Sabah Haruans vs Hinomiya Soft Plastic Froggies

1

It has been a while since any Soft Plastic (SP) postings have been made here. Rob (aka Marlin) was my sifu in SP fishing and since moving to Sabah, I have slowed down much of my freshwater SP forays.

Recently I fished a flooded plantation Pond that were reputed to have some haruans in em. I had little hopes as the pond was next to a construction site and I assumed that it would have been fished out. Whatever it was, I missed hunting for haruan so I asked the landowner for permission and I went there with one of my workers on a fine cloudy May morning.

Starting off with the gear I was using:

  1. Diawa 6-14lb rod
  2. Rapala 2000 reel (cheapo angler here) [:D]
  3. Fireline 8lb
  4. 2M of 14lb Berkley Fluorocarbon
  5. Gamakatsu size 1 offset wormhook (fine wire but super strong)
  6. Hinomiya SP froggies.

I know some of you haruan hunters would be thinking, was crazy ah use so light gear for Haruan… but hey, if you want to cast them SPs weightless you need it. And I have had plenty of success with this setup.

Some pics of how to setup the froggies:


It is important to note that the hooksize has to match the size of the SP. Too big and you cannot set it up properly. Notice the loop knot. Teachings from Sifu Marlin… I do not use any swivels or snap locks or wire leaders


Lightly skin the point of the hook to make it super weedless.

As this was just a short session, I fished for about 45 minutes only.
Mainly casting to snags and looking out for haruan fry.

First fish was caught from a grassy spot about 6 meters out from the bank. About 1 plus Kilo. (please not that unlike our landlord Vince where all fish he poses with looks big, I am tall big and fat so all fish I pose with look small, haha!)

Second was a mama guarding a ball of haruan fry. As it was my worker who spotted the fry, I got him to pose with the fish. This fish was caught about 15feet out only. One cast over the fry ball, work the sp in and hookup was instant.

3rd and biggest (nearing 2 kilos) was also about 12 feet out. Flipped the SP out and it was taken after 2 cranks of the reel.

Here is a pic to show how them offset wormhooks work well to prevent biteoffs… they almost work like circle hooks and most fish caught are lip hooked.

Hope this is helpful. Now go buy them froggies… if you can find them still [:D]

2

Well done! Now I get it about Sabah haruan…

It’s not about the body size, it’s about the fish size that matters.

Awaiting more Sabah haruan stories!

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3

Nice fish, Danny!

Good description and photo’s of how to use the EWG worm hooks to rig a soft plastic so it doesn’t snag. A fishy looking pond, but quite shallow? Dirty water too. Good choice of a brighter coloured plastic for the water conditions.

How did you work the soft plastic frog to get the fish to eat it?

4

Howdy Rob!!! Been a while! How have you been and when are you visiting??

The pond is quite shallow. The haruans were all caught near the bank so it should have been no deeper than 2-3 feet, but the owner of the plantation told me that some spots it is as deep as 4-5 feet. One side of the pond (the inlet side) is murky due to heavy rains and on the other side is clearer. Very snaggy terrain with plenty of rotting palm leaves. Perfect SP conditions. The owner constructed a gravel road around the pond and one raised gravel road cutting through the middle which I found really convenient for me. All in that pond is about 5 times larger that the haruan pond in KLIA that we fished in… about 4 plus acres.

Fishing the SP was all top water. Fast enough to create some ripples (also twitching the rod tip) and pausing on top of likely spots. That technique resulted in hooking up the first haruan. The second and third ones were mamas guarding their fries. As i was in the murky part of the pond, and the fries were very small… the only way to spot them is the telltale raindrop like ripples they made. Those two mamas were easy to hook up! First and second casts (flips actually) were to the sides of the fry. 3rd one was over the fry ball… same retrieve. The mamas hit the SP real hard once it reached the fry ball!

As it was so close (about 8-10 feet out) it was easy to control them. Raised rod, tight drag, coupla pumps and they were caught.
All 3 were released alive after some obligatory shots

5

Hi Danny,
You are one of the lucky guys enjoying fishing ground of that sort. We have good varieties of SP in town nowadays, but fishing grounds are kind of travel for miles and miles and trek for hours and yet can’t have good hit as what you have in East Malaysia.
Keep the flow of your reports, enjoy reading them.