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| Heading out towards the River Mouth |
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| The Incompleted Senai-Desaru Highway Bridge in 2008 |
At the far side construction work for the Senai - Desaru Highway was underway, the bridge had help to cut short the traveling time from Johor Bahru to Desaru almost by half. Before it was built we had to travel all the way to Kota Tinggi in order to reach Desaru, now we can just en-route the new Senai - Desaru Highway from Ulu Tiram, which we can cross the Johor River via this bridge.
We decided to begin our activities at the middle of the Johor River, water level here is quite shallow and it is also a reef zone which is home to the Grouper. As soon as the boat was anchored, we dropped our lively prawn deep down to the bottom. Current was not very strong here so we only needed a size four sinker to do the job. Bite was quite slow but we were not in the hurry as this was the first spot of the day.
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| The Reef Zone |
Kok Siang sat at the front side of the boat most of the time and yes, he was also our anchorman. He had been silent for the most part of the day and paying most of his attention on fishing. We were joking about he would definitely win the first trophy of the day and indeed he did, he rang the first bell of the day as he landed a Queenfish. It happened as we were chit-chating at the back, we saw Kok Siang suddenly whacked his rod and began to fight against something in the water.
"Fish on?" The Skipper, Xiao Lee asked
Kok Siang didn't reply, maybe he was too excited. He chose to pay all his focus on the fighting, it was a fierce fight with the fish dragging the fishing line from left to right.
"Sam Poh Kong!" shouted Sao Hui as he saw the silver shadow of the fish swam across the surface.
The Queefish aka Sam Poh Kong aka Talang is famous of giving a aggressive fight when it is hooked, it is a very strong and fast swimmer too.
"Slowly! Patience!" Xiao Lee told Kok Siang
For almost ten minutes we watched with excitement as the Queenie demonstrating it's excellent skill in swimming, dashing forward and backward with occasionally cutting through the surface. This desperate attempt to struggle off from the hook gave Kok Siang some hard time. Kok Siang kept his calm and slowly wearing off it's energy, he eventually landed the first trophy of the day, it was weighed around 800 grams.
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| Still Struggling Aggressively |
"Here it comes!" Sao Hui suddenly stood up, lifting his rod and whacked it hard, Fish on!
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| The Marked Snapper |
Another exciting fish fighting scene when Sao Hui hooked up this Marked Snapper aka Ang Chor Kee, it was a powerful swimmer too and it took Sao Hui some struggle to bring the fish up.
We spent an hour here and caught a numbers of small fishes, I hooked up a baby Sharks and a few small size Groupers. The Captain, Xiao Lee suggested that we moved on to the next spot as the tide was full and the current had slowed down.
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| The Malay Eatery by the River Bank |
We came to this Malay Eatery which is built at the river bank here to have our lunch, many other anglers were here too. The place was so relax and having the lunch break here was convenience for us, our boat was docked just right in front of the Eatery.
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| Towards the Mangrove Zone |
We set off to our second fishing spot after the lunch break, it was the Mangrove Zone that we were going to attack! As we proceeded, Xiao Lee asked if we would like to get some mud crabs at low price from the nearby Indigenous Malay Village on the river. Sau Hui immediately responded and off we went to the village.
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| The Indigenous Malay Village on the river |
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| The Floating House |
There are six wooden floating house here, using some waste materials and some huge plastic containers as float, these wooden house were built in poor manner and I was amazed by the living condition here. The house was tied on to the strongest mangrove tree to prevent it from washed away by the current. The villagers here were all fishermen and livewell was constructed to keep their catch alive. We didn't manage to see many fishes that day, we were told that the catch was bad due to the rain.
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| The Mud Crabs |
These big fat juicy mud crabs were sold at Malaysia Ringgit $16 per kilogram! We bought five kilogram of them for our dinner later.
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| Into the Mangrove Fishing Spot |
The Kong Kong River is around four kilometer in length, it is not a large river and it is not accessible during low tide. The river is surrounded by mangrove forest and it is a fishing paradise that is made famous by the huge Barramundi aka Kim Bak Loh caught here.
We were told by our captain cum fishing guide that loud talking was forbidden here, the Barramundi is very sensitive and they might be scared away if we were too noisy. As the matter of fact, most species do not like noise from the outside world and this is especially true when doing the fishing on a river. That is why some river anglers preferred Electric Trolling Motor, which emitted low noise on moving.
Live prawn was hooked and it was tossed near to the mangrove's root, it is the favorite hide out for the Barramundi. Xiao Lee shown off his skill by doing the live prawn spinning style, he removed the sinker and cast the bait to the spot, when the bait touched the surface he quickly reeled back. Twice we saw the Barramundi attacked the live prawn but too bad it missed the hook.
The stint here was cut short as the Skipper thought that it was a bad omen to miss the fish twice here, he decided to retreat to the river mouth. According to him as the tide was receding there is a spot that we might had a chance to land some biggies, he said that some huge Barramundi might swim out from their nest and ambushed near the river mouth, they were waiting for their food to be flushed out by the out going tide. The water level inside here would be very shallow as well and the boat would get stuck here during the low tide, he added.
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| The Final Moment |
When we reached the spot the current had somehow weaken, none of us had any action until...
"Fish on! Fish on!" Sau Hui suddenly shouted and it happened right after I pressed on the shutter and took that photo.
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| Tiger Grouper |
The spot here was shallow and it didn't take long for Sau Hui to complete the task, in less than five minute this meat tasty Tiger Grouper was landed in the cooler box.
Our lucky star, Sau Hui learned the live prawn spinning skill from Xiao Lee and he hooked up a table size Barramundi. The Man of the Match trying to show off his skill and took his time to slowly retrieving the fish.
"Get the net!" Xiao Lee yelled
As Kok Siang was the nearest to it he grabbed the net and shifted himself nearer to Sau Hui.
"Here it come! Net it! Hurry!" Xiao Lee gave command again
Sau Hui brought his fishing rod high up and slowly guided the Barramundi close to the boat, Kok Siang leaned forward and grabbed the leader line, slowly he lowered the net into the water. As the net was moved closer to the fish Kok Siang let go of the leader, a mistake that was not noticed by our experienced guide Xiao Lee, as he too was focusing on the fishing action. The Barramundi must have felt it when the leader line was loosen, it made a swift turn which caught Kok Siang by surprise and dashed towards the opposite direction from the net. The hook was shrug off from it's mouth and it quickly disappeared in front of our horizon.
For the next thirty minutes nothing happened and the superstitious skipper made the call to end this trip, he strongly believed that the escape was a bad sign. As the sky was getting darker we all didn't object the decision he made.
October 30, 2009
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