Blog - Page 2 of 111 - Sport Fishing Asia

Lockdown Escapade (Ryan’s Fifth Trip with SFA)

Strange world we live in now. People are trapped either at home or in a place they wouldn’t be due to something we cannot see.

Our fishing season naturally got severely interrupted with very few trips, and a late start due to lockdowns and movement restrictions.

Thanks to some of our repeat clients and a few new ones, we are able to get some water time.

Ryan is back five years running with us now and this time he had Brian with him, with his other previous-trip fishing mates could not join him as they are stuck in other countries.

First Time Rompin

This is Brian’s first time in Kuala Rompin and his first major saltwater fishing trip, too, and what an experience it turned out for him.

Conditions was great in the morning. Didn’t take us too long to find some good bait fish.

When we arrive at the sailfish spot there was only one other boat there.

There were few birds around but there was definitely a lot of bait fish.

Just passed 10 am and we had our first sailfish on and then shortly after another one on, double header for the first eats.

Brian battling his first sailfish in Kuala Rompin

Ryan taking photos and videos of Brian with his first sailfish

Double Header Sailfish from The Get Go!

Brian took the first fish followed by Ryan and both fish look like good size ones.

Both fish ran opposite directions and around a commercial squid boat putting everyone in a tricky situation so Ryan said focus on Brian’s fish, sure enough Ryan’s line got cut off when it went under the commercial boat.

This big sailfish gave Brian a breathtaking experience - literally — This big sailfish gave Brian a breathtaking experience – literally

Hot Action to Lunch

The action was hot right up to when we stopped for lunch.

When we resumed fishing after lunch the action was a little slower and we had some Spanish mackerel cutting us off a couple of times. Later on Ryan landed a nice cobia.

Ryan soon followed with another beautiful sailfish

Our deckhand leaders Brian's second sailfish — Our deckhand leaders Brian’s second sailfish

Brian's next sailfish was even bigger! — Brian’s next sailfish was even bigger!

Our deckhand getting ready to bring in the next sailfish

But this sailfish is not giving up just yet

BIG Cobia

The boys had enough and we went back to the jetty a bit earlier.

Ryan invited me to join them for dinner later on and we had some of the cobia which was nicely cooked.

Thanks again for a great weekend! Fishing was a blast and we really enjoyed it. Brian is hooked now. Will be sure to pass on your contact to him.
Ryan Jones – Aug 2020

Find out more about fishing in Rompin or request quote, CONTACT US.

In Pursuit of a Dream Catch – Norwegian Brothers’ One Day Sailfish Adventure in Rompin Malaysia (Video)

kuala rompin

One of the happiest if not the happiest angler I’ve personally met is Tor and that’s his personality I’m referring to.

Makes it a joy to have him aboard and we’re so happy too to make his dream catch happen.

It didn’t come easy as the day started slow, very slow with nothing happening till we had to pull out every trick we had in the bag (and maybe some luck) and started getting results.

Watch the video below, see photos and catch report from the trip here.

Find out more about fishing in Rompin or request quote, CONTACT US.

Tacklebox Adventures – Home of Fly Fishing in Malaysia

Blog, Tackle Shops

If you are looking for fly fishing stuff in Malaysia, Tacklebox Adventures is definitely the place to go to.

TACKLEBOX ADVENTURES
99, SS15/4C, Subang Jaya, 47500, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Phone: +603-56370268 Mobile: +6019-2025524

Business hours: Monday – Saturday 11AM-7PM. Sunday 12PM-6PM.

Tacklebox Adventures Website

Go to Tacklebox Adventures using Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/M17Gr

Drive to Tacklebox Adventures using Waze: http://waze.to/lr/hw281x8q7x

Rock Star

The owner of Tacklebox Adventures is Nick Ooi, the rock star turned rod star. Nick is the bassist of the very popular band Headwinds that rocked the country back in the eighties. Nowadays, he lives a much more quieter life manning his tackle shop with the help of his wife.

Nick is also among the pioneers of fly fishing in Malaysia along with the likes of CK Ling and Irhamy Ahmad.

In the early years, Tacklebox Adventures along with Nick, Dr Ling, Irhamy and a group of keen fly fishers organised many fly fishing and fly tying activities to promote the sport both locally and around the region. Some fly fishing competitions were also held – which later on led to the formation of United Fly-Anglers Organisation of Malaysia (UFOM).

Wide Range of Fishing Products

Established since 1996, Tacklebox Adventures stocks a wide range of products and brands. When you walk into the store, to your right and left you will find conventional fishing gears such as spinning and bait casting reels and rods from Yamaga, Shimano, Abu Garcia, Ryobi, Okuma, etc.

Soft plastic lures, hard body lures from Berkley, Rapala, Storm and more. Teminal tackles such as sinkers, swivels, leaders, lines, high-end-hand-crafted lures and poppers are also available at Tacklebox Adventures.

Just after the glass door on the wall to the left is the wall-of-fame, or shame :-] Here, plastered onto a board are photos of various catches both trophy and tiny by friends and customers of Tacklebox Adventures.

Photos adorn the walls of Tacklebox Adventures

Racks of spinning, bait cast, popping and jigging rods

Lures and jigs take up one section of the wall

Big-game hand-crafted lures are also available

Rows and rows of hooks for tying any imaginable flies line the wall

All throughout the walls and shelves of the Tacklebox Adventures you will find many photos of trophy catches.

As you venture further in to the store you will find endless rows of fly reels, fly hooks, fly lines, fly tying materials, fly rods, fly fishing accessories and apparels.

Tacklebox Adventures is the Malaysian authorised dealer for fly fishing products from almost all established brands such as Sage, RL Winston, Redington, Temple Fork Outfitters, Orvis, Ross Reels, Rio, Scientific Anglers, Hatch, Nautilus, Tiemco, Waterworks Lamson, and many more.

There is a huge difference in being able to walk into a shop and be able to see and feel the things that you are interested in getting hold off, compared to just looking at picture of them.

If you can’t get to the shop, Nick can arrange for your orders to be sent to your doorstep. Just give him a ring.

Caress the best reels in the business - Hatch, Tibor, Nautilus, Sage, Echo, Orvis and more. — Caress the best reels in the business – Hatch, Tibor, Nautilus, Sage, Echo, Orvis and more.

Fly reels to suit all budgets - even used ones — Fly reels to suit all budgets – even used ones

waterworks-lamson-reels-tacklebox_shop_140725_0320

Learn Fly Tying, Fly Casting and How to Catch Fish

Nick also gives great advise on both the equipment and how-to’s which can be invaluable if you do not have enough experience and knowledge in the subject. If you’re nice to Nick he will also allow you to test cast the rods before you decide if they suit your style. Something very useful when deciding on a fly-rod. Seriously, he’s a nice guy and will even buy you coffee.

Nick at his fly tying station and some of his proven fish catching flies in the foreground

Both Nick and Tacklebox Adventures is certified by the International Federation of Fly Fishers

A deceiver fly for sailfish tied by Nick

Nick is also an accomplished fly tier and his flies not only look great but are proven effective in catching fish. You can see some of the flies he’s tied displayed in a cabinet. The flies are for sale and Nick also takes orders for custom tied flies on request. Just tell him what you’re trying to catch! Many many fish that you see caught on flies in Sport Fishing Asia is tied by Nick.

Tacklebox Adventures organises many fly fishing trip to many great destinations around the planet. Ask Nick if you’d like to fly fish in places like Royal Belum for sebarau and toman, Pulau Jarak for giant trevally, Kuala Rompin for sailfish, Thailand and Sabah for mahseer, Mongolia for taimen, Bosnia for trout, Maldives for fly fishing on the flats and more.

Tacklebox Adventures also offers free fly casting lessons to beginners who would like to start-off fly fishing the right way and to more advanced casters who may want to fix a bad habit or problem that they are having. Nick and his bunch of regulars who are experienced and qualified casting instructors are usually available to help out with some casting.

For the latest products and news from Tacklebox Adventures, like their Facebook Page or follow them on Google+.

• Tacklebox Adventures Facebook Page
• Google Plus page

Huge selection of fly lines for all applications

Rows and rows of fly tying materials for any fly you can imagine

Lots of fly rods from combo sets to the high-end rods and new models are brought in as soon as they are launched

Masterpiece flies by some master fly tyers

Reference to what fish are caught locally and abroad

tacklebox-wall-Kuala-Rompin-sailfish-fly-fishing-

Guess what fish has dentures like these?

Rock Island Fishing Pond SP (Simpang Pulai)

Fishing in Malaysia

Rock Island Fishing Pond (RIFP) opened as a recreational fishing pond at the beginning of 2020. It was used as a fish farm of sorts before that.

You can still find duck breeding and goat farming adjacent to the fishing pond.

GETTING THERE

Watch out for a small fish sculpture at the turnoff from the main Simpang Pulai road that turns off into a narrow road that leads to the pond.

There are ample parking space once you get to the pond entrance. We had to go through the extra steps of registering our name, getting our temperature checked and hand sanitised before getting to the fishing part.

We had our nasi lemak and teh-o breakfast at the pond. Which was delicious!

OPERATING HOURS

I understand currently their opening hours are 9am to 12 midnight. It’s best you check beforehand if planning to go as it may change. I’ll leave the location and contact information below.

We only fished the morning session and left the place after lunch to head back to Kuala Lumpur. The bites were also slowing down as the sun rose overhead and temperatures climbed.

POND LAYOUT

The pond is slightly rounded and rectangular in shape with a small island right smack in the middle making it look like a moat if you’re fishing around it and pretty much the shape of an “O”.

The depth we are told varies from 5 feet closer to the pond edge to around 12 feet at the deepest.

We had the privilege to be the first to fish from the island as before this all fishing are done from the mainland sides.

Lure casters and fly fishers may be allowed to fish from the island from now on.

We were told beforehand that peacock bass and Chaophraya catfish lurks around the island.

There is a small stream and waterfall that feeds cool freshwater into the pond making the water clean and keeping the fish healthy.

High-tension electricity cables run overhead across the pond here. They are too high to get in the way but you won’t want to be under them fishing if there is a thunderstorm.

THE FISHING

Peacock Bass

There are 5 species of peacock bass in RIFP including the largest of them all, the Cichla temensis, that can grow up to 100cm and weigh up to 13kg.

JW managed one temensis that measured at 45cm.

We found the peacock bass are mainly concentrated along the edges. That is unsurprising as peacock bass are known to use cover for protection and ambush.

Beautifully coloured temensis taken at the edge of the island with a chartreuse Charlie fly

There are said to be 5 species of peacock bass here. Photo of Ajid with a beautiful specimen taken at the island with a soft plastic lure. Check out the colours on the fins.

Peacock bass are found almost everywhere along the edge of the pond

There appears to be a healthy population of peacock bass in RIFP. I also personally find them to be very nicely coloured with bright patterns and fins.

Many peacock bass readily took our flies and Ajid who was fishing with us on the island caught around 10 peacock bass with his lures such as soft plastics.

Chaophraya Catfish

There are more than 200 chaophraya catfish in RIFP ranging in size from 10kg to the largest caught to date at 25kg.

Almost as soon as Nick stepped onto the island he connected to a good sized chaophraya cat. It was his first cast with the Charlie fly and he just started a figure-eight retrieve when the chaophraya catfish took the fly and took Nick round and round the little island. We had to come to his rescue with the huge landing net from across the pond.

Nick with a nice Chaophraya catfish at the get go

This fish took Nick around the island as it put up a good fight

No other chaophraya was caught the rest of the morning, although I had a bite/break off I think that’s more likely a pacu than a chaophraya.

First impression is the chaophraya appears to be more active around the island as we can see them rising but that’s non conclusive.

Pacu

Some of us landed a few small pacu but saw some in the 7-8kg range landed by bottom fishers.

Other species in the pond include:

Patin (Iridescent shark)
Jelawat
Lampam

There are also the the odd haruan snakehead and arowana.

Plenty of jelawat (mad barb) in the pond

Conclusion

There is a healthy population of fish here. The easiest way to catch fish is obviously by using bait. Target species would likely be the pacu and patin.

The chaophraya and peacock bass are aggressive predatory species and will be a rewarding good sport for lure and fly fishers willing to work for them.

Ajid and Din who manages RIFP are very friendly and together with their onsite staff are very helpful.

Rock Island Fishing Pond location

RIFP is located not far off the Simpang Pulai exit of the North South Highway along the same road that leads up to the hill resort of Cameron Highlands.

Business hours: 9am – 12 midnight. Closed on Friday

Facebook Page

Click to watch the trip video

Fishing Reopens After Lockdown and Chaophraya Catfish Frenzy

Catch Report

Malaysia went into lockdown due to the global health crisis on 18 March 2020 and nearly everything came to a complete standstill including fishing.

Many anglers must have struggled to contain their “itch” and what a relief for some when everything opened up again after 3 months of lockdown on June 10th.

Nick, Tuz and I picked a place we’ve not been for sometime to fish, Natural Exotic Fish Fishing Pond, yes that place with a mouthful name! Or NEFFP in short.

Up For The Challenge

Lure and fly fishing is usually challenging here as with all catch and release stocked ponds as fish gets wary of our fake baits. But overcoming the challenge is what us lure/fly fishers strive for.

When it all comes together, when a fish gets tricked into eating that fake offering, that eat-hookup moment must be felt to be truly savoured. Landing the fish is just a nice bonus after that.

Ready to Pop

NEFFP opened on that day at 7am. I went prepared with a few popper flies as I had a hunch maybe the fish will be obliging after being in “lockdown” themselves. They must have forgotten some things such as recognising fake baits.

Unfortunately when we arrived, and sort of expected but hoping I could be wrong, other anglers had the same idea although it was the middle of the week being a Wednesday.

Seeing other anglers around (mostly bait anglers) and already landing fish including the chaophraya fish, I decided to abandon my popper fly idea and went deep to increase my chances of at least getting onto some fish quickly. It’s hard to beat bait-fishing you know what I mean?

That’s one of the downside of fly fishing in NEFFP, very limited casting space.

After setting up the very affordable Fly Marque 11/12-weight rod (first time using that) with an old Sage reel loaded with 10-weight Rio Outbound Short line – I tied on a white streamer.

Chaophraya Chaos!

After a few cast something ate the fly during a moderate strip very aggressively. The fish came up at the far side and made a splash and it looked like a chaophraya – yes! One of the most-sought after target species here due to their size, power and aggressiveness.

At the very first run the Sage reel knob came flying off the handle! The fast spinning bare stem put a cut into my knuckle. Ouch!

I was lucky to be able to quickly pickup the knob from the ground and insert it back. It had to pull it out every time the fish made a run or I might loose the the knob again.

Very affordable fly rod but gets the job done nicely

That made things slightly more challenging but the extra handle on the Fly Marque rod was great for fighting heavy hard pulling fish like this.

After a couple of minutes the fish was netted and a few quick photos taken.

That extra handle grip on the rod sure is a nice thing to have when fighting hard pulling fish

The chaophraya fish or giant pangasius is possibly the most aggressive of the shark catfish family (Pangasiidae). Native to the Chaophraya and Mekong basin, they are also called the dog eating catfish for reasons I don’t know!

Full grown chaophraya fish can reach 3 meters and weigh 300kg!

Watch this video of Alan with a monster chaophraya fish some years ago

During our short 2+ hours fishing session that morning I easily witnessed 10 or more chaophraya fish landed, most on bait but a few on lures including at least one on a popper and another on a stickbait. Nice!

We could also see chaophraya fish rising on the surface all morning.

Nick, too had a chaophraya fish and Tuz had a couple of battles but unfortunately lost all the fish.

The amazon redtail pulls like a truck but not aggressive and quick like the chaophraya

NEFFP has the reputation of big exotic fish and that’s their pull

More and more anglers was streaming in and we called it a day early after a couple of fish landed and some lost ones.

I was surprised to see how many chaophraya fish there was in this place and am quite sure there could be quite a few more not getting caught.

Too bad I didn’t get to attempt on getting one on the popper fly. Might have to wait for the next pandemic!

Read our post on other places to fish in Malaysia.

Epic Weekend with Captain Elliot (Using the Nautilus Silver King and Sage Motive for Sailfish on the Fly)

kuala rompin

Elliott took the opportunity to fish the July weekend while on a working visit with Shimano to Malaysia and Singapore.

A really nice guy and being an avid fly fisher his main desire is to catch a sailfish on the fly. Rompin offers him a great opportunity to do so according to him as compared to where he was at the time.

Rough and Slow

There actually wasn’t too many fish out there on the first day but most sailfish that we raised were HOT and exactly the type that will usually bite! We had a promising start as early as 10AM when we raised a sailfish that chased the teaser to the back of the boat.

I called for the cast and voila!, a barracuda came out of nowhere for the fly and ate it!

This is not the first time this has happened, leading in a sailfish and pulling out a barracuda instead.

For the next five hours we only saw two fish come up to the teaser. Out of that two, one followed but did not result in a shot. Slow day at the office till that stage.

Watch the action in this video

Party Time

Someone let the dogs out at 3pm and things just lit up!

First at 3pm, we had two fish going after both sets of teasers. Both fish came in hot, a cast was called and Elliott made the shot.

It wasn’t the perfect execution but the fish was all lit up and went around a couple of times behind the boat.

That sailfish actually stayed behind the boat for nearly 5 minutes!

The fly was presented a couple of times but there was no eat, there was maybe a bump. A fish that hot should have normally eaten the fly but things don’t always work out like we want them to.

Elliott is excited now.

Closer

15 minutes after that two hot fish, we raised another hot fish. A shot was made and this fish ate the fly, more than once. The fish took off, line spilled out from the reel but somehow it came off. Aaargh!

All that excitement got Elliott and the crew really pumped up.

And Closer

Another 15 minutes later the third hot fish appeared all of a sudden and the teaser was quickly retrieved and a cast was made.

Elliott adapted quickly and put his new learned skills to good use. This fish ate the fly but somehow dropped it and came back for seconds.

Elliott gave the line a couple of good hard yanks and the fish took off, literally. And this time everything was looking good – and the sailfish spits the fly out. Bummer!

Things quietened down after that. The wind started to pickup. We raised a couple more good fish, made three more casts but they were not hot fish like the earlier ones.