A place called Gopeng

A cure for an itch..
Farmer Wong told me that he haven't been fishing for months.
The rainy season had brought along good fortune as demand for greens have been high.
Despite that, he invited me to tag along on a fishing trip to Gopeng, Perak.
For Wong, its an opportunity to pick up his motorized pump in Teluk Intan, which is an hour's drive away from the location.

The plan
After feeding the dogs, I drove to Karak.
There, I met up with Ah Pan and Wong. We set out towards Gohtong Jaya near Genting Highlands and rolled down towards Batang Kali.
From the Selangor border, we drove towards Sungkai where we had lunch at Choy Kee restaurant which is known for their pork trotters and slow-cooked ikan Terubuk.
Following that, we left for Gopeng.
That was where I met Farmer Chong, a friend of Ah Pan and Wong.
We left our luggage at his home where we spent a night and took off to a fishing pond.

An old article at the makan place

A story told through time and again...
My farmer friends told me about their massive haul from a pond in the Lawan Kuda farm near Gopeng.

Their usual catch would run into the dozens and each ikan Haruan (snakehead) would easily weigh-in above 2kgs.
I always take stories as such with a pinch of salt.
We only had a few hours at the pond.
I had a few nibbles and a strong bit on my bushwhacker lure.
That was it.
Ah Pan landed one fish, while the heavily-pressured Farmer Wong had a small catch.
We decided that it was best to release all the fish back to the pond and called it a day..

Trying my luck

Ah Pan at work...

Farmer Wong's catch of the day

Our good host
We left the pond at 7:30pm. 
It got dark and as soon as we reached Farmer Chong's home, most of us had freshened up.
I checked my phone which was flooded with missed calls and tonnes of messages.
It was work-related and when I returned an 'urgent' call, the voice on the other side of the line was rather frantic.
That's the problem when you deal with people who are afraid and completely in the dark about the present work situation.
Dealing with such ninkampoops raises my blood pressure. Nevertheless, I had it sorted out and dealt with the issue the following day.
The rest of the night, we caught up with Farmer Chong and his friends.
Chong hosted us to tea while Farmer Wong brought some durian to entertain his host.
Spare the meager catch, the night went down well...

Sunset

Our great host - Farmer Chong