The small but growing fly-fishing community in Malaysia reached
a milestone when it landed a billfish on fly for the first time in
the busy Malacca Straits. Three fishermen aboard the GT
Chaser captained by S.H. Toh were having a ball tagging and
releasing sailfish around Jarak Island, 30 nautical miles off the
Malaysian coast, when one of them, Christopher Tan, the only
fly-fisherman in the group, decided to try for sails on fly
“just for kicks.”
Although none aboard had ever tried blue-water fly-fishing
before, they managed to raise and tease the sails to four hookups
on FPF flies. The first hookup broke off almost immediately at the
tippet when the shooting line wrapped around the reel foot.
The second was successfully fought until they brought it to the
surface where it quickly pulled the hook and cut the celebration
short. The men fought the third sail for 30 minutes before it
succumbed to the “light” pressure of a 9-weight. The
victorious fly-fisher, Tan, was thankful that the Pacific sailfish
was a small one, about 30 pounds.
The fourth sailfish was hooked up on the last day of fishing and
broke off at the tippet 10 minutes into the fight after taking 200
yards of line. Tan said he did not expect to get so many hookups,
considering they had used only artificial bird and squid teasers
and the crew had never fly-fished prior to this trip.
