Fly Fishing for KBL in Kedah

It was the first trip organized by Coho Tackle shop to this Catch & Release pond in Kedah,
Malaysia. I was roped in by Henry Lau from Coho to fill up a vacant slot for the 3 days 2 nights
fishing weekend extravaganza.

We departed on Friday night for Malaysia, aboard a chartered bus from Bali lane. There were 28
of us fly fishing enthusiasts and few lure casters. Among us there were few hubby cum wife pairs
in the group. The bus departed on schedule at 9 pm for Tuas second link. Next morning, we
arrived in the Kedah small town at around 9.30 am then the bus pulled alongside the road at the
edge of a palm oil plantation.

Calls echoed from the front to get down and bring along our fishing gears. “Here’s the place, the
fishing pond’s inside there”. So, every one slugged their bags, rod tubes, slowly walked a mud
path inwards and soon caught sight of water and images of the pond.
The man made pond was as big as a football field.

Click on image to enlarge

It was a beautiful sight, clouds covered high mountains in the background, trees and plantation
everywhere. Everyone double time to set up our fly rods. Then someone’s fly lines and flies were
already landing in the water. The first hook
up was landed almost instantly. It was a good size Kim Bak Loh. Excitements spread fast as
many more were landing “Kims - left, right, center” !!. Breakfast, lunch packages were delivered
to pond to allow us more time for fishing. After a quick coffee break, I hooked up my first catch,
and the pull was so strong that my 7 wt. rod bent over, I had to ease the rod down to let the fish
run off with some lines. When I landed it, the silver KBL weigh probably close to 2 kg on my
Sage 7 wt rod / Abel #1 reel / No 8 fast sinking line and a yellow / white clouser fly.

For the rest of the day, every one was thrilled with casting, hooking up and landing KBL Camera
shots were taken all around the pond and there were lots of smiles, and jubilation. Later, from a
distance we noticed Henry was fighting hard on a hook up. We knew this one is no KBL. After
15 to 20 mins, the fish was guided to the bank and Melvin helped to haul it up with his Boga grip.
Cheers and cat calls soon came from the crowd who had been watching Henry. That ’s a GT !.
Henry simply smiled and lifted the GT for our camera shots. Henry landed his first GT, a nice
yellow tinged, Trevally, weighing 2 kg or more. Words soon went around to go for the GT and
everyone was changing their clousers, surf candy, deceiver, crazy charlies and their crab flies and
bone fish specials. Hopeful effort indeed.

The day ended with a sumptuous dinner and a good night rest in a budget hotel. The next day, the
fishing was just as rewarding. The number of KBLs landed was countless. Every one of us caught
and landed lots of KBL. More GTs were landed by a few lucky ones and all were of pretty good
size.

Time fly and so the good times ended too soon. By late afternoon, we found ourselves home
ward bound aboard our comfortable bus, tired, nursing our aching muscles and working our stiff
fingers. Everyone felt great and filled with nice fond memories over the last short 2 days.