Kayak Expedition @ Tasik Bera

August 15, 2009 – Tasik Bera, Pahang (by Gerald K).  The eagerly awaited moment finally drew closer. I loaded my kayaks onto my pickup the evening before and went through my checklist one last time before going to bed.  

Day 1:  At 5:30 am, Chris and his son, CJ arrived at my house. It was still dark. CJ was busy playing his PSP he had just gotten for his birthday. We quickly transferred the stuff from Chris’ car to my pickup. By 6.00am we were on our way to pick up Ah Wah at the Petronas station on MRR2. Ah Wah was already there waiting for us when we arrived.

6.30 am.  We arrived at our rendezvous point, the BP station right after the Gombak toll. Sam and his friends, Gary and Loh, arrived 30 minutes later. We quickly transferred some of the stuff from Sam’s Kenari to my pickup and continued our journey shortly after.  

10.00 am.  We stopped to refuel and have our breakfast at Bera town. We wanted something light for breakfast but they only had nasi campur. We have had nothing the whole morning, so were famished and decided to go ahead with the nasi campur. I picked what I thought was my typical nasi campur fare… a fried egg, some vege and a small catfish masak lemak. After filling up my plate, I took it to the makcik at the cashier. With just a quick look at my plate and avoiding eye contact she told me it was RM15. I thought I had heard wrongly and asked again. She quipped, “Lima belas. Itu baung sungai, memang mahal”. Soon my RM15 breakfast became a joke the rest would poke fun at. We continued our journey right after breakfast. Just before reaching our destination, we pulled over to the side of the road and went out looking for oil palm seeds. The oil palm trees were everywhere and the seeds were scattered all over the ground. We picked a bagful of the oil palm seeds to be used as berley for fishing.  

11.30 am.  We arrived at the Persona Lake Bera Resort. We made a quick recce of the area and then headed to the reception for our registration and our welcome drinks. All of us were eager to get on the water and we decided we should go exploring the lake first and have our lunch later. It was half past noon when we launched our kayaks (and a canoe).  

Getting ready for launch...two kayaks and a canoe.

We paddled westward to a jetty near an orang asli village on the western side of the lake. The lake seemed small from land but as we paddled we discovered narrow canals hemmed in by rasau plants. As we paddled through the canals we discovered open waters (lubok) on the other side. The whole lake seemed like one giant maze. Sam was our guide and a keen angler, without whom we would not have ventured farther than we had. While two hours of paddling sounded like a long time we did not the least felt fatigued and if not for the lunch waiting for us at the resort, we would have continued on paddling. At 2.00pm, Sam called out to us and said we need to head back to the resort for our lunch, a very late lunch. I must say the food served by the resort was better than expected and the service was very friendly.  

Front (in canoe): Sam, Gary and Ah Wah. Back (in kayak): Chris and son, CJ.

After lunch, we set out again but this time we were all geared for fishing. Chris had brought along his echo sounder (fishfinder). The lake was between 2 to 5 m deep. The surface water temperature was as high as 35. We reckoned the high water temperature was the reason why the fish weren’t biting. We observed where there was shade, there were more fish and more bites. As the day got darker, the fishfinder showed more fish. We concluded that the fish went into hiding during the hot mid-day and came out from hiding during the cooler evening.  

Small fishes appeared from nowhere after we berleyed the water

The fish weren’t biting. So, Sam decided he would set a berley at one of the luboks we had passed earlier. We paddled back to the lubok and Sam started to dip his bagful of crushed oil palm seeds in the water. Within minutes there were small ripples everywhere. It seemed the small fish came from nowhere and they were on a feeding frenzy except that there was no food, only oil from the oil palm seeds. We thought the small fish would attract the big fish and immediately cast to the ripples hoping for a big strike but as it turned out, the big fish were not easily fooled. Before we knew it, it was getting dark and we had to return to base.  

Day 2:  Day two took us southward to the upper side of the lake. Tasik Bera drains its water from the south to Sungai Bera in the north before pouring its content into Sungai Pahang. We were set to explore as far south as we could and had brought along our lunch. Our plan was to return to base before nightfall.  

The journey south initially proved more difficult than expected. We could not find the exit canal and had to phone Encik Aziz, the resort manager, for direction. We eventually spotted the exit canal hidden inconspicuously among the rasau plants.  

Appearing out from a narrow canal...Loh, infront.

Sam, our guide, leading the way.

There were more canals and luboks. Some canals were so hemmed in by the rasau plants that they looked like narrow dark tunnels. Going through the dark tunnels and ducking the thorny rasau leaves and overhangs was nerve-wrecking initially but we quickly got over it. As we appeared out from the dark tunnels into the bright open waters the feeling was simply amazing. Seeing the open waters with high-walled rasau plants all around was like seeing a fishing paradise, if only the fishing could be as good.  

The orang asli have kept the canals open by regularly cutting the overgrowth and overhangs and burning the prolific rasau plants. We could see burnt patches of rasau forest here and there. Apparently, this “slash and burn” practice had in some ways controlled the spreading of the rasau plants and prevented it from proliferating the entire lake and devouring the other species. It was a fine example of Man living in harmony with Nature. Having said that, with the advent of modernisation and development, which is inevitable, is likely to upset this harmony.  

Rasau plants...everywhere.

Sam walking through the burnt rasau.

After the first day, we got wiser. We started looking for shady areas to fish. Our oil palm berley and fishfinder proved very useful. We started to land more fish. Though they were mostly small, we were equally excited. We released the small ones and kept the rest. We caught baungs, mini-baungs (baung kecil as what the locals would call them), lais and one or two more unknown species. There were some large rises but we simply could not get a hit.  

Sam's first catch, a lais.

CJ and his baung

Chris and CJ continued fishing at sunset.

CJ and his two baungs. Notice they are of different species.

CJ barbequeing his own catch. He caught 15 in total.

Day 3:  Our last day at Tasik Bera was supposed to be free and easy. Chris and CJ had decided the night before they would go fishing and would wake up at 6am. The rest, including me, would leave it to our “mood” come tomorrow. As it turned out, I didn’t want to miss anything. I woke up at 6.30am and found Chris and CJ had already gone. I guessed Sam didn’t want to miss anything either. He came to me and asked if I wanted to go fishing. We immediately packed and rushed to the water. We decided to take the canoe this time and joined Chris and CJ at the lubok we had fished in on Day 1.  

The morning was very misty. The lake had the calm and “mystical” feel. We could see the white mist gently floating above the calm glassy water. We paddled as gently as we could and the canoe glided through the water silently. The only sound we heard was the occasional sound made by our paddles pushing against the water.  

Misty morning...very calm and mystical

Soon we could see Chris and CJ through the mist. We decided to join them and fish at the same lubok. Chris and CJ had caught a few small fish including a mini-baung. Then we heard a blurring sound in a distant. The sound grew louder. We knew a fishing boat was coming our way. Soon we could see the boat. The boat had stopped about 100m away and two men were pulling up a net that had been set across the canal the night before. After they pulled up their net and blurring sound started again. They were coming our way. As they came closer, Sam signalled them to come over. They turned their boat and came toward us. We exchanged the usual niceties before getting down to real business. They showed us their catch…a couple of tapahs, a couple of baungs, one ketutu (marble goby), a few unknown species … and they were still alive. Sam said the tapah was good eating and suggested I should buy it. Since I had not eaten a tapah before I decided to buy the smallest (2.4kg) at RM36 per kg. After some hard bargaining, they decided to charge me 2kg for a 2.4kg at the same rate.  

The fishermen's catch...

We paddled for another half and hour or so before returning to the resort for breakfast. After breakfast, we started to pack and get ready to return to KL. 

In short, Tasik Bera is unique, very unique indeed. You have to paddle through its vast maze of canals and open waters (luboks) to see its hidden treasures and inner beauty. It is a nature lover’s paradise. Fishing is a bonus.