IPOH folks who love kayaking, boating or freshwater fishing have gotten it made.
They have hundreds of ex-mining swimming pools north and south of their metropolis and a few of these water options are proper across the nook of their neighbourhoods, proper beside their homes even.
Ipoh was nicknamed “The City of Millionaires”; it was the biggest exporter of tin on the earth and lots of of its residents had been downright wealthy.
During the nation’s infancy, between the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the Federated Malay States of Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang proposed Kuala Lumpur as its capital, the movers and shakers of Ipoh laughed on the thought and launched an aggressive marketing campaign in opposition to it.
The marketing campaign evidently didn’t work. Kuala Lumpur received the struggle and Ipoh as we speak is simply the eighth largest metropolis in Malaysia.
But it has lakes galore as we speak as a legacy of the tin mines.
Ipohans can simply drive to the subsequent neighbourhood and launch kayaks or boats and have a great day on the water.
Many don’t even must have 4×4 automobiles, for the reason that ease-of-access to most ex-mining lakes lets them set up roof racks on common vehicles to hold their water vessels.
A woman kayak-fisher will get a peacock bass in an Ipoh ex-mining lake beside a residential property.
Many Ipohans personal automotive topper boats or fishing kayaks.
Car topper boats are small and lightweight sufficient so that you can haul onto a roof rack on prime of your automotive. The fibreglass sorts are cheaper and heavier, whereas aluminium ones are a lot lighter however can value greater than thrice extra. They normally sit two to a few individuals.
Fishing kayaks are purpose-built fashions and new ones are geared up with chairs which have backrests to be able to sit all day in them in relative consolation. There are rails, brackets and mounts so that you can set up a fish-finder, rod holders, cameras and every other gear you’re feeling vital.
One such seasoned angler is Vincent Paul, 43, a course of engineer in a semiconductor plant close to Ipoh.
“I know around 25 people in Ipoh with car topper boats. With kayaks, I’ve lost count. It’s just too easy to keep one at home and they’ve become so cheap over the years,” he mentioned.
Vincent has lived in Ipoh all his life and as a child, he remembers peering down energetic tin mines from the roadside and gawking on the large lorries carrying filth down under which appeared so tiny to him from above.
Today, his kayak is fitted with a excessive efficiency fish finder and with that, he is ready to confirm that these mines have now turn into lakes with a depth of virtually 40m (roughly a 10-storey condominium block).
But normally, he mentioned, most ex-mining lakes had been slightly over 12m (virtually 4 storeys).
“Whenever my fish finder records a depth of 40m and above, I feel fear,” he laughed.
The water color and even how the floor waves react to the wind is completely different, mentioned Vincent, and it might give him an ominous feeling.
A kayak-fisher with a good-sized jelawat fish, caught not even 50m from a row of homes.
Indeed, he urged folks by no means to take any ex-mining lake as a possible swimming spot as a result of the edges of these lakes can have a sheer drop, whereas the water might have cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which might produce dangerous cyanotoxins.
“If you swim, you can swallow mouthfuls of the water, unlike us who ride boats and kayaks,” he confused.
When it involves lure fishing, full-time angler Gary Wei, 42, who has been fishing for near 30 years, has particular recommendation for fishing within the lakes close to Ipoh: use tiny lures.
Wei, who lives in Penang, is a product tester for a Malaysian fishing sort out producer that has been in enterprise since 1978.
He often visits Ipoh’s ex-mining lakes, that are handy areas for him to go and launch his kayak to check fishing lures.
Being near city areas, he mentioned the fish in these lakes confronted excessive fishing stress.
“Fish learn, somehow, to be wary of our lures. I don’t know how but decades of fishing taught me that.
“When you sense that the fish are spooked and finicky, switch to small lures,” mentioned Wei, who prefers comfortable plastic grubs of under 6cm in size, paired with small jighead hooks.
Nonetheless, there are nonetheless lakes about an hour’s drive from Ipoh metropolis which harbour monsters: peacock bass of over 50cm lengthy and big toman exceeding 5kg.
Vincent often catches them on weekends and exhibits off his catches on his social media accounts.
But the background of his images are at all times blurred, one thing he does to stop others acquainted with the panorama to work out which lake the lunkers are in.
This peacock bass, lip-hooked with a 5cm-long comfortable plastic grub hooked up to a tiny jighead hook, might be launched with out a lot hurt.
“We have to. When we catch big fish and if we show where we caught them, the lake becomes like a market the next weekend,” Vincent laughed.
He solely shares his prime spots with anglers whom he is aware of are catch-and- launch anglers.
The fishing method involving lures is such that the angler holds the rod on a regular basis and retrieves the lure after casting to make it appear like a juicy prey for predatory fish.
When the predator mouths the lure, the angler feels it instantaneously and provides the rod a pointy flick to set the hook.
This leads to the fish being simply barely hooked within the mouth, as a substitute of being hooked within the gills or, worse, intestine; that are mortal accidents.
Sports anglers like Vincent and Wei regard their sport fish as “worthy opponents” and don’t deal with them as meals fish.
“When you want to eat fish, the wet markets have lots of fish you can buy at good prices.
“The amount of money we have spent on our fishing gear is so much more than the cost of buying fish to eat.
“We don’t go out to catch fish to eat. It is an outdoor activity we love and we hope other anglers realise that in lakes, the fish ecosystem is sensitive so we shouldn’t bag the fish unnecessarily,” mentioned Vincent.
