Updated Feb 17, 2011 - Boatman called and advise to postpone the trip, due to choppy waters. Aduiiii ...
Updated Feb 28, 2011 - I came back from Pekan on February 27 after my 2 days fishing there. Topped with choppy waters, the catch on 1st day was very bad. However, the parrot fish frenzy at the 2nd day make up the overall catch and I thought it was a great trip after all.
A 4kg-ish blackspot tusk fish (choerodon schoenleinii) or "parrot fish" as local called it, hauled from some secret spot of the fishing charter, ikan masin.
We have some twenties powerful pulls on the spots within 45 minutes, which was quite responsive.
I experienced the brutal power of parrot fish right at my first drop of bait. Before long, I had a strike and went into tug war with the parrot fish for 30 seconds or so, and lost the fish. My outfit was a PE4 rod with locked-drag Shimano 6000 reel, but each of my pump on the unseen parrot fish yield nothing but peeled lines. After 2 pumps and countless rounds of line been peeled, the parrot won the tug war.
The boatman too, got a hammer hit with his special hybrid bait, and the tug war last for half a minutes or so. We were sitting very near to him and witnessed how the humble, senior boatman being bullied. His 50lb bottom rod (with 80lb braids and locked-drag Ocea Jigger) went into a worrisome "n" curve, and all he could do was holding on the rod helplessly. The rod went on strong bowing for couple of times and the rod survive, so did the fish.
"I thought you are parrot fish champion?", jokingly I asked. The man, softly catching back his breath, stared blankly and didn't answer my joke at all.
My boatmate negotiating with a 9kg-ish cobia.
Shikari 20lb blank was put into serious test, with tip soaked into water few times when cobia tried to dive for escape.
Boatman with the cobia.
There were 3 cobias lurking around our boat, where 1 of them took my jig and the other taken my boatmate's. Both of us went setting the hook but managed to set 1 of them.
My boatmate having thrill with ebek (diamond trevally) with boatman standby to gaft.
The fight with ebek started slowly and went sprinting after 4 or 5 seconds, right after my boatmate said "eh ... I think this one small fella la, not much power one ... eh ... eh ... eh ....wei ..." and the Bradia went screaming.
One of the boats hauled 14 ebeks during the frenzy with size ranged from 7kg to 3kg.
With Bradia 4000 and some 230m of PE3 line, he didn't took long to land the fish, though the first sprint peeled some 50m of his braids.
The angler with his proud diamond trevally, and with fast pulse, I believed.
I started coming to Pekan since 2006, to quest for my dream fish then, the diamond trevally on jig. It was after 4 years since then I got my dream fish on jig.
This was his 1st time to Pekan with catching an ebek on jig as his target, and he got it. You can't say there is no luck factor in fishing.
Total catch of 2nd day
Overall a good trip for us. For me, the satisfaction started even during our journey driving out from Kuala Lumpur.
I had a talk with the boatman about Pekan fishing before I left. I said, if there are Gods that fellow fishing charters in Pekan need to pray for the charter business to remain good, then the 1st God will be the weather, the 2nd God, is Ebek.
It's obvious, for the sake of continuous income among fishing charters, continuous and repeating anglers visits to Pekan, ebek stock in Pekan has to be sustained. For a specie that is migratory, the least of what the angling community can do is the practise of bag limit and Catch and Release, to prolong the heydays in this beautiful town.
Happy Fishing!
