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Discovery Bay dam, Hong Kong. Good Times!!!!

Schilling

By Schilling
in Saltwater

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Schilling Newbie

Schilling

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Hey all....

About a week ago I posted a "please help" regarding which lures to use to catch saratoga. I have been in Hong Kong for a couple weeks visiting family. On the Island we live on there is a big reservoir which I used to fish in as a kid. Never really had much luck besides the small talapia. Now much older and wiser I thought it was time to buy a rod and some lures and have a really decent crack at catching something big! There is a similar website to AFO called sport fishing asia, they provide the same functions as the AFO website however focus on the fishing in asia. This website would be a good source of information for anyone heading to asia and is keen to pack the rods! There is a forum section for Hong Kong and some of the local fishos report seeing big fish up in the DB reservoir.

So I began my missions at 4:00am giving myself plenty of time to trek up the mountain and be fishing by sunrise around 5:15am. The weather is hot atm with temps between 28-34 degrees. I bought some ecogear lures, SX40's SX48's PX45's MX48 and PP60's ( Super cheap at PO KEE fishing tackle in Hong Kong about Au$6-7. If you are heading up and want details I can give you all the directions etc.)

So the first day I went up nothing much was doing early, a few small talapia between 10-25cm. Good fun on the light 6lb outfit I bought. As the morning progressed I could see these large black fish with white mouths schooling around the spillway. There was about 30+ in the school and ranging in size from 50-80cm. This got the heart rate up!! I threw everything at them! The water was cyrstal clear, put the lures right on their heads but nothing. They werent even spooked by my being there? Hung around all day!!! Now seriously frustrated!! My lure fishing technique was suffering and I was basically trying to snag one. On one cast I saw what I thought to be a saratoga follow in my lure. I continued to cast and saw the saratoga following the lure one more time before everything shut down when the heat turned up. I walked home disappointed with the small talapia but excited about the chance to come up again and try catch the big one.

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My next attempt followed a similar story to the first, up early and only managing to catch the small talapia and not the big unknown fish or the lone saratoga! Fished from 5:15am till 8:30am and on the last frustrating cast of the sx40.....BOOM!!!! The water errupted and the drag went screaming. I saw a flash of gold in the water and knew I had hooked something alot better than those dam talapia!!! About 2mins into the fight by my surprise this golden flanked fish launches out of the water, a good metre or so! From seeing that I knew straight away, it was my saratoga!! 2 more jumps and about 10 nervous mins later I finally got him up on the rocks!!! Had to take off my shirt mid fight so that I could pick him up out of the water and wet the rocks so that not to cause any harm to him. I only managed 1 picture as the fish was spent and wanted it back in the water asap. Not the best picture but he was big maybe 60cm+? Amazing looking fish and a more amazing experience!! Always thought I would catch my first saratoga somewhere up north in Australia and def not in Hong Kong. I know they are not a native species to Hong Kong and he would def be someones released pet but it was still a magic catch. He swam happily back off into the depths of the reservoir to thrill some other fisho in the future....

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Hope you all enjoyed the read!!! If you have any questions about fishing up in Hong Kong or your heading up some time, send us a message and I will do my best to help??

Schilling

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