The world's best flyfishing site.

Español

Manual de Lanzado
Sección de Carlos
The Downloads

Falsecast

Monday: Paul Arden
Tuesday: Harps
Wednesday: Bernd Ziesche
Thursday: Mr T.
Friday: Ray
Saturday: Viking Lars
Sunday: Bruce Richards

Ronan's report

Contents... Front Page Fly Casting The Manual Beginners Flytying Articles Reviews Saltwater Stillwater The Flow Carlos Steve Lars Deano Matt Paul Pic of the Day Movies Vortex Fishmail Snapcast Advice CCS Rod Data Glossary FP archive

A couple of weeks ago I was in Indonesia fishing for the milkfish. In fact that was the first time I actually caught one and a fine specimen too it was. As our job was to transfer the milkfish to another natural area so with speedy transfer in mind I did not weigh or measure the creature but it certainly was almost a metre long and nudging 10 kg in weight. This is one no pushover fish on a fly rod and size six pink charlies or gotchas. I was using a HT 8 rod suitably loaded and boy, it certainly something one would want at the end of one's fly line! The first run of the milkfish was almost two hundred yards with heaps of stamina right to the very bitter end. Landing the beast of that size is a challenge to say the least. My mate Yew Kong too had two fish out of sheer luck and despite that, we enjoyed the day out in Medan, Indonesia. Our graceful host, Wirianto, ended up with a sore back scooping them fish out on behalf of yours truly.

Milkfish is a native of the Indian and Pacific Oceans therefore its habitat is huge, from Africa to Hawaii and the Polynesia. It is a national fish of the Philippines and is bred there in great numbers for food. I read somewhere that the fish could grow to just under six feet and probably was faster and stronger than bonefish or giant trevally pound per pound. What's so special with this fish is the bullet like body feature and the large forked caudal fin, producing plenty of horsepower on a tap. The rate of growth of the fish is amazing considering the diet consists of algae and small invertebrates. The ones we caught entered the pond during the high tides as fingerlings approximately four years ago and they were only discovered to be in the pond a month before. Now they are crossing the double figures in weight.

Although the distribution of the milkfish is very wide not much is written about it despite the potential of it being another the Pacific grand slam fish. Maybe because it is an Asian native and Asians are nowhere near the Americans or Europeans in terms of fly fishing experience. But we have the Aussies down under to take up the mantle on behalf us Asians. But Aussies are essentially Aussies so we Asians need to migrate to Australia in more numbers so they will be just like us one day. Maybe with the global warming milkfish would travel far and wide across the globe including the Americas, then things about them will certainly take off in a big loud Asian way. Like humans, fish must do the same - migration. After Mr.T's last FP, I think we shouldn’t dwell too much in race definitions and geopolitical concerns. What I know is milkfish is a powerful and a great game fish. I have a video clip to prove that. Enjoy!

I am off to Rompin for a sailfish or two tomorrow guys!

Lovely Jubbly,
Irhamy the Guv'nor, Kuala Lumpur

Pic of Day

Mobile APP

www.sexyloops.com
Copyright © 1998-2014