There are plenty of coral reefs offshore Miri especially around Tukau and Siwa and numerous coral patches namely around West Lutong, Bakau, Betty, Bokor and Baronia of the Baram Delta area despite the huge amount of river wash of Baram River. Indefinitely, these corals especially the patches were not really 'mapped' resulting in difficulties on locating them. However, the locality is sticks in those experience fishermen's memory. The knowledge was inherited from their ancestors in order to guarantee continuos fruitful catches to the latter.
Despite the secrecy, people forgot about the advances in technology. A new Era witnessed the use of satellites to locate ones position anywhere in the world accurately. A school of fish could hardly escapes their candid figure to be located by fishing boats. The born of a device so-called 'echo sounder' make it even harder. Ones can easily 'see' underwater surface using sonar waves thus locating the coral reefs or patches or even fishes. A combination of GPS (Global Positioning System via satellites) and 'echo sounder' makes the perfect tools for the fishing trip for some anglers. The equipment are readily available in the market with an affordable price.
Many of the anglers who use this equipment resulted in catching fruitful catches, but not all of them were truly happy. Sometimes they just returned barehanded. They believed they saw fishes underwater but they just couldn't get them bite on their baits. It was later that they realised fish doesn't eat all the time. They seem to have a certain time constraints, which later recognized as 'feeding time'.
Through some experience and study, I have compiled several ideas mainly from experts especially to understand fish behavior and their feeding time. These resulted in developing a special schedule on fish feeding time(s) related to the daily sea level movement or TIDES.
I have used the schedule on my personal fishing trips for the past years. It was wonderful! Within a predicted feeding time constraint, I had more bites on my baits compared to non feeding time. The time constraint varied on locations. It can be 5 min, 10 min or lasted to even half an hour in the good day and if you got lucky by having a lot of hungry fishes around.
The 'Miri Fisjing Calendar 2004' which are posted on this Web Pages by monthly references. I found it handy either for fishing or even for a hunting trip. Feel free to use it especially to predict the best time to go for an outing. You can personally prove the calendar capability and don't feel hesitate to give comments after the trip. I welcome any ideas especially one that can contribute on improving this calendar to give more accuracy on best fishing time.
However I like to warn you on several items. Do not use the table for any navigational purposes where lives are at stake. I will not carry any responsibilities for any incident happened as the table is not calibrated to any of the area calculated Charted Datum.
Do not forget to wear your life jacket at all times while fishing in a boat. Release those catch that are too small to be eaten. Lastly, wishing you a happy and successful trip in the future.
Enjoy!
Musa bin Musbah
| Miri Fishing Calendar 2008 LAT 4.3833 N, LONG 113.9833 E DATUM IS cd (Z0= 1.17) |