TASIK BANDING, PERAK

Finally the time has come to continue our FW exploration in Royal Belum. After months of preparation and recruitment, finally we have 6 anglers wanting to experience FW fishing in one of Malaysia’s best fishing ground. Hiccups is always part of our lives, we thought we are able to explore slightly further up closer to the main stream system. Due to unforseen event, our permit into the Perak State Park were not completed on time. Thus we were left to explore the center and lower part of the Belum – Temenggor Lake.

It was last minute when we recieve the breaking news, and almost had this trip cancelled last minutue. I knew I had to keep everyone interested to continue this journey, thus came the war speech. It was true from my heart that speaks about dream and glory once we conquered the Jungle Perch that roams in the water of Tasik Banding. I guess everyone were moved by my speech, and finally we are on our to begin our Pre-Monsoon fishing in Tasik Banding.

Team of 3 each boat, most of them are first timer and hopefuly we all gonna have fun over the next 2 days

Hot day and the sky is blue 🙂 Perfect day for fishing 🙂

Belum-Temenggor lake is one of the largest lake in Peninsula Malaysia and divided into three different section. Royal Belum is the protected state park that shares its borders with Thailand. Tasik Banding or Banding Lake is situated in between Royal Belum and Temenggor Lake. An area that surrounds Banding Island promises several great fishing spot for us to venture like Teluk Y, Sg Gadong and Sg Kedah. Temenggor lake is situated further south that completes the complex Belum-Temenggor lake system is an unknown territory for me and that awaits us all.

We leave KL around 2am and reach our final step of civilization in a small town of Gerik at 7.00am. We waited for breakfast and after that we drove to the jetty to begin our fishing adventure. It was full of people, several large group of people take a weekend outing in huge boat house which is great for a large group retreat. A quick pickup by my trusted boatman, and we carry our rations and stuffs on-board the exclusive Casuarina in Shark Island. We were lucky as The Casuarina were not schedule to sail across Royal Belum, and we can use it as of Forward operation Base to stage our extensive assault on Jungle Perch Muahahaha

Knowing 2 days all inclusive TV, Room, Shower, Air-Condition and Electricity does put a smile to our team member and hopefully the next 2 days will be an awesome experience for them.

We begin our morning session with haste and set off to Lubuk Y. I was there back in August and it does proves to be a good spot to begin our fishing day. The journey doesn’t take long and soon we started to cast our metal spoon. A week before this trip, I manage to get Tokwan Lure to permit us to run product review for their newest product in the market Tokwan So’Do spoon. Thanks to Hasya Joran, Tuan Anhar and Tokwan for sponsoring us 4 sets of 4g and 7g spoons. It was not long when Riduan landed our first Sebarau of the day hahaha. It was not big but its a start, at least we know the fish is around.

Tangan Gegel Syndrome hahaha

Off we go! Full speed ahead!

The most effective way to entice Sebarau is to use metal spoon or spinner bait. Other than deep diving lure like Rapala TDD9 or other deep cranking lures. Fast retrieve spoons will trigger the killer instinct of the Sebarau and surely they will go for it. Duwe demonstrate a fine presentation of his spoon, hooking 8 small Sebarau which we will release it once we change our fishing spot. While Badrul was on fire too hooking several Sebarau but still all size are less than 20cm.

The fundamental rule when we do Sebarau or Jungle perch fishing is that smaller specimen are the first fish to be caught and the size of the next fish will be bigger and bigger.The idea is not to lose a fish while hooking it, once it is off the hook it will spook the other fish thus it reduce the bite rate significantly! Our trip to Lubuk Y were cut short as Duwe and Badrul both loss a fish thus from fishing frenzy it turns quite within seconds.

Duwe on fire this morning, with 8 to his name! Argh!!.

We continue on to our final location for the morning session. Situated closer to our FOB. We only landed a handful of small Sebarau, but Badrul manage to land one keeper to seal the morning tally of 9 Sebarau. A great start to the day after a tiring drive from Kl to Banding. We head back to our base and prepare the lunch. Deep fried Sebarau is on the menu and some meat curry and sambal, perfect for our lunch treat. Boat 2 came back with only 2 Sebarau, and loss several fish but it is still early and we still have one more session today.

Badrul with another keeper, another fishing spot that is closer to our FOB

Take a dip and cool off the heat!

Storm is coming

It was a blessing to sleep for 2 hours! Duwe knock me out from my dream and it was already evening. We gear up for our final session of the day. Team 2 head up to Teluk Y while my team head down to Sg Gadong. Dark cloud is forming quickly over the hills. Usually for Sebarau fishing, it is ok if its raining, but for snakehead now is not a good season as it usually lay low during monsoon season but they are still around.

Team 2 had a slow start with a total tally of only 2 in the morning. Things are about to change as they rack up more fish than us during the evening. At least all of them had a good taste of Sebarau fast sprints and powerful take on their lure. Zahir lost one massive Sebarau on top water plug while Salihin had his hook straighten hahahah. They probably meet a group of large Sebarau and they can pounce back with its strong jaws. Breaking lures and lines, hard to believe right? but Im not kidding man haha.

Lock and load boys, its time for our second session

Yazid with his first Sebarau! Feelin it bro haha

Sour face turns bright again, great job bro!

While the other group were jumpin and skipping happily, our boat get off to a slow start in evening. We parked our boat on top a wooden structure just like last time, and we feed in our lure and spoon to entice Sebarau out from the underwater structure. Myself and Badrul manage to land 2 keepers in the area before our joys of happiness were covered with heavy rain.

It took a while before the rain ease but our effort beyond that point in Sg Gadong were fruitless. To finish off the day, we head out to Sg Kedah, another small river that flows into the lake. Once we reach the place it was filled with floating logs and the color of the water is like milk tea and it was getting dark soon. Badrul ended our day with another keeper and our total tally of the day is 14. Gold color lure are great for sebarau, and his last fish was on a rapala risto rap gold fish.

We head back soon after that, and cooked our meal for the rest of the crew. Work collectively to prepare a fine meal was a great moment. Zahir sambal orange chicken was unique but tasty haha. We stayed on few hours watch fishing show and this time it shows Sg. Merah, the furthest river point of Royal Belum! The fishing there were insane! Mahseer and large Jungle Perch roam the stream and we would fish them with Spoons. I forsee another extreme trip next year haha.

Enough for to day, I doze off early to keep me fresh for tomorrow. 20 is the magic number for day 1 and hopefully we can catch a bigger specimen tomorrow and some snakehead just to add the variety to our trip 🙂

Tok Wan Lure So’do spoon did all the trick today, this one landed on 7g silver So’do spoon.

Our final fish of the day, stay tuned for day 2 report 🙂