It has been quite a long time since I paddled the length and breadth of our PB haunt, which has been severally named Bird Sanctuary, Lake Kenneth, Lombong Tujuh, or simply, Air Kuning.
Water level is rather low, but not at it’s lowest.
The western bank has changed somewhat, thanks to excavators clearing plantation land over there. The digging seems to affect the water; instead of water lettuce and aquatic grass, large areas of the western side now has unsightly carpet moss. Parts of the carpet float up eerily in bulges as trapped air makes those parts rise. From past experience, fish don’t seem to like carpet moss too much. I think water lettuce and sub-surface grass improve oxygen levels in the water and also absorb nitrates better than carpet moss.
In the middle of the western bank (I call the place Box Lagoon because the lagoon inside is rectangular), we have some large tomans playing near the entrance to the lagoon. But I didn’t stay too long there. Too windy for pleasure.
The northwestern corner, which I call Peacock Shallows (has two islands of tall grass; not far from the old birdwatch tower) has lots of featherbacks playing at the drop-off between the grass islands. Behind the islands, on the shallows proper, there is very little water lettuce now…must be due to the damn excavators. I hardly noticed any PBs worth casting at there.
Next to Peacock Shallows, is Peacock Point. Most of you tend to take Peacock Point as your launch point when you come. The point of Peacock Point conveniently points north, so use it was your waypoint. Nothing but juvenile PBs and featherbacks and patin playing there.
Who’s the idiot who set fire to the ancient wooden beam lying at Peacock Point?? It’s cut square, about five feet long and probably teakwood. That log is a legacy of the tin mining days and has resisted everything nature threw at it. Some hare-brained angler decided to build a camp fire using the wooden beam as a wind breaker. It was glowing red when I arrived. Some people have no respect for heritage.
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I only found three spots rife with PB:
1)The river entrance, beside the old birdwater tower and the destroyed fisherman’s hut.
2)The entrance to the Hideout by the southern side. The Hideout has also been called Nursery and Private Reserve by others.
- The area near the entrance to Chinese Tea Lake at the northeastern corner.
Zone 1 of the Hideout (shaped like a long, wide canal) is full of toman lolling about at the moment. But I think they are mating. I stayed here for a long time trying to work them up. Only had one good take, but the hook wouldn’t stick.
At the far end of Zone 1, near the narrow channel that leads to Zone 2 (super weedy area), things have changed too. Lots of underwater grass now. Hardly any fish.
Zone 2 is - as always - full of toman and haruan. Caught two 1kg toman that were partway between juvenile and adult colours on a small topwater frog lure. I stayed a good two hours here trying to get the bigger mothers to bite. Nothing. The water is too low for ordinary boats to enter Zone 2, by the way.
I didn’t enter Zone 3. Was more interested in catching PBs by the entrance to the Hideout, so I went back out to Lake Kenneth.
Caught 9 PBs at the entrance to the Hideout. The water is low and very clear. Standing on my paddleboard, I could see 5-6 PBs trailing my lure, making lunges now and then. Most of the PBs were under 1kg. But there was one BIIIGGGG PB of at least 2.5kg following all the time too.
In conjunction with SG Tan’s article, I believe the smaller PBs were Ocellaris and that big fella was a monoculus. So yes, I believe we have two PB species in Lake Kenneth. The ‘monoculus’ didn’t swim with the others. The smaller ones trailed behind the lure and made straight lunges for it, while the big fella cut left and right. Too bad the big one didn’t get the lure.
I would recommend a visit to Lake Kenneth towards end Oct. Wait for more rain. Another foot of water will improve the fishability of the three abovementioned hotzones.
The good fishing indicator is like yesterday. Sunny, breezy and the water cool - almost cold - to the touch. If you ever arrive and find the water warm, you must go deep and go slow, with goodly pauses between jerks.
Uh, compared to four years ago, there are less PBs in the water now. Better observe catch and release. I know some of you wax sarcasm at the peacock bass, but I must say that they haven’t been too big a menace in Lake Kenneth, so I urge you to accept the PBs’ application for Malaysian citizenship. I’d rather you take the tomans back.
Oh yeah, a nice smooth road now connects Air Kuning town (near Kampar, Temoh and Mambang Diawan) to the tar road leading to the entrance to Lake Kenneth. It saves your travel time a great deal, since you won’t have to plod along slowly off road anymore. You will still have to drive the final kilometer off road before you reach that last tarred road, but when this new road is fully completed, it’ll be a breeze to go.
Murphy’s Three-fold Law:
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Nothing is ever as easy as it looks.
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Everything will take longer than you think it should.
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If anything can possibly go wrong, it will.
