NORTH OF JARAK

A 4 kilo mangrove jack. This is the biggest MJ I have caught so far.
This article was published in the August 2000 issue of Rod And Line fishing magazine.

 "Ah Pek, either you don't know how to park the boat or else you must have being bribed before we boarded the boat", I teased the tekong. The reason for such a remark from me was, the three of us, Ah Pek, Ah San and I, sitting at the back of the boat, caught nothing at all, while those at the front and center just gaffed their sixth jenahak! Imagine? Picking the number one seat ( the seat at the back of the boat) was considered a good omen. I just couldn't contain my joy by jumping up and down with exaggerated glee. The overboard rejoicing was due to my picking mostly numbers 8 and 9 more times than I cared to remember. It was also more of a revenge rubbing of my friends who used to laugh, every time I get the last two numbers.

Phang and Ah Keong. Two very happy and satisfied anglers.

   With boat fishing (bottom fishing to be exact) the emperor's seats as we called the three back seats were always being sought for. Here you have more space to put your rods. You can also have a choice of using light or heavy sinkers to cover more fishing ground, as well as to send your bait further away with the current. Tangles, which are a common occurrence in bottom fishing, are real nuisance. Catching the much sought after squids from here is also easier as you just have to let your prawn jig drift back away from the boat. Balloon or drift fishing is very easy and convenient to execute at the back too. Not to mention trolling, which also can be done while the boat is moving from one place to another. So you know why they are called the emperor's seats now?

   The moment the signal for fishing to start sounded, Chong Hing pulled up a pair of groupers. For bottom fishing, it is mostly meat fishing. When the much-coveted groupers were landed, even though plate size, everyone clapped and shouted with excitement.After this pair, all the fish seemed to have gone on fast. We changed places a few times, mostly around the North of Jarak with no improvement. As it was still early in the evening we took this opportunity to freshen up and to fill up our bellies.

These two giants fought a battle royal. Well the winner is obvious.

   By evening, I changed to heavier tackles just in case some monsters develop an appetite. When the current showed signs of slowing down there was a hive of activities all around us. Grunts and shouts were heard everywhere behind us. "It is a jenahak again," shouted someone from the bow. "Wah, your jenahak is so big lah!" exclaimed another. Imagine our frustrations? Occupying the emperor's seats and not even a bite. How not to dig at Ah Pek lah?

   Out of the blue Ah Hean was shouting very excitedly (which only a young boy could do) that he caught a giant. His electric reel didn't even break a sweat before the red emperoer of about 1.5kg was brought up. Ah Hean's father, Lim Ho Chiew sitting nearby was as please as a peacock. The two sons that  he trained up are real keen anglers. Well, at least he will have two sons to take over his tackles when he retires. Smart father! Ah Er (2nd brother) sitting just behind me landed a jenahak of 2 kilos and Ah Keong next to him got some pig face breams. Ah San sitting between Ah Pek and me seemed to be suffering from the same jinx that had being affecting us. The tekong jokingly announced that there were some pomelo leaves soaking in the bathtub (The Chinese believe that pomelo leaves do help to buang shuei).

Ah Er with his jenahak.

   Frustrated at not registering any single bite, I got up and made a survey of the whole boat. Everyone other than the three of us "emperors". had fish in their iceboxes. In fact, James had been quietly pulling up fusiliers after fusiliers. He had twenty in his box! Suddenly, Ah San jigged up a squid, which was quickly shared out among us. With the fresh squids he immediately broke his duck with a kilo size silver grunter. Ah Pek's luck changed for the better and he caught quite an assortment of plate size fishes. By now the current has slowly died down and many of the others reeled in and climbed into the cabin to rest. I prided myself as being an optimist. 'As long as your bait is in the water you stand a chance,' is my motto. To relieve the boredom, I concentrated more on squid jigging.The squids seemed to have a suicidal tendency when they saw the prawn like jig. When they wrapped their tentacles around the the jig they were goners. The numerous sharp hooks on the jig made sure of that. Care must be taken to allow these swimming 'ink jet printers' to exhaust their reservoirs or else you'd find your mug shot on some dental products.

This red emperor caused Ah Hean to shout with happiness. His father, Lim Ho Chiew, did a good job training his two sons to follow his footsteps. If more fathers were like him there won't be so many juvenile problems afflicting society.

 

   All  in all I caught ten squids of different sizes. "Well, no fish, squids also can  lah." I consoled myself. In the quiet of the night, broken only by the different octave of the sleeping orchestra, my mind began to form images of dining tables laid with  kung poh squids partnered with tasty squid soap. {My doctor will blow his top when he sees my lipid report later (squids are high in cholesterol)}.

   My appetizing images were pooped away by the sudden downpour. Cocooning myself in raincoat and huddling on my fishing chair I fought off drooping eyelids to continue my lonely vigil. The reason for my stubborn refusal to sleep was because I didn't want to miss the magical moment when the current started to move, which will in turn trigger a feeding frenzy among the fish. If you were not fishing at that very moment you might miss the sudden strikes. By the time you realized what was happening, and before your bait could reach the bottom it would have been all over.

Ah Keong caught these two pig face breams quite early.

   At around 5.00am my rod suddenly dipped down. Grabbing it, I started a steady pump and wind routine. This brute sure could fight, but in the end was still brought up. A mangrove jack of 4 kilos was my reward. What followed was vengeance time. Another jenahak of about 3 kilo was next on the list, followed by another six jenahaks of about 2 kilos. By this time the sun was peeking out of the horizon. Bleary-eyed James came staggering by to investigate the commotion I was creating. Grabbing one of my fresh squids he immediately hooked up a monster. When two giants fight, the dwarfs got to move aside. The battle royal lasted almost ten minutes before a 7 kilo grouper was pulled up. I immediately claimed that the head belonged to me, which triggered some @#$% from James. Somehow, groupers would bring out the worst in people.

   By now most of  the gang were fully awake and fishing. All of a sudden my kung poh and soap ala squids vanished as the squids were grabbed by everyone. Everyone was into fish except Chong Hing (he was the first to hook up the double). Poor guy, that was one of the reasons why we didn't like to be the first to land a fish. Somehow the first fish could be the last fish of that trip for you. It had happened too often to be coincidence, Overall, the trip could be listed as average.

The deck hand cum chef, Ah Thai, cleaning the sand worms.He pushed the sand worms inside out with the chopstick to remove the sand found inside the bodies. The remaining parts were fried with tow geh (bean sprouts). They were very tasty according to him.

   On the way back, the deckhand was seen busy cleaning what I thought was chee cheong fun. Walking over to investigate why chee cheong fun needed to be wash, I saw to my horror that he was cleaning some sand worms. "To eat lah'" was his curt reply to my inquiry. I hope he didn't hurt his head like James did the last time he (James) mentioned it. (Anglers' Itch, R and L May 99 issue).