JARAK ISLAND, PERAK

Jarak Island, Perak – 14 June 2015

The final chapter of our 3 day expedition in Jarak Island. Day 1 was ok, we had a great run in Day 2 and now we look forward for Day 3. After 2 days of fishing, I guess we fully utilize Day 2 fishing time and each and every one of us pushed hard until the final moment before heavy storm hit us around 2AM in the morning.

DAY III

Heavy.. Heavy rain storm during the night kept us cold in the cabin. It was such an intense storm that triggers Ah Ho to re-position the boat twice to stay away from the strong winds. Even if we seek refuge behind the nine islands, to no avail, we just had to suck it up and brace the whole night through. I didn’t get a good night sleep to be honest because the boat was rocking hard and just preparing myself in-case anything happen but luckily the storm eases after 2 hours.

It was already 8.00am when I woke up and the guys started fishing near Pulau Lalang. It was very cold haha and I help myself to get up to temperature with a nice cup of hot coffee and a bowl of hot chicken curry with bread for breakfast. We had at least another 2-3 hours left for fishing before we head back to Bagan Datoh. Ah Ho head out to an island next to Pulau Lalang, our last fishing spot of this trip.

On our way to our last fishing spot! It has been a good ride from Day 1 to Day 2, let’s end today with some good catches!

After 2 days of intense fishing, my body was aching all over the place especially around my arms. Accompanied with damp condition, I think I might just sit down and watch the guys fishing haha. 9 Islands is quite famous for Giant Hard Tail Scads and it can grow up to 2kg each! I had a great outing earlier this year around 9 Islands and hope we can find some good scads for eating. Yusri draw first blood in Day 3 with a nice Baby GT hahaha. This guys just kept scoring one fish after another. That fires up the deck mood and hope to score one as well.

Look boys, Jigging Master scored another GT!

Slow fall jig is a current trend at the moment due to its effectiveness!

Since GT is around, might as well try to catch them haha. It was after my third cast when a feisty little fish decided to take my jig. It was not long when I scored the second GT of the day haha! I decided to show Bob how its done, I cast out my jig as near as possible to the island and let it sink for a while. Once it reaches bottom, jerk it up 1, 2, 3 BANG! Another fish hits it! LOL! Talk about pure LUCK! This time the fight was a bit intense as the fish doesn’t seems to give up easily.

As it happen, Ah Ho decided to re-position the boat for another drift around the same spot! Dammit haha.. I just keep it steady and kept the tension on the line. After the boat stopped I continue the fight but after a few moments later the fish got the upper hand and freed it self from my Decoy Cutlass hook. I guess luck can run out quickly, especially in fishing hehe. That was it, that was my last fish of the day and finally decided to throw in the towel and finish my fishing day.

Chris and Scott scored their final fish of the day, Scott with a nice Queenfish and Chris scored a nice scad. Hyrol had the greatest haul of the day, using a sabiki rig I think he catch more than 10 Hard Tail Scads easily. 2 hours pass by and the tides slowed down.. that means the fish no longer playing near the island. Finally Ah Ho set sail to Bagan Datoh, marked the end of our 3 day expedition!

A baby GT!

Hangover Chris decided to hang around for another fish haha =)

Scott final action!

Scott and his final catch of the trip, Queenfish!

It took another 2 hours to reach Bagan Datoh from Pulau Sembilan. We take that opportunity to hit the shower and packed our stuff. After that I hit the cabin for a nice rest as it takes another 3 hours drive from Bagan Datoh to reach KL. This will go down to one of the best SW trip and the longest SW trip (3D2N). In total, we have captured more 7 different species (GT, Cobia, Golden Snapper, Grouper, Barred Mackerel, Queenfish and Long Fin Trevally).

Too bad we didn’t land any Big Eye Trevally, it is a common catch in Jarak Island but over the last three days they decided not to showed up haha. Over the past 3 days I have been fishing with 7 other great guys, and I think we traded a lot of experience and knowledge across. Last but not least, GT Chaser provided us with the best service possible for anglers. Jarak Island is a great fishing spot in West Malaysia and know we can see there is a lot of Speed Boat and Fishing Boat venturing into Jarak waters.

As usual, as an angler we enjoyed each and every single catch that we are able to land on the boat but it is always good to release some of the species like GT and Cobia. GT Chaser has a very good policy to release every single GT that we land during the last 3 days and out of 30 Cobia landed in Day 2, we only kept 3. It is up to the angler to conserve our fishing fields, and I really, really hope that Jarak will still remain attractive for years to come =).