This article was published in the August 2001 of Rod And Line fishing magazine.
On the 23-24 June 2001 the fishing complex at Kampung Acheh was a hive of activities. There was an air of festivities with loud music blaring, banners flying and many well decorated stall contributing to the excitements. It was the annual Pulau Sembilan Fishing Safari again.
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| Datuk Malik Jaafar b. Gazali (T-shirt) and En.Md. Shah b. Abd. Hamid (vest) "horning" off the competitors, accompanied by En. Sallehuddin. |
At 8.00am 23rd June Saturday morning, the complex compound began to be filled with anglers of all shapes and sizes. Most of them had their rods tied to their backs looking like the heroes of those sword fighting flicks. Each participant was given a personal and group number. The referee assigned to the group would gather his flock by holding up the placard displaying the group number. When he had all his group accounted for, they would then proceed to the jetty to board their boat. All fully boarded boats were ordered to wait at a distance of 500m away. By 10.30 am the 134 eager anglers on twelve boats were all ready and the Pulau Jarak Pari Category (bottom) was flagged or rather 'horned' off by Datuk Malik Jaafar b. Gazali, Director of Agriculture, Perak and En. Mohd Shah b. Abd. Hamid, Director of fisheries, Perak. The second wave of Pulau Sembilan Pari Category was similarly sent off at 3.30 pm without any hitch or delay. Watching the whole display from the jetty, the waiting boats circling around before being sent off, reminded me of the landing crafts scene from the show, "The Longest Day". All in, there were 282 participants put onto 35 boats in this category.
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| En. Rahim b. Omar with his 1st prize pari of 3 kg. |
This year the organiser had earned another feather on his cap by introducing the Beach Fishing Category. All these years, Pulau Sembilan Fishing Safaris had been almost the exclusive rights of the males. The Beach Fishing Category not only catered to those anglers who preferred to fish from Tera fir ma, but also encouraged the participation of many from the fairer sex. Actually, part of the beach fishing was done from the jetty.
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| Group 7 anglers with their taikong, Peter (holding placard) waving happily prior to departure for Pulau Jarak. |
At 5.30 pm the anglers queued up to draw for their fishing positions, which were to the right and the left and the jetty itself. By 6.00 pm the competition started. A small palm size silver grunter had the honor of being the first to be landed. Suddenly, there was a commotion from the shore to the left side of the jetty. An angler was seen straining against his bent rod. The seesaw battle lasted almost 5 minutes with the angler scrambling everywhere trying to keep his line from entangling with others before a 3 kg pari was finally landed by En. Rahim b. Omar. Suddenly shouts of encouragement were heard from the direction of the jetty. Casting to the foot of the jetty ( a very wise move) En. Mohd Sallehuddin was connected to a siakap of 2.24 kg. Fellow anglers showed their brotherly spirits bu helping to net it.
Half an hour later, another big ray was hooked but it got entangled to some fishing lines and couldn't be brought in. Someone waded into the waist deep water to gaff it, but the line snapped allowing the fish to escape. What a waste, as I guessed it could be eligible for one of the top five prizes.
Early Sunday morning, even before the sun's ray could cut through the darkness, the 42 participants (most of whom were on their own boats) sped off into the darkness. The Marlin Category (trolling) was in progress. Most of the boats concentrated their trolling activities around Pulau Sembilan areas.
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| After failing to gaff the siakap, a net was used and the 2.24 kg fish won the 2nd prize (Beach Category) for En. Mohd Salehudin A. Rahman. |
The Pulau Sembilan Fishing Safari 2001 had made history in the peninsula with the inclusion of the following rules. Syabas to a job well done!
a) Fishes protected by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, 1975), ie. sharks, sailfish and marlins were not accepted for competition.
b) Fishes weighing less than 2 kg/ fish would be disqualified (except for the Beach Category).
c) Each boat was given a plastic trash bag to keep all their rubbish in. The organizer finally had heard the concerned voices of the sport anglers, environmentalists and conservationists. I would like to suggest that the trash bags must be deposited back with the officials before the boats could be send off from the jetty. Sometimes, old habits die hard, you know.
d) The inclusion of a referee on every contesting boat (even those that competed in the trolling event) should be lauded. In the past, there were a lot of argument, red faces and unhappiness over unproven accusations.
At the end of the competition, En. Ahmad Zaini Mohd was seen proudly carrying his GT of 121.04 kg to the weighing station.
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| Proud winners of the Beach Category |
There were some bad news though, as a pleasure boat with some tourists on board hit some submerged rocks and sank. Luckily there were no casualties and all were saved.
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| Top: Sharil with the most expensive fish, a 4.24 kg jenahak. Bottom: The overall champion, En.Abd.Muaz b. Aziz. |
By around 10. am the Jarak Category crowds slowly trickled back. There were many happy, smiling but tired faces, while other wore grumpy looks. When asked about their luck, the thumb down sign was shown. If the ancient Roman Emperors showed it, it meant only one thing.... a one way ticket to hell for the recipient. The whole scene was replayed at around 3.30 pm when the Pulau Sembilan anglers began berthing and unloading their passengers.
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| This GT won the 1st prize (Marlin Category) and the 2nd prize overall for En. Ahmad Zaini Mohd. |
Overall, the catches this year was not as plentiful and big as in the previous years. This could be due to the strong current prevalent on these dates. Coupled to the strong wind and high sea on Sunday, this type of catches could be considered satisfactory. Leaving the catches alone, the overall running of the competition can be said in one word - Perfect! Credit should be given to En. Sallehuddin Ismail, Penolong Pegawai Perikanan, and his team of very cooperative and dedicated fishery staff. With 14 competitions under their belts, there should be nothing except success.
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| Happy and smiling winners of the Pulau Sembilan Category. |
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