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Ronan's report


Monday 22nd December, 2014

I was asked yesterday about the fishing here in Malaysia that I do and what it's all about. I tried to find the information and it's a bit scattered around Sexyloops, so it's time for a proper page. Firstly my introduction to Malaysia was some four years ago, when I came over from Australia to do some CCI testing. I instantly liked being here and made many immediate friends. Malaysia is part of South East Asia, it borders Thailand which is to the North. You can read about the country here. Set in the Northern Hemisphere but only slightly above the equator, which means it's hot and humid all year. Daylight is approximately 12 hrs long, sunsets take all of three minutes, daytime temperatures are a humid 33-34C. Night-time in the jungle where I live is 22-23C. There are in fact two parts to Malaysia; Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. I've only fished the Peninsular. Singapore connects to the bottom (by bridge!). So that's where we are!

Humans apparently have been in East Malaysia for some 40,000 years the earliest human remains on the Peninsular date back 11,000 years. That first wave of settlers still exist today as three groups of tribes living in the jungles, these are the indigenous aboriginal peoples. You often meet them fishing on the Belum lake and they are very friendly :-) There is much more history about the country here. The general population elsewhere is made up by Malays, Chinese and Indian origins. It's a very diverse and multi-cultural country. It is officially an Islamic country but also all religions are to be respected, even the born-again out-of-tune Christian singers that keep me awake on Sunday mornings when staying at Irhamy's office.

This is the third year that I'll be fishing Belum-Temengor lakes. This is a man-made reservoir built during the communist insurgency war (you're getting a history lesson here!) in the '60s and 70's. The Belum State Park is home to wild elephants, monkeys (of course), tigers and even the critically endangered Sumatran Rhinoceros. So it's a pretty special place to begin with, the world's oldest living forest dating back 130 million years. But I go there to fish...

The history of FFing in Malaysia goes back to a few of the early pioneers like Irhamy (The 'Gov). When he worked in London as a tax inspector, he took up fly fishing on the UK reservoirs in the 80's and on his return to Malaysia brought back fly fishing and took up a weekly column in a newspaper. There are some 200 dedicated fly fishers in Malaysia now, one dedicated fly shop, and a great fishing and casting community. Many of the guys travel the world to fish, but all of them fish right here in Malaysia too. There are stocked pay as you go ponds, which are stocked with South American fish such as Pacu, which can be entertaining, but the fishing that keeps bringing me back is Belum-Temengor for Snakehead (Toman), Jungle Perch (Sebarau) and Gourami (Kalui).

And in my next page I'm going to write about these three species!

Cheers, Paul


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