Chapter 1 – preparation heading to air Kuning, Perak
It’s Christmas eve 2016, my phone is going crazy WhatsApp msg after msg. D is asking if I want to go with him up to Perak to some of the old tin mines to hunt for Peacock Bass and Giant snakehead on the 26th of December. Naturally, this is not normally an issue but, on this occasion, it was a bit more difficult as we had only just arrived in Malaysia in September of 2016. I had to go find all my fishing gear in one of the boxes in storage. Also, as we had bought a wreck of a house in Seputeh that we were about to start renovating. If you would like to know more on that go check out lilangelness.com you can see it under project 65.
Back to the Fishing. D is Malaysian and a well-grounded down to earth guy, who loves his outdoor activities and is always up for a fish. The only thing with D he is a more spur of the moment type of guy but never the less I agreed and took him up on his offer to go to Air Kuning in Perak, Let’s face it the last time I fished in Malaysia I got beaten by the Lake, so with that in mind I decided that I was going to make amends and get my first Peacock Bass.
I couldn’t get much information on where we were fishing as Perak is full of old disused tin mines so I decided I wasn’t going to overthink it this time; I would just wait and see. I kept my tackle selection simple; Rod one a Shimano light action rod paired with a Shimano Scorpion 71hg, spooled up with 10lb Spider wire braid; Rod two was a Shimano medium action rod paired with a Shimano Chronarch Ci4+ 151hg, spooled up with 30lb Spider wire braid; Rod three a Shimano medium-heavy action rod paired with a Shimano Chronarch Ci4+ 151hg, spooled with 40lb Spider wire. Lure wise I kept that simple learning from my experience at Tasik Prima I decided to fish to my strengths, surface lures, shallow runners, deep divers, a whole lot of Spinnerbaits and some 3-inch grubs as trailers for the Spinnerbaits. With my fishing tackle sorted into a backpack bag, I just had to sort out a bag as we were staying over for two nights.
Christmas came and it being our first here in Malaysia we had an absolutely fantastic time with family and eating more than we should. This was an exceptionally special Christmas for us as in previous years we would just have it amongst the four of us unless family came out to spend it with us; so even though it that was nice it also felt lonely and that’s not what Christmas is about.
The 26th was upon me but instead of waking up with the sparrows, I was able to get up at my normal time of 07:00. I only had to get to D’s house at 11 am. This was all very new to me as normally I would be up before the sparrows heading off to fish but this is what fishing is about just taking it leisurely. It didn’t take long for the time to pass by and before I knew it, I was packed and heading to D’s house.
When I arrived at D’s house, I had to unpack my vehicle and put my gear into his 4×4. We grabbed one of his roof topper boats and loaded it onto the roof of his 4×4, locked it down, put a little 5hp mercury outboard in the back with the trolling motor loaded up the battery for it. We were set and ready to go on our three and a half-hour journey.