Prawn fishing in Permas Jaya, in Malayia's Johor state, is an indoor sport. Very popular with the locals. Hilarious for someone who grew up in coastal south western Australia, where all forms of fishing are done in the wild.
The other captain told me he’d seen the new prawn fishing shop in Permas Jaya. I’d seen the fish fishing ponds. They’re outdoors. But the prawn fishing shop?
Sure enough it’s in one of the Permas Jaya side street shop houses. There’s a pond inside, a rack of rods and an attendant.
We checked it out. Asked some people who were prawn fishing at the time how it works. One of them was a self-proclaimed fish whisperer. We pumped her for all the information she could give us and decided to give it a go.
A quirky, fun thing to do in Permas Jaya
This is where you go prawn fishing in Permas Jaya
This is how it works. You pay RM45. You get bait, an ash tray, a fishing rod with one meter of fishing line and a float attached, and an hour of fishing for your investment. Plus you get to take your catch home.
Squirmy worms
Not for the squeamish
The bait comes in a small round takeaway food container full of little lumps of mud.
At first I thought the pooh shaped bits of mud were the bait LOL. The attendant didn’t exactly crack up when he showed me the squirmy worms hiding in the bottom. But he took pity on me and my ignorance and demonstrated how to bait up.
First he cut off a piece of wriggling worm with the rusty pocket knife provided. Then threaded it, writhing, on to the hook. Tricky. It took me a few goes to get the hang of it.
Delicious
Result! I caught a prawn I caught a prawn
Between us the other captain and I caught eight prawns. A local also gave us his catch of four. We ate them back on Yana de Lys. Footie snacks watching our team win their Australian Football League game. Yum.
I couldn’t help thinking about the times we went king prawn fishing under the Fremantle bridge in the Swan River with our friend Rover. Years and years before I even imagined I'd be going on a personal sailing adventure. Man that was an entirely different fishing experience.
Have you ever been prawn fishing? What was it like? BTW I would love you to Google+ and share my blog!
