Short Article : Siakap Fishing in Sungai Petani

In August, the PMPP committee had the priveledge to visit a special pond in Sungai Petani in which we would be having the Family Fishing Competition. The owner was gracious enough to allow us to fish from 3 water retention ponds that were meant to store water for his tiger prawn ponds. It was not a commercial pond, but the 2 large ponds were stocked with Siakap(Barramundi) ranging from 600gm to 15kg! There were not fed regularly and so the Siakap were pretty hungry!The ponds were filled with a mixture of salt and fresh water pumped from the nearby tidal river and is perfect for siakap action!

The drive from Penang to the pond which is in Sugai Petani Utara took about 1 hour. The final 2km was through a red earth road and was a bit bumpy. Finally we came to the fenced off area in which the ponds looked invitingly fishable. It was already 4pm by the time we were ready to fish and we all happily casted our barbless lures into the water. Francis, the resident lure expert seemed to be the only one catching siakap after siakap with each cast! Finally I swallewed my pride and borrowed his secret weapon : A simple small weighted Jig Head adorned with a green soft plastic squid.The trick was to use light line, about 6-8 pounds and cast out into the pond, allowing it to sink to the bottom first, then retrieving it slowly. Wham! The siakap loved it! Cast after cast the siakap took the barbless lure and displayed it's acrobatic nature! In the 3 hours I was there, I had 50 hookups but landed only half of them. They were promptly released to be fished another day! Even jigging for the Siakap 3 feet away was met with vigorous and surprising strikes! Check out this video of jigging for siakaps.


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There were also other fish in the pond, namely ladyfish and tarpon. However they seemed uninterested in our offerings. Some of the other fishermen were fly fishing and were also very successful in catching the barramundi and an odd tarpon here and there.
After 3 hours we were satisfied and ready to eat! The owner prepared a sumptuous barbeque dinner of corn, crabs, mantis prawn, siakap and kembong with local fruits to satisfy our stomachs!
We went home very satisfied and we hope you will take the opportunity to fish there during the family fishing competition this Saturday! Such a great spot is meant to be shared, as it is not open to public on normal occasions. Happy fishing!