[newshep]

Sunday December 5, 2010

Reeling in a prize catch

JOHOR BARU: An angler, who has been fishing at the same spot for five years, recently managed to reel in his biggest catch yet — a 1.3m-long tongsan fish (bighead carp). The welder, who only wanted to be known as Chong, 42, reeled in the huge freshwater fish at around 11.20am on Thursday.



Photo op: Kok holding the 1.3m long, 8.5kg bighead carp which he and his friend caught on Dec 2.

He said he had been fishing at the same spot near the abandoned Lot1 shopping mall building for the past five years. “I have caught siakap, tongsan and toman (giant snakehead) here before, but never anything this huge,” he said.

He added that he was surprised to find tongsan fish in these parts of the Johor Straits as such freshwater fish usually inhabited rivers. Chong’s friend, retired businessman Kok Teng Wai, 62, said pollution of the Johor Straits had led to dwindling catch.

“About five years ago, any angler who came here would be able to land a medium-sized fish on a daily basis, but now only small fish remain,” he said.