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| East coast surf fishing |
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by SHAN CHAI LOON
Jan 24, 2007, Wednesday @ 05:55:55 AM
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The long beautiful beach lines are peculiar sceneries of the East Coast of West Malaysia, while surf fishing is a popular activity of these white beaches. On these beaches coconut trees are common sights, so are the long surf casting rods. On those popular spots, you will see rows upon rows of flipping long rods lining the water fronts, and they are manned by anglers of all ages and both sexes. Due to the wide range of fishes that can be caught here, surf fishing has fast gaining popularity in this part of the country.
Restricted by environment and availability of food, larger species of fishes that caught here are mainly rays, sharks, barracuda, Trevallys, Ibu Gelama, and barramundi. However, rays are the most common and popular species here. Apart from this, the smaller species that commonly caught here are Whitings, gar fish, catfish, Gelama, Kerisi, and other species dwelled in these shallow waters.
Similar to all sea fishing activities, surf fishing relies a lot on tidal condition. The best time to fish is during the rise and ebb of tide. However, due to the unpredictable tidal condition of the East Coast, only the regulars and those armed with tide table can make the best out of it. Apart from this, Terengganu is a state that hard hit by the North East Monsoon hence it is not suitable to fish during the month of November, December, and January. At this time of the year, high waves and strong wind will hit the beaches and fishing during this period of time is suicidal.
We heard a lot about the fishing here, and we had decided to come here to test our tackles. We picked the beach at the back of Terengganu Airport, the spot that was highly recommended by non-others than the proprietor of CHOP LEE HONG and his fishing buddy Wan Erwan. For this occasion, we armed ourselves with SureCatch most popular surf casting rods, the 15 feet SureCatch Prokat Surf and SureCatch Super Graphite Surf. The reels we picked to couple with these rods were SureCatch Surf Force 985 Bait Feeder and Foreshore 580.
 The SureCatch Prokat Surf rod is made of high quality graphite composite, while the reel seat is adjustable to suit the heights of individual anglers. Apart from these, this rod is equipped with collapsible rings for transportation.
On the other hand, the Surf Force 985 Bait feeder reel is a technical break through in design for beach fishing. At present, only SureCatch series of beach reels are having such outstanding features. Once the free spooling device of the reel is activated, it would allow the fish to take the bait without feeling the slightest resistance. The spool of Surf Force 985 is also designed as such to cater for long casting, and its aluminium body is to withstand corrosion. Other features of this reel are packing with high stopping power, while the 9 ball bearings gave smooth and fast retrieve, and the strong handle has improved the capability of fish handling and control. Although Foreshore 580 does not have the feature of free spooling, it featured 5 ball bearings and other similar design of Surf Force. They are reels highly recommended for beach fishing.
The lines we used on this trip were 30 lb SureCatch Eco Fiber and SureCatch Dynabraid braided lines. They were chosen for their resistance to abrasion, low stretch, and small in diameter, and not to mention that SureCatch Dynabraid is a popular brand among the anglers. Other accessories that we took along were finger guards to protect our fingers, and SureCatch SureClip running sinker clip to help us detecting the nibbling of our baits.
 All sinkers we used for beach fishing were specially designed to grip the soft sandy bottom of the sea bed. The SureCatch break away type sinkers are designed with four out-stretched arms to hold on to the sea bed. When this sinker is snagged by obstacles, with a hefty tug of the line, these arms that made of hard wires would be folded backward and free the sinker. Hence, it has gained popularity among the surf casting anglers. The other type of sinker that marketed by SureCatch is the Rocket. This diamond shape sinker is capable of digging in and burying itself into the sandy bottom. These 2 types of sinkers are introduced by SureCatch to satisfy the need of surf casting anglers.
To fish on the beach, the fishing hooks have to be tough, sharp, durable, and having the power to penetrate the toughest jaws. The Mustard Big Red, Red Tarpon, Long Red, and Soi that we brought along were hooks that satisfied the above mentioned requirements.
The leaders we used were 50lb Supreme and Soft Max of SureCatch. They were known to be tough, shock absorbing, soft, and with resistance to abrasion. Apart from these, they would neither go brittle nor elongated after long day of hard fishing. Hence, they were well recommended by beach fishing enthusiasts.
On arrival, Wan Erwan took out his secret weapons, live prawns, which were known to be irresistible to Golden Trevallys, Ebek, and Ibu Gelama. On the other hand, Whitings were known to attract Sting Rays. One may wonder why deep water species such as Ibu Gelama, Ebek, and Trevallys were caught in the vicinity of this beach at the back of Terengganu Airport. The answer was rather simple. In this area, artificial reefs were laid down by the local fishermen and they were just 120 metres away from shore. These reefs attracted bait fishes, which in turn attracted the deep water species to congregate.
Even to the veteran anglers, 120 metres is a fairly long distance to cast, and only those with the ability to cast accurately and far, are able to fish these areas from shore. We could see the markers of these artificial reefs clearly from where we stood. Erwan, the veteran of surf casting managed to achieve such distance with simple overhead cast. His ability to cast his bait far and accurate really envies all of us. 
We baited our outfit with live prawns too, and cast them into these artificial reefs. While waiting, we sliced up dead prawns as baits for Whitings. Using small hooks, we hooked some Whitings, and Erwan fillet them for baits. According to Erwan, only baits that set near to these artificial reefs were able to attract the Ibu Gelama. The largest he ever caught here was a hefty 11 kg. Unfortunately, in many occasions, the fish broke his line after a brief fight. Ibu Gelama is renowned for its great strength. If unable to stop it from rushing into the artificial reefs, the fight would end up snagging to the reefs or left with broken lines.
At this time, the tide was coming in after we had placed our fresh whiting baits. Erwan’s SureCatch Surf Force reel that was set to free spool started to rotate slowly at this particular moment. This followed by a few nods of the tip of his 15 footer SureCatch Super Graphite Surf rod, and line started to peel off from the spool. Without hesitation, Erwan picked up his rod and struck hard. This marked the beginning of a fight between man and fish under the hot tropical sun. With the envious gaze of boys who were fishing for Whitings, like a dancer, Erwan performed the ballet of an experienced angler.
Even though the sting rays did not have the speed, they were tough customers. However, the lifting power of Erwan’s Super Graphite Surf, and his well practiced fighting skill won the fight. It took just 5 minutes for him to subdue this 5 kg ray. Without doubt, the lifting power of a beach rod is an important factor when fighting fish. This is a balance between energy and strength.
As mentioned before, the tidal condition of East Coast was unpredictable. For today, the high tide came only once, and we had to end this leisure fishing trip after its peak. Looking back, I could not deny that this was good fishing although we missed the chance of tangling with Golden Tervallys, Ebek, or Ibu Gelama. In the mind of a KL anglers like me, accessible fishing ground such as Teluk Ketapang is worth the value in gold. If you love beach fishing, what are you waiting for? Come and join us at these renowned sandy beaches of Terengganu. Perhaps you may get lucky, and have a big Ibu Gelama dangling at the end of your line. |
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