Paul Arden | Monday, 7 November 2016
Ashly and I head back to Malaysia today. We fished Grafham yesterday with Six-Pound Sean, Peter and James and Tracy. Only James and Tracy caught fish, the rest of us caught colds. James' technique was to run around the water over-turning stones so that the Grafham shrimp (it's not really a Grafham shrimp as most of you will know but a highly successful and invasive species from Eastern Europe) would float around. Trout would come along to feed on the shrimp and James would catch them. Of course Ashly and I didn't do this ground-baiting technique, at least not until I borrowed a pair of Sean's thigh waders, by which point James had caught all the fish and they were twice as difficult. Lesson learned! It was a fun day and great to catch up with friends before heading off again to Malaysia.
Here is my fishing plan for the next six months (maybe even one year) depending on how lucky I get... 
Snakehead. Obviously in many ways this is my number one target fish. They are going to be hard in December and January because they always are with the high water level. But I'd like to get some really big ones. Free-rising (Ashly can catch them off babies!).
I plan also to catch them on sinking lines if at all possible. Interesting challenge this one that I haven't accomplished yet.
Jungle Perch. Most of mine have come to dry flies and poppers but it's time to really set about fishing for them in the snags on sinking lines and start to build a set of locations. A sounder would be fantastic for this and I'll invest in one soon. 
Giant Gourami. They are always there and I have a lot more exploration to do with these fish. These are the hardest fish to fool in the jungle. I've hooked around 30 and landed less than half.
Mahseer. There are a few waters holding Mahseer in the Belum-Temenggor dam and it would be a good idea to explore some of them. Preferably not during leech season.
It's been a wonderful trip to Europe. Thank you to all of our great friends, old and new. If you fancy some entertaining reading today I can thoroughly recommend Sean Geer's Fishmail series on Sexyloops.
Cheers,
Paul
PS Camo rod pants in the HTOC!