Penang National Park Boat Trip (4/5)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, you are able charter a fishing boat and fish in the sea near the National Park so, early in the morning, I took a taxi from Georgetown and booked the boat. Having waited a while on the new jetty, I noticed something swimming in the surf. I thought it was a group of water monitors out at sea, but when I checked the photos when I got home later on, I found that they were otters.



Smooth-coated Otter - Lutrogale perspicillata

Waiting another half an hour a little boat came along and picked me up from the jetty and we were off. Although I did bring my proper fishing kit, the skipper's plan was to fish a handline so thats how we fished. Very simple, a heavy lead, very thick line and a fairly small hook. I baited it up with a bit of squid and lowered it down into the depths. Soon, there was some chattering on the end of the line and I tried to strike but nothing hung on to the hook. After several attempts, I brought a nice little Tripodfish into the boat.




Short-nosed Tripodfish - Triacanthus biaculeatus

After that, I had a puffers after puffer to the point where they became annoying, so we moved on to a little sheltered headland. It was a lovely spot with many eagles flying overhead. They even seem to be having better success with the fish than I did



Green Rough-backed Pufferfish - Lagocephalus lunaris




White-bellied Sea-Eagle - Haliaeetus leucogaster



White-bellied Sea-Eagle - Haliaeetus leucogaster

We actually anchored between two other boats but none of them seemed to be having any success but I persevered and landed my first new species of the day. It was a catfish which I later identified as a Yellow Sea Catfish [#123]. I was quite annoyed as the skipper who was quite concerned about me trying to handle the fish to the point where he seemed to almost crush the fish when he held it. I am aware of the dangers of catfish and where their spines are. [I even got pricked by one in Hong Kong a few blog posts back.] The fish seemed fine when we released it.



Yellow Sea Catfish - Arius venosus #123

A few casts later, I brought up another new species of fish. It was a Northern Whiting [#124] (Or Silver Sand Whiting or Silver Sillago, I'm using the Australian name for the species). I've caught King George and Sand Whiting back in Australia but I don't have any photos of them, so I was quite happy about photographing this species.



Northern Whiting - Sillago sihama #124



Northern Whiting - Sillago sihama

Didn't catch anything else after that but the skipper did bring up a Green-spotted Pufferfish.



Green-spotted Pufferfish - Tetraodon nigroviridis

I actually got quite seasick after this, so we sailed back into port. The plan after this was to fish the jetty until my prebooked taxi came to pick me up a few hours later. [see next post]

Esplanade again (Penang 3/5)

Having fished at night last time, I wanted to see what was swimming around in the daylight hours, so I got up really early and headed to the war memorial again to fish.

This entry is going to be quite short because I didn't end up catching any new species. I did get a new species for the trip which was the White-spotted Rabbitfish, but I had caught one of those last year in Hong Kong. The problem was, I didn't learn for last time I had caught these, even remembering how painful their venom is, and got myself stung again, with a nice set of puncture marks on my palm near the base of my thumb. It was even worse this time as the spines went in a lot more than last time, my hand was swollen and purple for a few days after this!



White-spotted Rabbitfish - Siganus canaliculatus




White-spotted Rabbitfish - Siganus canaliculatus

Again a caught a few more puffers and tripod fish, but nothing to brag about.



Green Rough-backed Pufferfish - Lagocephalus lunaris



Green Rough-backed Pufferfish - Lagocephalus lunaris



Short-nosed Tripodfish - Triacanthus biaculeatus



Short-nosed Tripodfish - Triacanthus biaculeatus

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