I’ve heard a lot about this new place and interest piqued about the many monster fish they have.
Where is D’ Semarak
Kolam Monster D’ Semarak is the local name for this fishing pond located in the idyllic and hilly town of Batang Kali about 50km north of the Kuala Lumpur city center (about a one hour drive).
Batang Kali is fairly close to some tourist destinations such as Hulu Yam and Fraser’s Hill.
D’ Semarak location in google maps
Fish Species
D’ Semarak is well stocked with a myriad of freshwater fish such as pacu, giant Mekong catfish, patin, haruan, toman, peacock bass and a few more. One of the most sought after target species must be the voracious Chao Phraya Catfish (CPC).
Fishing here has given me the impression that this can be a direct competition to the other “monster pond” the Natural Exotic Fish Fishing Pond (NEFFP) that’s located not too far from here. That’s because the fish species stocked are similar and they both have big fish although my personal observation when it comes to the Chao Phraya Catfish, there are more and bigger CPC in NEFFP in general.
Amenities
D’ Semarak is equipped with basic fishing amenities such as small huts for shelter and basic toilets. I’d say the maintenance and condition of the facilities are 2 out of 5. Okay, but could certainly be better.
Although much of the pond is surrounded by greenery it can get very hot here as everything is man-made and you’ll be standing on concrete ground that will start to heat up from late morning onwards.
My First Foray in D’ Semarak Fishing Pond
Nick had actually asked me many times to fish here but something always clashed with the plans until on a particular Wednesday in March 2023.
There was Nick, Alan and myself and we had a surprise in Batang Kali where the stretch of road just before turning in was closed for roadworks. I practically drove around in circles trying to find a way there and Waze didn’t help as it kept directing me back to the closed intersection. I finally asked a nice lady in front of her house in a small village we turned into and she pointed us on our way which was a big detour but we finally got there and started fishing.
2 ponds
There are two ponds in D’ Semarak, a smaller one that’s designated as a casting pond for artificial boats only and a larger pond where bottom and bait anglers fish, too.
At the time of my trip there I was informed the casting pond had a recent makeover and many of the fish had been transferred over to the bigger pond.
It used to be that you pay the RM50 fee and you can fish both ponds but not anymore. Now you have to pick which you want to fish in for the fee. We chose to fish the big pond this time.
We started fishing at around 8am., a little later than we had wanted due to a closed road that made us take a long detour.
Depth
I’m guessing the pond’s depth is 10 to 15 feet but this is unverified. I felt it didn’t take too long for my unweighted fly to get down even using floating line.
Fly Line Choice
Initially I thought of going with a sinking or intermediate line. Finding out that the pond is not too deep I could also use a floating line. Going through my options I found a Rio GT 475gr line (I know…too much!) already in a Lamson Speedster 3.5 reel that have not seen action for quite a long time so I decided to use this. I have a tendency to dig out and try different setups when pond fishing as they can be a good venue and time to learn/find-out things.
So, in summary all three types of lines can be used in D’ Semarak – floating, intermediate, sink tip and full sink.
If given a choice of only choosing one type of line I’ll pick a sinking line.
Fly used
From previous experience targeting species like the CPC, I find they’re receptive towards baitfish patterns such as deceivers.
I started with a black-yellow fly. I only had one take with that fly and catching me off guard – it was while waiting for the fly to sink to the bottom, no hook up. After one hour I decided to change to a chartreuse-yellow-red fly thinking it resembles colours of the peacock bass. The CPC here hunts the peacock bass as they are bite-size for them.
If you want to target the pacu and peacock bass you may want to use a slightly smaller streamer fly, black seem to work quite well for the pacu here which are often in the 10 to 20kg size range (serious pull from those).
After changing fly I immediate got an eat on the second cast. I cannot recall if the CPC hit the fly when the fly was stationery at the bottom or as soon as I started to strip.
The second CPC came just under an hour later. This one ate the fly during the strip.
Alan was using a black streamer and landed 3 peacock bass and lost a CPC. Nick landed a CPC and had a pacu bit him off.
All black flies seem to work well here too from observation and experience.
Leader setup
I used a rather heavy leader setup, 60lb Berkley Trilene Big Game mono connected to 40lb Berkley ProSpec fluorocarbon as tippet. I joined the leader to the tippet using the double uni knot. I was made to understand 20-25lb tippet size will do but as shown they do not mind the heavy poundage as well, at least not from this particular day.
Rod and reel
My rod-reel setup is on the heavy side due to the fact that I was using the 475gr GT line that was already in the Speedster reel. The rod was an old 7’11” Ross FlyStik Heavy 10wt. An 8wt or 9wt will get the job done and be easier on the shoulders.
Summary
All in all we fished just over 2 hours and caught that couple of fish. I wouldn’t call it a bad catch at all, 3 peacock bass, 3 CPC, 1 lost CPC and pacu each. From what I’m told the catch rate are usually better here, well… that’s fishing I guess.
Will I go again? And do I recommend the place? Sure, it’s one of those convenient place to get a quick fix with big strong hard-pulling fish.
If you’d like to go fishing here, learn or improve your fly casting, get in touch.
Until the next one, thanks for reading.
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