In Search of the Giant Snakehead
The opportunity to fish a body of water tucked away deep in the world's oldest tropical rain forest doesn't come up often so when it did, I jumped at the chance. Besides, it was with my favourite fishing partner, my brother Kevin. Once the stronghold of communists up until 1989, The Royal Belum Forest Reserve in Perak, Malaysia dates back over 130 million years old, making it older than the Amazon and the Congo. In it lies Lake Temenggor, covering 15,200 hectares (1 hectare is about the size of a professional baseball field) and home to many species of freshwater fish like the hampala barb, Malaysian mahseer and channa micropeltes. Also known as the giant snakehead, it would be the main target species of our trip.
