Murum vs Bakun Interior Sarawak Dam Luring

A casual comparison of fresh water fishing potentials between two new huge impoundments in interior Sarawak, namely the Bakun Dam and Murum Dam, where good fishing, especially for sebarau, can be truly enjoyed.

- Tan G.S.

I fished in both these dams in 2016 and noticed some similarities between Murum dam Bakun dam in terms of fishing when they were first impounded. Yet, they are different in 2016 as Bakun is several years “older”.

What is noticeably similar is the catch rate of the fish. When Bakun dam was first impounded there was a fish population boom. Similarly there has been a fish population boom too in Murum dam. But the similarity ends there.

The Fish Species

Bakun's fish population boom involved many species. We saw iceboxes upon iceboxes filled with tapah and baung averaging 5kg arriving at the jetty. There were also lots of smaller fish species like lampam and tengalan being netted and brought to the jetty in iceboxes for sale.

Murum on the other hand did not have this boom of species. There were no tapah, lampam, or tengalan and the numbers of baung caught were considerably fewer than at Bakun in its heyday. However there are lots and lots of small tilapia hanging around the bank edges and the floating house. These came from the fish farms in the valleys that were flooded during the impoundment of the dam.

Bakun vis-à-vis Murum

Like Bakun in the earlier days, there are a lot of sebarau, ever keen to bite at the stream and river mouths. However, unlike in Bakun, those we caught in Murum dam were ALL of the two-barred sebarau (Hampala bimaculata ) species. In Bakun we caught primarily the one-bar sebarau (Hampala macrolepidota ).