Date: 1st May 2007
Weather: AM Light rain and overcast. PM Overcast
Target species: Toman and Subarau
We have never caught Toman or Subarau before and am looking forward for this trip for some time. We arrived at Chenderoh Lake Jetty at 7:30am after some wrong turns along the way. It was our first time on this lake.
We were greeted initially by a young looking fellow whom we found out shortly he is there just to shuttle us to the chalet resort area. The first boat that guide arrived with is too small and not the one that we asked for. So he had to go back to exchange it. It took us about 45 minutes total from the jetty to start real fishing.
We went for Toman first. The initial search for the first 2-3 hours is not successful as the water is muddy and the guide told us that that is not a productive sign. Nevertheless the guide did saw one Toman fry rises around mid-morning and on the first cast, Koay_Kao got this:
She is released after photo taking but the local guide kind of baffled by that.
The wind soon picked up and the guide suggested going for Subarau instead since it is more difficult to spot for Toman rises. There are plenty of Subarau boils around but there are little hook up. Probably we are not using the right lures or techniques. Here are a few we got. The guide had much better luck than us.
Around noon the guide need to pick up his children from school and put us at the chalet to wait for his return. We took the opportunity to have our lunch.
When the guide returned an hour and ten minutes later, we continue going after the Subarau but soon got bored by chasing the schools of fish around. So the later half of the afternoon we decided just to casting for Toman hear the edges of the lake.
We went to this nice tributary of Sungai Perak and here is where some interesting stories unfold. Not too long into the tributary while casting near some fallen trees, Koay Kao got this big bite. I still don’t understand till now what he was thinking but he went on ‘playing’ with the fish instead of pulling it out from the snaggy area. Needless to say, the Toman (most likely, And much bigger than the earlier one) manage to pull itself to some fallen branches and the line got snag. Lesson learnt. (I hope) Will never find out what really it was on the other side and if you do come across a 4-5 kilo Toman that has a fat rap on it. That’s the one.
Up till that time I still had not gotten a single bite yet. About 10 minutes before we call it a day, we notice some Subarau chasing some unguarded Toman fries. I caught my first and second Subarau for the first time ever.
Another interesting story is that just about we are to quit for the day, the guide lost his favorite lure because of a bad swivel snap. He strip NAKED and dove into the river to look for it.
Summary
Total fish bites - 1 Toman, 5 Subarau and 1 ‘If I Reel It In Fast And Hard Then I Wouldn’t Have Lost It’ fish.
Pretty nice place – Not too many trash, water appears to be clean.
Guide - We would have like the guide to be more professional. Every time when we chase after the Subarau boil just who is the first to cast? You guessed it. The guide beat us to it most of the time. Didn’t we PAY so that WE can fish? We don’t mind sharing the bounty but remember who the customer is.
Heavily fished area - Nets and line hooks are everywhere. However there are potentials of big lurkers around.
Our rating for this trip: 7.5 / 10.
We will be back for more investigation on this lake. I still have a Toman that I have to catch 
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p.s. The guide didn’t find the lure and there are leech in the water…
