Toman Fishing Trip In Royal Belum

Ho! Ho! Ho! What a Christmas gift it was for David as he landed this beautiful toman or giant snakehead in Royal Belum. Landed on a 7-weight setup no less, well done (Main photo).

Birds suddenly take flight from the canopies of the rainforest – although fishing from a different boat at another river – I swear I heard David’s scream of joy pierce through the jungle and I guess he must have landed a big one.

The Toman Playground

Getting a toman to take a lure is one thing, getting one to take a fly is a whole other thing.

And then you need to content with battling one surrounded by a sunken timber environment of the watery world where they often live.

Catching a toman on fly is nothing but awesomeness. Yes, David did scream in joy (just not that loud) and the happy boy is still flashing a huge smile long after we have gotten back.

It’s been a while since I actively fished for toman. I remember going toman fishing almost every weekend with friends in the 90’s. Found in most ponds, lakes and canals – toman was aplenty back then.

Fishing tackle were not as sophisticated at the time, big heavy fibreglass rods like the American made Shakespeare Ugly Stik and heavy spinning reels such as the PENN Spinfishers or round multipliers like the Swedish made Abu Ambassadeurs was the norm for me.

Monofilament lines was mainstay and the first braided lines such as Spiderwire was just coming into the scene.

Nowadays low profile baitcasters are preferred by many and nobody would even have imagined fly-fishing for toman.

Fussy Ferocious Fish

Anyone who has attempted to fish for toman will know how challenging it can be. The toman may be a ferocious predator but it is also easily spooked and learns quickly.

When they are alerted, the toman continues doing what it does – swimming around in the open and coming up for air as usual instead of hiding but refusing anything you throw at them.

They will often even rise next to your boat but bite they will not. The toman can be one frustrating fish to target. Basically, it will piss at you and make you breakout with profanities and feel like pulling your hair out.

Often, when we spot toman at places like Belum, I like to target them for say 10 minutes. Maybe 20 minutes depending on how they react. If I feel they may not bite or is spooky, we move on. Sometimes, if you are persistent, you will eventually get the fish mad enough to strike. Toman have been known to strike after being pursued for 2 hours or even longer.

Watch a short video from this trip

Fry Stalking and Harassing Mama Toman

You will basically encounter two types of toman fry. The smaller babies around one to two centimetres in length – packed close together in a deep red coloured bunch.

The other is the more grown-up babies which could range in size up to 15 centimetres (10 inches). The bigger babies usually number a lot less than the newborns due to predation as they grow. The main culprit being the sebarau (hampala barb).

Bigger toman babies tend to attack anything that swim by. Hence the former is a better target as the parents tend to be more protective and aggressive. If you cast to the big babies you will keep hooking these juvenile tomans till you find it becoming a nuisance – you’re hurting these small fish and don’t get any fight with the heavy tackle meant for mama and papa.

More about giant snakehead fishing in Malaysia

The male parent are said to swim close to the fry while angry mama circles around in a wider loop chasing away potential threat, that’s what some people say which I cannot actually verify even after observing many fish.

If the parents are aggressive you will see them attacking the lure within the first few casts. If you “blow the opportunity”, you will see the parent fish lead the fry away from harm. Away from you and towards the edges where there are structures.

Alternative Target Fish

The hard-hitting sebarau (hampala barb) are the mortal enemies of the toman.

The speedy sebarau hunt in packs like wolves and will eat the toman younglings.

Casting for the sebarau is also something to be considered when following a set of toman babies. Tying on a small reddish/yellowish lure to imitate the toman fry does the trick if they are around.

Toman like any snakehead are often an ambush predator. You can cast a lure out and hope it swims past a free swimming toman that is angry or hungry enough to strike the lure.

But the more common method in Malaysia is to wait for a fish to come up to the surface for a gulp of air.

They can at times be very subtle when doing so and they can also be very visual, big swirl and you see the kick of the tail as it swims back down quickly – giving you the opportunity to gauge the size of the fish. The trick is to make a quick, accurate cast and intercept the diving toman.

The slower rising and retreating fish are often more susceptible to being caught as the ones that come up quickly and make a splash going down may be alerted to the threat present.

A toman caught on a 6wt fly rod

Who’s Your Daddy?

The slightly easier way is to target parent fish guarding their young. The toman babies need to come to the surface for air very often so and you can be sure papa and mama will not be far away.

What you will need to do is make your lure appear like it is threatening the “fry ball” and hope that one of the parent will strike at the lure. It does not always work though as the parent may sometimes choose to just chase away the threat instead of striking at it. It is not uncommon for toman to follow the lure right at its nose all the way to the boat and turn away.

Having said that, it can be more productive to wait until you see a parent fish surface and casting to it rather than blindly casting.

If you succeed in catching a parent fish, release it quickly so that it can get back to tend to its young. At times the school of toman babies will follow mama/papa all through the fight to the boat.

If you think the above is daunting, now imagine fly-fishing for toman. It is crazy tough for sure but there are ways to do it and to many, that’s the appeal. Good fly casting ability however, will go a long way towards a successful outing.

Most had their chances for shots at the toman on this trip. Yusaku-San had a couple of fish-on without landing any. I watched and briefly recorded on video Irhamy and Justin losing a big one each.

Irhamy’s huge brightly coloured toman rose to the surface and took his newly tied-on fly just next to the boat. After successfully controlling the initial runs and bringing it back to the boat the big fish dove into a submerged tree stump, got stuck and the leader popped.

In Justin’s case, we resisted casting and waited for the toman babies to come near to us. On only the first cast the protective parent chased Justin’s lure towards our boat and struck but managed to throw the hooks after a brief fight.

Happy casting and Merry Christmas to all.