Kong Kong River Mangrove Luring Catch Report Part 1

After the post fatigue and recovery, it’s finally time to come up with my experience from a quick luring trip!

Casting along those submerged mangroves while everyone stays quiet and focused, I worked my lure cautiously. It was where mind merged with body, soul and rod. I could visualize every movement of the lure. When I pulled, it rattled… when I paused, it fluttered to a stop. I did this while I used my amateur casting skills to present my lure as closed to the cover as possible. I wondered when sweet ruby would come and whether I could be strong enough to win the tug of war… The elusive Mangrove Jack was my aim of this trip.

All did, I did… though not entirely what I did was expected.

0430 Sunday Morning Nigel’s House
A sleepy Alan and I awoke from our little shut eye as Weiyee was already downstairs. We crossed the customs in awhile and stopped over for some supper. We had some big pau and dim sum. We wolfed down the food knowing that we would need the energy for our mini luring expedition.

We got to the boating area in good stead and we had the luxury of time to relax, use the toilet and we got our drinks/food supply while we waited for our captain to arrive. We saw many others arriving and the whole area was packed. Anglers went off in the droves and we noticed their tackle being of the more extreme kind. We probably thought that they were not into more finesse fishing.

Weiyee in his Jungle coveralls

We stood around while the crowd dispersed and wondered when our turn was. The captain was late but I hope he wasn’t inexperienced! Time went by and we got into our little tub. All we needed were our Lures, Live Prawns and the rest we would get from the sea.

The little tub…

“Casting”

Optimism would seem foolhardy at such an early period but we embraced it anyway. We had arranged for fishing within the lush mangrove estuaries but our Operator and Captain were convinced that today’s neap tide would be better for fishing away from the river systems. Communication was a constant barrier as he didn’t speak English. Eventually, we gave in and decided to see what he could offer. He told us we could try casting jigs at the next spot.

First light was up and running

A gold mine was what we were thinking when we hit the first spot. We were allowed to drift in near and eventually anchored some distance away from what it seems was the legwork of a giant bridge! Schools of baitfish were already flipping around on the surface but the same thoughts came to Alan and me…

Fishing Eden

“Aye… no have no jigs to use…” I gestured to Alan. I saw the same blank look on his face. Nevertheless, I still managed to get a green silver spoon out and did my thing. It took me awhile to get used to my new lines and the adrenaline was going into red mode. Alan was gracefully swishing his lures around while I huffed and puffed. Weiyee was into a Live Prawn on a bottom rigger.

Baitfish were being schooled into a ball

To make our blood boil, a fellow fisho on another boat near us was holding up a specimen of a Barramundi! All of us casted and waited but there were zero action. Our Captain was happily bringing up strings of baitfish. We talked little and just kept what we did best.

Oh… and would you pick a guess at the anchorman? Yep… It’s none other than the famous Alan Chan!

Somehow, we managed to convince our Captain to retreat to the estuaries to try at some luring. He just picked the nearest one to us and we went into the river.

Into the river system we go!

I didn’t like it because we drifted in slowly by use of the outboard engine. I doubted he had any experience doing this form of fishing but the calm of the river system soothed me. Bird and insect calls were the natural music of this place. There is truly no other music that will put an angler into ease. The occasional boof of a whopper was like the chorus of this fantastic music.

We took our lures to target practice and we were finally doing what we came here to do. Alan was bouncing his lures like a pebble on the water in order to get them near the cover.

Alan balanced with such grace!

Casting precision

I had a juvenile Barra which followed the lure all the way back to the boat before turning back but that was the only thing that happened for awhile. We heard the occasional boofs and were still not getting anything! Then, the Captain saw something moved below a sunken tree. He gestured to me and I saw a school of fish swim past us. At first, I believed him and I was even more eager…

He got the boat in slowly by using his engine until we were directly beside the sunken tree!

The fishing was x – rated here and when we eventually found out what fish did our Captain saw… Mullet…

A frustrated Alan…

We spent a torrid time there until the Captain signaled that we were going back to the previous spot. I got the feeling then that he brought us in to some estuary just to convince us that he was right and there were no fish there. I made nothing of this and kept faith though.

No action yet… When would our time come!

What?! Not back there again…

We did something different when we were back there. We anchor directly beside the pillars. Again, we raised our bars of hope to 100% and kept busy. We tried both bottom and mid water.

A different platform

Just beside the platform!

Weiyee looking really hopeful!

The Captain was trying for baitfish again and Alan told me then that the Captain probably was catching baitfish for his own dinner table. That was a fine theory since he probably had a family to feed and he might not be so well off.

The baitfish had stopped feeding there due to the change in currents and the morning sun being high over us. We left that place soon and headed into the open! This was really not what we wanted… but… We followed…

We approached our next fishing spot… We were in between amused and astonishment when we saw it.

This is our fishing spot…Side and back!

The layer of barnacles on the ship’s propeller really got us up again. This was turning out to be layers of optimism which were being quashed every time! All of us did bottom fishing were with Live Prawns as we were now a little deflated.

Alan with a nasty shrimp

Dispirited

The Captain was jigging baitfish again and told us it was for the next spot. It specifically needed to be Tamban. I made myself useful and passed Alan some Sabiki rigs.

There weren’t any baitfish at first but the water moved again and Alan had a good kick! Well, at least someone’s landing their first fishes of the day! We filled our bait well fast and off we went to another probably rather optimistic but unproductive spot again.

Alan with his many fishes

Baitwell filled

Was it this rig?!

I shall continue my second part in another post!

Part 2 at https://baktao.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-experience-part-2.html