Kuala Rompin Sailfishing.

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1 Kuala Rompin Sailfishing. Did a trip to Kuala Rompin in September 2014 with 7 mates and had a fabulous time with a lot of laughs, a lot of fish, and it was also a great cultural experience. We flew to Singapore and rendezvoused at a hotel near the old quarter of the city (shop here for Owner hooks and Varivas leader material - very cheap). There was Fish Philliskirk and Notso Bright from Weipa, Noddy Radford and Leon Normore from Perth, Hooky from Melbourne and from Sydney Rod Van Beek, Mark Joseph and myself. It was a great crew and most had billfish on fly experience. We were picked up from our hotel in a couple of comfortable air conditioned vans and made the helter skelter 4 hour drive up the east coast of Malaysia. If you plug in your ear- phones, pull down your dark glasses and pretend to go to sleep it s a lot better because there are no road rules in Malaysia. Our accommodation was a large new house in a secure community out of town a little way. Its 4 bedrooms and air- conditioned with a fridge packed with beer and tonic for the Gin and Tonics. It was very

2 comfortable with WiFi and a big lounge and was cleaned daily with laundry done. Our package included all meals and all fishing and we were ferried around by the operators of the business and by a local van. We ate most meals in a town restaurant and were very, very well looked after with GREAT Malay curries, wild boar and endless prawn, squid and fish dishes. We all really enjoyed the cultural experience and had no hassles what so ever- it might have been different if we d gone into the Bin Laden café over the road but we chose to stay away from there.

3 We had booked 2 boats with the best fly crews in the region (the only ones really). Notso had brought along 10 kilos of salted belly flaps, and we brought extra teaser poles that were not really required as these guys are well set up and use their own local teasers. The first day was a weekend so we headed 32 miles out. The bottom here is dead flat with occasional rubble grounds, and those grounds are plastered with fish traps under floats. Plenty of sails there. The boats stop for half an hour for lunch each day and on day one we had a pod swim past while we were munchin. Every day was different, we found a patch of tiny sails that didn t even push 6 kilos and it was out with the 10 weight, and we had days where they averaged 25 kilos. The numbers of fish here is something to behold with free jumpers and free swimmers too numerous to count and frequent pods raised on the teasers.

4 We fished 4 to a boat and the rotation was called when you d had a good shot even if the fish didn t eat. With so many shots we learned lots, but fly placement, hook selection, and striking techniques are everything. There were plenty of stuff ups too but with the numbers of fish on most days the rotation just kept moving. On one memorable afternoon we went through 6 rotations in 4 hours.. hardly even gave you time to think about where you d screwed up the last shot, and you never really have these buggers worked out. Just when you think you might have cracked it you miss the next 4 shots, it can be very frustrating.

5 Stats for our best day were. 58 raised (most in the afternoon) 32 cast at, 24 takes and 7 landed with 3 jump offs and 1 break off. Stats for the week were. 478 raised cast 147 takes and 35 landed. Not a great conversion rate and that s what we re working on. There were many jump offs and more than a few bust offs as well but most are missed on the initial take.

6 Anyway I m going back in 2015 and have 2 back to back trips planned. The cost ex Singapore is $A3,400 for 7 days fishing and includes all meals, accommodation, all transfers and the fishing component. If I was taking one rod, it would be a 12 weight and I would be using a Rio Leviathan 26ft sinking tip in 500 grains. If I was taking a second rod it would be an 11 with a 400 grain Leviathan 26ft sink tip. If you wished to fish poppers you would want a floater and my line of choice would be Rio s GT line. All the flies used are tube flies rigged with tandem 5/0 hooks. The locals favor popping flies on floating lines Klingons are perfect, tube ties are best and hooks 4/0 s or 5/0 s I like offset Octopus hooks, the locals like the Owner version. I prefer sinking lines and 8-9 Klingons.

7 We mostly fished 30lb tippets and a meter of lb bite tippet. Bookings through me. Dates are; Trip 1 18 September depart Singapore fish th Sept return Singapore on the 26 th. Trip 2 26 th depart Singapore - fish 27Sept to 3 rd October, return to Singapore on the 4 th October. I will book accommodation in Singapore (3 star in the old part of town). It s best that everyone is staying together to make the pick up easier.

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