GREEN PORRIDGE

    



Green Porridge was published in the
 February 2000 issue of Rod and Line
 fishing magazine.

     First the bill, then the head broke the mirror like surface of the sea, shaking its head from left to right. Water droplets were spraying everywhere. The whole episode was flashing past me frame by frame.......like a slow motion video show. For a split second our eyes met and I was mesmerised by the monster. "Sailfish!" everyone gasped in unison. Their shouts jogged me out of my thoughts. Yelling to James to reel in my line, I ran to get my camera hanging from the shelf behind me. I never got there as the monster shot out of he water again. This time it tail-walked from the back of the boat to our left, just five meters away. My mind was telling me to get this shot of a life time, but my legs wanted to watch this show of a lifetime. What a display! I would give an arm and a leg just for this spectacular display in real life and time, instead of watching it on videos. When this more than 70 kilo monster dropped back into the water, Phang's line was shooting out as though hooked onto the Titan Rocket. I managed to grab my camera by which time, the fish was miles away. At that very moment, Phang's Alutecnus 12 worked loose from its reel seat (Murphy's Laws at work). he was gasping, "Finish lah, finish lah." James and Chong were helping him to lock his reel back on, when his line parted with a loud crack. The monster emptied his spool of 30lb mono filament! After this all of us got to suffer and bear with Phang's repeatedly showing and telling us about his burnt thumb (He tried to stop the spool with his thumb). James counted twenty three times!



This todak was the cause
 of me being made a
laughing stock.

     
     Actually high tide was never my favourite time to fish around the Jarak area. Credit should be given to James for his persuasive power (He is a sales personnel). According to him, Phang was organising a trip to Jarak with some freshies from Cameron Highlands. Testing his custom-built rod against the might of the GTs of Jarak was James excuse. How could I refuse when the rod was built by me?
    
      Pushing off from Lumut at 9.30 am, we immediately put out three lines. After securing and setting my reel I dozed off in my fishing chair. The next thing I knew was when I awoke to the excited chatter around me. Jarak was an imposing sight with just tree capped rocky surface jutting out from the clear blue sea.

      Two lines were trolled while James and I were casting with poppers for GTs. After five fruitless times round the island, we got no choice but to drop anchor. There was not much current here, been protected by Jarak. A school of lai mang (rabbit fish) came for lunch and everybody was happy except me. When the fellows on your right, left and back were pulling up fish after fish while you didn't register a bite, the grin on your face would fade and be replaced by a scowl. On top of the taunts like, "What did you do last night, huh?" or "Forgot to bring some pomelo leaves ah?" really was hard to swallow. My oh my,I must be blowing smoke and fire through my nostrils.

Me and my lai mang. James said that in
Hong Kong people pay kerapu price
for lai mang porridge.

 

James and his tau foo yue.
He is always telling about
the big tau foo yue he
 speared during his
numerousdives off Jarak.

      Phang, Chong and I decided to drift out whole kembongs for GTs. Less than half an hour later, Phang's reel screamed with the sailfish mentioned earlier. Whew! This trip was worth every miserly sen of mine. What , with a ringside seat view of a tail-walking sailfish, "No fish also worth it lah!" I exclaimed. Ten minutes later, as though to taunt us, another smaller version of the sailfish suddenly leap clear of the water and landed with a splash just seven meters away. What a day! My hands were still shaking from all the excitement when my rod jerked and the alarm sounded. Humility was never one of my virtues. "Here comes my sailfish," I bragged. "Watch out for the name, Ng Chan Chiew, written on the fish," I needled. Be calm man, I reminded myself. "Let out line, let out line," advised all my sifus. I didn't think I heard them as my heart was drumming out of my chest.
    

One of the tau foo yue I caught.

      The fish was slowly taking line-too suspiciously slow. Funny though at moment such as this your mind can totally shut out the distractions around you and concentrate on the job at hand. The waiting was agonizing. After what seemed like hours, I pushed the lever into gears and struck hard. The boat chose to rock at the wrong moment for I stumbled and accidentally loosened the drag (Murphy's Law). Creeeech and I had my bird nest soup served piping hot. The fish was still pulling very hard, while Phang and I were trying to untangles the mess. It is always in situation such as this that you'll find your hands have only thumbs and toes.

       Somehow we cleared up the mess, but when I pumped there was no resistance. Frustration swept over me. We agreed that it was not a sailfish for my line would have been broken if it was. While reeling in I felt something at the end of the line again. But it was like pulling a gunnysack. Finally, we saw what I had hooked. The whole gang broke out laughing. Phang even pretended to roll on the deck holding his stomach.
I must have looked stupid with the todak at the end of the line. It was hooked in the center of the body. "Heh Ng, you are going to eat green porridge until you turn green soon," someone shouted. "Green fish and chips do taste fantastic, you know?" added another. James even teased that my family will be mistaken for Martians! (Todaks carry a green sheen on its skin. Even their bones are green). How I wished it was medieval time for I could tie them up with rocks to their feet and force them to walk the gang plank at knife point. My todak was not that bad after all as it weighed about three kilos. Not too bad eating too if well prepared.

The rookie, Ah Meng, with his
 'beginner's luck' jenahak.






       Everything calm down again. Only then did I realised I was having gastric pains. With litres of gastric juice pumped into my empty stomach during the excitement, it was a miracle I got only gastric pain. Two anti-acid and a piping hot cup of milk eased the pain somewhat.
     
      Soon it was evening. We started trolling with four lines again, while the others were casting for GTs. Four fruitless round island trips later we decided to drop anchor again. From now on until the early hours of the morning, the bottom fishing was the lousiest I had ever encountered. Most of the time, we were trying to avoid waves, which had grown in intensity during the night.The six rookies might turn green without eating todak, you know. This was their first trip, remember? Sometimes, I believe in the hypothesis, "beginners' luck." The whole night we seniors were using car jacks to keep our eyelids open so that  we could fish, while the rookies were sleeping, holding each other comfortably.
   



Liew and his trevally. You don't need
to fish like crazy. Sleep well and the fish
 will come to you automatically, he said.

      At around 5.00am Liew and Ah Meng got up and immediately caught a jenahak and a trevally of respectable sizes. We seniors felt like kicking each others' backs. After breakfast, a group of lai mang and tau foo yue came by and I made up for my bad luck the previous day. Double and triple hook-ups were made by me with Sabiki apollos hooks. Fishing with a vengeance I finally disperse the black cloud hanging over my head. Another boat was trolling nearby. They were having better luck for we did see jumping and tail-walking sails behind them.

      All in all we counted four hook-ups of sails (all released) and two barracudas. At around 11.00am taikong Kwai Loh upped anchor and captained the Ocean Star back to Lumut.