Penang National Park (Penang 2/5)

I had read about Penang National Park in a few other blogs, so I decided to go and fish there. My target destination was Monkey beach which was over an hours walk from the main car park. We also had to prebook a boat so that we didn't have to walked all the way back. The rainforest walk was fantasic, there was loads of wildlife and I even saw a few species of fish in the streams on the way.



Long-tailed Macaque - Macaca fascicularis



Javanese Ricefish - Oryzias javanicus



Striped-nose Halfbeak - Zenarchopterus buffonis



Malayan Water Monitor - Varanus salvator

When I finally arrived at Monkey Beach, I found a nice rock to fish from, and started. Again, I kept getting bites but unable to hookup. I tried further out and straight down but wasn't able to hookup. I eventually landed a weird looking fish that looked kind of like a leatherjacket (filefish) but had stiff spines on the dorsal and pelvic fins, a tripod fish. I knew about these as I did some research on about fish in Penang before the trip. This one was identified as a Short-nosed Tripodfish [#119]



Short-nosed Tripodfish - Triacanthus biaculeatus #119



Short-nosed Tripodfish - Triacanthus biaculeatus

It was really hard going and continued to lose bait on every cast but mananged another new species. A bright yellow coloured puffered called a Rough-back Puffer [#120]



Green Rough-backed Pufferfish - Lagocephalus lunaris #120

After returning to Teluk Bahang from Monkey beach, I discovered that I could fish on the newly built jetty and headed straight out to fish it. The water was quite shallow and had a muddy bottom. There was a wooden post a few metres out with a few Sally-lightfoot Crabs on and thought that would make some good cover for fish, so I casted towards it. I missed a few takes but then managed to reel in a nice looking pufferfish, a Green-spotted Puffer [#121]. It's actually a species commonly kept as an aquarium fish and I was well pleased about catching one.



Green-spotted Pufferfish - Tetraodon nigroviridis #121



Green-spotted Pufferfish - Tetraodon nigroviridis


It wasn't getting many bites so I decided to fish as far out as possible and leave the clutch very loose to let the fish run. After a little while, the reel did start screaming and I had another new species on the end of the line, a croaker. A fish group that I had always wanted to try to catch. This one was identified as Belanger's Croaker [#122]. Okay, so its nothing like a Mulloway, Red Drum, Geelbeck or even a Meagre, but I was happy that I caught one.



Belanger's Croaker - Johnius belangerii #122



Belanger's Croaker - Johnius belangerii

One last thing I wanted to try before I had to catch my pre-booked taxi and that was to catch a crab. I had caught Sally-lightfoots in the Canaries on bait before so I gave it a try. First couple of attempts, I was able to get some crabs airbourne but it was actually quite hard. When I eventually hooked into one, I was unable to get a photo of it as it fell through the grating on the jetty. It had been a great day and caught 4 new species. I found out that I could charter a boat out to fish in the sea so got some details and decided that I will have to come back again later in the week.



Mottled Sally Lightfoot - Grapsus albolineatus