Late last year, Kenneth and i were planning for this year's trips when the topic of Pekan came up. We had been to Rompin several times and they were all successful trips. The main question was if we wanted to travel further up to catch the same species. We decided to go.
My friend ( Thanks Andrew!!!) made the arrangements for us to fish 3 day in Pekan with Ah Boy. The trip was cut shorter to a 2d1n trip closer to the date due to work commitments. a group of five (Lala, Sam, Kenneth, my wife and myself) made the trip up. We departed at 2am, and with the insane driving skills of of MPV driver we reached Ikan Masin's (Ah Boy's Dad) Homestay at 6am. He sent us to Ah Boy's Home Stay. It was a newly built house which is extremely spacious and has 3 rooms and 3 bathrooms. Ah Boy, had earlier gotten our drinks ready as Andrew had made prior arrangements with him.
We took some time to set up our gear and hung out for a bit. There was a cow which was tied up opposite our house and chickens and goats wandered down the street at their own leisure. Ah Boy came buy to pick us up an hour later. He took us to grab some breakfast, while he loaded our gear onto the boat. Here, we learnt that you can only order from the stall which you were seated directly in front off! Ikan Masin joined us shortly, and we had a very nice chat with him. He is extremely humble and down to earth despite having more than 20 years of experience. His 3 sons, the famous Pekan Ricky, Ah Boy and Ah Long, all followed in his footsteps and the 4 of them currently have the biggest fleet in Pekan. Ikan Masin's advice to us was to switch to bottom if the Ebek were not to be found.
After packing our lunch we set off to the launch point. Ah Boy set off without much delay. We saw first hand how these guys had to manoeuvre their boats to get to the sea from the river. It is little wonder why they call off fishing trips when the weather is bad.
We reached our fishing destination after more than an hour. Ah Boy's elder brother Rickey had already been fishing for 2 hours ( they left earlier) when we arrived. He told Ah Boy that nothing had been landed yet. Ah Boy decided to go up further and fish. Upon arrival we began jigging. Within seconds Ah Boy was on. It was the biggest Ladyfish i had ever seen! As i got ready to film the fight, the fish put on a spectacular aerial display. By now the fish was close to the boat, as i was about record, i heard a round of curses. The fish had thrown the hook with one last jump. We went about jigging and Barracudas were landed for a good part of an hour. Getting sick of these guys. Lala and i switched to Pintails. Lala was on first. He had a good sized Tengirri on, before he got cut off. I on the other hand lost 3 pintails in a row much to Ah Boy's amusement. He explained the smaller Tenggiri tend to attack in groups and as soon as the lure hits the water, were all over it. Cranking as soon as the lure hits the water was not successful. On my 4th Pintail i finally hit a fish. It sent my drag screaming and put up quite a fight. When it got closer, i saw that it was a Barracuda. Cursing under my breath, i pulled it up freed my lure and tossed it back in. Pretty soon we had hit more than 20 Barracudas. We moved along and tried for Ebek next. They were nowhere to be found though. Just more Barracuda. Kenneth hooked onto a big one, and it got chomped in half on the way up. Ah Boy told us that it was probably a big Tenggiri as the cut was clean.
Ah Boy kept changing spots, trying to find the Ebek but to no avail. He finally said, ok lets go get a fish for dinner. We were told that the spot was known for Coral Trout. We had about 45 minutes before we had to head back. 30 minutes went by and nothing at all. Then i heard a yell. Ah Boy was on. Up came a beautiful Coral Trout. Ok. We have Dinner! We decided to head back.
Ah Boy dropped us off at the home stay and told us he'd be back in 90 minutes to take us to dinner. We showered and hung out for a bit. I saw some disappointed faces. I told the guys that we'll skip the Ebek hunt the next day and try for some bottom fish as Ikan Masin had recommended. Everyone was in agreement.
Ah Boy picked us up and we headed to Sri Pekan for dinner. Ah Boy had gotten them to prepare some dishes including their signature 'melts in your mouth squid'. Dinner was a fun affair. Everyone had lightened up, even Ah Boy was joking despite his dad's claim that he had gone home sulking. After a couple of Beers and some fishing stories we headed back for some rest.
The next day we set off earlier. Ah Boy could not get live prawns for us so we had to make do with dead prawns. The target for the day would be Parrot fish. Given our light jigging gear, i knew we were in for some burst lines. We got to the launching point after a lovely noodle and toast breakfast. The Auntie wished us luck as we paid and left.
We set off and before long we were at our first spot. Sam, Lala and my wife were baiting while Ah Boy, Kenneth and i tried our luck jigging. Suddenly we were alerted to some dolphins in the distance by Lala. There were pink dolphins, and they were truly majestic. A little too far away to be photographed but we enjoyed watching them frolicking in the sea. Back to fishing. Some smaller fish were being landed. I left it to the angler to decide what they wanted to do with their catch. I for one, do not take certain species of fish which are smaller than my foot or 12 inches. So my wife's smaller fishes were released. We changed to another spot. And here Ah Boy landed the largest parrotfish (about 3kg) on bait. My wife went on a streak of landing 5 parrotfish in the 1kg - 2kg size. Lala added a new species to his list with his first parrot. While Sam, was landing a variety of smaller groupers. Some of which i had never seen! Kenneth got seasick so he took a nap.
So what was i doing??? I happened to spot a green eye chasing Kenneth's jig earlier. So i rummaged through my tacklebox and got out my egi lures. It was not yet squid season, but i know squid stay in a small group in the off season. They were great fun on my UL setup. Some of them of 1kg size. I landed 10 in total. Only got squirted on once due to my good friend Lala's ignorance. What a squirt it was. Ah Boy had to clean up the boat for a good 10 minutes. When i got the 10th squid Ah Boy threaten to cover me in ink by pointing the squid at me. I ran for cover. Then no more squid. Soon the smaller 1kg parrot fish called on their bigger brothers to come visit. Ah Boy lost a couple of larger ones. Some due to straightened hooks! I don't think anyone cared if they were getting bullied and burst off. Everyone was trying to land a big one until we ran out of bait. They looked over to my squid and i fended them off with my Ultraman stance. Ah Boy laughed and said parrotfish don't eat squid. Phew! no one comes between me and my squid!
We hung out for awhile chatting with Ah Boy and then we head back. I could tell that he was still unhappy with the total catches, but i assured him that we didn't mind. We are an easy-going bunch. When we got back our MPV driver was already there. We washed up and packed our stuff into the MPV and headed to Sri Pekan for Dinner. Andrew was there with his group. They had 3 Coral Trouts and 3 Tenggiris on Jigs and Pintails on Ah Long's boat. Slow according to Andrew. We had a good dinner with the biggest parrot being showcased as the main dish. Nonya Steamed! Yummy! After dinner before we headed back, i gave Ah Boy a personal tip. He reluctantly accepted it saying that the coolers were not full and he didn't feel happy. I assured him that we'll be back for revenge another time and he can bring us to hunt for Giant Parrotfish.
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Ah Boy's Homestay and Truck |
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Launch Point |
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Selfie King! hahaha |
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Rainbow |
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Hard at work |
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Dinner Day 1 |
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Coral Trout |
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Self Entertainment |
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Squiddy Fun |
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Number 1 |
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Number 2 |
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SEASICK! |
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Number 3 |
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Number 5 |
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1st Parrot fish |
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Nonya Steam! |
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Sam's Catches with some of the squid |
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My Share |
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