KurauKing’s Fishing Journal

The repainting work at OFB is still in progress when we revisited this lighthouse on 12/04/08 with some of my friends from MyKlang forum. This trip like many of our MyKlang stories began with a feast. And it happened not on just any other ordinary day. It happened on a day Malaysian History was changed (though we did not realized it then). March 8 – a day all Malaysian of this and future generations will always remember. When a political tsunami swept the go~ment boat and badly damaged it giving renewed hope to the people. Some of us had voted, others will be doing soon but like the sentiment of the rest of the country, it was a table of malcontents. So when a man came and distributed buttons with the smiling face of a ruling party candidate, he got an earful and beat a hasty retreat. When asked where we were on that fateful day, none of us will ever forget – we were having Bak Kut Teh!

For we were there to have a meeting to discuss our trip to One Fathom Bank coming April 12. By the time I arrived with Lemon Angel, Kurauking, Kimmy, Kobzng, Pooh88, Aircraft and two newcomers – pstan82 and Genio were already there and eating. The whole country was boiling over the brim and we make sure our soups were too for we really believe in the adage – “never fight on an empty stomach.”
No one seemed to bother that the serious discussions on the trip took slightly more than 5 minutes and the eating the rest. The purpose after all is to have fun. And to MyKlang members, not many things can beat piping hot good food. Come to think of it, it could be we were super-efficient, ya, that sounds better than food addicts. We were super-effective food addicts. Stomach full, we relaxed and settled down lazily to discuss anything under the sun including politics. Later that night, we were all be again be online in the forum discussing the political upheaval in the most exciting election we have ever known. Our trip started on a day the country has a new hope, a new dream and hopefully a new future. Looked like our trip could not have started on a more auspicious day! We have created history! Ordinary men and women like us having breakfast on a lazy Saturday.

We decided to choose yesterday to go shopping for essential for the trip. Alex had his trip ready but he kept leaving it in his car. Kurau & me had our cameras ready. But the most sporting of all is Gneeley who until now had not decided whether she will join her not-so-exciting friends in Penang or our very-exciting group to OFB. No brainer, Gne. In spite of that she accompanied us while a NUMBER of PPL who should be there all FFK. They can watch while we wallop those food. Anyway, consistent with our quality; before we start anything, we had a MAKAN!!

We had the famous curry laksa at the back of the Cathay Cinema in Klang. It had been a number of years since I was there. I parked the car so Ikan could sit himself first and he rewarded me by not ordering my laksa. He said he don’t know what to order when only laksa is available. Rocket scientist. Anyway, as I was taking shots while approaching the store, an old man with one knee up his stool loudly shouted “What the F##k am I taking picture for??” I ignored that group of rude old men and shouted without looking “Not taking your pic, dude!” Alex told me that the half hour he was here waiting for us, there has been none stop expletives from them. They are probably old time gangsters who think they are still in their youth. First caution – shopping can be dangerous from toothless old men.

Here’s the video clip of this OFB trip, enjoy

More picture at OFB Photo Gallery

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29 March 2008 – The alarm rang and I pulled myself up cursing – last night I should have slept earlier but it was only in the wee hours of the morning before I hit the sack after editing my blog the whole night. Hardly had I got myself decent when a beep told me that AbangLongBangi was waiting for me. 4 anglers from MFN decided to rent a boat and go fishing at Pangkor Island. AbangLongBangi, Burned Steel, Terubuk and me decided to have a fun  holiday leisure fishing trip to Pangkor Island. We shot to Tapah and arrived there at 7a.m. where Terubuk and Burned Steel are waiting in the later’s in-laws place. We were treated to a sumptuous breakfast before leaving. By 8 a.m. we were ready to depart.

We reached Pekan Air Tawar and what do we do? Eat again lah! Ha ha. First rule of fishing – do not fish with a hungry stomach, you’ll frighten away the fishes.

And hired our boat

By 9.30 a.m. we reached Setiawan. We removed our gears that we have somehow managed to stuff into our car. And excitedly transferred them to our selected boat. We felt the thrill the minute our legs rocked the boat. That is a feeling seafarers everywhere loved.

One of the success of a fishing trip is the correct selection of baits and today our instincts goes with these. I would like to tell you it is all skill but then you’ll “bullshit!” Hehe…

We decided to go for the life prawns instead of those colored flower crab which sometimes make an excellent bait for snappers and groupers

AbangLong is our Anchorman and he weighed down the front of our boat as we headed to sea under the spanning bridge. Although we have done it hundreds of times, it always feel fresh – that is why we tell others “it is better than SEX!” Ha ha.

On a clear and breezy day, we headed out to sea. This is the first spot we headed to in Lumut. This is the second largest flour mill in the country – Malayan Flour Mills (MFM).

We fished there without any success. It was only after I returned and posted the pictures in my gallery that ighosts told me that the jetty of MFM had an explosion recently with 4 killed and a number of workers seriously injured from a dust explosion. Of course we did not catch anything. The whole eco-system had been seriously disrupted and we were fishing among ghosts.

We left MFM and soon had our fist strike by AbangLong. These days, fisherman don’t tell tall tales; they do it with their camera. That looked like a decent sized grouper.

But looked again. That is the actual size… Ha ha. So don’t trust your eyes every time

Our next stop was at this depth marker and we had some luck here. But our fishing trip is to enjoy the sight and have as many varied experience as possible so we did not stayed long at any one place.

We tried different locations that enabled us to try different styles of fishing – drifting, Apollo, casting, trolling – we tried the whole range. But the most difficult to learn and manage is this master techniques

Hooking a fish by the side of the body without bait. Only a Grandmaster can do this…..hehee……….

We caught a number of Ikan Lembu (Cow Fish). This is one tough little bugger. Looked at how it stood erect. It is said if you stuff a lighted cigarette into its sucking mouth, it will smoke the whole stick. And if you release it into the water, it will swim away.

And it got such kissable lips. Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…..

Suddenly there is a loud whirl and the line began to fly. Terubuk jumped up all excited. He had caught something exciting. It raced across the water and flipped to the surface before plunging into the water. The battle began. Release, pull, wind. Release and the sequence repeated. Hearts were pumping. Adrenalin rush is there. This is the type of excitement all fishermen lived for. Though one can be confident, the battle is never won for sure. Will the line hold? Finally, the fish began to tire and slowly feet by feet, it was reeled in.

It was a banang aka Poorman’s Marlin, a worthy opponent. It may be called a poor man’s marlin but it is not a poor substitute for a fight. All was thrilled to catch one.

This may be smaller but it did not give me any less thrill.

Our catches gradually increased. Though the yield are not great, we are still gradually catching fishes so we were still happy.

We chose another spot which is a beautiful location with green waters lapping the rocks and lustrous vegetation above them.

AbongLong threw in the anchor and we fished here for a while.

This is our fourth member of the team and he is Burned Steel, the organizer of this trip. He caught this gorupa with his fly trolling without even realizing it.

One of the several gorupa caught.

It is now afternoon and we were hungry so we headed for the shore in Teluk Nipah. We rested our eyes by looking at sexy colorful things on the beach. Sea cucumber and water papaya lar! Ha ha. We had a feast of chicken rice and young coconut water.

This hornbill is lucky it is not the swimming type or we will fish for it too. Still, it looked at us kind of suspiciously.

After lunch, we continued fishing at various spots catching mainly gorupa. Sometimes when fatigue overcame any of us, we just relax and dozed off rocked by the lullaby of the sea. No worries, no cares. There is a bond between us and the sea.

And evening came and the golden glow of the sun was reflected back at us from the undulating waves. The whole atmosphere took on a subdued tone and the shadow lengthened as the sun dipped into the distance.

The sun hid behind one of the island and the sky took on a pinkish blue. Even though the light has gone out, we were not ready to quit yet. We did not let that or the mosquitoes deterred us. But our endurance also eventually wore out and we were ready to call it quit. We reached the Lumut jetty by 3.00 a.m. It had been a very long but satisfactory day.

We reached Tapah by 7.00 a.m. Are we the extreme anglers or what?

We put these cow fishes on the grass to frighten the kids. They looked like alien creatures from outer space.

We flashed our victory signs to commemorate our Pangkor Trip.

For more picture, pls goto Kurauking Photo Gallery

More News on Pangkor Island

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