PENGKALAN FERI, TASIK TEMENGGOR

Finally, one of the most anticipated outing of the year has arrive. Me and Chris has been communicating over the past 4-5 months about his plan to try out Belum-Temenggor lake. After months of preparation, finally they have arrived and our longest FW tour has begun. Chris and Leann will be the first couple to try out our Fresh Water adventure and hopefully it will be a great outing for both of them.

We leave Kajang around 5.00pm, bit more later than I planned as the traffic to cross over from Singapore to Malaysia has been a nightmare. The traffic from KL to Pulau Banding, Perak were smooth moving. We manage to stop by for dinner at RTC Perak for some good Nasi Kandar Original Penang haha. It must have been a tiring day for Chris as he drive out from his home at 8.30am and still there is a along way to go. After grabbing few last minutes supplies, we continue our journey and safely arrive at the Jetty around 11.00pm.

Since we missed the boat from our original travel schedule, our boatman suggest to stay at one of his friend boathouse. It was a rustic traditional houseboat, all made out of wood and bamboo. Thankful that we have a place to sleep tonight and begin our fishing tomorrow morning. I looked at the watch and it has passed midnight. Close my eyes and I am gone for about 1-2 hours. The cold weather sleeping outside the boathouse keep me awake for quite some time before the mosquito attack came later haha. Soon I am off again, until a shiny light point directly to my face.

DAY 1 – PENGKALAN FERI, TASIK TEMENGGOR

Pok Jan woke me up and its time to head out for our first day. Excited to guide today and hopefully we can land decent size fishes. Rush for a shower and head back to the car and carry out all our fishing tackle. We even have to skip breakfast and had our breakfast on the boat as we need to head to our first spot as early as possible. It is a pengkalan feri or dock where all the supplies for Tilapia breeding that are positioned further south of Temenggor. Back in Nov 2015, there aren’t any activity in the surrounding area but this time, man it was havoc everywhere.

Sebarau jumps and storms bait fish on the surface, and frenzy all over the place. It pushes away all tiredness on we are all ready for our first fish. Surface lure were our main choice in the area. Chris started with several type of lure, but to no avail. The Sebarau seems to be smart enough to evade us. Always surfaces 20-30 meters from the boat to avoid us sending our killer lures to outsmart them. We were too focus on the top water action and all the sudden, BOOM!! Pok Jan hooked the first fish. It is always cool to watch him set the hook and it must have been a huge Sebarau. Judging from the intensity of the splash, but as soon as it surface, it is a Juvenile Toman or Giant Snake Head.

What a great start to the day, his first cast and scores his first fish. Since it is Sunday, we can see a lot of anglers would fish from the jetty’s bank’s. We have the best chance as we are on boat while hehe. The frenzy continue on and at one point it bothers me. They just hang out at the edge of our lure distance. Pok Jan handed me his battered Ima Skimmer. It has the weight and with my long rod probably it will reach the strike zone.

Officially our first fish of the day, a Juvenile Toman! Fallen for Ima Skimmer!

Pok Jan and his Toman, his first cast and this is his first fish.. what are the odds.. hahaha

We continue on, fishing in the area. We move slightly further up and hoping that we can repeat the same feat. Chris changes to a rattling lure and immediately he scores a small Sebarau. That was the last fish of the day. Haha. Couldn’t tell what has been the cause of the less bit rate. It can be due to the extreme temperature. It is Equinox and temperature are expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius. Freakin hot! Selection of lure and the characteristic plays a vital role too. Its either surface lure or deep diving lures. They hardly take lures that swims 1-3ft underneath the water.

We ventured south and stopped by for short lunch break. U packed some burger patties, nice whole grain wrapped plus some salads to go along with it. We stopped by at one of the water raft of Trapia fish farming. They breed good quality Tilapia and export it to European countries. Portable gas come in handy when we want to cooked for lunch. After a short break, we ventured out again to hunt more Toman and Sebarau.

After 20 years, finally he renewed his catch list 🙂

TRAPIA Fish Farm, one of the biggest in Belum-Temenggor Lake

Yummy lunch 🙂

We continue on fishing for the afternoon session. We travel to several spot but no luck on our end. It was a tough session, mentally as we want to kick off with a good start for our 4 day session. They way I see it, lures are not being send at the right spot which does makes it hard to score a catch. I understand that nobody wants to lose a good lure. It is something for anglers have to live with when it comes to fishing for Sebarau and Toman. Most of the time they would stay near the structure. I’m not talking about 1-2 ft from the structure, I’m talking about inches from the target zone. Lure placement, selection is very important.

We finish off our day without a single bite. We head back to jetty and pickup all our stuff before finally we board the mighty Casuarina for the rest of our 3 days. Shower was the first welcome sign to rejuvenate ourselves from the intense heat. We needed a big dinner to boost our morale for Day 2 and Sebarau Tiga Rasa will be the perfect choice for us. It is their first time to try Sebarau and they loved it. We return back to Casuarina to have a proper sleep after a sleepless first night. Praying that tomorrow will be a better day.

Tirelessly fishing for the whole day, but no luck this time.