Revisit: Kolam Mancing Harmoni

Paypond:  Kolam Pancing Harmoni

Location: Pulau Meranti, Puchong

Date: 24th March 2019

Time: 10am - 6pm

Directions: Just Waze- Kolam Pancing Harmoni

The Revisit series focuses on reviewing some of the ponds that I have previously visited to give my readers an update on the ponds that I frequently visited. Kolam Pancing Harmoni has been my go-to fishing pay pond ever since I picked up fishing. I have been a regular customer for almost 3 years now. Click here if you want to read about my first visit there.

The entry payment is still the same, RM 30 per rod for 8 hours of fishing. One of the reasons why I like this pond is that the payment is very reasonably priced. Even better, recently the owner has made an update to the pond regulations: For every fish that you catch that is 9kg and above, a RM 10 reward is given to you. The reward has no limit, as long as the fish you landed is brought to the weighing counter with a net and the rod you used to catch it, leaving the hook in the fishes' mouth as a proof of catch; or "boll" as we anglers call it.

A "boll" means that the fish is caught with the hook in its mouth, a sign that your bait has been successfully eaten by the fish. A foul hook (fish caught with hook attached to anywhere of its body except its mouth) however, will not be rewarded.

The pond has been renovated and more sheds have been added to the pond. The ground has also been cemented so that anglers do not have to walk through muddy soil to get to the sheds. 

Across the pond from my shed are the newly constructed sheds.

If you look closely, there are a few more new sheds on the left across the pond.

During the trip, I caught my first Asian Big Head Carp, a.k.a. Tongsan using a V-Rig with marshmallow baited with Butterscotch bread. Learn more about the V-Rig here. Besides that I have also managed to claim a RM 10 reward once with a 9.915 kg Patin. Close call!

New species! Tongsan carp. 

Just managed to squeeze into the reward weight range of 9kg and above.

The fish that won me RM 10.

The Patin was caught using pellets as bait. Learn more about how to catch Patin catfish here. I landed a total of 5 fish throughout my 8 hour session here. Not the best session but at least I didn't leave home empty handed. 

Strawberry infused 6363 pellets with a bomb V-rig.

All in all, this pond has received very good reviews from many freshwater pay pond anglers, including myself. Just avoid coming on Fridays and weekends if you are a novice because the crowd can sometimes be too overwhelming.

Tight lines and until next time,

Wisey.

Catch Report: Kolam Pancing Seksyen 24

Paypond: Kolam Pancing Seksyen 24

Location: Seksyen 24, Shah Alam

Date: 3rd February 2019

Time: 5.30 am - 5.30 pm

Directions: Waze - Kolam Pancing Seksyen 24

Report:

Continuing my hunt for a pay pond to be my new regular spot, I have finally decided to give the reputable Kolam Pancing Seksyen 24 a try. This pay pond has a reputation among fresh water anglers for having big Mekong Giant Catfish in it.

The pond is operated 24 hours a day. Anglers can fish for 12 hours with a fee of RM35 per pond, abiding by a strictly CnR policy. Anglers are rewarded with RM10 for every fish above 11kg during weekends. 

Given that I have already known in advance that the pond will be crowded during weekends, I have decided to visit the pond as early as 5.30 am. Even then, as I walked in, the pond was PACKED. I am talking about one rod stand (rod holder) staked to the ground every 2 feet along the perimeter of the pond. I could barely get a spot! 

Entrance of pond. No specific signs of any sorts but you know you're heading to the right place when you see a large pond.

Parking area packed with cars. Imagine the amount of anglers within. Photo taken later in the day when lighting was better.

Counter and weighing area.

Ticket given to anglers upon payment.

At last I found a spot at the corner of the pond near one of the aerators. The pond was large, about the size of a football field:

Right side of pond from my spot.

 

Left side of pond from my spot. As you can see it is a fairly large pond.

I started off by using cut pieces of walking catfish (keli fish) as bait. I heard that the High fin catfish (Chaopraya Catfish) here bite very well on cut pieces of keli. 

2 whole catfish that I bought at a supermarket. Pretty wallet friendly price.

I requested the fishmonger to chop it up into small pieces.

Hook, line, sinker. Nothing special required to catch the Chaopraya catfish.

I tried to use a float initially. It got a few good bites but no hookup. I switched to a bottom presentation afterwards but again, I can clearly see something tapping on the line but nothing really pulled drag from my spool. The fishes usually just give my line a quick, short tug and then dropped the bait again. It seems that they are very hook shy. A fellow angler next to me had better luck catching the Chaopraya catfish with chicken skin on a float. 

I noticed during the early morning, the Chaopraya catfish would congregate at the foam created by the aerators, their high fins giving away their positions. A few anglers casted their bait with a float at the foam and let it drift down, but it wasn't productive despite having their baits drifting just in front of the fishes. I guess the fishes are just not in the mood to feed. 

There is one of this aerators on each corner of the pond. Chaopraya catfish tend to gather near the aerators when they are switched on.

I tried to fish with cut bait until roughly 12 pm when I decided to switched to Strawberry flavoured pellets with a floated V-rig to try to catch the Patin and Mekong instead. I got a solid tug at roughly 2pm, and my rod almost got pulled into the water! Luckily I managed to get to my rod in time to grab the base of the rod. After setting the hook, I fought the fish for a while before losing it. Oh well, there is just something wrong my hook ups... I have experienced multiple incidents where I hook up, fight the fish for a while before losing it, and I have yet to find out the reason why.  

I attribute the reason why my rod almost got pulled into the water to my rod holder being staked too shallow into the ground. When the fished pulled, the rod holder got ripped out of the ground and sent my rod dragging on the bank towards the pond! I was lucky I managed to recover both. I was told that other anglers aren't as lucky as I was.

By the time I ran out of bait, it was roughly 5.30 pm. I headed home after that without landing any fish. As we fellow anglers would say, Bangau.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts:

There is definitely fish in the pond. Anglers around me have been hooking up to fish and some are in excess of 10 kg. There are good fish in here. There is a reason why the pond is renowned among fresh water anglers. I think I should have been more patient with my fishing. If you want to catch Chaopraya catfish, bring cut pieces of Tilapia or Keli and fish it on the bottom. Leave the bait for 1 hour before checking it. You will eventually hook up. To catch Mekong and Patin, you really need some knowledge in flavoring your bread and pellets as the waters here are heavily pressured and you need to change up your flavours every now and then. The counter offers pre-soaked pellets at the price of RM 10 per kg. Anglers are known to purchase it and then flavour it with their own flavours as the pellet itself isn't flavoured. 

All in all, the pond operators really do have the anglers in mind. The counter serves also as a mini tackle shop; selling hooks, leaders, and baits of any kind. I personally find the soaked pellets being available as a plus as it saves us time soaking it beforehand and new anglers who are not so good at soaking pellet type baits can just purchase it ready made.

Not catching a fish on my first visit to a fresh water pond is within my expectations. Fresh water pond is unlike a salt water pay pond, where you just change your bait from fish to shrimp to squid depending on the fishes' mood. Fresh water pay pond fishing involves flavouring your bait, be it bread or pellet or flour mixture. The "setting" of the flavours, as we anglers call it; takes a few visits and asking around the regular customers to figure out. 

Definitely worth a second visit, and the knowledge learned from this trip will be applied on my next visit so that I won't leave empty handed. This trip has been very insightful to me; a relatively new angler. Just a tip, avoid coming on weekends.

Tight lines until next time,

Wisey.