Bought a few fishing stuff recently from Cabelas.

Daiwa Exceller 3300
Exceler® Features:
HardBodyz™ computer die cast aluminum alloy body
DigiGear™ digital gear design
Seven bearing system including CRBB corrosion resistant bearings at key locations
Machined aluminum ABS spool
Machined aluminum handle with Soft Touch knob

I already owned a Daiwa Laguna and I am pretty happy with the smooth casting and the distance that I got from it. I decided to buy the Exceller because my Laguna is somewhat on the large size, Laguna 5000. I bought it last time to try on surf fishing. Got myself a 10 foot fishing rod.

I was also curious about the DigiGear thingy that comes with Exceller, the review about it being smooth and that the features that they have is what you can find in those expensive high end models. Also Exceller is only like USD 60 which is pretty okay price wise.

I also bought a red fishing line, again sort of curious whether it is true or not as claim by the magazine that red color is invisble under 3 feet of water. Got something to do about red light is totally absorbed or not reflected or some shit like that under 3 feet of water.

Frankly speaking, I don't really see much improvement in catching more fish and I think I sort of bought a line that is slightly too thick. I choose a 12 lb line, should have chosen the 8 lb line which should allow me to cast further and maybe get a better feel of the Daiwa Exceller reel smoothness due to the so called digi-gear.

Anyway I did try the exceller out and unfortunately the only decent size fish that I caught using them is only a 350 gram Flathead and 400 gram flounder/Sole fish with the Daiwa Laguna. Both are not really known to be a great fighter. In fact they just sort of gave up half way and follow the line back to shore.

Caught this flathead using a large live prawn, 2 running ball sinker with about 1 foot of fluorocarbon leader and a size 1/0 circle hook. I read from a local magazine about bouncing the prawn to tempt ambush fish and decided to try it on the sandy part of the Likas Bay, just opposite the KK Port Jetty.

It took me about 20-30 minutes continously casting and reeling the bait before the flathead grab the bait and run with it. It was a short run towards the right side and once I start reeling the line, the flathead sort of follow the line back all the way to the shore. Tide was about 1 metre and water was quite clear.

The sole fish was caught with the Daiwa Laguna reel using similar rig. I threw the line quite far out maybe nearly half way in distance between the shore and the KK Jetty. At first I thought it was a small ray but it was a nice surprise that it was a flounder and being 400gram, sadly is the biggest flounder that I caught so far. I am a shore fisherman wanabe fishing in terribly unproductive and over fished water of Kota Kinabalu.

The tide at that time (Sunday 12 Nov 2006, 10am) is quite low as shown on the right. I think it was about 0.5 meter, KK highest tide is about 2.0 meter from lowest tide.


I suppose fishing in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from the shore is a very frustrating affair or more like act of meditation than fishing. The sole fish that I caught is by fishing from 7am till 11am. There were like 10-15 other people there and all of them left empty handed at about 10 am.

I feel there is a serious need to introduce minimum size and also bag limit to the shore fishing community in Kota Kinabalu. Looking at the rigs that most fishos here you can tell that they actively target small fish, in fact any fish even as small as 1 finger will be happily bagged by many fishos here.

I cannot imagine what they do with those tiny fishes that they caught. I suppose they would probably like deep fry the fish and easily put the whole fish in their mouth.

I gave up telling them off because every time I asked them why they keep them they all say the same thing.

• No big fish
• Small fish taste better

I think every weekend KK fishos caught at least 20-25 small fishes the size of one or two fingers.

Those 20-25 can easily grow to about the size of a hand in 1-2 months. One way I suppose is the government should introduce law to fine anyone who keep fish the size smaller than the hand and then increase the minimum size every year by maybe 1 inches or 2 inches.

That way eventually the size of fishes that can be found and caught in Kota Kinabalu/ Sabah water will be bigger. It will however not work unless a huge mega fine of RM 1000 per fish smaller than the minimum limit is imposed. Strong enforcement must also be in place to make sure the rule is followed.

Another thing I feel that the government should do is to completely ban netting by those so called weekend fisherman in Likas Bay. They should at least use nets that are big enough to let fishes smaller than a hand size to escape instead of catching even ikan bilis the size of 1-2 fingers!!!.

Anyway enough ranting. Not a single politicians will be willing to do anything anyway because there is no money to be made by them.