Pulau Berhala (off Pekan) - Brief Catch Report

Since I am not gonna get out to sea for sometime, I will post some photos and report on recent trip of my fishing buddy to keep you visitor entertained.

Pulau Berhala is a small island located at approximately 20nm+ from rivermouth of Pekan. With typical cruising speed of 20knots on slim hull fiber boat, you can get there in 1hr+ on good weather from Pekan.

Skipper Ah Boy called me on Wednesday and told me there are schools of mackerel at Pekan waters, asking me if I want to test it out. I can't leave KL over the weekend and get angler Jimmy and guys to make it instead. The trip was then set on Oct 24 2009, Sunday.

I called Ah Boy again on Saturday and was told that cobia were found abundance in Pulau Berhala waters instead of Mackerel so he planned to go after them on that trip itself.

On the image above, the small wording at top left corner marked where Pekan is. Pulau Berhala (right next to the square) is one of the most visited fishing spots of Pekan recreational fishing charters.

Pulau Berhala from far

This rocks area is the place you should not miss if you are at Pulau Berhala area.

Other area around the island is full of "bubu" (fish trap) floats. Line been cut by the rope while fish fighting is common here. The trick is loosen the drag while the hook-set fish is rushing towards "free direction".

A good size kerapu minyak (hmmm ... they taste better than they looked)

Angler KK with his cobia.

KK returned to seafishing after couple of months on fishing curfew ... good for him!

Angler Jimmy with his cobia ... hmmmm ... slightly sub 10kg-ish I guess?

From the biting trend as observed, it seems that squid head was the preferred bait on that day, compared with jigs of all kind.

Total catch of a day out, on a 100qt. IGLOO ice box

Good size "green-eye", estimated at near 1kg

The ink from the squid if mixed with your fish catch, will make your fish flesh smell like one kind. I noticed fishing charters in Pekan waters will clean the squid (remove the ink bag in it) upon returned, but not charters in Rompin.

On the way heading South China Sea

I used to think what happen if a fishing charter make his trip out from Pekan with a larger wood boat, let's say some 60ft+ in length and 16ft+ in width, thus the choppy sea during monsoon would then be manageable. The fact is, rivermouth of Pekan is really shallow, some stretch even as shallow as 6 ft only during low tide.

Skipper Ah Boy telling something interesting