Peacock Bass Fishing With The Fish Addix

Peacock bass fishing tip: Being quiet and stealthy can make a lot of difference when fishing still-water from a boat for peacock bass

It is not everyday that you get to take a great couple fishing that also happen to be great anglers!

Hungry for some Peacock Bass fishing (maybe even just fishing in general), Joe the owner of fishaddix.com contacted me to arrange for a trip to catch some Peacock Bass in Malaysia.

FishAddix.com is among the top three fishing social network sites in the world.

A date was arranged and unknowing to all it happened to coincide with the exact day of the ‘Hungry Ghost Festival’ on 13 August. Interestingly (in an eerie kind of way), we noticed some odd happenings on our way back from fishing. More on that later.

Fishing first!

Ed and I picked up Joe and his fiance Jackie at 4 that morning from Pyramid Tower Hotel. Both Joe and Jackie hail from New Jersey and they know their fishing. In case you are wondering, they did not come all the way from New Jersey in this case but from Singapore.

Both are accomplished avid anglers back home and according to Joe, Jackie is no stranger to hooking-up with big fishes with the uncanny ability to often out-fish the people around her!. And boy, we sure witnessed that that day!

Joe was very excited being his first time in Malaysia but because we will be traveling in the wee hours of the morning there was nothing much he could see out the window till the sunrise.

Joe’s fascination with almost everything that he saw and experienced made me realize also how often we take things that are familiar to us for granted. And start appreciating the little things again.

Water Buffalo and White Coffee

From bird nest hotels to the limestone hills, to the thick jungle to even the oil palm trees, everything is a new experience. Driving between lakes and ponds with varied birds scurrying about, passing herds of water buffaloes was a bit like a safari adventure.

Seeing how excited my guests are got me excited as well. There was also the breakfast stop at Bidor to savor the famous white coffee and herbal duck noodle at Pun Chun and the short introduction to Kelly’s Castle complete with its rich colonial love story and of its escape tunnel to an Indian temple nearby, complete with the statue of a British hunter with a rifle by his side standing amongst figures of worship!

Peacock Bass Bashing

We soon got to the fishing spot that was so very peaceful and tranquil. There was birds in the trees and a large group of Otters were also spotted at one end of the lake.

What a beauty!

Remember I mentioned earlier in this article how Jackie often out-fishes others? Well, she did it again. And as if to cement the point she landed a 44 cm Peacock Bass in just two casts. Two casts! She caught that nice fish using a Yo-zuri Altima spoon.

I have not even made my first cast yet when she yelled out in joy but I was happy too and felt a sense of relief.

No prize for guessing who was the champ that day! Jackie hauled in the biggest and the most Peacocks, 8 of ’em. Most impressive! Joe himself landed 4 or 5, so it was good overall though our fishing was cut short by a thunderstorm shortly after lunch.

All smiles – Ed enjoyed himself tremendously even though only the smaller ones were landed

Fly fishing only yielded a small fella this time round

Ed, the author and our two New Jersey friends

Hungry Ghost Festival

The chinese celebrates this festival whereby the gates of hell open and lets loose “hungry ghosts”. Our Peacock Bass fishing day coincided with the actual day the festival is celebrated. It is supposedly unwise to get out too often during this time lest you “bump” into some spooky things.

On our journey back from fishing we witnessed about ten road accidents along the way. Some looked pretty bad too. Never have I seen so many mishaps in one journey, and it wasn’t a particularly long one too. Even Joe and Jackie asked what the hell (pun intended) was going on and that was when the date we was fishing struck us. Felt the hair on the back of my neck standing. Sometimes all hell breaks loose may be true.