Morning gents,
Dad and I are not long back from a two day trip to the jungle in search of Golden Mahseer. Unlike most of the river systems in Malaysia the rivers in the mountains of Sabah are gin clear freestone waters and the fishing is incredibly similar to that of trout fishing at home
these rivers are owned and protected by the local Tagal people and are 100% catch and release. Through my contacts in Malaysia I was able to track down a guide who is married to a Tagal woman and is the only person permitted to fish it. With a portion of his guiding fee's being given to the Local community and by employing a Tagal guide to accompany us the community benefit and this stops the usual over fishing seen across the rest of the country. I sincerely hope that this business model can be shared country wide as the fishing would be phenomenal.
With the rivers running high and slightly coloured our expectations were not high and we had decided that if one of us managed to catch one then the trip would be considered a success. We had decided to hedge our bets so dad set up his newly purchased 4# Hot Torpedo (which is awesome BTW) with an untested Grasshopper pattern that he had tied the previous week, whilst I fished big Tungsten nymphs (again on a 4# HT
)
Within the first 10 minutes both Dad and I had landed fish! This was to continue for the rest of the day and I ended up with around 30 fish
many were small but by christ they can fight for their size and they are dirty too. If you don't manage to turn them quickly then they head straight into the rocks and it is game over. We both lost big fish due to this.
It had been a life long ambition of Dad's to catch a Mahseer since reading about people catching them in the Himalayas during his childhood. I am absolutely delighted that through my fly fishing contacts I was able to make this happen.
We are now planning a trip to Thailand in an attempt to catch their bigger brothers. fish in the 5kg region are not uncommon over there and can be sight fished for
With Sabah only being a 50 minute flight away for us (we both work in Brunei) we will definitely be back again. For anybody interested our guide Julio Dino can be contacted via his facebook page Borneo Fly Fishing Outfitters. He is a Loop endorsed guide and is a great guy to fish with.
Anyways, here's some pics of the trip.
Steven.
