunches most of the time. You see when the haruans grabbed the frogs, most of the time they would get the legs. Normally they would run with the frogs dangling out of their mouths. Even though you wait for a wee bit longer, you would still yank the frog out of their mouths. My usual method was to wait for about three seconds from the first tap before I struck. By then the haruan would have taken the whole frogs into their mouths.

On the way out we met some contract workers who were employed to clear the undergrowth to make the plantation more presentable to any prospective buyers. Most of the haruans were given to them so as to pave the way for our next trip here (the Malaysian colloquial term is ‘jacking’). We got the shock of our lives a week later. The whole pond was drained. Well, the typical Malaysian selfish character of “One day’s curry” was at work again. Instead of getting a steady supply of haruans, they cleared the whole lot!

Now you know why some anglers guard their secret spots like Ali Baba’s treasure. Most of us acquired this habit by being victims of circumstances.

KALUI FIGHTING AT TANJUNG TUALANG

2015-09-28T00:49:00.002-07:00

(This article was published in the September 2002 issue of Rod and Line Fishing magazine.)

All unarmed martial arts can be roughly divided into two categories. One is the hard style while the other is the soft style. The former is characterized by its firm stances combined with sudden attacks of speed and power. The soft style is poetry in motion. The moves of the soft style are smooth and easy flowing. It makes use of the opponents’ strength to its own advantages.

Why am I talking about martial arts in a fishing magazine? Well, if the fighting styles of our fresh water game fishes can be classified, then I think this method of explanation is the most appropriate. The tomans, sebaraus, kelahs and their likes should fit the hard style fighters to the dot. Their powerful leaps, fast rushes and snagging tactics make sure of that. The main exponent of the soft style aquatic world is none other than our giant gouramis.

Being flat bodied, it really uses it greater surface area to great advantage. Fighting a big kalui is like having a bout with a Tai Chi master. It will l glide from left at right, resisting your hard pumps. When you least expected it, the kalui will move with lightning speed to cut you off against some underwater snags (that is if its fine teeth do not cut you off first). A contest with a big kalui is always a bruising affair, testing your stamina to the limits.

My cousin, Lai, holding up his 2.6kg kalui. This gouramy relished chicken liver.

This was the explanation I used to answer my US based cousin’s inquires. Being a karate exponent (my cousin) I guessed this was the best way to let him know the fighting qualities of our fresh game fishes. Through our e-mails, we had being arguing about the superior fighting qualities of our tomans compared to the muskellunges. Of course being a patriotic Malaysian, I am pro toman. You cannot blame me if I added some brick-breaking and jumping-over-the- roof techniques to the toman’s arsenals. As a result I was under tremendous pressure when he came back for his annual holidays, full of misguided expectations.

The type of weed patches where we fished for kaluis. If you could stay quiet and still, you might be lucky enough to see one or two kaluis propelling themselves almost totally our of the water to grab the water hyacinth flowers.

My heart sank further when we reached my usual fishing spot near Tanjung Tualang. Due to the dry spell, the water level was very low. Being one who was good at cooking up excuses, I conveniently blame the low water level to an act of God (good excuse if we were not to catch any tomans). Luckily for me my cousin, Lai Moon Lam, and his brother-in-law, Dr Chin Sou Fei, caught three tomans of about 2kg between them. My cousin finally ended our arguments by announcing that the tomans equals the northern pikes in fighting qualities, but loses out to the muskies. I kept quiet, as I have not met those fish in unarmed combats before ($$$$).

What surprised us most, during this trip, was a 2.6kg kalui which took my cousin’s liver bait (meant for tomans) and fought him aggressively. After having his trophy photograph taken, he gasped. Wah! Can fight lah. I guess that must have triggered my itch for kalui fishing for I just couldn’t wait for the next Sunday.

Baskaran with our two kaluis.

Baskaran and I were cruising out to the pond even before the sun was up, come Sunday. Easing our boat slowly along the mist-covered, we were wary of hitting underwater structures. The whole scene looked as though taken out of some Dracula films. Reaching our designated spot, we rammed our boat up onto some floating weeds. From then on it was a matter of keeping as quiet as possible. Everything was done in slow motion so as not to spook the ever-wary kaluis. If you could keep perfectly still and quiet, the kaluis could sometime be seen to propel themselves out of the water to grab at some insects or the purple flowers of the water hyacinth.

These were the buah aras that we used. they can be eaten. One of my colleagues from Sarawak told me that they eat it as ulam (salad).

Our baits consisted of the evergreen crickets and buah aras. Casting to the far side of the water hyacinth patch, we waited. After almost half an hour of patient waiting, my float suddenly bobbed and went under. Reeling in the slacks, I struck and was rewarded with a bulldozer. That brute went under the weeds and just kept taking line. All I could do was to push my rod tip under water and hoped for the best. Suddenly my line went slack and I reeled back my cut 15lb mono trace. Those tiny teeth sure did their job well.

One of my kaluis. those brakets you see on my sides were my boat rod holders (patent pending).

One hour of fruitless waiting later, we had no choice but to change to another spot. Here, the result was a lot better. We caught two kaluis each. Not big though, just about 1kg to 2kg in sizes. Anyway, it was still fun feeling the steady pull of the fighting kaluis. As the catch was not that good and our itch was not satisfied, we were already planning for the next trip on our way back.

Netting one of my kaluis.

The next trip saw Keong, Ravi, Baskaran and I heading out in two boats. Keong and I headed to an area where I had seen some kaluis playing around some weeds a week earlier. After securing our boat, I took out my secret weapon- circle hooks. According to my experiences, when buah aras were used as baits, most of the fish caught were lip hooked. But when crickets were used, the hooks would be swallowed deep down. Lip hooking has a lot of advantages. First and foremost, catch and release can be practiced without causing any real problem to the kaluis. Secondly, thinner traces can be used, as the fine teeth of the gouramis cannot reach and cut the monofilament during hard fight. Thicker leaders can be used to overcome this problem, but will reduce the number of bites drastically.

Keong was the first to tangle with a fish. This fish did not fight like a soft stylist. Its fast powerful runs had us puzzled. The mystery was finally solved when a jelawat was finally netted. Yes, they also relished crickets too. When my float shot up and laid flat on the water, I knew a kalui had taken my bait. I just reeled in my line slowly and let the kalui tighten the line (circle hook, remember?). The fish shot to the left and then turned to the right. I felt as though I had a wau bulan at the end of my line.

Keong holding up the jelawat that gobbled his crickets.

Once in a while the reel screamed in protest as the fish took line in powerful surges. In the end I had to cut the trace to release the fish, as the circle was deeply embedded in its gullet. The same thing happened to all the other three kaluis that I caught subsequently. I was really puzzled and distressed. Circle hooks are supposed to pull out of the stomach and lodge at the corner of the fish mouth when it turn and run! Beats me!

Still deep in thought, I was brought back to the present, when my rod started to jerk. A big brute had taken my bait. Big fellow, lah! I gasped to Keong. When it glided the weed edge my heart sank. I could see the two bamboo poles sticking out of the water. True enough, my fish got entangled with the rawai and used it to break loose. The rawais are always a problem to us anglers, but what can we do? The pros have to fill their stomachs too. Conflict of interest, I guessed.

A gust of cold wind snapped us out of our gloom. Looking up, the whole sky was dark with rain cloud swarming everywhere. Keong screamed through his walkie-talkie (he is in the construction business) to Baskaran to flee. Gunning our boat, we skipped over the ponds to find Baskaran and Ravi waiting for us at the rendezvous point. By then it was too late. Strong wind and heavy rain were lashing us from everywhere. As the water level was rather shallow at certain stretches, we were hitting bottom quite often.

My rig for kalui fishing.

Suddenly I notice my outboard was not spurting water through its pump indicator. Cutting out the outboard we had no choice but to drop anchor. In my mind, I was thinking of the money I had to spend for the impeller replacement. Keong was busy bailing to prevent our boat from being filled with water. As visibility was down to a few meters, Baskaran nearly rammed into us. When told about our outboard problem, he suggested that I use a piece of thin wire to unclog the pump indicator. God, was I relieved when I noticed water spurting out again when I cranked my outboard. When we finally reached our landing site, we were like four half-drowned cats.

JIGGING FOR RIVER HARUAN

2015-05-20T03:09:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the August 2002 issue of Rod And Line fishing magazine.

Ah Seng and I had planned to fish for kuangs in some swamps where pythons and king cobras reigned supreme. The first three planned trips were cancelled due to heavy rain, which made that place inaccessible. The fourth one … well the owner of the 4X4 let us stepped on the water melon skin (meaning given the slip).

The latest trip was planned with Ah Wai providing the small lorry to transport our motorbikes to the fringe of the swamp so that we could move around those areas not accessible to big vehicles. Baits were bought and provision stocked when disaster struck. Ah Seng (a mechanic) phoned up on the eve to inform us that his leg was hurt by a falling transmission shaft. He big-heartedly offered to take us to that place and wait in the lorry while we fish. How could we be so heartless to accept? Thus ended our fifth planned trip.

When the situation became desperate, anglers were adaptive. Ah Wai came up with the idea of jigging for haruans at the Lower Perak River area.

The two boats tied together moving as one.

At six in the morning saw our convoy of two car toppers on a car and a lorry heading towards the Kampung Gajah area. Breakfasts of roti canai were gulped down hurriedly before rushing off to our destination. Turning off from the trunk road, we came to the river bank at Kampung Pulau Besar near Teluk Intan, Perak. After loading our boats we suddenly realized our oars were left behind back home. Branches and umbrellas became very useful suddenly. They were improvised to row the boats out to the main river as this area was crisscrossed with nets and rawais. Cares were taken not to antagonize the local professionals, as the reason was obvious. The outboard on my boat started with only two pulls. Ah Wai’s outboard chose to go on strike at the wrong moment.

Richard and Ah Lek showing their catches.

Poor Ah Wai had to remove his shirt as he was sweating from the exertion of pulling on his reluctant outboard. The engine was suspected to have blown a gasket as it had overheated during the last trip (they forgot to check the outlet hole after hitting a sandbank). There was no choice but to tie the two boats together to move as one. With slightly swollen river from the overnight rain, progress was slow as we were using only one outboard.

Not to be outdone. Ah Wai show his haruan too.

Reaching the first patch of weeds growing out of the shallower of the Perak River, we rammed our boats into it. It could be because of the din that we created, as there was not a single bite.

We anglers were fast learners. Moving over to another patch of weeds, we could hear sounds of haruans gulping down some poor creatures. This time we didn’t spook the fish for we were using some bamboo poles found in the weeds to pole the boats around.

The weed is so thick that you cannot even see the boat.

Being the first to pull up a haruan, Ah Wai was having a smug on his face. Not to be outdone, Richard also got one, only a cheroot. Somehow the action died down and it was time to move on. Here at the next patch, Ah Lek got hit by a real big fella. The sound of its strike resonated over to our boat five meters away. Turning around we saw Ah Lek straining on his rod, bent dangerously near to breaking point. As always with this method of fishing, the big fellas almost always get way. This monster (estimated unanimously to be almost 2 kilos) wrapped itself around the weeds and pulled the hook out. Our poor Ah Lek was a figure of dejection. All this while Looi and I on my boat did not even raise a strike. They were beginning to call my boat gingko biloba boat (first started by James Wong). In Cantonese, ‘Pak kor chook’ or gingko biloba porridge means empty handed. Anglers are quite cruel on the whole, you know. They know all the methods of mental tortures.

Looi seen here jigging too.

By noon, the sun was unbearably hot thus forcing us to head for some shade for our food and siesta. We exchange boats when the weather was more forgiving (my boat had the good engine, remember?) This time Ah Wai pulled up a few good specimens followed by Richard and Ah Lek. Yes, yes, yes, Looi and I caught nothing again. Well, at least I had the consolation of people catching fish on my boat thus wiping off the name gingko biloba boat.

We nearly flattened a nest full of eggs nestled among the floating vegetation. After taking some photographs of it we left it undisturbed.

Our method of fishing here was the same as in heavily weeded areas. The frog was flipped out and allowed to drop vertically into the weed. Your hearing must be pretty sharp so as to listen to the tell-tale plop of your bait hitting the water. The rod tip was then flipped from ten to fifteen times before reeling in your frog and the process repeated elsewhere.

Do check the condition of your heart with your doctor first, as sometimes the strike could be heart stopping. I am sure you wouldn’t want to be the laughing stock in heaven, as the guy who was scared to death by a haruan. The method of tying the frog was the usual method, but I normally cut off both hind legs of the frog, failing which a lot of free lunches would be offered to the fish.

It was almost dark when we headed for home with yours truly and Looi still empty-handed. While polling through the weeds, we nearly flattened a nest full of eggs (could be some water fowls’ nest). After taking some photographs of it, we left it undisturbed.

Maybe it could be psychology, but the five river haruans that we had for dinner at Tanjung Tualang tasted better than their pond cousins. The flesh was firmer and tastier. Could be due to the fresh flowing water and the regular exercise.

The lower stretches of the Perak River still holds quite a variety of good size fishes. Of course, with a boat the area you cover will be a lot wider and the chances of being hit by a whopper greater. The important thing is to get to know the locals who know the area like the back of their hands. Of course respecting the local professionals, slowing down when passing them on the river, practicing catch and release will endear us to many of them. After all, to us sport anglers, the thrill is in the stalking, fighting and releasing of our quarries. Take only what is needed so that we don’t contribute to the depletion of the fish population any more than necessary.

THE BRAND CONSCIOUS QUEENS

2015-05-14T22:01:00.001-07:00

This article was published in the July 2002 issue of Rod and Line magazine.

I was introduced to lure casting around Pulau Sembilan in the early seventies. Those days, Kuala Sepetang (Port Weld) was our base where we made forays to the islands, the drop-offs and the old abandoned kelongs.

My sifu then was a friend from Taiping, who had graduated from Australia. After honing his skills and knowledge from down-under, he passed them on to us. Tony Toh introduced us to some lures with very funny names. From him I learned how to make my own “coffins”, “undertakers” and “executioners”.

Yes, these were the names of the lures that he brought back. I still possess a few self-made chrome heads, which we used together with rubber squids skirts to troll with deadly effect. Getting replacement skirts was a hassle as there were none in Ipoh back then. We had to show one to the dealers and beg them to stock some for us.

Leong with his presentable trevally on our previous trip. The forward stance is necessarily on the rocking and swaying boat.

It was during this time that this “story telling Smart Alec” found out that the dolphin fish was not a mammal. You see, when my classmate, Cheah Meng, invited me to fish for dolphin fish with him and Tony, I gave him a mouthful of @#$%. “I only fish for fish and not mammal” was my ignorant reply.

When shown a photo of a dolphin fish or dorado I wanted to bury my head into the sand to hide my embarrassment.

The most handsome boatman (Leong's word) displaying two of his queen fish. James Khoo goes casting around Pulau Sembilan almost everyday. Can you believe that he wears out one spinning reel every month?

Those were the days where I learned to be a sport fisherman too. We targeted mainly trevallies, queen fish, tenggiris, barracudas, tripletails and at the beautiful dorados by trolling or casting lures. But everything must come to an end. Due to work, business and other commitments our group just drifted apart.

Since then I only do casting or trolling whenever I met up with some like-minded guys. With eight or nine fellows on a boat it was almost impossible to get everyone to agree to do lure casting. Of course, there were still some anglers who were keen to cast lures. The occasional trips were enough keep this fisho fighting fit.

Then one day Leong of Silibin Aquarium phoned to inquire whether I would like to join him to cast around Pulau Sembilan. The person who would be taking us there was James Khoo, the most handsome boatman around. Yes, I may be getting on in age, but I still do relish challenging the jumping queen fish and hard fighting trevallies around these islands.

A beaming Thang posing with his catches during one of the quieter moments. Can you see the Abu Koster? It is his main weapon.

When I saw James Khoo I know why Leong called him “the most handsome boatman around”. We sped off in Khoo’s 26ft boat powered by an eighty-five hp engine from somewhere near the Outward Bound School. Reaching Fairway Rock in just twelve minutes we began casting.

Our quarries did not seem to be around so we headed to the other islands. The water current was not that conducive, thus our catch was not very encouraging. The day’s final tallies were a couple of kilo plus queen fish and trevally. By the time we reached the landing point, the sun had long set. During this trip all the fish caught were with Abu Koster Flash.

The frenzy casting and fighting of fish near the Black Rock.

When Thang phoned me about the next trip, I was armed to my nose with lures. Being not that well endowed in the finance department, I had with me scores of imitation Kosters. At RM 2.50 each who wouldn’t buy? After all I had caught some trevallies with them so I was confident. When I tackled up my mates were all laughing and calling me cheapskate. Fuming I retorted “: I will show you”.

After bumping along for twenty minutes we finally reached Pulau Argus. While getting ready to cast, I commented that the todaks seemed to have vanished of late. As soon as we were in range, our lures flew out in unison. Immediately there were strikes and everybody was busy fighting their fish.

When we landed, the todaks thrashed all over the place. Every one of us landed at least three. When we kept pulling up those toothy creatures, James Wong commented, “you and your big mouth.”

“Make sure you eat all the todaks that we caught,” he grumbled again. (Be careful with these creatures as there had been cases of them causing fatal injuries.)

This trevally was one of the first fish to be landed by Thang.

When my lure was suddenly stopped, I realized immediately that this was no Senor Todak. My line kept on going out. That creature swung to the left then to the right. Pumping back some line, I was trying to catch a glimpse of that fish when it shot out again. The next time I brought the fish back, James Wong was shouting, “wah, at least 3 kilo trevally lah.” Being one who was never humble, I took the opportunity to get my revenge. “RM2.50 also can catch fish one lah,” I quipped.

Before I could finish, the fish went under the boat forcing me to dip the rod tip into the water. Desperately, I tried to steer it out from below when I felt a surge and the fish was gone. Reeling back my empty lure, I was a figure of dejection.

From then on, most of the islands that we visited produced the usual todaks and some queen fish. While Thang, the two James and Tan were getting all the action, my lure did not seem to attract any attention except for the occasional todaks. James Wong was teasing me about using cheapos, which even pomelo leaves could not help. Not wanting to admit defeat, I stubbornly blamed it on my poor reel. “Suei lah!” I joked. “Must clean with water soaked with thirty six types of flowers.”

Tan and James Wong each holding up their fish.

James Khoo was almost screaming when we were easing the boat towards a current line. “Talang, talang,” he gasped, pointing to the turbulent surface. The queen fish were attacking some baitfish.

There was pandemonium everywhere. Out shot four Abu Kosters and an imposter. Four rods were bent and groaning with four fish on. Reeling back my empty lure I flicked it out again. By the time they had landed a fish each, I was still casting and mumbling like a mad man.

In similar situations, some tennis players would throw their rackets on the floor. I had heard of a world class badminton player throwing his racket into the crowd. It was a pity that I was not famous and my tackles were not sponsored or else I would have thrown them into the sea.

James Wong just pulled up a queen fish.

Moving over to the Black Rock, we were scouting around when our boatman pointed to some fish jumping in the distance. Making our way over, out shot five lures again. The same scene was replayed. Four rods curved into perfect Cs. Yes, mine was not among them.

Everywhere I looked, either it was Thang fighting talang or James Khoo pulling one into the boat. James Wong’s lure was hit and shot out of the water. When it dropped back, it was grabbed immediately.

Tan’s fish threw the lure when it jumped. When reeling back the empty lure, it was hit again by another talang. All these time my lure was not even nudged by the talangs. I saw a couple of fish following my lure, but they veered off when they neared the boat. Thang was kind enough to offer me his Kosters, which I declined. (Not wanting to admit defeat lah.)

Left: The RM2.50 imitation. Can catch the odd trevally (the short sighted ones) once in a while. Center: A well worn original. Notice that the split ring and the treble had been changed to something stronger. Right: A brand new original Abu Koster Flash. We suspected that the finish on the lure made the difference. The originals have a translucent shine on them.

By the time Thang had registered his twelve hit, I had to swallow my pride and sheepishly asked for one. By now the school had thin out. Most of the fish had left, led by those that threw the hooks, no doubt. With the original I had a hookup but lost it when it jumped.

Boy, I had never seen such acrobatic display before. The action was so thick and furious that I was in two minds whether to fish or to take photographs. There was an occasion when James Wong’s lure was knocked, missed, bumped, missed, bumped again, missed before finally hooking up a fish just one meter from the boat.

Casts after casts were made by me but there was no more queen fish anymore. By now it was already getting dark. I knew the others were dying to go back. Seeing the scowl on my face and my fishing knife nearby, no one dare to suggest it. Reluctantly I had to finally agree to head back. All the way back, I was suffering in silence as the jokes and puns thrown were at my expense. Luckily, the skin on my face was quite thick.

Please recycle: This would be a perfect casting spot, except for the eyesore. Look at the rubbish and debris. This was a common sight around Pulau Sembilan. We anglers can do our parts by at least refraining from adding more rubbish into the sea.

Result spoke louder than words. The cheapo can and do catch the occasional fish, but not as regular as expected. When compared to the original, there was no fight. The Abu Kosters outperformed the imitation hands down. Well, the first thing I did the next day was to stock up on my Abu Kosters. The original of course.

THE RED TAILS OF IPOH

2015-04-19T02:18:00.002-07:00

This article was published in the June 2002 issue of Rod & Line Fishing Magazine.

When I saw the small pond (about the surface area of eight ping-pong tables), my heart sank. At that time I put on a very enthusiastic look so as not to disappoint my friend, Mong. You see it was he who, while biking over some hills, discovered this pond. Tucked away in a secluded valley, and partly obscured from the general view, it looked like a very promising snakehead habitat. His description of the place was so enthusiastic and exciting that images of giant haruans and bujuks kept leaping up in my mind. A trip was arranged in no time and thus saw Mong and me standing near the edge of the pond.

Side view of the Channa gachua. The fins were fringed with red, with greenish hue on other parts, quite similar to the fighting fish.

At first cast, my frog was tapped a few times with no hook-up. The tiny cluster of bubbles that broke the surface of the water betrayed the snakeheads. The funny thing was no matter where we cast, the same old tap, tap was the usual fare. “Cheroots,” I declared and Mong nodded in agreement.

As anglers we were not satisfied without landing and having a look at the culprits. Thus changing to smaller hooks and putting on the smallest frogs, we immediately landed two 10cm long babies. I almost threw mine back in when I was bitten by it. Taking a closer look at this gutsy fellow, I saw the unmistakable red and green fins. “Gachua’” I shouted.

Top view of the Redtail snakehead. The head was a bit rounded and flat.

Mong gave me a confused look. I explained to him that the fish looked like the Channa gachua or the red tailed snakehead recently discovered by the Rod & Line Guinness team.

All in we both managed to catch and released more than ten fish. Immediately upon reaching home. I referred to the April 2000 issue of R & L, and true enough, it was the Channa gachua.

That night, while having our usual coffee session, we let the others into our discovery. The excitement was pervasive and we immediately planned another trip.

James and Poh Yean holding their tiny catches.

When one guy asked how much was the red tail worth in the aquarium shop, all of us gave him the murderous looks. The cold steely stares must have done their job well for he dared not even mention the topic again. Needless to say, he was not among the gang on the next trip.

Siew Mooi with her gachua.

The next Sunday, James, Miss Cheah Poh Yean, Mong, my wife (Siew Mooi) and I were in James’ Ford Splash, rocking skidding, sliding and clawing up the hill. The ride was quite harrowing as we watched with bated breath at James struggling to control the vehicle. Any misjudgment would mean disaster with us at the ravine below. After what seemed like eternity we finally lifted our sweat soaked buttocks off the car seats.

Upon the completion of the unloading of our gears, we slowly picked our way down the slope. Following the path that Mong and I had cut a week earlier. We made slow progress, as the slope was quite steep and slippery. Along the way, I pointed out the tracks made by the wild boars to the ladies. They (the wild boars) somehow always follow the same track. The openings in the bushes made by the boars as they enter and leave were their downfalls. These were the places where hunters set up their ambushes. Someone excitedly suggested that we could catch some piglets if we ground bait that place with oil palm fruits. We then told that someone, that instead of piglets, a frustrated old boar with two sharp tusks could come for dinner too (They cannot buy Viagra in the jungle, you know. Oh, I forgot the Tongkat Ali).

Mong showing off his tiny fish. Behind him was the pond.

This trip we let the ladies do most of the fishing. From the grass-covered edge, my wife pulled out four red tails. They were all taken with worms. Poh Yean caught six of them. Mong and I were using very tiny lures and streamers with no positive result. The tiny jewels were really ferocious. When the worm-laden hook was lowered down the openings in the weeds, there would be a ferocious take and the tiny snakehead would self-hook. When James tried to unhook one of these miniature tigers, he was bitten by it. This chap refused to let go even when pulled gently. There is a Chinese proverb that sounded like this, “Yan sum pat chook , she ton cheong.” Translated into English it means ‘human heart is never satisfied, like the snake trying to swallow the elephant’. That ancient Chines guy who spoke these words must have been bitten by one too.

All in we caught twelve of those rare snakeheads. As that pond was so small and the tiny gachuas were rare, we decided to release five of them into some jungle streams. The rest were gently set free in a marshy swamp. We sure hope our little effort would contribute to the spread and preservation of this fish as that small patch of water that they called home might dry up later.