My son's first fishing lesson

It was 1998 and my son was 3 years old when he had his first fishing lesson.  He managed to to catch a small tilapia only to be released. It was at an old tin mine near Kuala Lumpur. Now the area developed into a recreation park. Fishing is no longer allowed by the city hall.

My village fish

Ikan Timah-taimah or Temakang -Kissing Gourami

This fish is very rare to find nowadays. Used to be in abundance new the buffalo holes or water canal.

This fish reminds me of Blue gill fish i used to catch near Story city lake, Iowa. It is located deep in the corn field.

The fishing renjer will scout the area every day checking on fishing licenses at size limit.

Types of fish in my Hometown-Melaka - Iowa State Fishing game

Before I came to Ames, Iowa to attend ISU, fishing has been my first love. That was why when i was in Ames, I also tried to find fishing places. In Iowa, my fishing was more focus on bluegill, bass, cat fish and carp. and finally that was one fish that I always caught at saylorville lake.

I never caught a pike before. In Malaysia for fresh water, I enjoyed catching the following:


Ikan Betuk- Anabas testudineus  Coutesy of Staronline

Some people also call this Puyu.  Among elderly this fish is to ward off evils. I used to fish this fish bamboo rods with  several lures such as night crawlers, ants egs mixed with flour, vegetable oil and latex (Most used by my villagers). However the best lure for me is Shrimp paste (Belacan as we called it here) mixed with flour. Most of the time we will go to padi field, water canal and river near my house.

Nowadays it is hard to find t in the wild as the wetland transformed into residential. Those days we can fish more than 100  a day. The price is RM5 per 100.

Betok, also popular aquarium pet fish. The older people believes that it can ward off the sleep spell used by thieves to break in just because never sleep.

Some of the best dish are: curry, coconut milk, sambal chlili paste and the most original will be indian cucumber acar with betuk.

Lukah-at krubong

Lukah is a traditional fish trap that is used by the malay to catch fish mainly in the small stream in the swampy wood. mainly made of bamboo blades that are tied in orderly manner around a wooden/rattan ring. The blades are fixed by using rattan skin. a conical section act as a one way entrance is fixxed at one end to trap fish, eels. The coomon fresh water fish such as lembat, puyu, sepat or haruan are common catches. When I was little, The swampy land near krubong river was the place my late grand pa will bring me to trap. In a day we will take out 10-15 kilos of lembat and belut from the gelam swamp. I will share you more on my exciting traditional fishing later.

The Iowa state university fishing experience

In Ogden Iowa, there is a very nice lake formed by the glacier. Fishing at this lake had never been a lucky experience for my friends and I. But there is another attraction. The park is beautiful and the water is clean for swimming.

There are a couple of beach volleyball courts and barbecue sets in this park. The photo above showed our volleyball games. Dwen & I Vs Fred & fendi who had been worthy opponents during our stay in ISU in early 90s.

The locals are friendly and most of the time they will join us for a game or two. Eating barbecued corns and chicken in the cold spring after a bit of swimming was one the best way to relax...

Iowa state University fishing experience

The photo above shows one of the thrilling fishing site in the vicinity of Iowa State, the Boone Dam. This place is most popular for its huge schools of catfish and carps.

Rambo , Roslim & I were lucky that day to bring back few carps. However, because the weather was a little bit cold, none of them caught our baits. Therefore, what Rambo did was brought the line near to the carps and retracted the line quickly. Snagging it was, that gave us half a dozen of big carps home.

Iowa State University Fishing experience

I arrived in Iowa State University in1990 to study engineering. Not long after Jai, maman, bob, and bro duan and I managed to get a place to stay at 2017 sunset Drive , Ames, our seniors had invited us for a fishing trip.

We were taken to a nice dam in Boone to fish for catfish and carp. The bait we were using were raw corn for carp and night crawler for catfish.

Then something funny happenned. An officer from the state ranger approached bob and asked for fishing license. Barely speaking a word of english , bob handed him his passport. The officer looked so confused that he finally asked us to get a license. We were even more confused because never could we imagine that fishing would require a license like driving.

That day we caught few big catfish and carps. The nice fall weather was hard to tell but certainly one of the unforgettable experience of our life times.