Just a normal day at Ayer Kuning. The lake was quite low and dry.
My second trip to Ayer Kuning with Robert turned out to be slightly better
for the both of us. As usual, Robert took the spotlight. He caught most of the
peacocks. It was only my second trip to Ayer Kuning which then I'd began to fall
in love with. I just couldn't get enough of the peacocks (someone help me). As
with the last trip, the lake was quite low. The lack of rainfall didn't helped
at all. However, we were glad that 'our' boat was still waiting for us on that
day.
The morning started quite well, I landed another of my personal best peacocks
near from fish traps at the far corner of the lake. By then, Robert had already
landed quite a few. If it was not for the Tacklehouse Nector minnow that I
borrewed from Robert, I would have probably blanked in the morning half of the
day (talk about fishing skills or the lack of it).
My 2nd personal best peacock on a Tacklehouse Necton minnow
By mid-day, I decided that it's about time my then stock Pixy had a proper
peacock workout. I must say, the stock drag is rather useless. To sum it up, it
was hopeless. I was actually glad that I didn't actually hooked on anything
larger than this medium size peacock. Otherwise, I might need a line cutter. Not
long after, Robert was celebrating his first. but this time, it was something
out of the ordinary. It was a catfish!
A first for my Pixy. For once, I was actually glad to have caught a fish of this size, otherwise... (Clue-1: stock Pixy drag)
A first for Robert. A catfish on a Duel Zombie crank. Well, not from cranking but from trolling!
After a mostly productive day, for Robert at least, we manage to save the best for last. First, while we were casually trolling a Luckycraft Classical leader
deep diving crackbait, a Toman came from possibly deep down below and devoured
the lure. Weirdly, it missed the lure on its first attempt and came back for a
second attempt. Next, I was hooked on to a torpedo. On the tackle I was using
then (St Croix Premier medium light 6-10lb fast action with a Calcutta 50XT
spooled with 10lb Fins PRT braided line), I barely had any control over the
fish. If it was not for Robert's boating skills, the fish would have probably
snagged us long ago. After a long 10 minutes, we manage to boat the fish. It
tipped the digital scales at 5.5kg, which isn't bad for a toman from Ayer Kuning.
Don't do this anywhere else... I say this because I've tried doing the same thing at Air Ganda a few years ago
(and btw, that's supposed to be a fast tapered rod?).
Monster on a Luckycraft Classical leader crank anyone? (who's going to Air Ganda)
10 mins of hard wrist work. So much for short grips. The fish was released
unharmed.
Now, did we save the best for last. You bet. We didn't even have to catch this giant big head
Asian carp (a non-indigenous species in Malaysia). On our way back whilst
trolling long, I hooked onto something which initially felt like a piece of log.
But this was a moving log. It was a very slow but strong swimmer. All it wants
to do was go deep. Again, if it was not for Robert's skills and patience, we
might not even see the fish, let alone boat it. This was a really long and
strenuous fight. I am not kidding. On light tackle, something like this could
send you to a session's physiotherapy. In all, the fight
lasted a good 20 mins. For safety purposes, we decided not to weigh the fish was
it looked to be very tired. After a quick photo, it was released unharmed. Well
then, that's all for this trip. How I wished something like this could happen
more often (dream on...)
Now that's something you don't see everyday. A big head alien!
