KurauKing's Fishing Journal

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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

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