Departing Ampang at 1am, this weekend myself, TomX, Sweet, Faiz Karim and his brother Razif were invited to recce some spots at the water of Rompin. Thanks for the invitation Dennis Yee from Absolute Angling.
The whole journey to Kuala Rompin takes about 4 hours. Departing from Ampang we head towards the Seremban Highway, exiting at Senawang. From Senawang, we head towards Kuala Pilah. The journey to Kuala Pilah was totally a eye opener. The roads reminds you of the movie Initial D, where the racer drifts and doing crab walking with their modified cars. Manuevering with lost count hair pins, 90 degrees sharp turning, I never knew that there were such curvy roads in Malaysia. Upon reaching Kuala Pilah, we head towards Muazam Shah. Now, this road condition is like a drag racing track. It’s super straight without much cornering to do. We stopped at Muazam Shah for a refreshing break after nearly 2 hours of journey. From Muazam Shah to Kuala Rompin is not far and it only takes a journey of nearly 1 hour. This is where we meet up with Faiz and Razif. They were using the Karak Highway and turns into Muazam Shah for the meeting up. We then convoy towards Kuala Rompin. Upon reaching Kuala Rompin, we took a turning to our destination, Riverside Chalet and Restaurant. This will be our departure point to our fishing stories – Waters of Kuala Rompin.
Waking up at 8am and some quick bite of local nasi lemak, we loads our arsenals to the 40footer 200hp powered boat. Ah Ping the skipper and Ah Chui the capitan helps us quickly to load in the gears. Guess they are as excited as us to start fishing. The boat is spacious, easy to move around and plenty of rod holder, I’m sure we will be having much fun on the boat. Cruising towards the sea, I’m enthralled by scenic landscape view of the kuala, which is located right in front of the chalet and restaurant.
(from right to left) Sweet, TomX, Razif, Faiz, James(Restaurant owner), Tan, Ah Ping, Ah Chui and Dennis
View of the chalet and restaurant while departing
Cruising at 25knots and after 1 hour and 30minutes, we arrived at our first recce spot. It’s not far from the famous Pulau Tioman and it’s a rock island with plenty of sea birds. With the depth of 50~60feet, I decided to go with 40grams Duel Tamentai pink jig. Everyone started jigging with various combination of speed, weight and shape. I also tried using a SureCatch popper, trying to disturb the resident of the island. The Toda aka Singapore Marlin strikes a few times but not a solid hook set.
Faiz in action
TomX doing fast jigging
Sweet doing slow jig for the bottom dweller
Razif doing vertical jig.
As for myself, i’m taking photos lor
It was totally quiet when Razif registered a hookup. Line was being stripped furiously without stopping for any chance for the angler to retrieve some line. Razif have some short opening of time to crank in his stripped line. With a few cranks, the line started to strip again. This time, the line stripped further. We guessed that it’s a GT, the boatman guessed it’s Jemuduk. The guesses were all wrong when the unknown species surfaces itself after 15 minutes fight. It was a COBIA! HUGE COBIA! The scale tipped at 13kg!
Everyone was busy jigging when Sweet register a hook up at the front of the boat. She was using a 20lb Stren and Daiwa Freams KIX 3000 matched with a Maguro PE1~3 rod, the bend of the rod is totally awesome! Using a yellow spotted jig, she landed a cute 1.2kg Tongkol, a family of tuna. She have been doing freshwater mostly and this is the 1st seafishing for her. Look at that smile!
As soon as photo session of Sweet with her Tongkol, Faiz register a strike! This time, Landuk. Pairing with Abu Ambassadeur and custom PE1~3 rod from Xzoga, the Landuk doesn’t have a chance at all. The Landuk weighted at 1.4kg. At the same time, Ah Ping landed a Landuk at the front without our knowledge.
The rain started pouring not long after landing the Landuk. Having a long roof covering us, none of us were seriously wet. Lucky for us, it was just a passing rain.
We move to a second spot not far from the 1st spot and this round, we’re targeting the toothy Spanish Mackerel aka Tengiri and Barracuda. There were no hook ups at the spot 2 but there were plenty of ‘action’. The ‘action’ is not referring to the 2 fishes mentioned but action of tying a new rig. We totally got ‘busted’ from the fishes there. Plenty of jigs being gifted as a new toy to them! Some felt a strike before busting the line, I felt nothing when I start to jig. It must have bitten off while the jig is sinking.
Defeated to the Mack and Bara, we decided to go for the 3rd spot which is quite a distance from Pulau Tioman waters. The journey took us 1hour and 10 minutes before we start to battle again. The sea bed was full of corals and where it’s full of corals, there are plenty of snags. Again, I placed some toy jigs for the fish to have fun when they’re bored (I got snagged!). Sweet managed to hook up a nice fat 7 Star Spotted Grouper. This time she is using a Abu Garcia Cardinal 302 paired with Tica TC2 10~17lb. The grouper weighted at 1kg and it will definitely be on the dinner table.
The weather was cloudy and soon everyone got tired of jigging whole day. The boatman challenges us for another round of Mack and Barra which is on the way back to the chalet. Most of us took a short nap in the journey of 1 hour.
The boat stopped and I woke up seeing plenty of unjams around. No wonder the Mack and Barra flocks here. Plenty of bait fishes jumping around. It also shows that they are being hunted!
The jigging session continues. Seeing the baitfishes jumping around, I’m sure that there’s some big predator around.
Why are they not striking the jigs? “It could be due to the cloudy weather. Try jigging slower.” suggested the boatman. While everyone was busy jigging, TomX quietly changes the lure to a shallow diver lure. He got a strong strike on his second cast! Stripping lines and loud screams of the reel, I’m sure it’s some big fish. After some 10 minutes of battle, I saw some long shiny and striped fish slowly being pumped up. MACK! With the help of the skippy, the fish is being gaffed and landed in 5 seconds. Great job TomX! The weight tipped at 5.5kg.
That was the last fish of the day as the dark skies is hovering us. We heads back to the Riverside Chalet and Restaurant.
The dinner was sumptuous. Fresh fishes never taste better! There were plenty of laughter and discussions on the area that we fished today. What else can I comment more? Wodnerful dinner with good companions makes it all!
Actually there were 2 or 3 more dishes, but everyone busy humping on the food after me taking the shot. 
The dinner ends our day 1 recce…..ZZzzzzzZZzzz…….
A gentle knock on my door wokes me up immediately as I was totally excited of day 2 recce. Today, we’re going to hunt Sailfish. Sailfish flocks in once a year, that is between the end of July till November. I still have a fresh memory of my Sailfish trip last year at Merchong with TomX. I can still hear the scream of my Okuma Zonar during last year’s trip. Cant wait to go out today!
YAIKKs~!! What the ..?? It an Antler Bug on my shoe. Wow! It shows how preserved the bakau area at the chalet. A full flora and fauna surrounding us.
Taking a quick cold shower and nasi dagang as our breakfast, we soon found ourselves at the dock, loading in our arsenal for the coming battle. Ah Ping will be our boatman today. The journey to the Sailfish spot takes about 1 hour, which is not far from the river mouth. Jumping and fleeing baitfish can be seen everywhere. There were several unjams around. Quickly, we do some Apollo jigging for bait fish. The bait fishes will be used as the bait for the Sailfish. We will be using the balloon and bait drifting techniques.
While drifting and balloon-ing the baits, some took the opportunity to jig as well. The boatman says there were Mack and Barra lofting around. We continue jigging and waited till noon for the grand strike but there were no sign of activity from the majestic Sail of Rompin. We managed to see some spectacular jumps of a Sail some distance from us, but that is the only action of the Sail that we saw. We’re disappointed, exhausted and tired of the waiting game.
“Starry starry night…………” - the ringtone of the boatman’s HP buzzed. “Hello”, “Tarak Sail la”, “Mana?”, “GT??”, “5 ekor?”, “OK! Nanti aku sampai”.
Ah Ping shuts the line and gaves us a bright smile. “Anyone keen for GT?” All of us jumped in excitement! Since there were not much Sail in action, we changed our plans to hunt for GT.
Cruising at 27knots, Batu Che is 25 nautical mile away from our Sail location. The ride was quite bumpy but we are charged up upon listening about the GT. I have read articles about Sky Chong popping for the fierce GT. Some of us doze in the bumpy ride like a baby. At least it recharges our energy for the coming GT actions. ZZZzzZZzzzzz……..
Arriving at Batu Che, there were 2 boats doing popping and jigging there. One of them is Ah Chui and the other one is a friend of our boatman. That was the source of the info and they have landed 5 GTs since morning using the popping and jigging technique.
Within a quick blink of an eye, all of us is jigging for the GT. Splashes and loud calling of the popper at the water surface paired with fast and slow darting fish-like jigs doesn’t managed to entice any strikes. 3 boats and none of the anglers registered a hook up. Slowly, one after another boat left the spot and heads to their next destination. We have faith at the spot as there were plenty of corals underneath. We remain at the same spot and drifted along the waves.
With a sudden tug at the end of my line, I quickly struck my rod. YES, I got a hook up! Based on my experience, the movements of the line tells me that it’s not a GT. Using a PE4 max custom rod paired with Daiwa Cy loaded with PE3.5 line, the fish was not any real opponent to me. With a fast pump and reel method, the fish surfaces. It was a near 2kg spotted grouper. Nice catch, I said to myself. Not long after I placed the grouper into the live well tank, our boatman Ah Ping got a hook up. The fight was intense with fully bended rod, the fish dives right under the boat. With his experience handling tough fishes, it was no challenge for Ah Ping. He handles the fish steadily. Without using much force used, the fish surfaces. JEMUDUK! Finally a family of Trevally caught. Quickly, we dropped the jigs right under our boat, hoping for more fishes especially the Trevally family.
Without much actions and strikes from the sea residence and the dark clouds are heading to us, we decided to change our fishing spot. Our boatman suggested we give another try at the earlier spot today hoping for some actions from our targeted Sailfish. Off we go and everyone was resting on the journey back to Kuala Rompin waters.
The water was very choppy and winds are strong with cloudy skies above us, the boatman suggested we do few rounds of trolling before anchoring to the unjams. He is as desperate as us to get some Sails. Trolling with lures did not register us any strikes as well. We end up at the unjam to do our last round of jigging before calling it a day.
I was trying out my new Spiral Wrap rod paired with Abu Garcia Revo STX when with I felt a light tug on my line. Then my line slacks. Reeling it back, I examined the line and it was a clean cut. This is surely a work of Mack. At the same moment, Sweet got a hook up. This time she was using my PE4 max setup. The rod bends half and the line keep stripping. Soon, a silverfish figures surfaces. It’s a Mack! Weighted at 2.2kg, she was dancing in the boat. She never thought that seafishing would be this exciting!
The balloon that TomX drifted have some motions, and with a blink of an eye, the balloon sank and blew. A lengthy feature jumped to the surface. No, it was not Sail but a Singapore Sailfish, TODAK. The todak was landed effortlessly and picture taking session took place. Not long after the todak, TomX registered another hook up. TODAK again! With 2 todak by TomX, we pronounce him as the Todak King of the trip.
That was the last fish for day 2 recce and we speeds back to the chalet. The strong winds and dark clouds are hovering right above us now.
Reaching the chalet, we took quick bath and packed our stuffs. We will be heading back to Kuala Lumpur tonight after taking a quick bite at the same restaurant yesternight. With the dinner, we ended our recce for the weekend.
Synopsis:
1.Not a bad fishing weekend even though the weather was cloudy at all times with some rain. We caught some fishes aren’t we? #61514;
2.Big and spacious boat, not forgetting the stability of the boat when the sea is choppy.
3.Locals flocks at the restaurant and it shows the food is good. I gives a thumbs up for the food.
4.Chalets were well maintained and very clean.
5.The staffs were friendly and very helpful.
My verdict for this trip
IT’s a total all in one stop solution for anglers. Be it beginner or serious hardcore angler, this is one place I would recommend. Lodging and food never seems to be the problem. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is prepared and cooked promptly. The boatman is friendly and willing to guide the beginner anglers without any hesitations. Not forgetting that the boatman thinks positively at all time. This is the place I would like to be when fishing is involved. Totally hassle free with such top notch services being provided. KUDOS!
For more information about fishing at Kuala Rompin Riverside Chalet and Restaurant, kindly contact Absolute Angling, Dennis 019 3188853, Fauzi - 013 3939533, Tan - 012 9158018.
Absolute Angling will make all the arrangement, from fishing trips, food and lodging. You can also email them at absoluteangling@yahoo.com
Some of my works:-
http://www.oceanfishingtackle.com
http://www.freshliveseafood.com
http://www.professional-landscaper.com
http://www.online-landscaper-store.com
http://www.labourasia.com
