Retreat to the nature...

They say...a picture speaks a thousand words..
So..enjoy!

rain,flood and apologize...

Strikes after the storm....

The frustration with the mahseer i guess is reduced by these actions on snake head.
3 hooked in one spot and another one at the nearby spot after sundown says it all.
The 'hello kitty' frog is amazing... :)
But as usual,this place get famous and a lot of new caster came,make it like a fiesta site with noise and singing while casting..goshh..

Snake head..so far,is the most co-operative fish for lure casting in Borneo..:)
Till next time,see you.
*to Taku,your giant snakehead moment will come ! :)

Upper river,clear water trip.(Where is the fish?)

Sarawak,Malaysian Borneo....up the river,where the water is still clear,you can see the pebble on the river bed,where the rapid and rock sing together with the birds and the wind.

This was the river used by the Iban people in the old days to get to the sea to the source of salt,the very basic need,and it leads up to Mount Sadok,the sacred mountain and the last frontier of the Iban people against the Brookes.

We started the boat journey where the Spak river meets the Batang Layar,that flow down to the sea where it meets the mighty main river,the Saribas.
We made it down where crocs were sighted,you can feel they are down there.

The crystal clear water with canopy above you provide shade from the hot sun.

This part of the river is deep enough to cruise smoothly.

The home of the Mahseer.

This can be a great spot to cast the lures.

Some of these rapids,you have to push the boat.

Today,on this river,Iban and Japanese share a boat with smile.

We tried all of them.The boat men even tried the sea jig,at lease for one cast!

The one and only fish of the day!
I got tip-toe when i pull it out,i though it was an Adong... :)

Closer view.Some of the scales came off because of the lure hooks,but when i released it back to the river,its recovered in few seconds,and speed back to the rapid after few taps on its back,to send message to Mahseers like Empurau,Semah and Adong... :) .

The boat men told us this fish is called Supit(shooting @ Archer fish*research did by Taku),they prey on insects by shooting water to the insect on the leaf or branch above water!

It was a bit frustrating.
Big and perfect river with crystal clear water,but its very hard to sea any fish.There was only one time we saw a group of five Adong about the size of 50cm long chasing the small fish until the gravel part of the riverbank.The sound was shocking,they are really aggressive predators.
We cast at a deeper part bit lower from the 'attack site'.Only one small strike,but lasted only for seconds.It managed to escape the lure hooks.

Where is the fish?The main cause is over fishing.People take everything home,big or small,no limit of catch or time period of the year.
Any method they can use,net to electric shot to poison,you name it.
One day,if this continues,with no action from the government to set any rule in fishing like in Europe,States,Australia or other part of the world,our rivers will become empty,especially from the high grad fish like the Mahseers.The local people also need to be educated and realize the important of preservation and maintain the population of the fish.Greed and pride will finish everything for the days and generations to come.

After a long dry spell....

Thanks to the mother nature for this special Christmas gift..:)
After about 2-3 months of zero catch of giant snake head,this morning,around 8 am,we both caught one each in between of about 10 minutes time.
At one stage,i was almost give up on lure casting.
Started at about 6am with X-rap walk the dog..i changed to popper,and then big skitter by French champion, Sebile...before i changed again to X-rap 'walk the dog'...while thinking,if this doesn't work,next time i'll 'walk the cat'!
Ernesto lost his brand new Yozuri popper to the grass...second time in 3 days time,last 2 days he lost his Yozuri pencil bait.So,he changed to Spinner Bait.
It was this X-rap 'walk the dog' and spinner bait that make our day.

When i was at the brink of giving up,i squatted by the lake side,stop casting and just watching the surface of the lake.And there,about 30m a bit to the left, i saw a small ripple of water.I though,this will be just another cast...and i cast a bit further and reel it in passing by the ripple about 2m away to the right.
And 'Pop!'...a big splash and my lure disappeared from my sight...for a while,the fish was fighting around the area,before it made a torpedo speed run to the right...and i can see its beautiful stripe in the water....

'my heart stop beating for a while...my system stop pumping oxygen to my brain..and for a while,i saw stars,maybe due to the lack of oxygen in the head'..
it was such an adrenalin rush.

When the fish starts to give up..it used its typical dirty tactic by rushing to the grass,the way it did last year to escape from my popper.
I shouted for help from Ernesto which was about 100m away behind the trees.
He was holding the rod while i was jumping to the lake to get my trophy that stuck in the grass...which i didn't do last year.This time,i must land you and take picture.

And it was so sweet...the moment.

About 10 minutes later,when i was smoking trying to calm down and do random casting (and rewarding myself)...Ernesto shouted for help.God...this can't be real...we broke the taboo this morning.
From far i can see him fighting the fish.
And i jump again,the fish using the same dirty tactic again.
Again,the beautiful purplish stripy python look alike scale fish,in my hand again,still struggling proving its reputation as the best fighter of the region's freshwater fish.

It was a great day...
thanks to Shimano long cast rods,Ryobi Fokamo reel,Abu Garcia Cardinal reel,Spiderwyre braided line,Rapala X-rap Extreme Walk,Spinner Bait...
'to the brands mentioned above,we don't mind to do product endorsement for you' :)
thanks to mother nature,thanks to the spirit of the lake,thanks to Lewis for proving that lure still works here,thanks to Ernesto for the early morning plan around 2am text message,and thanks to all our supporters and critics..:)

Spinner bait did the job.

Worth the wait...

It's the moment!

And yes...we did catch and release..fight another day..grow bigger,fight better!

The other side of the lake....

Yup....finally we made it to the other side of the lake...where the mega giant snakehead always splash and show off their majestic power and reputation as the best fighter of the fresh water fish.

Me,Ernesto,Dan from Victoria,Canada,Justin From Melbourne,Australia and Lewis as our 'local guide' went through the small jungle and reach the site(about 15 mins),safe,excited and amazed with the view and the imagination of what beneath the surface of the lake,giant snakehead colony and something else.(this is the place where the other group of anglers get greeted by a giant king cobra) !

Lewis and Ernesto walked a little bit further but came back since the jungle get thicker and 'unpenetrateable' without a macheti or chainsaw to clear your way.

New reel and new long cast rod...lure and life catfish...but zero.
There was hope until the thunderstorm chased us away.

And the way back is much more shorter in time since we just want to get back to civilization a.s.a.p before we get too wet..but we got really drenched anyway.

But anyway,as always..bad day fishing is better than a good day in the office.Cool! :)

Me and Justin

Ernesto

New reel,new rod,new site.

We made it out of the jungle....