First Peacock Bass caught on Storm Soft Plastic (minow)

It had been many attempts for me to catch any fresh water fish on live baits which I thought to be the best. However, after reading some interesting articles in MFN (Malaysian Fishing Network) http://www.fishing.net.my, the article of Marlin on soft plastic really caught my attention and I had make an acrobat copy of his article, reading it over and over again, sentence by sentence. It is amazing how these soft plastic mimic the movement of a real bait. Anyway, after trying all the live baits available locally, like crickets, earth worm, chicken liver, etc., nothing, absolutely nothing was caught. Although I have much better results in salt water, I am totally screwed in fresh water fishing. But, not today.

Amelia with peacock bass in a tub

Well, admittedly, this is just a juvenile peacock bass, nevertheless, it is still a significant milestone to me. First fish caught on artificial lure, first peacock bass caught.

Balakong - Ah Wah (JB) Bak Kut Teh

We were on our way home from Sukida Resort, Semenyih when we passed by an exit on the highway that leads to Balakong. It reminded me of the good food in Balakong, typically, Ah Wah Bak Kut Teh that I have not been visiting for months or even a year. Our last experience there was not that impressive, quality of the food was going down the drain although still consider above average comparing to other joints, nevertheless, it lost its appeal, so to speak.

This time around, I decided to give it another try. Checking whether are there any improvements over the past few months, perhaps, they changed a new chef, who knows? To my surprise, after ordering the dishes, it took less than 20 minutes for the first dish to be served. I was still busy attending to Amelia (my eldest daughter) who was playing the ice cube to go with the tea.

Fried kangkong (a kind of vege) was crunchy and the fragrance of balacan (prawn paste) really brings out the taste

Spicy chicken soup served in a claypot with some chinese herbals and the most important ingredient, chili padi (a local petite green chili, extra hot). This is one hell of a soup that will sweat you in no time. Thumbs up!



This is a fried eel dish cooked in kungpo (sizchuan) style (with dried chili, green chili, onion, ginger slices, etc.). This dish is fabulous and you can still taste the springy eel meat minus the bones (ala japanese style), absolutely, not fishy at all.


This is my favourite dish, Ikan Haruan (a kind of fresh water fish of snakehead family) slices served with spring onion, ginger slice, etc. The fish is as fresh as it can be.


All in all, this is a surprising good dinner with the quality of food improved and no wonder to see the restaurant was packed and bak kut teh (a herbal pork soup) was sold out within the first 2 hours of opening. I shall be back again to this restaurant.

Kampung Hailam... Seafood Restaurant

It was Saturday again (27th May 2006), I bought my wife, daughters and in-laws for a site survey trip (see whether any new spots for fishing). And again, I am headed North Port Hailam Village and Tanjong Harapan. I reached Tanjong Harapan at around 4:30pm, bad luck, not much activities going on, besides, the wave was pretty strong. Nothing much to do, we moved on and headed Sea Lion Pay Pond after all of us had some ice cream bought from the hawker on motorcycle.

We reached Sea Lion pond #1 at around 5:15pm, boy, it was crowded. I can see the anglers are just few feets away from each other. Don't feel like be one of them, I drove along the road and headed Pond #2, #3 and #4... There are some hook ups in Pond #4 and my father in-law seems to be excited seeing someone landed a red snapper. However, looking at my watch, it was already 6:00pm and I really don't think that the girls (2 daughters) can hold till 9:00pm (minimal 3 hours per visit); so, without wasting much time, I drove them to the nearby seafood restaurant.

The restaurant has an extended area which is a wooden platform built on the muddy area facing the river right opposite the yacht club. The water was clear and looks very promising. My eldest daughter kept reminding me that this was supposed to be a fishing trip. Wife thought for a while and asked the restaurant operator whether we can fish from the extended platform since it was still early and no customer except us. The restaurant operator agreed since we was the first customer of the day and of course, we ordered a sumptous meal that they won't want to offend a small request from a customer... Wife tried her luck and asked for a prawn (not live, of course) as a bait, I thought to myself, I am sure that they will agree to this since we ordered a "drunken prawn" (a dish where prawns are steamed with chinese rice wine and egg white) and it is just a matter of simple math to deduct one from the total. The lady operator oblighed and brought me one with the shell removed. It was pretty fresh though. I setup the Amelia's toy fishing rod and reel, hook the prawn flesh as bait and off it goes.

It was a matter of minutes (approx. 4-5 minutes) that I noticed the tip of rod started to nod. I took the rod from Amelia and gave it a strike, I can feel the struggle from the other end of the rod but not a very clear signal, I had a second thought, wondering whether I hook up a plastic beg (it was quite polluted and still does). I handed Amelia the rod and show her how to reel in the fish (assuming there is one on the other end). While she reeling hard to retrieve the line, I notice the tip of the rod nodding again, I told her, I am quite sure there is a fish on the other end, seeing her struggle with the reel, I took over and started to reel it in. Wife was standing beside Amelia and started teasing me, she thought that I had hook up some rubbish, I challenged her that if it is a fish on the end, she will have to swallow it alive. She just laughs knowing I am dead serious.... Moments later, I can see a silverish shadow gliding below the wooden structure where we were standing. It is a funny looking fish with 3 hard bones on its fin. We took some pictures and release it back to the water.



At least, I fulfilled my promise to Amelia but I told her, I will be back again for some bigger catch... The trip ended with a sumptous seafood dinner and of course, the main dish was a steamed grouper...

Sea Lion fishing trip with Amelia

Amelia & Amber in recent trip to Lumut, Perak

Amelia got pretty excited (my 3 yrs old daughter) after I brought him to Sea Lion pay pond on May 21st, 2006 (Sunday) evening. The place was packed and together with my wife & Amber (youngest daugther, 1 yr+), it was not an ideal situation. So, I decided to just check out the place and headed home.

The next day (May 22nd, 2006), I was still on leave thus decided to bring Amelia along for a fishing excursion to Sea Lion Pay Pond. We pick up some tidbits from the Caltex petrol station in Kelana Jaya (of course, it's Amelia's favourite stuff) and headed North Port, Klang. It was a 40 minutes ride but definitely not a boring one as Amelia was full of excitement and planning which recipe to cook the soon to be caught fish, sweet and sour? sweet? or just sour....

We reached the place at around 3:20pm, after paying for the entrance fee and bought some live baits (5 belanak and 5 prawns), we headed the left area from the entrance where there are shades. It took me another good 10 minutes to set up the rigs. I am using a Shimano Corsair 300 baicasting reel and a Ofmer medium action rod, a 15lbs line and 30lbs leader with size 2 hook. I was a bit nervous as this is my first fishing trip after stop fishing for decades (well, at least close to 18 years). I put 2 leader to the swivel and hook 1 with live prawn and the other with belanak (a small fish) and off it goes, I cast the line out. Well, true to fact, I had a backlashes on my baitcasting reel. It is very challenging for beginner like me who in the past, only use spincasting reel. I left the live baits roaming freely in the water while I patiently clearing the mess.... finally, after a good 5 minutes, I managed to clear the mess and back in business, I noticed some anglers who sat near me, staring at me differently, they must be thinking what a joker I am, true novice in action. Alas, who cares,... I thought myself. I placed my rod leaning on the hand rail and turned to Amelia. She was busy unpacking her tidbits while sucking the Ribena drink from the aluminium foil pack. I gave her a helping hand but not knowing while I am busy with her, something under the water had quietly take a good bite at my live prawn..... the tip of the rod starting to lean towards the water and Amelia was the first one to notice this, but without any fishing experience, she did not realise that a fish had taken the bait, she just starred at the rod wondering what happened.

Triggered by her looks, I turned back and saw the tip of the rod bending towards the water, and immediately, I sprund into action. I grabbed the rod and give it a strike, I can feel something pulling in the water but not knowing what it was, I waste no time and started to reel in the fish, boy, it was strong, I can see the line sipping through my reel and it's like a rock is hanging on the other end of the line. Suddenly, a splash was noticeable from approximately 5 metres away from where we were. It is a Siakap, it tried to disengaged itself from the hook, I was very nervous and had reel it in too hard and too fast, it gave me at least 3 dances (jump off the water) before finally giving up... it was a good fight, at least for a beginner like me... Amelia, on the hand, was screaming and hopping around in happiness, she had never seen someone caught a fish before, especially not her father who works as a IT Manager in a reputable hotel chain.

I managed to reel the fish close the edge but I have one problem on hand, I wasn't prepared to catch any fish, not even one, nothing, absolutely nothing.... so, in addition to the basic rod & reel, some newspaper, cloth, a knife and Amelia's tidbits, I had nothing to land the fish. While I am looking around for anything handy to do the job, a Malay chap (good samaritan) willing ran over with his net and attempting to loop the fish into his net while I holding on to the rod. After a few tries, he managed to get the fish, he whispered to himself when he saw that the hook only managed to penetrade just the lip of the fish, to me, it was a good hook up although I may run the risk of losing it when it does the dance.

Once the fish landed, I used a plier to remove the hook, it was easy as it did not swallow the entire hook & bait. I grabbed the newspaper that I brought and wrapped up fish, it was quite a reasonable size (it weighted 1.8KG and 28cm in length). I placed the fish into the plastic container that we used to carry all the stuff and continue to fish. Well, I used the same setup for the subsequent attempts, unfortunately, the signals given when a predatory fish approaching had been very misleading, the belanak will attempt to swim away dragging the live prawn with him, the comotion given the signal that I interpreted wrongly as if the predatory fish had given the bite thus I strike at the wrong time. I can't see the bite marks on the bait prawns, it clearly shown that the fish had taken the bite, only if I can wait a little longer....

It was approaching 4:30pm when I ran out of live prawns. By now, I learnt that Siakap likes the way the prawns being served. But, Amelia on the other hand, had her patience running thin, she wanted to go home, looking at the watch and a quick calculation, it is about time to leave in order to pick up her mum from work place. So, we decided to pack and go. It wasn't a very fruitful trip but nevertheless, it is fun, especially, doing it together with my daughter, although she may not like the sport or eventually pick up as a hobby, it is still fun.