Fishing for Fun

Travel log Europe

2021-11-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

Zaans Schan, memang indah. ianya merupahan kawasan perindustrian dengan mesin utamanya adalah kincir dan tenaga utamanya adalah angin. Tapi bila permodenan mesin berlaku maka banyaklah kincir ini menjadi bahan tarikan perlancongan. Namun ada juga kincir yg masih berfungsi sebagai kilang.

Sememangnya kita tahu yang belanda mempunyai tanah di bawah aras laut. Jadi kincir merupakan pam air yang uung dalam menukarkan laut atau tasik kepada tanah pertanian.

A foreign student's story

2021-10-31T07:37:00.005-07:00

When I submitted a list of universities to apply to Mr. Bruce Brown, our academic coordinator, he said OMG, come on you can do better than this. I tell you what, I will apply some other schools for you. My selection was limited because my community college result was not that great. My dream to go to University of Washington at Seattle to study Aeronautical Engineering shattered by my poor result. Looking down the list I chose Tri State, Ole Miss, Miss State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma state.

By May 1990, some universities acceptance reached Mr. Brown's office. To my surprise I was accepted to the Iowa State University to study Aerospace Engineering. I push my panic button. I asked Mr. Brown. This cant be right. My major is Aeronautical and not Aerospace Engineering. The old man giggled. Son, some schools just call it differently but it is actually the same field. Don't worry about it and good luck. and next he already called another student.

By mid afternoon Mr. Brown had already put up a list on the notice board. There are more than 150 students graduated in May but none are going to ISU with me. Other Aeronautical students like Sarip goes to Oklahoma. Rafindee and Ambotang to Renslear, Engku to Missouri Rolla, Jasri to Syracuse, Chemical Engineering students mostly go to Kentucky. So here am I hoping for MUCIA program students to fly in the same flight to ISU. It was a worrying and a hearbeating experience for me who had never been out of my country before.

Iowa State Fishing Experience

2021-05-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

After so long, fishing has been the main activity in this beautiful big river of Krubong Malaysia. The river is divided by a water control dam that supply water to a drinking water dam and river outflow. Krubong River is part of Melaka river thatdrains a basin of nearly 500 square miles. Flowing the densely populated state of Melaka , the Krubong sees more human use and development than any other river in Malaysia before it ends its flow in the Straits of Malacca.

The river cleaning initiatives makes it attractive to tourist enjoying the river cruise in melaka town.

My son's first fishing lesson

2020-05-05T07:39:00.002-07:00

It was 1998 and my son was 3 years old when he had his first fishing lesson. He managed to to catch a small tilapia only to be released. It was at an old tin mine near Kuala Lumpur. Now the area developed into a recreation park. Fishing is no longer allowed by the city hall.

My village fish

2020-05-05T07:22:00.002-07:00

Ikan Timah-taimah or Temakang -Kissing Gourami

This fish is very rare to find nowadays. Used to be in abundance new the buffalo holes or water canal.

This fish reminds me of Blue gill fish i used to catch near Story city lake, Iowa. It is located deep in the corn field.

The fishing renjer will scout the area every day checking on fishing licenses at size limit.

Types of fish in my Hometown-Melaka - Iowa State Fishing game

2020-05-03T23:08:00.000-07:00

Before I came to Ames, Iowa to attend ISU, fishing has been my first love. That was why when i was in Ames, I also tried to find fishing places. In Iowa, my fishing was more focus on bluegill, bass, cat fish and carp. and finally that was one fish that I always caught at saylorville lake.

I never caught a pike before. In Malaysia for fresh water, I enjoyed catching the following:

Ikan Betuk- Anabas testudineus Coutesy of Staronline

Some people also call this Puyu. Among elderly this fish is to ward off evils. I used to fish this fish bamboo rods with several lures such as night crawlers, ants egs mixed with flour, vegetable oil and latex (Most used by my villagers). However the best lure for me is Shrimp paste (Belacan as we called it here) mixed with flour. Most of the time we will go to padi field, water canal and river near my house.

Nowadays it is hard to find t in the wild as the wetland transformed into residential. Those days we can fish more than 100 a day. The price is RM5 per 100.

Betok, also popular aquarium pet fish. The older people believes that it can ward off the sleep spell used by thieves to break in just because never sleep.

Some of the best dish are: curry, coconut milk, sambal chlili paste and the most original will be indian cucumber acar with betuk.

Lukah-at krubong

2014-04-25T02:52:00.001-07:00

Lukah is a traditional fish trap that is used by the malay to catch fish mainly in the small stream in the swampy wood. mainly made of bamboo blades that are tied in orderly manner around a wooden/rattan ring. The blades are fixed by using rattan skin. a conical section act as a one way entrance is fixxed at one end to trap fish, eels. The coomon fresh water fish such as lembat, puyu, sepat or haruan are common catches. When I was little, The swampy land near krubong river was the place my late grand pa will bring me to trap. In a day we will take out 10-15 kilos of lembat and belut from the gelam swamp. I will share you more on my exciting traditional fishing later.

The Iowa state university fishing experience

2009-10-17T21:12:00.001-07:00

In Ogden Iowa, there is a very nice lake formed by the glacier. Fishing at this lake had never been a lucky experience for my friends and I. But there is another attraction. The park is beautiful and the water is clean for swimming.

There are a couple of beach volleyball courts and barbecue sets in this park. The photo above showed our volleyball games. Dwen & I Vs Fred & fendi who had been worthy opponents during our stay in ISU in early 90s.

The locals are friendly and most of the time they will join us for a game or two. Eating barbecued corns and chicken in the cold spring after a bit of swimming was one the best way to relax...

Iowa state University fishing experience

2009-10-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

The photo above shows one of the thrilling fishing site in the vicinity of Iowa State, the Boone Dam. This place is most popular for its huge schools of catfish and carps.

Rambo , Roslim & I were lucky that day to bring back few carps. However, because the weather was a little bit cold, none of them caught our baits. Therefore, what Rambo did was brought the line near to the carps and retracted the line quickly. Snagging it was, that gave us half a dozen of big carps home.

Iowa State University Fishing experience

2009-10-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Iowa State University in1990 to study engineering. Not long after Jai, maman, bob, and bro duan and I managed to get a place to stay at 2017 sunset Drive , Ames, our seniors had invited us for a fishing trip.

We were taken to a nice dam in Boone to fish for catfish and carp. The bait we were using were raw corn for carp and night crawler for catfish.

Then something funny happenned. An officer from the state ranger approached bob and asked for fishing license. Barely speaking a word of english , bob handed him his passport. The officer looked so confused that he finally asked us to get a license. We were even more confused because never could we imagine that fishing would require a license like driving.

That day we caught few big catfish and carps. The nice fall weather was hard to tell but certainly one of the unforgettable experience of our life times.

Menjala near krubong river dam

2009-10-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

The next day on 4th hariraya, wai and me went to the river again. Only this time we brought together our jala or the fishing net. The water level is not very deep accept near the water gate.

After a couple of throws, wai started to catch fresh water shrimp and petutu. Later on i catch 2 red tilapia which caught me by surprise because, all this while i had never caught any red, only dark tilapia.

The nylon in my net was koind of old and it disintegrated everytiime i hold it tight in my hand. After almost an hour we caught enough for meal for our entire family.

Wai was funny, everytime the jala was caught between the rock in the river, he will dive and call for the legend's saying" batu belah batu tertangkup". That accelerated my way back as i started to imagine of the crocodiles that used to roam in krubong river.

Krubong Water Dam 3rd Raya 2009

2009-09-27T01:53:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I fished in the dam. My bro acip, had just bought a fish trap made of nylon but he had yet to try it out since he is going to Masai to visit the inlaws.

The water was a bit murky. My 2 sons and 3 other cousins were following in dak wai's Kembara. I swam in the dam and set up the trap using a bamboo pole and a noni's branch. The bait used was bits of belacan shoved in an old sock. Perfect for petutu or udang.

While waiting for wai to menjala, the boys were swimming and diving for big kepah. They caught like 20 kepah. That night they had kepah for dinner. That was the first time.

The next morning, After offering the Suboh prayer, Wai finally arrived for inviting me to take a look at the trap. I learnt something today. I caught nothing except for a few small prawns. The trap had gone upside down due to strong underwater current.

When he came back, dak din told me that the trap should be set perpendicular instead of parallel to the banks. For sure I will try that again when I came back to krubong.