MILLENIUM BASH.

Millennium Bash was published in the March 2000 issue of Rod and Line fishing magazine.

  Everyone started the new millennium with a bang, but yours truly got it off with a loud thud. After two disastrous trips to the  Straits of Malacca at the end of 1999, where we didn't get to wet our lines before heading back to port with our tails between our thighs. I was very weary of this one too. How to fish when even the tied down gas cylinder and stove went flying due to the high waves and rocking boat?

Pang with his silver grunter.
A dwarf compared to his GTs,
 that's another story.

     On 1st January 2000, 11.00 a.m. I stepped onto the deck of Victory still reeking with millennium celebration. My right hand was holding my fishing bag and my left holding my fishing chair. Before you could say "strike" my two feet flew up and I landed with a loud thud right on my butt. Pain shot up my spine and I just lay there holding my aching 'pat yuet sup ng' (buttock). The deck was real slippery after the previous trip and I guessed it had not being properly scrubbed. Looking around I couldn't see any of my friends.They were all hiding at the back of the boat giggling away! Later at the draw for our sitting positions, they had another laugh on me again (I drew number 11....&%$#). Feeling very sore, I climbed up to the cabin to lick my wounded pride.

Another jenahak. This time
caught by Soon Fong.
All jenahaks were caught
 with fresh squids.

     Surprisingly the GPS located the fishing spot (Y2K bugs lah). I pulled up a very presentable chap raya at my first drop. Immediately I bragged that at this rate, my freezer would overflow with fish for the coming Chinese New Year. Maybe someone upstairs dislike braggarts for I only managed to catch three other fish of a kilo each the whole trip.

     At around 7.00 p.m. Soon Fong caught a jenahak of 3.5 kilo and everyone was high in spirit. Soon silver grunters were being landed at regular intervals keeping everyone busy except me. When the sky opened up, everyone hightailed for the cabin. As always, when you are cramped up in a confined space, jokes started to fly. Needless to say my poor aching butt was the center of it. Let me give you some friendly advice. With this bunch, you must not 'jonah' yourself or you would find them rolling on the deck laughing, not unlike the alley cats in the show 'Stuart little'. Subsequently some of us dozed off with the inactivity.

     All of us scrambled out with our hearts in our mouth when Ah Pek shouted, 'Put on your life jackets!" A colossal moving mountain of an ocean going ship passing only twenty metres away confronted us. Talk about close shave! In the rain, we failed to really keep a lookout for approaching ships. It was then we decided to up anchor for the relative safety an area between the 1st and 2nd sea-lane. Maybe God wanted us to move here as the rain stopped and allowed us to do some fishing. Groups of squids came darting here and there, grabbing tiny fish fries or some other small creatures and cruising back and forth. In the half-lighted areas around the boat the squids looked quite eerie. Acting fast, Fong and Kevin pulled up a few foot long specimens, on jigs, which were shared among us. With fresh squids, it was jenahak frenzy for everyone except me, of course.

Looi fighting his ray with
an electric reel. Easy job.

  The action stopped as suddenly as it had started. Looi suddenly was clutching his hand and shouting in pain. We were real concerned for we thought he was bitten by a sea snake (They are extremely poisonous). When the source of the pain was determined, then only can we relax. A piece of jellyfish tentacle got entangled on Looi's line and he grabbed it thinking it was some plastic strands. As always, Pang was very fast in grabbing the opportunity to joke about it. "Let me urinate (ammonia neutralises the sting of the jellyfish) on your palm to stop the pain, " he offered. "This is the only time  you would ever say 'thank you' to me for pissing on you!" he joked. As I have said before, with this bunch you must never ever 'shuei' (mess up) yourself.

Ah Sam untangling a mess
of terminal tackles. A frequent
 occurence in bottom fishing
 when everyone is using
different line poundage
and long leaders.

    The dreaded rain started again. With the sea current totally dead, there was no point in torturing myself by keeping awake. Scurrying into the cabin with the rest, I tried to grab some shuteyes to refresh myself for the next tide change. I awake to the grunting and panting of Pang, He was fighting a seesaw battle with a submarine. By now he was the center of attraction. "A grouper, no a giant jenahak, no a ray lah ..........a chiam choooooo (mayong)," we chorused in cheeky satisfaction. Disappointment was written on Pang's exhausted face. "Well, a 10 kilo chiam choo is better then no fish," we consoled him (with devilish grins on our faces). He felled for it and was so grateful that we were each rewarded with a piece of the fish. Anyway, Pang got the mayong because he was hard working. No doubt the bites were scarce and far between during dead tide, but as long as your bait is in the water, you stand a chance to catch something.

Pang with his mayong.
Very tasty when cooked
in curry, though a bit
 rough ( I mean the fish).

     The tide changed and everyone started to register bites, except me. This school of fishes was a mixed bunch. A few silver grunters here and there and two very presentable mangrove jacks, which really gave a good fight were landed. Looi got a ray of 7 kilo which was not even given a chance by the electric reel. Pang as usual was cracking jokes again about the tail of the ray. He was suggesting that it would make a good whip for torture. Trust Pang to come up with this outrageous suggestion. Suddenly, Ah Choy was seen grunting with a creature on his line. It turned out to be a jenahak of 4 kilo which made him grin from ear to ear. What followed was plate size assortments of bream, groupers and others.

     By now it was daylight. We moved back to the sea-lane to try for groupers. All sorts of baits were thrown in....even whole kembungs, but we only got plate size fish. Suddenly we heard the warning 'onk' of a ship. The source was a ship heading straight at us. When faced with overwhelming odds, don't ever argue about your rights. We hightailed from there for port. While on the way back, Pang got a taste of his own medicine. His bare feet was jutting out of the cabin door while asleep. Kevin stuck a lighted cigarette in between his toes. With the strong breeze fanning it, the lighted part soon reached his toes. You should see how he jumped!

     Overall, it was not a bad trip for everyone except me as I got to sit or sleep on my side all the time. After almost one month, I can still feel some pain while I sit here typing this story.