- KY Jigging Space -: Merchung & Pekan - 15th & 16th September 2007

DAY 1 - Merchung - 15th September 2007

Merchung is always a good place for some cheap2 good2 fun. And we did just that. As usual, we left town on Friday nite around 7:30pm and head pass Pekan down to Merchung. By midnight, we checked in to Kg Merchung Chalet, 2 rooms, 1 for 2 person. Got up the next day at 6am and after breakfast, we packed some nasi lemaks and started loading our gear onto the boat. We left the jetty around 7:30am and went to the opposite jetty to get some live prawns before heading out.

Good morning Merchung!!

Usual Chee Wai.

Freezing Bruce.

Sleeping Johnson

As usual, we started off the day by jigging for some live baits. After filling our live well with Selars, we headed towards an ikan bilis boat to buy some ikan bilis for bottom fishing. This was when one of us was looking for some tidbits and to our horror, we realised we left all our nasi lemaks in the room. And what's worst, we ALSO left all our bread (2 loaves of Gardenia, 2 cans of mayo tuna, 10 pieces of choc/kaya/coconut buns) in the room. Thank god we had a pack of apple and also a watermelon and that became our lunch along with milo, nescafe and 100+. I also had a kitkat in my tackle box which I always bring when I go fishing just in case of any emergency. And this, was clearly an emergency.

While waiting for the boat to bring up their huge net, I started jigging with my new setup - Shimano Stella C3000 '07 with EverGreen Poseidon Spin Jerker Light. On the 3rd drop, I had a STRIKE!!! And up came a baby grouper!!! SUPER GOOD SIGN!!! Hehehe... Although it didn't put up a good fight it was a GOOD sign. A sign of 'taruh makan'!!! Or so I thought...

The rest of the day, I spend most of my time jigging and eging. The squids were only cooperative in the morning but they were a lots of fun. And the good sign I had in the morning was slowly turning to a sign of 'SMALL FISH ONLY'. After the first grouper, I jigged 1 Selar Kuning, 2 Kunyits, 1 super baby Grouper (S.V.) and a 1kg Tenggiri (which was lost by the boat). Numerically, it was very impressive... Anyway, I wasn't expecting much so it was a very fun day. The rest also had their fair share with lots of squids, lots of small fishes (selars, kunyits, etc), 1 todak, 5 Ang Kors/Parrot Fish, and several 'Red Fish'.

Tools of the day - i) Jigging - Shimano Stella C3000 (15lbs) with Poseidon Spin Jerker. ii) Eging - Shimano Nasci (10lbs) with Daiwa TD Light & Tough. iii) Casting - Daiwa Caldia Kix (30lbs) with Shimano Basstera.

Grouper on IMA GUN 40g

Selar on IMA GUN 40g. Kunyit with the same jig.S.V. on River2Sea jig, 10g.
Caught the biggest squid of the day. Felt like I was lifting a freaking rock!! SHIOK!!
Assorted species - Blue Stripped Grouper (Dunno what's the supposed name).
Coral Trout. Johnson with his Todak.
Part of the catch, with more in the plastic bag.

Around 4:30pm, we were all very hungry and the action has died down. So we decided to call it a day and save our energy for the next day in Pekan. We got back, cleaned all our gear and packed our stuffs. By 6:30, we were in Restoran Pahang in Pekan getting ready to have our dinner. As usual, fresh seafood is the way to go!! :-)

Dinner in Pekan with our Coral trout... Squid...
And Red Fish... SHIOK!!!
After dinner, we headed towards Inderapura Country Resort (09-4267666) and checked in for the night of much needed rest. We took their VIP room, with 2 bedrooms & bathrooms; very comfortable and not so pricey.

DAY 2 - Pekan - 16th September 2007

Day 2 was a much disappointing day. The wind was blowing the whole day and water was very choppy. The boat ride was extremely bumpy and time consuming. A lot of time was wasted travelling from 1 spot to another. Just like Day 1, I had a sign; only BETTER. On my FIRST drop, I had a HOOKUP!! But again, it was not big enough to peel any lines from my reel...maybe it did...like 1 inch... I jigged throughout the day nonstop, but it didn't pay off. In total, I had 1 miss hookup when the jig was dropping, 3 jigs lost to toothy creatures, and another Super Baby Grouper . The rest didn't have a very good day as well wrapping the day with some Todaks and Barracudas from trolling, and of course the ever present small fishes. The only consolation we had was the abundance of food. We had fruits (honeydew melon & pears), the FORGOTTEN bread, and we bought 8 packs of nasi lemak with fried chicken and 4 packs of fried mee with fried chicken and we DID NOT leave them behind. And drinks we had mineral water, milo, nescafe & 100+. So although the fishes weren't biting much, WE SURE WERE!!! :-p

Good Morning Pekan!!! Ever present small fishes on Apollo.