Snake head....Not that easy

Yesterday, I went to somewhere near Bukit Merah lake, Perak, there was a stream, black water, flowing through oil palm plantation, i tried casting there, i used fake frog, for so many casts, not even a bite , but i can see fish movements everywhere. How come??? a worker at the plantation passed by and had a chat, he said this place is full of haruans 2 to 3 kgs is not uncommon. He always fish here and always get fish. he uses live frogs. How come??? i dont even get a bite...hahaha

This is my first attempt for snakeheads, its a failure. hahaha....
I will get back there and hopefully get my first snakehead......
i think there is something with the fake frog..haha

My next target fish , a snake head, and Spanner Barb

When i was fishing for spotted barbs at Sungai Air terjun, i saw a few good size haruan (Channa sp.), one uncle walking by the river told me to try for that fish, with frogs, and i thought it would be fun, hahaha.

The next fish, Spanner Barb, (Puntius lateristriga), according to what i have read, I can't find this fish in Penang Island. So, I will try at mainland.

of Spotted Barbs and Wild Carps

It has been my dream to catch a lot of spotted barbs(Puntius binotatus)since I was a kid. (Not a great dream, I know, I was a kid ma)(haha). Only now, at 21++, I can say i can catch them quite easily, i have successfully caught over a dozen on two trips to Sungai Air Terjun( the stream that flows out of penang botanic garden) and it feels so good, seeing them swimming in my aquarium.

Besides the spotted barb, I have caught another childhood dream fish, Lian hu in hokkien, I think the scientific name is Neolissochilus hendersoni, wild carp, Kejor. I caught them at Sungai batu ferringhi, at the waterfall. The fish was so pretty, the scales gold, brownish, but the body a little thin compared to spotted barbs, still pretty. Other fishes caught there were queen danios(Devario regina), the blue yellow markings on the fish, wow, beautiful.

I caught all of them using the smallest size hook, and thinnest ultra thin line, which is quite hard to handle, i can't see it even its in front of me, hahaha.

Aloewood of commerce

Yesterday, I came across a piece of aloewood at a shop, though its not of the highest grade, it smells so strong, imagine the wood of the finest grade, and I was also told of it's ridiculous price, some can fetch prices more than yellow gold with the same weight. But come to think of it, its ridiculous price isn't ridiculous at all, as the so called aloewood, agarwood or Gaharu in malay, can only be found in sick wood, and the longer the wood is sick, the finer the quality. And with this wood increasingly difficult to find, it is no wonder it is so expensive.

This is what I have found out, Aloewood, is mainly produced from the trees of the genus Aquilaria. There are several species in this genus, A. malaccensis, is the main source. A. crassna and A. sinensis are also harvested.

Starting Freshwater Fishing (with hook and line)

Since i was small, I had always been fascinated by the fishes that swim in the river flowing through the Penang botanic gardens. And since my dad is also very interested, he always brought us to net fish in the river, and one particular species of fish that lives caught my attention, if i am not wrong its the spotted barb(Puntius binotatus?? banksi???or its not a puntius???)anyway, we chinese calls it the oh ka chiak, means black back. This fish looks very clean and smart( to me la hahaha), and man they are fast swimmers, to catch them using a net ( you hold on your hand, not the jala) is very very hard, unless by surprise but normally its the fish that zooms out of nowhere then vanishes into nowhere.(so who is surprising who??)

Only when I was older, i found out that this fish is not special at all in the aquarium trade, the workers in the aquarium refers to it as 'sampah hu' means rubbish fish. But I was still very in love with this fish, every time i walk by the stream in botanical, i will stand and look and sometimes going down to catch it. I used to think up methods and devices to catch these fishes since they were so hard to catch (when i was small la) but all didn't work.HAHA!!

About a few weeks ago, when i was walking in the garden with my family, we saw a guy fishing at the stream with tiny hook and line, and bread as bait ( he did not use rod). The penang betta was among his catch, i was suprised as i have read about it in books that there are penang bettas in the stream but never saw one and here this guy got a few, quite big those bettas. Its fun to see the fishes hesitating whether to eat the bait or not in the clear water, this is one thing you cannot see when fishing at the sea.

Since then, I wanted to try fishing this way but i had not the time to do so. And a few days ago, our family went for a short trip to Taiping, and there are several streams at the foot of bukit larut or maxwell hill, the place is very pretty, so cool but there is one thing not pretty---rubbish!!!!! really destroyed everything, not only the smell, to look at it is really an eyesore.


The rubbish pile just beside the beautiful stream


And here is my chance, we fished there for quite a while but it seems like the fishes are scared of the rod or hook or swivel or i don't know. The fishes don't even come close to the bait, but when i throw bread into the water, fihes sprung out from nowhere to collect it. I can see danios, spotted barbs, and some other kind that look like the spotted barb but with no spot and silver scales instead of gold.


My dad fishing with a rod


Maybe the line was too visible?? the hook too big?? or the rod??? this is something i will only learn through experience (or someone teach me ). Hopefully i will get fish when i fish at the streams of penang and hopefully one day i will land my first lian hu (Neolissochilus hendersoni, i think, a type of fish in the mahseer family) this fish is endemic to Penang as from what I have read.