Terengganu Fly Fishing Festival: An Experience of Tranquility in Malaysia
Terengganu Fly Fishing Festival: An Experience of Tranquility in Malaysia Nic Chew FFI CCI Every time when we talk about fly fishing, the first thought of it is commonly trout fishing in the western countries with beautiful scenery and decent size of fish as seen from Facebook or Youtube. On the other hand when we mention fly fishing in Malaysia, the first thing that came to my mind was those adrenaline rushing and challenging saltwater fish like Sailfish, GTs, Milkfish… or some powerful packed predatory species like Toman and Haruan(Snake head families), Sebarau and Peacock bass, then the rest are pay ponds of variety species. Never once that the image of “western trout fishing scene” pops up in my mind. While Malaysia does have its fair share of nature that could even transcend and comparable to other countries, but the places we go fishing are just not up to par yet, either not having a beautiful scenery or just simply not having decent size and quantity. I believe it is the dream of many fly fishermen in Malaysia to be able to ‘trout fly fish’ in Malaysia. However, my opinion about not having a good ‘trout fly fishing’ spot was immediately slapped and changed when I experienced it first hand in Terengganu. It was just couple months ago, when we came across a poster from facebook on TFFF, Terengganu Fly Fishing Festival. The main aim of this event is to promote Sungai Berang as an eco-tourism destination for all locals and foreign fishermen and nature preservation and conservation. Seeing this as a great opportunity to promote Malaysia water and fly fishing to more Malaysian, we decided to sign up and help out. Though fishing was included in the event, it was never really in our list as we were quite skeptical about it, we thought that it can never be compared to places like in the states, Borneo or Mongolia. Then here comes 28th February 2020, the day of the event. At the dawn of the day, excitedly as ever, we first met up with Mr Brandon and departed together at 4a.m. then later met up with Mr Dron, Mr Ben, Mr Eddie & his wife, Mr Quek, Mr Chris and Mr Ong, all well-known individuals in the fishing industries. All of our cars were stopping beside the highway and we were deciding where to go for a breakfast before we continued to our 5 hours long journey. As the discussion came to a conclusion, all of us went back to our own vehicles and headed to our next destination, Karak for breakfast. Everything was going as plan until later when we realised, we actually got the wrong information and went to the wrong place. It was supposed to be Karak City but we went to Karak. After a short while, we all agreed to have our breakfast at different areas and to meet later on. Disappointed, we continued our journey and looked for a place to eat. And that’s how we stumbled across a hidden gem. We stopped by at Temerloh RnR to have our breakfast. To our surprise, all the stalls were selling Patin cooked in tempoyak. Daring we were, we ordered 2 bowls of the patin along with some common Malaysia breakfast staple, nasi lemak and teh tarik and coffee. Still feeling doubtful on the taste, we slowly scooped a spoon full of the gravy and tasted it. “Wah” was the first word that we heard, why? It’s delicious of course. Spoon after spoon, we continue to gobble our meal to the point where you can hear the sound of metal spoon scrapping against the plastic bowl. What a great way to fill our famish belly and prepare for our journey. At 10.30a.m., after the long and exhausting ride 6 hours ride, we finally arrived in Terengganu and met up with the rest of the gang, but before we proceed to the venue of the event, we went to check in to our hotel room. Following by that was our lunch. Another scrumptious meal we had, nasi dagang Kak Zah. For those who plan to fish in Terengganu, this is the place that you can’t miss, just take a detour to come here for a quick meal before going for your fishing trip, you won’t regret it. For the taste and smell of it, I will leave the photos to show you and your imagination to satisfy your craving for it. Filling another round of starving belly, we were finally ready to head to the event. The drive from the restaurant was an eye opening 45 minutes ride, though the road is narrow, it was complemented with a magnificent scenery, a field of lush green palm oil plantation, truly stunning. The serenity would just simply take all your problems away, leaving you feeling relax and carefree throughout the journey. The moment we arrived at the hall of the event, we were blessed with the sight of a decent sized Sikang which was just freshly caught by a fellow fly fisherman earlier ago. Why the sight of a Sikang would considered a blessing, some have asked. It is because it is considered one of the most challenging fish to catch despite being quite predatory and they are rare too. After gazing upon its gracefulness, we carried on to prepare for the day, setting up booth and shop to promote this unique sport of fly fishing along with others too like Dron and Brandon from FlyTyingNation Asia Distribution, Ben, Quek and Boon Cheng from Fenwick, Paul Arden from Sexy Loop and many more. In order to make this event a success, the organiser had even closed the whole stretch of river for 3-4 months just to ensure the fish have time to feed and reproduce without any hindrance so participants have a higher opportunity to catch this mystical fish, kudos to them who made the arrangement. They had also managed to gathered the support of over 100 fly fishermen…