Fishing bulus Rungus style

The bulus caught using the Rungus fishing method along the beach in Kudat.

CATCHING the bulus or whiting is not an easy task for most anglers especially on sandy beach but not for Rungus womenfolk, an indigenous group living in North Borneo.

Armed with a thin pole with a long line tied to its tip, they would wade into the sea until the water is knee-deep to cast their line, which is attached to a small hook and a floater crafted from wood, to wait for a bite.

A small lead sinker is also fixed to the line, midway between the floater and hook, to allow the bait to sink to the bottom.

Fishing bulus is normally carried out at the start of a high tide.

A Rungus woman with her pole rod fishing for bulus and other species found on Kudat’s beach.

This activity can last between two and three hours, depending on the depth of a beach.

However, this type of fishing is not static. The anglers are constantly on the move, shifting spots after every cast.

They would comb the entire shallow beach slowly until the tide rises.

The anglers would use fresh prawn meat, which is cut into small pieces, as their bait to lure the bulus.

On a good day, each woman angler can land between 2kg and 3kg of bulus, which is delicious to eat when deep-fried.

Bulus generally live and play around the sandy shallows.

The species move into shallower water in smaller schools to feed on marine worms, crustaceans and shellfish.

Bulus also actively hunt small fishes.

The commercial value of this species has gone up over the years.

The rig and floater used by the Rungus for bulus fishing at the tip of Borneo island.

Once caught for fishmeal or pet food, whiting is now common in the market and supermarket.

This species, which can be easily found at Indian banana leaf outlets, can fetch as much as RM45 a kilo in Kuala Lumpur.

The long stretches of untouched beach found on the upper part of the Borneo east coast, particularly from Kota Belud to Simpang Menggayau in the Kudat district, makes this type of fishing style ideal there.

While this method of pole fishing is effective to catch all sizes of bulus, the womenfolk also land other by-product such as breams, parrot fish and small groupers living on the rocky beaches, as well as crabs.

I had a few casts with the pole on my recent visit to a Kudat beach.

Basically, it is easy to throw the line out but one has to cast it against the wind.

The long narrow beach leading to Pulau Kelabu, which separates the South China Sea (left) and Sulu Sea (right) is one of the best places to fish for bulus in Kudat.

The idea behind casting the line to the front and allowing the wind to push the floater backward when it is on the water is to look for the whiting scrounging for food at the bottom of the sandy beaches.

It took me a few throws to get my rusty fly fishing casting technique to work.

Out of 20 casts, I landed a small bulus.

But for the Rungus anglers, their catch rate is about five to eight throws per fish.

The trick about fishing bulus Rungus style is to be able to spot dark moving shadows in the crystal clear water and quickly cast the bait out slightly in front of the spotted shadows.

Doing so increases the catch rate.

Aside from bulus, bream can takes the bait using the native pole fishing method.

It was fun for a fishing enthusiast like me to use different fishing styles to catch this species.

At the same time, it teaches you to be more alert about your surroundings to spot the fish in the water.

The spotting technique definitely brought back memories of hunting the elusive bonefish in the Maldives.

To experience this unique Rungus fishing technique, go to a Kudat beach the next time you are in Sabah.

Happy fishing.