Trailing Like Ants

Joined Eugene to his 'holy ground' on Sunday morning.

Shawn has something cropped up and was unable to come.
Fetched Shun on his behalf.

Reached meeting point at 6am.

Was surprised to see that he brought 4 anglers instead of the usual 2 including himself.
That made us a total of 6 anglers.

Sky was still dark with rain clouds and the occasional lightning.

Nonetheless, we put on our boots and started trekking in.

There are multiple trails along the way and Khoon expertly guided us while we trailed behind him closely in the dark through the jungle just like a trail of ants.

Upslope, downslope, potholes, tarmac, grass, bush, pebbles, trail, boulders, fallen trees, stream...
Basically all kinds of terrain in the package.

The trek took us exactly an hour of brisk walking.

Surprisingly, there were no mosquitoes around.




We eventually reached Eugene's much hyped about 'holy ground':

There were many fallen trees both on and beneath the water surface.

Depth is pretty deep by our local reservoirs' standard.

About 4-5 meters at the deepest point by my estimation.

Once everyone settled in claiming their individual fishing hole, I trekked deeper inside and scouted the area.

Seems like it's relatively untouched.

Made my way back out to the first hole where everyone is avoiding due to many fallen trees.

Snags are aplenty in the water as well.

I stood in the thigh deep bank and started flipping my surface lure for awhile.

Not a single take nor action...

Everyone else were using minnows and it seemed like no one is getting any action at all.

Seeing that hard bodies (regardless of sub-surface not) is not working, I switched to rubber on lead jighead targeting the deep.

Flipped it to the center on the tributary and counted my seconds.

This was when I got my estimation of the water's depth and was pleasantly surprised by my finding.

I cranked back slowly and something started tugging at my line.

I striked but the hook point had missed it's mark.

That's the thing about using rubber.

Only one hook point in the entire 3-4 inches which lower the chances of a proper hookset...

I continued flipping next to those fallen trees but no take.

Loaded my rod and casted laterally to the opposite bank avoiding those low hung trees and cranked back slowly after letting the jighead hit bottom.

This time, something came for it and I striked after a brief moment of deliberate hesitation.

The fish fought well and hard making a few good leaps paired with violent headshakes.

It smartly dashed towards the underwater branches hoping to snag my line.

This fish fights like a pro!

It must be a resident fish of this spot and knows where those heavy cover are in the murky water. 

I got snagged once and managed to free my line with the fish still on the end.

It was a heart stopping moment when I thought that I had lost it.

Seeing that I was working hard to steer the wild fish away from all those snags, Shun jumped in and lip-gripped the trashing fish expertly.

It fought well (albeit rather dirtily) despite it's average size...

And that's how the first fish of today was landed:

Freed the fighter and after a short while of no action, I moved to Shun's side and continued with my rubber.

The drizzle soon progressed into a full-fledged rain which lasted for as fast as it came.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Took this moment to snap a photo of my reel artistically peppered by rain drops:

Resumed my work and got 2 more fishes and a few misses as well before we left for the other side.

Once on the other side, everyone settled into holes of their preferences and as usual, I chose one with many dangerous snagging points.

Got a fish again after a short while of targeting the fallen trees across the tributary:

Trekked deeper in and found myself settling down into a hole underneath overhung trees and a huge trunk on my right.

This restricted my casting angle to only about 90 degrees on my left.

Nonetheless, I tried my very best to load my rod carefully in the tight space.

Many casts with no action later, I made a backhand flip to the right side avoiding the trunk.

Once my lure hits water and less than a full crank later, a fish came for it.

As I worked it closer to me, I noticed that only 1 hook point of the rear treble caught on.

The fish was still full of energy trashing wildly.

I was convinced that the fish would successfully shook itself loose and had resigned myself to fate...

Surprisingly, it held on and I was able to grip the fish for a photo:

Soon, we started making our long way out amidst heavy rain walking along the muddy trail following Khoon's lead like ants again...






All in all, fishes there are not impressive in size/weight but are definitely good fighters.
No question about it.

Snags are aplenty and will lose many lures if one's casting accuracy is not proficient enough.

However, underwater snags are unavoidable.
I lost 2 rubbers and a fly this morning, all to unseen underwater snags.

Not to mention those countless snags that I managed to free after some tugging.

Might go there again with them depending on my mood.
Extremely long walk with it's tough terrain doesn't seem to justify the results.





The only factor this spot appeals to me (strange but true) is it's very confined holes and numerous snags.

Although risk is high, this forced me to make fanciful casting style demanding high accuracy and finesse in order to catch fishes at a constant rate.





Many thanks to Eugene for sharing this remote spot of his!

Many thanks to Khoon for braving the dark, clearing countless cobwebs heroically with his face and body while guiding us there!





Shall christen this spot:     ANTS