Fishing at Kapar Hydro Power Plant

Last weekend (12 April 2008), Navin, George and myself went fishing at the Kapar Hydro Power Plant in Klang. The organizer for this trip was George. For your information, George is Navin's new fishing buddie. This would be my first trip with George.

As usually when fishing with Navin is involved, our plans NEVER start on time. I was supposed to meet Navin at his place at 6.30 am and then proceed to fetch George and then shoot of to Klang to get some live prawn to be used as bait. We only left Taman Desa at 7.00 am. We drove straight to Klang to get our supply for live prawns but to our surprise, the pond that we usually buy our baits looked lifeless. We then proceed to the shacks nearby to inquire about the prawns and to our shock, we were told that there were no live prawns to be sold. According to him, the salinity of the water is not conducive to real prawns. What a start to our fishing.. No live prawns to be used as bait. We had not anticipated for this to happen. We also didn't have any bait with us as had relied on the availability of the live prawns.

We then decided to drive to the jetty to hoping that the boatman would be able to source some bait for us. On the way there, we took a few wrong turns and what was supposed to be a short 30 minute drive became a 2 hour drive (including time stop for breakfast). We were supposed to be at the jetty by 9.00 am but only arrived there at 9.30 am.

According to Navin, George had arranged for a covered boat that would take us to a spot where we would be able to land golden snapper (jenanak), groupers (kerapu) and ikan merah. When Navin told me that we would be fishing for these fish in water around Port Klang, I laughed. These are top quality fish and to get them so close to the shore where pollution is really bad is truly a miracle. Nevertheless, I gamely accepted this challenge and came prepared. Once we arrived at the jetty, the boat that was made ready for us was a fibreglass boat with 30HP engine and NO covers at all. Looks like we are gonna get roasted today. At that point of time, we were contemplating calling of the trip as nothing has gone right since the time we left our homes. Since we were already there, we decided to proceed anyway.

:::... George with his pose ...:::

:::... Navin applying some sunblock ...:::

:::... Me chilling in front of the boat ...:::

We loaded all our stuff onto the boat and then made our way to our first spot. All of us rigged our bait in anticipation for a golden snapper. Navin and myself continued to tease George as he was the one that said that we would be able to get golden snappers here. Instead of golden snapper, what we got were some bronze croakers (gelama) nibbling on our bait. Seeing this, I decided to change my rig to a smaller hook and then decided to fish for some croakers (gelama) instead. The moment I had changed my rig, I immediately register some solid hook up. Well better than nothing....

After spending some time at the first location, we then proceed to move closer to the Power Plant structure. At this new spot, the bites were more frequent. I managed to land some more small bronze croakers (gelama) and a small sting ray (ikan tuka), Navin managed to land some gelama pisang and George managed to land an ikan duri and a small tuka.

:::... George with his ikan duri ...:::

As midday approached, the sun became unbearable. The boatman suggested that we fish from underneath the power plant structure. He said the structures had a lot of senangin (threadfins). We all agreed and proceeded to fish from under the structure.

Once we got under the structure, it was such a relieve to be away from the sun. We all fished from under the structures for about 3 hours but the only catch that we managed to land were some small gelama and puffer fish.

:::... The view from under the structure ...:::

:::... Underneath Kapar Hydro Power Plant ...:::

As the catch below the power plant was not so good, we decided to switch spot again. At the new spot, gelama was again the main attraction. We fished there for about 2 hours. It was during this time that George became the star of the day and silenced both Navin and myself. He has been patiently sitting in one corner and had been constantly casting and changing his bait.

We had about 30 minutes of fishing left when George got a strike on his rod. He gave a strike and in an instant, his rod took a massive bend. His drag was screaming. The fight lasted about 10 minutes and as the fish got closer to the boat, we saw a silver flash. The boatman immediately yelled "SENANGIN..!!!" After a brief fight, the fish was successfully landed.

George had a big smile on his face. The fish weighed 2 kg. What a catch for George.

:::... George the Cowboy in action ...:::

:::... Easy does it ...:::

:::... George in full concentration ...:::

:::... Closer... Closer ....:::

:::... Almost there George ...:::

:::... George with his 2 kg Senangin ...:::

After that, we fished for a while more and then proceeded back to shore. George was smiling all the way back to shore. At least he managed shut Navin and myself up.