DAM YOU!

Since the last installment on ultralight freshwater fishing, it's time to kick it up a notch and travel inland to a far remote impoundment for some bigger game. It was exciting time, as this was a highly anticipated recce trip to determine fishing condition of an impoundment rumored to hold high quantities of jungle perch or sebaraus.

New Geecrack Bakkan bag on the ready.

It was dark when we reached the ferry point to take us to the boat house.

The morning scene that greeted us, which we hoped was a good sign as the rain the night before could do well to screw up the fishing. 

As expected, the torrential downpour caused the rivers to turn into rapids. Water clarity was low, and so was our hope. Nevertheless, we made do on the first day. 

Casting around the nearby snags yielded a solid surface strike. 

Nice one and a half pounder. Not big, but the hit was strong and hard which tested the Majorcraft Go Emotion rod. 

On the Jackson RA Pop. 

Golden Catfish (baung) really liking the Zipbaits B-Switcher. 

Snakehead taken on IMA Sobat.

Tracking upstream only yielded a few smaller ones.

The Jackson Artist FR80 worked really well in fast flowing water, able to hold steady with wide, side to side, erratic actions and not tumble around during fast retrieve. Truly a gem to work with. 

Evening saw us relaxing on the floating deck with beers and peanuts waiting for smoked sebarau to be done. Magical.

Heavens behold. Good weather!

With mists still hanging above the waters, we headed to a nearby spot thinking we can warm up with a few casts and head off further north to explore. How wrong we were...

Two cast in and we were into double hookups!

My triple whammy of one, two and three stripers complete with this healthy 2 striper taken in swirling waters!

On the Jackall Bros. Squad Shad.

Two more casts and the Squad Shad got another strong hit. Go Emotion rod really handling it well.

Changing to another favourite, the sebaraus started lining up for a taste of the IMA Ligid.

One.....

After....

Another.

Majorcraft Giant Killing, bit of an "over-(giant)-kill".

Megabass Orochi X4 and Imakatsu Crank combo for a nice, fat fish.

It was a never ending frenzy which lasted for almost 2 hours before we decided to move on.

A macabre scene, with dead trees sticking out of the water everywhere.

The sun was merciless, but this rare phenomenon of a visible halo around the sun was to be a good omen. 

Or so we thought...

With an area the size of Singapore, any excitement in doing a recon trip turned to pure boredom as we searched miles and miles for potential fishing spots. 

After a few hours of unsuccessful searching, we return back to the first spot and resume this morning's track record. First to greet us was this teen fish taken on a Jackall Bros. DD Squirrel 67.

Continued success with the Squirrel.

When the fishes got a little spooked it was time to change to something more natural with subtler actions.

The DUO Realis Shad twitched at the edge of flotsam couldn't be resisted by this small guy.

 Marvellous catch as this lure was taken once it hits the water. 

This Zipbaits Khamsin was also taken on entry but not exactly what I had hoped for.

Rain eventually came and blanketed the whole lake, which put a stop to our great streak. 

Optimism was high the next morning as a pretty lil' butterfly greeted us on this snazzy Geecrack bag.

Picking up where we left of.

On a Jackall Bros DD Squirrel.

Ask us if we're tired and we'll just bite down harder on our Majorcraft Soipara, and smile with another fish in hand.

Lure of choice is the other gold Jackall Bros. sibling, the Squad Shad 65.

An explosive take on a high speed pencil bait.

When the noon sun rose up, the fishes went deeper, and stayed around covers, so it was time to breakout the mini jigs.

 IMA Gunpeki worked along rock walls were the go to methods when targeting the fishes hiding deep.

Even the normally herbivorous tengalan (tengadak) couldn't resist the attractive darting of the IMA Gun.

Jigging a mini vibe like this DUO Bivi attracted a gold cat to go for it while on the drop.

Calling an end to this great trip where we enjoyed great fishing, great companies, amazing sceneries and a chance to use a myriad of lures to target them fishies. After all, this is what Tackle Fever is all about.