FISH VALLEY, SEMENYIH - 4 MAR 2016

Fish Valley, Semenyih – 4 MAR 2016

Finally, a latest post on Fish Valley. A favorite place of mine where I grew up fishing over the past 6-7 years. My last official trip to Fish Valley Semenyih dated back in 2014. I did visit once in 2015 but didn’t had any luck landing even one but today its time for a quick refresh of technique and bait usage. Andrew just came back from his Japan tour and definitely wants to kill off the fishing itchiness by going out fishing haha. I was free on that day and I just decide to join him just to recap have I still got it at this pond. We started around 3.00pm and the weather is pretty much hot during this part of the year. Words of advise, always hydrate yourself with lots and lots of water to avoid heat stroke.

I get a lot of email asking me what is the best bait for the Catch and Release pond. The most generic bait you can use is the fish pallet that are being sold at the restaurant counter. Soaked it for a while and once it is soft (not mushed) you are ready to go. Most people get the soaking part wrong as finding the perfect balance of water and pallet requires a lot of practice. Other choice of bait is simply use bread, and the presentation is important to guarantee a strike.

Andrew with his first fish of the day, a Java Barb 🙂 Bread on a float rig

How to present the bait? The piece of bread must float on the surface of the water. If it sinks, you hardly gonna catch anything. It has to float. You can use a float to cast it out with ease (Andrews Technique) but I prefer a clean rig, leader directly tied to a hook and use the wait of the piece of bread to cast as further as can. Fish would go after the floating bread, and hookup happens when the carp or barb species would suck the hook right into its mouth. Brilliant! This technique does not happen every single time we cast the bait. Probably at a rate of 1 strike from every 10 cast. My opinion, this is way better than simply cast the bait and wait for the fish to take it.

Size 17 Berkley Kantuki Chinu Hook, direct leader to hook rig, 20lb FLC

The first hour we hardly had any strike but after Andrew and I both caught a Java Barb, things gets more and more interesting. We chum the area with slice of bread and more fish now can be seen surfacing and eat the bread. To get them eat the piece of bread with hook is not easy. They new which bread is hook free and would go for that piece first. Even the piece with the hook, they seems to know how to break the floating bread into small pieces, outsmarting us right under our nose haha.

Fishy that simply gulp the piece will fall for our technique. After a few barb, finally something bigger took my bait. It was a brief fight and Andrew helped me net a Grass Carp. Haven’t seen this fish for a long time. Long silvery body almost similar to the Big Head Carp but slander body. Surprised the small hook still holds together after quite a strong tension. Quick photo, and the fish is safely released back in the water.

It was hot and sunny sky earlier on, but a dark cloud formation passed the valley that overlooks the fishing pond. It will rain soon, I was hoping to land at least one more fish before the rain drops on us. I did get my fish, a huge splash engulfing my bait with just one gulp, and sprints outward to the center of the lake. I had to tighten the drag a little bit as this fish seems to pull 2kg of drag with ease. It was too long since I had my intense battle here at Fish Valley. It could have been a Pacu, after a while the rain starts to pour and I had no choice to continue on to land the fish as fast as I could.

Java Barb, small but fun on light tackle.

Grass Carp, good to see you again 🙂

As the fish were hauled nearer to the bank, finally we get a glimpse of our contender. A rohu! Dark maroon body, biggest I’ve seen in years. Andrew netted the fish and we rushed over underneath the bamboo tree. Surprised that this big size Rohu is still around. Haven’t caught any 2 years back and this will be a special catch indeed. Fat and plumpy, but sad to see the tail has been bitten off by probably one species who are capable of delivering such damage, Pacu. A quick photo and and the fish were sent away again 🙂

Hardly fit the net haha, dark maroon colored Rohu or Indian Carp

Oh Yes, biggest of the day 🙂

Rain quite heavily, but nothing stops us from fishing.

The rain stopped sooner than expected. It rained for 20 minutes and we are back in action. Java Barb seems to love Andrew’s bait haha, one Barb after another. It’s a great evening to be honest, fish still kept on feeding and occasionally narrowly missed our bait. I had one more solid hookup of the day. It didn’t swims fast and stays around the area. I knew it was a Common Carp. Goldish colored fish. Safely landed and released. I’m surprised that there aren’t any Pacu that are interested with our bait. Andrew uses a palm oil seed on his second rod but nothing took it through out the day. Strange. I moved further down the field hoping to target a Pacu. I can see them surfaces but again only manage to land a big Java Barb. That was it for today. Andrew manage to land a Grass Carp right at the end, and that was our last fish of the day. Short but compact outing, felt good to sharpen or recap my fishing experience in Fish Valley. Hopefully we will be back for our second trip 🙂