Tasik Prima or Tasik Puchong Prima... what ever you want to call it..

That was how it looked like 12 years ago, an abandoned mining lake in the sub-urban of Puchong area where abundance of snakehead or tomans to fish.

Due to over fishing, the numbers of snakeheads decreases drastically and most of the time, I see fisherman does not land anything. The popularity of tasik prima slowly dying ..... until the appearance of Peacock bass in late 2007. According to a source, the peacock bass in Tasik Prima originated from Subang Lake.

We had great fun even before the news of the availability of Peacock bass spread out.

Development around the lake started in 2010 and so does the reclamation. At least 10% of the total area of the lake was filled for lake side housing development and land based fishing was reduced as banks are fenced up due to development.

There was a period of time, the Peacock bass went missing. You really don't see them anywhere and you don't see people fishing them up. There was some netting activities in that lake and I thought the Peacock bass was all netted up.

After awhile , they are back bigger and stronger....

It was great fun  ....... for now. Not sure when it will last.

** All the fish was caught and released.



My long forgotten playground

It have been quite awhile since my last fishing trip to this lake nearby my place. I used to fish here every weekend for big snakeheads and huge peacock bass.

I rang up Jeremy last week during the long break to join me for a short boat fishing trip since the boat was laying around my yard. Initially I wanted to test the outboard, but not knowing whether it works or not... I would rather not take the chance and have Jeremy bring over his motorguide thruster.

The planned trip was supposely to have the boat touch the water before sunset, but due to some 'technical' hitch, it was delayed till 8am... to have the boat loaded.

A 10-footer looks like a pygmy on his montrous truck.

After having our stomach filled, we were off ..



This monstrous truck is no match for these..... had to stop and let it pass.

Finally... the boat hit the water.. and that is my boatman.. LOL

We did not ventured far from land due to some 'power' problems. Our batteries was not fully charged.

The first fish landed....

Caught that with the 3DS popper on my 4-8lb light tackle setup. Great fun..!!

A lot of raises around that area but the fish couldn't be bothered with lures running above them..

We headed back nearer to the land and tried our luck on peacock bass..

I was surprised to found out that there was not many area at the spot they normally hide.

Then Jeremy caught his first fish... He out smarted one of the 'orange' fish.

Then his second and third.....

That was it... No more fish.. and we headed back for lunch.

It was hard to believe that I did not land a peacock bass where they are abundance in this lake!!!

Before the long break ends, I made a solo trip there across the other side of the lake and did some land based casting...

The weather was not very kind though. I had only an hour of fishing period before it rained heavily.. but it was great fun...  1 cast 1 fish................

Now that is what I am talking about....!!!

Tarpon at Bagan Datoh with The Lap Cheong

This trip was specially arranged for Lap Cheong since he was nagging that I did not bring him along for the tarpon trip last week.

I must thank him for provide transport and the long hours of drive to Bagan Datoh. He picked me up from my house at about 4.45am... and stopped by at Hutan Melintang for breakfast before going to the target spot.  We missed the junction and had to turn back to search for it.. and reached the spot about 7.50am.

The condition of the 'parit' (drain ) was not favourable. The water was stagnant and not flowing due to full tide. The tarpons was not frenzy either. Saw only a few rises in 5 minutes.

I did not have high hopes of landing many tarpon..but I was just hoping a few will do. I prayed that Lap Cheong will at least catch a few, if not I will be deep shit... He will be surely cursing and swearing like hell just came loose...

He caught a few, landed a 12" tarpon and missed a couple of strikes as he was using his "grandfather's" spinning set up. The rod was so damn soft that would be difficult to set the hook and the reel was so damn slow even the tarpon can outrun it..... HAhahahahaha.....

I was using fly on my bamboo rod. Gurgler seems to be effective in the morning but it almost came to noon, Damsel was a hit. Landed about 13 tarpons of good sizes at least 10" in length and dropped few when I tried to lift them up...

Here are some of the photos taken during this trip.

And... this one is dedicated to Adrian Ng who missed this trip......

I still remember how to 'FLY'

This was a last minute trip where my friends wanted me to bring them to fish for tarpons and the only place I am familiar with is in Bagan Datoh.

It's been like ages since I last fly fish... fortunately, I have not forgotten how to cast a fly rod.

We reached there about 8 am and we missed the first frenzy session which start early in the morning where the sun about to rise.

My friends was using light bait casting rod and I was the only one with a fiberglass fly rod. I landed a few good sizes tarpons and failed to hook up some. They were extremely fast..

This one was landed with a gurgler.

Another...

I guess this was the largest landed..

This was landed using Olive color Damsel..

Rod building

It has been quite awhile since I last build any fiberglass rods. Making bamboo rod is time consuming and tiring. I got the chance to build a fiberglass rod when a friend of mine requested me to custom build him a Lamiglas FL734.

No preferences on how the rod should look like, the only thing he requested was to have a rattan grip. That's great, no other restriction and that gives me a fee hand to do whatever I like on the rod.

It took me about 2 weeks to complete this.

I did not use any epoxy on the wrapping as I was to keep the finishes as light as possible. This Lami blank is a slow action piece and I do not load it with heavy stuff. I used H&H thin wires guides and light tip top, and Pearsall's Gossamer silk thread for wrapping.