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I found myself back in Malaysia for a second time this year. This time was to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. While this trip wasn't planned in the beginning of the year, it's not everyday someone gets to celebrate such a milestone. It definitely wasn't something I could, nor wanted to miss.
Fast forward several days after the celebrations, my brother Kevin and I along with our merry group of dedicated angler friends find ourselves back at the Royal Belum Rainforest Reserve. My first trip there(in May of this year) was an incredible experience and an absolute success from a fishing perspective. Could I realistically expect my second time around to be even better? You bet.
For starters, we stayed on a houseboat(instead of camping), had our meals cooked and catered, had electricity from gas generators that ran from 6am to 2am and while warm water was not needed in the hot tropical climate, fresh water was plentiful and showers were available whenever we needed to cool down. There were 4 fishing boats(2 fishermen each) and our guides also stayed on board with us which meant our day could start right after breakfast at 6am.
Much better than camping.
It's worth mentioning that November is the beginning of the monsoon season, which results in some wicked thunderstorms and lots of rain. Sometimes, it rains for days on end. Known as the northeast monsoon, it originates from China and the north Pacific ocean, and brings about 300 millimeters of rain in the month of November alone. Having said that, constantly being in 30 C heat and 80% humidity, some rain is rather welcome.
Fishing is better during monsoon season.
I used to enjoy playing soccer in the rain when I was a kid, so fishing in the rain didn't feel unusual. I was only really concerned about one thing - mosquitoes. Worse still, the Aedes mosquito who's bite leads to dengue fever. Absolutely not something to take lightly. According to the World Health Organization, there were 35,700 cases of dengue fever(including 108 deaths) in Malaysia by April 11 in 2015 alone. And people are worried about ebola in North America?
Thankfully, I didn't get bit the entire trip. The fishing gods were smiling at me.
The calm after the storm.
There's a first for everything.
A beautiful juvenile caught on a Yo-Zuri minnow.
Judging by the size of the bite which stretched from the tail to the head, we reckoned this fish to be in the 7 kilogram range. The fight lasted about a minute before the line went slack. I was heartbroken.
Having a boatman familiar with the area was crucial to our success. The lake is 15,200 hectares big. That's 58 square miles. I don't even know how much area we covered during the 4 days. With hundreds of coves, it would've been easy to get lost. Every cove we visited looked the same as every other cove.
The prince and the pauper. The sight of these rods had me drooling.
The first 2 days of the trip wasn't too productive, not for me anyway. The other guys had caught some fish(and there were some big ones) and I had yet to land anything worth talking about. On the third day, my luck changed. In fact, it got really good.
One way of locating snakehead is to watch out for a ball of fry coming to the surface for air. When you do, cast beyond the fry and retrieve. With any luck, the protective parent will strike. And that's how I landed my first giant snakehead.
Caught this protective parent guarding its fry. This method is known as 'fry stalking'.
Why I don't swim in the water.
My friends James and Azhar with their guide/boatman.
Oh did I mention we spotted a couple of elephants swimming across the water? WILD ELEPHANTS. SWIMMING. You'll hear other elephants growling and rumbling at the end of the video. Expecting one to charge out at us got my heart going a mile a minute.
There's a first for everything.
The growling sounded like it was coming from a tiger, but our boatman reiterated that they were indeed coming from the elephant herd in the jungle, hidden from view. Still scared me shitless though.
Here's why you ALWAYS upgrade your hooks and split rings for snakehead fishing. You never know when you'll catch the big one. Lesson well learnd. It was the would have been the biggest fish I caught on this trip.
Judging by the size of the bite which stretched from the tail to the head, we reckoned this fish to be in the 7 kilogram range. The fight lasted about a minute before the line went slack. I was heartbroken.
Having a boatman familiar with the area was crucial to our success. The lake is 15,200 hectares big. That's 58 square miles. I don't even know how much area we covered during the 4 days. With hundreds of coves, it would've been easy to get lost. Every cove we visited looked the same as every other cove.
One of the many beautiful coves in Lake Temenggur.
Our guide knew where the fish were.
Double the bounty, double the fun! This is why we were here.
Our after dinner activity - talking tackle and telling tales of the one that got away.
Snakehead fishing can be easy. Spot the fish coming up for air, and cast at it. Snakehead can also be finicky. A rule of thumb is to toss anything and everything at them until something works.
Some of the lures I used to catch these toothy predators. The one in the foreground is a Sebille deep diver. It looked good and I had high hopes for it. It got me a hit, but nothing stuck.
Topwater fishing tends to yield you more misses than hits. That's the nature of the beast. The one thing really exciting about snakehead fishing is that they tend to hit topwater baits, and they're not shy about it. The one bait that my brother and I had quite a bit of success with was a frog from JD's Custom Baits. While fishing in a cove, I had a hit that tore off one of the legs off of mine. Not wanting to waste the lure, I continued using it in the next cove we were in.
As our guide paddled us in, I spotted a snakehead at the surface about 20 feet out and cast my frog towards the bank. Barely 3 seconds into my retrieve, a different snakehead took my lure and dove into cover. Unfortunately, it buried itself deep into unseen timber. In the heat of the moment, I had not remembered advice from a fellow angler that since snakehead are air breathers, they'll need to come up for air in time. All I had to do was wait.
It took restraint on my part. I just wanted to pull the fish out. Clearly I was losing this waiting game.
Several minutes(that seemed like hours) in, I got my prize. Pardon my excitement!
Persistence pays off. Truth be told, I was more amazed that this tactic worked.
Floating debris tend to wash down rivers and collect at river mouths after a heavy rain, which provide great cover for fish. We came across several of these and true enough, we got lucky more than not. Kevin hooked into a beauty, but fishing in such locations has its perils.
You win some, you lose some.
Kevin's consolation prize, a jungle perch. They're deceivingly feisty.
It happens to the best of us.
A rare "black" giant snakehead. This is a prized catch, and will give me bragging rights for a while to come.
Our second elephant sighting. An indescribable moment.
Our merry men of snakehead stalkers. Thanks for such an awesome time!
In 4 days of fishing, and I landed several giant snakehead and had about 30 missed strikes. Saw wild elephants. Spent quality time with my brother and good friends. Fishing in the jungle is such surreal feeling. Something everyone needs to experience at least once in their lifetime.
Lost a couple of lures and a trophy fish. Truly, one got away. A big one. Had a few jungle perch my other friends caught for dinner. Shared stories. Shared laughs. Made memories.
All in all, it was an unforgettable trip. And because the currency exchange was in my favour, the whole thing cost me under $400 Canadian. Food, lodging, boat, guide, gas. Quite a deal, huh?
I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
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