Pekan is the royal town of Pahang, Malaysia. It is situated 45 km south of the current state capital of Kuantan, near the coast of South China Sea and on the southern bank of Pahang River. The royal town of Pekan get its name from a flower called Bunga Pekan. Pekan is also the name of the district the town in situated in and a parliamentary constituency in its own right. It is the home of the state's royal family headed by Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Abu Bakar Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mu'adzam Shah. It is also the hometown of the second Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and the current deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Najib is also Pekan's current Member of Parliament. (
Source : Wikipedia).
After our previous trip to
Pulau Jarak, Tang took the initiative to organize another trip to Pekan. Our target fish for this trip would be the
Diamond Trevally or Ebek as it is locally known. Even way before any confirmation was given by all the anglers involved, Tang had CLEARLY stated that we are going during the tail end of the monsoon season and we might all end up not fishing at all. Personally, I would like to commend Tang for this little disclaimer. Why? Detail will be known later.
The total anglers for this trip would be 10 people. They are Tang, Jimmy, KK Ho, Mahadzhir, Derick, Mahadzhir friend, Johnny plus 2 other friends from Australia and myself. We all left Kuala Lumpur on Friday night, leaving in 4 cars. The journey to Pekan would take about 3.5 hours and the weather condition all the way there was rainy. We arrived at Pekan at about 1.30 am and then proceeded to a stall to have some grilled fish. After eating, we then proceeded to head towards Ikan Masin's (our boatman) house. After unloading our stuff, we then spent some time talking to Ikan Masin and he again repeated his disclaimer. He said the winds are strong and the sea condition was rough. We might not be able to go out to fish at all. It all depends on the weather condition in the morning. Having said that, he retired to bed and all of us spent some time talking before retiring to bed as well.
The next morning, we woke up to the sounds of rain falling on the roof. Looks like it's gonna be a bad day for fishing. After a quick shower, we then proceeded to a nearby stall to have our breakfast. During this time, the rain got heavier and the winds picked up. Seeing this, all of us decided to get raincoats. After breakfast, we went to the jetty to wait for the rain to stop.
:::... Waiting at the jetty for the rain to stop ...:::
:::... Waiting at the jetty ...:::
:::... Restless ...:::
:::... Weather condition at the jetty ...:::
:::... Heavy Rain ...:::At about 10.oo am, there was still a slight drizzle, but we decided to go ahead and load our stuffs onto the boat. By 10.30 am, we were on our way out to sea. Finally things were starting to look up for us.
:::... Our boat for fishing ...:::
:::... Loading our stuff into the boat ...:::
::... KK Ho and myself ...:::
:::... Still raining ...:::
:::... Dark Clouds ...:::
:::... Overcast skies ...:::We arrived at the river mouth and immediately there was a feeling that we might not be able to make it out to sea. The waves were high. about 2.5 - 3 m high. We had earlier divided ourselves into 2 separate teams traveling in 2 separate boats. The lead boat made the first attempt to clear the waves and our boat followed behind. The sea was rough and the conditions were bad. My hats off to the boatman for being able to control his boat. After several attempts, the boatman decided that it was too dangerous to proceed. With that decision made, we all headed back to shore.
:::... High waves at the sea ...:::
:::... Roller coaster ride ...:::
:::... Compare the boat size to the wave on the right ...:::
:::... Still attempting ...:::
:::... The part where the river meets the sea ...:::
:::... Going back to the jetty ...:::The rest of the day was spent sleeping, eating, talking, drinking and watching so fishing DVD. We all hoped the next day would be a better day.
The next day (Sunday, 2 March 2008) we woke up to sunny day. There was no rain. Our spirits soared. After a quick shower, we loaded our stuffs into the car. As we were preparing to leave, another group of angler who was with us received a phone call from Ikan Masin. Bad news...!!!! The waves were about 5 m high making it extremely dangerous to go out to fish.
So there you have it... That was basically our fishing in Pekan. In the end, we went there to chill and relax in a cowboy town. No fishing whatsoever. Luckily we had a great bunch of people for company.
We spent some time in Ikan Masin's house and at about 11.00 pm, we decided to head back to KL. On the way back, we stopped at Bentong, Pahang for lunch. After lunch, we went to a paypond nearby just to have a look at the pond. When we got there, we all decided to fish for a while. We were quite lucky as KK Ho had some Soft Plastic with him. We rigged our rods and then proceeded to fish.
After an hour, I managed to get a hookup. It was a small snakehead (haruan). Yes..!!!! My first fish on Soft Plastic. KK HO got a hit as well. He was using worms as bait. It was a small featherback (belida).
:::... My baby haruan on Soft Plastic ...:::
:::... KK Ho with his belida ...:::After that, we all decided to head back to KL.
:::... Tools needed : Hollow braids, dental floss, jigging hook, solid ring, splicing needle, super glue and sharp scissors ...:::
:::... First determine the length of the hollow braid needed ...:::
:::... The next item needed is the splicing needle ...:::
:::... Insert the needle thru the hollow braid ...:::
:::... This is how it looks like as the needle go thru the hollow braid ...:::
:::... Punch thru at the desired length ...:::
:::... Next, put in a solid ring and open the splicing needle as shown in the picture above ...:::
:::... Put one end of the braid into the open hook and close the hook to form a circle ...:::
:::... Slowly pull the needle out. Make sure that the end of the braid goes into the hollow braid ...:::
:::... Gently easy out the splicing needle ...:::
:::... This is how it should look like once the needle is about to exit the braid ...:::
:::... This is how it looks like once the splicing needle has been removed ...:::
:::... The solid ring is now in place ...:::
:::... This is how it should look like once the splicing has been done ...:::
:::... Next, take a jigging hook and poke it thru the braid like the picture shown above ...:::
:::... Gently work the braid till it reaches the eye of the hook ...:::
:::... This is how it looks like once it is at the eye of the hook ...:::
:::... Take some dental floss and make a few wraps around the hook and braid material ...:::
:::... Cut off the excess dental floss material ...:::
:::... Put some super glue to the dental floss to make it stronger ...:::
:::... This is how the hook looks like when it is done ...:::
:::... This is how the loop and the solid ring looks like when it is done ...:::
:::... All done ...:::
