An e-mail from mangrooveDan.....

I received an e-mail from my friend mangrooveDan from Kuching, Sarawak. This is what he had to say.....

"guys, i caught my first wild siakap with lure, today. all 2.5kg of pure strength and beauty. u all must be wondering... "bladdy ell, this guy no need to work on a tuesday kah?". well, for those of you that has yet to be informed, i have now been posted to a site. site location should remain confidential, but all i can say is that it's near pasir pandak, which is where i caught the fish. as for you smart alec, no, the fish is not from the pasir pandak salt water pond.

i went there to cast after finish inspecting the site. used my normal setup, abu d5 6600 baitcasting reel coupled with 2 piece team seahawk light casting rod and a "cipalang" 4" lure. in less than 15 minutes, i hooked up the baby. my initial thought was that i had "sangkut" to some underwater snag. then suddenly the "sangkut" started to veered to the right and the 14lb berkley ironsilk line started to peel out of the abu. i tightened the drag a little and started a tug of war with the yet unseen opponent. it must have been just a few minutes but it felt like ages. soon a silver gleam can be seen using my polaroid sunglasses. it was a siakap... and a huge one (my standard) it was. my thought now was, how to land the trophy fish? i had nothing with me and the fish was trashing.

thankfully, a mamak on motorbike passed by and i asked for his help to hold my rod. the fish by now was next to a muddy shoreline. i ran back to the car and got a pair of pliers. came back to the location and climbed down 2-3m of retaining gabion wall to the now exhausted fish. i secured the pliers on the lips of the siakap and pulled it further inland. i dun remember how many times i must have thanked the mamak. soon he left and i climbed back up and rushed to my car. thankfully there was a camera in my car. "now i have proof!!!"... i said to myself silently. took a few photographs and then a father and son on a motorbike came by.

the father was surprised with my catch. he lived around there and he said he has yet to see anyone caught anything that big around that area. he helped my open my plastic bag so that i can placed the trashing fish into it. if any of u ever catch a siakap, my advise is just to put the fish in the boot of the car. i had put mine in the passenger seat and i tell you, it can freak you out when it starts trashing in the car while you are driving. attached herewith are 3 photos taken at home. i will forward the rest of the pictures (taken at the location where the fish was caught) tomorrow. comments are welcome. cheers for reading."

mangrooveDan attached some pictures as well. Enjoy the pictures. Do take note at the treble hook on the lure. Must have been a strong fella.