This trip actually started because were supposed to bring a Malaysian boatman Temensis hunting and was planned for Thursday. Unfortunately, his Minister for Home Affairs advised him to come back as soon as possible so we decided to carry on regardless. Wednesday night came but we were both too tired so the trip was moved to Friday.
So when Friday came, we texted each other at about 5am and decided that the weather was too good to not sleep in. At about 9am we woke up from our deep slumber and agreed to meet in about an hour and by meet I mean I would drive to his place.
When I reached Nigel’s place, I stocked up at 7 11 and then we drove to the spot and started our journey.
I finally had a chance to use my waterproof backpack which I had purchased from the states. We were stuck in incredibly dense forest on our last trip and had to finally decide on swimming across a river if we were to make it out before dark. We spent about 45 minutes deciding on that course of action and scouting for suitable launching and landing sites and another hour to prepare ourselves and to ultimately build a mini raft out of just a few metres of fishing line, some twigs, 1 small 7 11 plastic bag, a tiny bit of leftover superglue, torn ziplock bags, a poncho (to consolidate our items and resist splashes) and two 1.5 litre mineral water bottles, one of which had no cap. All of this while we were already in bad shape. One torchlight had to be hospitalised because of the incident but has since recovered and 2 x 18650 lithium ion batteries left this place for a better world. Items saved without incident include but are not limited to handphones, cameras, batteries (including li-ions), a gps logger, diy battery chargers, cigarettes, lighters and some sugar-rich sustenance.
So.. er.. anyway, back to “today”.
We finally reached the spot close to noon. This time round, we decided to try tactical casting. The water at this spot was extremely shallow and not being visible to the fish made much more sense than at other spots. So we set up our gear at about 10 metres from the shore and tiptoed to the treeline about 5 metres from the shore. Nigel was the first to cast from behind a tree and within 2 seconds of his lure hitting the water he connected with an estimated 800 gram Temensis.
At that point, my lure still had not touched water. Pictures were taken and I reminded him to not release the fish until after I had cast. Within a second of my sasuke 105 hitting the water, I too connected with a fish. I striked 3 times in an attempt to set the hook (which I did not feel go in) but ultimately the fish got away. I estimated it to be about 600-800 grams.
About 3 minutes after that, we felt the usual signs of impending rain. Nigel, who had not brought a ziplock for his phone immediately requested that he be able to put his phone in my bag so I took it and put it in. Before I had even completed the task we felt the first raindrops fall. The rain was quite heavy for a jungle scenario but Nigel only decided a few minutes later to put his disposable poncho on.
The rain continued for almost half an hour. I was attempting to quit smoking/cut down so I had no cigarettes with me but I only felt the slightest bit of regret, much less than I had anticipated. With the rain continuing unabated, Nigel finally decided to try his luck by fishing at that super shallow spot but it ultimately proved fruitless.
When the rain had died down, we moved in and fished along the way until we noticed a new clearing in formerly thick brush with only two spots separating it from the first. Nigel suggested that I try that spot and so I did. On my second cast, my lure hit an adjacent tree. I managed to dislodge it but it kept falling from branch to branch until it was almost in front of me. At this point, I pulled the soft tree towards me while I reached out for the lure.
Not wanting to get hooked from a flying lure, I held on to the tip of my rod to steady the branch for me to grab it. I was not thinking straight and sure enough, I heard the infamous “piak” sound of a rod breaking into two.
At this point, I was felling numb either because it had not sunk in yet or perhaps because I managed to save my $30 lure…. and sacrificed my $30 5ft Seahawk Carbon Scorpion rod. Either way, I looked at the damage and decided that it was not as bad as the last time I broke a rod while luring and while far away from civilisation (my 3rd and last Shakespeare connoisseur). It broke just below the second last guide.
I patched it all up (without breaking the protruding part for some reason) and carried on but this time with a $5.50 Surecatch Ali-Magnet clone. You should usually break away the protruding end of the rod so that your line does not loop around it, something which I experienced throughout the rest of the day. You should only keep the protruding part if you intend to add a new final rod guide there and you should do that only if the protruding part is long enough and is not cracked.
By now, the rain had almost completely stopped and we moved on to the next spot and I was the first to cast out my lure. Half way through reeling it back in and on my first cast, I hooked up a good sized Temensis. I even managed to land it but the moment the fish hit the land it threw the hook and all within the span of 3 seconds, it was back in the water. Based on a later catch and estimations by Nigel as well, I estimate the fish was about 2Kg.
The rain had started again so we moved on to the next spot. Within a few casts, I hooked up a small Temensis on my broken rod which weighed in at about 800 grams.
I was so shocked to see a Surecatch lure hook up anything so quickly that I also took a close up shot of the lure with the fish.
After a while, we moved on and we fished at 2 separate spots. My spot was beautiful as I could cast almost completely to my left as well as to my right. After a few tries casting straight out, I tried casting to the right to bring my lure along some massive semi-submersed plants. On my second cast, I got a relatively huge hit just in front of those plants and my reel made sporadic screams. I caught just a glimmer of the fish as it surfaced and I immediately knew it was a big Temensis (at least based on my history with the fish) and immediately called out for help as in that split second, I believed that landing that fish on a broken rod would be both dangerous and risky (in terms of a successful landing). As Nigel came running over, the fish started to run back into the plants but I immediately put pressure on it. The fish managed to get in between some roots as well but because I kept the pressure on, it was not able to swim around in loops.
I gave some quick but strong tugs until the fish was yanked out into the open. You must remember that these obstacles were to my right but it was still far enough from my actual direct right that that any snags would have been fatal for my chances of a successful landing, especially with the unpredictability of a broken rod. I kept on reeling him in and whenever he would pull I would just hold my rod steady. Nigel reached my position just after the fish reached the shore and he quickly lifted him up with his boga.
The surecatch lure did it again, this time with a Temensis confirmed at 2.2Kg. This was my biggest Temensis and I was visibly excited.
Nigel helped me with the picture and went to continue fishing while I tried to dehook the fish. It took some effort especially with the fish trashing about but I was able to get it free. I put the fish back in the water and released the boga. The fish was upside down so I gently prodded him with the boga to right him up. It took a few deep breathes then gracefully swam away. I felt like we had an understanding. None of those quick trashy getaways that many other smaller fishes do. That was the best part of my day.
It had started drizzling again so we moved on to the log spot. After about 10 minutes, I hit up a massive fish but as I moved to strike, the line went slack. Almost instantly, we saw a massively long and wide trail of bubbles moving towards the river mouth. I instantly knew that it was a huge Toman but Nigel cautioned me that it could have been a massive Temensis. He said if a Temensis got hooked up on an isolated lure, it would start doing aerial acrobatics.
The signs of a Toman were there, bubbles, sharp teeth, etc…. but I still held my breathe that in the hopes that it was a Temensis jumping out of the water, I would have been able to see my escaped quarry. So we watched the river but saw nothing. That was the last time that I used my xZoga 20lb camo leader to tie any rigs and the second last time I used it in any of my terminals. The line will actually stretch when you pull on it to tighten knots. The knot had apparently been bitten through.
Shortly after this, the rain started coming down hard yet again and my totally waterproof raincoat could not cope with the humidity and so although it kept the rain out, I was still pretty wet underneath. Because I had to attend a birthday celebration at 6pm, we started to make our way back at about 3pm.
We stopped off at the usual spots and tried the spot where I had caught my 2Kg Temensis but alas nothing appeared to dry our sorrows. The rain was coming down too hard for any fish to be interested.
I took a picture with flash on to demonstrate how heavy the rain was. You must remember that this is the jungle and that rain looks less harsh when inside so for it to look this heavy here, the rain was pretty harsh. On the bright side, there was little wind and almost non existent lightning.
After about 10 minutes of inactivity we moved back to the wide spot and fished. Within minutes, Nigel connected with a good sized gourami (on lure!) but it threw the hook as it jumped out of the water as if to stare Nigel down. Nigel tried his lure a few more times but it was to no avail.
With the rain still beating down, we dismantled everything and started the long walk back along trails that had now become small rivers. Home for Nigel and Changi Village for me.
Known lures used:
Sasuke 105 (1 fish)
Surecatch $5.50 Ali-Magnet clone (3 + 1 fish) Dark orange top + gold everything else
Setup:
Seahawk Carbon Scorpion 5Ft (~$30) + Ryobi Zauber loaded with 15lbs Jerry Brown Industrial One.
Terminal:
xZoga 20lb camo leader with a loop knot (non slip mono loop/non slip loop knot) (not rapala knot which has an extra step) at swivel and snap ends.
Sasami 20Kg swivel to join main line and leader and Angler’s Pal Snap at the end of the leader.