Belum Fishing Trip Part III - The Fight

The boatman's style for the first 2 hours of the day was to bring us to a spot he knew/thought (we don't know which!) there were fish, but as there were absolutely no action, he changed tactics after lunch. He cruised at a slower speed, keeping his eyes peeled for surface disturbances. We caught on after a while and eagerly followed his example. There were 2 or 3 times when he spotted something that was probably a toman surfacing and drew our attention to it. He would then stop the engine and tell us to cast in that direction. We did our best to cajole whatever was out there to sample our lures but was disappointed every time.

No fish, so we enjoyed the view instead...

The weather was hot and the air was still, but we pushed on. Eventually, we spotted a 'boiling' effect that was larger than any of the surface actions encountered earlier. Instead of a lone fish, this was a group of babies and when there's babies, the mama should be near!

With the possibility of a big fish nearby, we renewed our efforts enthusiastically. Unfortunately our lures did not seem 'delicious-looking' enough for them. The group ignored us totally. There were several times that the 'boiling' shifted a few metres and each time the boatman, not wanting to scare the fish off, used his wooden paddle to shift us near again.

Orang Asli kampong - we passed by quite a few of these.

Frustrated with what seemed like a good chance slipping through our fingers, we decided to change the lures. All of a sudden, everything changed. There was a tap and one of the baby tomans had finally decided to bite! The baby was too small to put up a fight, so we quickly reeled it in and released it unharmed. The same thing happened again on the second cast of that lure! Sad to say, this one was injured badly as one of the treble hooks had pierced its belly. :( The boatman decided to keep it as he thought the fish would likely not survive.

1st fish of the day - Toman baby.

We were wondering where the mama was and wasn't she supposed to be aggressively protecting her babies when there was a big tug on the line. ZZZZZ.... Mama mia! The fish was finally irritated enough to chomp on the lure. It was quite fun fighting the mama on a Shimano Clarus and Daiwa Freams Kix 1500, as the angry fish put up a fight first by swimming away, then by dashing under the boat a couple of times.

When the fish was landed, the boatman made an amazingly accurate guess of its weight - 6 kg! After photo-taking, the mama was then released to be reunited with her babies.

We continued trying to lure in other areas after that, but with no result. Well, we would have to be satisfied with this one and only significant catch from Belum Rainforest, Perak, Malaysia!

Our toman catch against the backdrop of Belum Rainforest.