Half Beaks Hunting

It has been a while since I last fish for half beaks, almost a full year ago. As they comes near to our mainland shoreline in huge numbers for a short 3 months period or so, it is usually a case of catching them when they are around. Myself and DesT decided to hunt them before they are gone from our shore line.

Arrangement are made the day before the trip, my hands are itching for some action as we noticed that the half beaks are still around just a couple of days ago.  However, this trip almost didn't happen as while we are having breakfast on the day of this trip, we notice the weather isn't too good, slight overcast with a chance of raining.  With a heavy heart, we gave up the thought of going fishing and started to have a chat and have more kopi and teh.  I think mother nature took pity on us, as the sun came out blazing in the late morning, with hunting season coming to a close and with itchy hands, common sense are thrown out of the window and we decided to go half beak hunting.

Beginner Guide to start fishing

At tackle shop, whenever I manage to pick up a conversation between a newbie fisho and the tackle shop assistant, it is usually an interesting barrage of questions answered by some technical answers. I wonder at times how much can a newbie picks up these info and the frustration felt. Of course I can sense the frustration of the tackle shop assistant when these newbies are asking how to catch BIG fishes (maybe to impress the girl girl they are bringing along for the fishing trip), it's like trying to run before one learn to walk.
As a matter of fact when I started fishing, my dad is always around to help me. He is a fisho too, and he will prepare everything I need for me and more. But in those days, money is hard to come by, we fish the most traditional way, handline on pier and lakes. Only in my twenties, then I started to fish with fishing rods and reels, and started a new chapter of learning on fishing once again. Allow me to share with you what I have learnt so far and to explain as much as I can the simple basic fishing methods.
Let's start off with the most essential items, the rod and reels.  I will start with the most 2 common form of fishing locally, inshore baiting and light luring.

Accessories for Prawning

I feel the need to know more about prawning after my virgin experience at doing prawn fishing.

Please do not misunderstood that suddenly, I became an expert in prawning and now telling you how to do prawning. What I am trying to achieve is to share what I have learnt while talking to other fisho who like prawning, and hopefully newbies and fisho ,who are as clueless as me when it comes to prawning, can come to grasp with the concept without tearing out one's hair.

Although I have very limited experience in prawning, but with my noodle rod and limited pole fishing experience, I felt that it is actually not as difficult as I thought it would be.

Back to main discussion topics, this post will be more applicable to those who already own or intend to buy their own prawning rod. As usually the house rod is 'ready to go', there's not much things you can do to it.

First of course is the rod selection, some like soft tip while some like it stiff. After asking around, it seems that most actually prefer a soft tip. No idea why, could be because it is more forgiving and gives you a better sensation while fighting the prawns. I have been told to use soft tip rods if I am to do SW prawning, as they are more alert and frisky then their FW cousin. Length wise will depends on which pond you frequent, choose one that suit the pond.

Next if the main line, if you have some spare light poundage superline use them, be it fireline, power pro, etc. The lightest poundage is enough. Although it is just a short length, it does makes a different to me at least, in fact I am surprised that it did make a difference. Should you do not have any light poundage superline around, when you purchase your rod, ask the tackle shop if they can spare you some. I do know some tackle shops do give it to their customer when they buy prawning rods from them.
As a guide, the length of the main line, plus swivel, plus the hook rig should not be longer then the extended rod. This will make it easy for you to handle the prawn when you have lift it out of the water.

Prawning floats, that small tiny tear drop shaped float as shown in the pic above. Obviously, not all floats are created equally, in fact they come in different sizes / buoyancy, it is usually stated by a number on the float itself for the better quality ones. Unlike mine which is a cheapo version, there is no number indicator on it.
Once you have rigged up, and place the entire rig into the pond, the float should be resting between the 2 blacks lines, at the top of the float, at the water surface. Too much of the float above the water surface, the resistance of the float gives might cause the prawn to let go of the bait. Too little of it above the water, it get too sensitive that the water current might fool you to think a prawn is taking the bait. Do stock up some in different buoyancy, as on different day the water condition might be differs slightly.

Use the smallest swivel you can find, the swivel gives it the required weight to sink downwards and easy for you to change the hooks should you need to easily. Before you secure the swivel, make sure you have the float stopper on the main line before you secure it. I dun have any float stopper to show the pics, basically it look like a short length of rubber tubing.

Prawns hooks are available in most tackle shops, they look like circle hooks. Gone were the days where the ultra tiny hooks are used, these new designed hooks makes it easier to remove the prawns once they are caught. However, I learn that sometimes those tiny hooks are still being used once a while by some prawning fisho, might be on slow biting days, something I have yet to discover. Hooks are usually available tied and ready at the pond, just asked the pond operator for it.

In case if you wonder if I have incorrectly include the lead weight in the pic, I have not. This is the last tiny bit of tips I wish to share. This is a fast and easy method to measure the depth of the pond, simply hook the lead weight to the hook and chuck it into the pond to adjust the position of the float. Really quick and effective way to measure the depth if you keep moving around the pond.

Virgin experience - Newbie 1st try at FW Prawning

For all the fishing I have tried before, fishing for prawn is something I have never ever try before.  Although I have learn from other anglers about the art of prawn fishing, I have never ever tried it until today.  Alas, no longer a prawning virgin already.

In fact, it is something I didn't setup to do, it just happen. I am at the Taman Jurong Pond to pass time with a friend, then met some other fisho friends as well, who are into prawning. As usual, started talking about fishing stuff and inadvertently about prawning, one of them is a prawning fanatic at this pond and share with me some tips and show me a few tricks as well. Since he intend to do some prawn fishing, I shamelessly asked to tag along to learn more about the feeding pattern, when to set hook, where to hunt etc.  And yes I do learn a lot and managed to catch some prawns when I tried using his setup with guidance.  I am very very impressed with his catch, he is still fishing (albeit finishing soon) when I left and he have already catch an estimated 50pcs of prawns, pic shown are just part of his catch which he gave to me.  In the pic there are 30 prawns (yes yes, I counted them), plus the smaller 1st batch he gave away too, that comes up to an estimate of 50pcs.

CR - 1 hour Quickie at Taman Jurong Pro Pond

Ever since I knew more about rubbers lures and how effective it is at the Taman Jurong Pro Pond, I always recommend fisho I know to try out rubber at the pro pond.  After a long long break, I visited the pond 2 weeks back with a non-fishing friend, not to fish but to watch EPL at the little pub there.  As the water is very clear that night, I can see a few schools different species of fishes they released (KBL, Taiwan Ngor and MJ).  Notice that the KBL are of decent sizes, 1kg+ and saw a 2kg+ one too, I find that odd as usually they release 700g to 800g KBL only.  However, with 5 rods at that time and all using live prawn, I didn't see anyone catching any fish.  So sent as SMS to a fellow fisho who like to fish at this pond, telling him the KBL at the pro pond have grown cause no one is catching them.

This evening, fisho friend called me telling me he wanted to go take a look at the pond as he have not been there for a while, so off we go with no fishing gear.  But I brought along two 1/8 oz jig head and some rubbers, in case of zero fighter newbies who need to bring at least one fish home, I can give them the stuff to try.  After a while, friend get really itchy as he didn't fish for a while, and after seeing that I brought the rubbers, he decided to pay for an hour of fishing using their house rod.

After a very short session, he decided to take a smoke and pass the rod to me to have a go, a couple of cast later, I got my first hook up, but alas, jerky drag plus entangle with another angler's line make me lost the fish and also the jig head.  Damn, now left with only one jig head for the rest of the session, thus we decided to go for high drag setting and hopefully bring in the fishes fast to reduce the chance of line out situation.

Friend landed 2 fish shortly, one KBL and one MJ, and after that I have a go, I simply cannot believe that I have 7 takes and zero hook up and friend got 2 to 3 takes and also zero hook up.  However, we both ended the one hour session pretty satified with the bite rate, but non too happy about the hook up rate.  I think the jig head hook got blunt after the 2nd fish is landed, this unable to increase the hook up rate.  But nevertheless, it still prove to us that rubbers work well at the pro pond.

Tips

Bring your own tackle, their reels is in real need to service and have the drag system changed. Drag is jerky, and is either low or very high setting, not good at all.

Use rubber with good tail action, commonly found rubbers like Sure Catch, Angler's Pal, White Rabbit are okay, but the material is a bit hard, trim the section between body and tail thinner to achieve better tail action; Without good tail action, catch rate is significantly reduced. Remove the bottom triple hook as well, snag too easily as the strike zone is just above the bottom of the pond; Best are those soft unweighted rubber to be used with jig head, can use as it is with good tail action.

Tips - Kelong Fishing @ Sibu Kelongs

A kelong visit with family or friends are always an enjoyable trip, to enjoy the outdoor, sea breeze, blazing hot sun, sea all around.  These days the kelongs found in Sibu Malaysia are converted into a family resort style, no longer used to haul in fishes from the net.  To spare you the agony of reading the history of kelongs, google for more info.

Back to fishing, whenever I visit kelong it is generally to fish.  Heck, what could an angler ask for when he is surrounded by sea? So what can you expect to catch from a 'hut in the middle of the sea'?

What I can share with you is what I have learn from fellow anglers, who so unselfishly shared their knowledge with me. I should now in turn share with you almost everything I know about fishing at these beautiful kelongs, except for some closely guarded rigs which I am not suppose to share openly without their permission.

Instead of telling you what rig to prepare for a kelong trip, allow me to do things a little bit different here.  I will put up some different species of commonly found fishes and the method to fish for them.  There are usually hundreds of method to fish, and as a matter of fact I am still learning as always.  But these are my usual methods whenever I want to specifically target for a certain species.  Most method are using baits instead of artificial lures, as I am not experience in luring and kelong are a pretty tough place to lure due to the height where we will be fishing.

Comments are always welcome!!!