July 01, 1990
One fine night, my friends asked me out for a tea at our usual hangout spot, when the car stopped at the front gate of my house, I felt that something was not right, the three amigos in the car looked creepy, the evil cunning smile on the face made me hesitated for a while, I got into the car eventually...
The car did not stop at our La Teh spot (La Teh = local term of having tea) it sped off straight to Kukup, a fishing village which used to offer good and cheap seafood. When the car stopped, my heart sank and I realized that I was getting on to the wrong boat.
My friend took out a set of fishing tackle from his car trunk and handed it over to me,
"After tonight, you will be begging me to bring you out for fishing." he said.
Well, as there was no other option for me, I reluctantly took over the tackle from his hand and after the bait was being putted on, I cast it awkwardly into the sea.
.... after some long 15 minutes later, with my non-stop grumbling to his ears, my friend hooked up a 500 gram catfish. During the fight I noticed a reddish face expressing extreme excitement, Is it really that fun? I asked myself ...
.... an hour later, I began to pay more attention on my rod tip than grumbling non-stop, I began thinking that over at the other end of the fishing line, the live prawn that my friends caught using scoop net at the 'Goh Ah Heng' jetty, was it being preyed on by some hungry unknown creatures now? did the prawn sensed any danger? The six foot fishing rod seems to be giving slight vibration, was it my illusion?
I turned to my friend who was beside me, thought of asking him how it felt like when the fish was taking the bait. Suddenly, a strong jerk from my fishing line caught me by surprise... Wow! it felt like I was electrocuted, the shock sent from the 10 lbs fishing line passed on to the tip of the rod, went through the fishing line guides and passed to the spinning reel that was secured on the rod, it then transferred back on to my hands that was gripping the rod. The nerves in my arms received the signal and flashed back to my brain, immediately the brain stimulated and triggered the excitement. I froze as I felt the blood flow in my body suddenly came to a halt, in micro-second the blood started to flow again, body temperature raised and the high temperature blood shot back into the brain. Under the pressure from the billions of cells, my brain responded and sent instructions to my body, my traps and neck muscles were the first to react, turning my head straight back my eyeballs rolled around scanning on the surface of the sea. My lungs were instructed to expand so to inhale more cold air, the cold air was sucked in through the nostrils and went through the airway, it was then distributed into many other smaller airways in the lungs, trapping the heat and it returned via the same way, as the air exhaled out with high velocity, it triggered the vocal cord causing it to vibrate, "Ah!" came out uncontrolled from my mouth.
The "Ah" alerted my friends, the friend who was just beside me responded immediately and shouted, "Quick! Pull!" In the event of panicking, the acidic fluid in the body will increase and somehow it numbed my body system, I didn't react as I heard only humming sound in my ears.
"Hey!" my friend yelled again and shoved me,
"Quick! pull up the rod! strike the fish!"
My reaction was instantaneous and the fishing rod was pulled high up in the air, the loose and curvy 10 lbs line was straighten immediately and it splashed up some sea water as it cutting through, with the help of the moonlight, it looked pretty spectacular.
On the other hand, this unknown creature that was hiding in the dark corner earlier scanned the surrounding with it's big round eyes, when it spotted the prawn it swam around this still very alive prawn that was hooked on the last section of it's tail, making sure that it's safe and then it expanded it's gills fully, with a large amount of sea water swallowed in it absorbed all the oxygen in it and converted it into energy, it then paddled it's strong fins and whipping it's strong tail and dashed towards the yummy prawn with it's fully opened jaw...
"Shit!"
Although the hook didn't went through the nerves it was still quite uncomfortable for the prawn. Here it was tossed into the middle of the sea, no thanks to the bright moonlight it was nakedly exposed, alone and surrounded by danger. Remembered a few hours ago, it was happily feeding itself together with the families at the bottom side of a fishing boat which docked at the 'Goh Ah Heng' jetty, the huge fishing boat sheltered them from the lights and the darkness gave them a safe feeding ground. The prawn and it's families were hurrying themselves to make sure the belly was filled with foods before high tide, as the hungry predators would come along with it, Deep in the the seabed a stretch of reef provided a safe haven for them to call home, in there they would hide deep into the cave and slowly digesting the foods.
Maybe the foods today was too delicious or everybody were too hungry, when they saw it coming all exits had already been blocked by the scoop net, they tried frantically bashing on the 3 mm holes hoping to break free from the net. The next moment they were inside that red pail, some were still waiting for their fate and some had returned to the sea with a hook on their tail. Right now the prawn sensed a strong fishy stench and the current around it seems to flow rapidly, it panicked, it's tiny eyeballs rolled from side to side, it could feel the shadow of death was upon it. And then the prawn saw it! a vicious hungry face, wide opened mouth, it's gill expanded fully and the muscular fins powering it swiftly towards the prawn. The prawn wasn't about to surrender to it's fate, it curved it's tiny body to an angle it normally couldn't, springing itself with full force and paddled ferociously those tiny legs at the belly, this was it's last chance. ...and then the darkness came.
"Great taste! This bugger is not from local, Top graded!"
After gobbling up the prawn the starving fish felt blessed, this juicy and sweet taste without the smell of the engine oil was rare nowadays. As the fish was feeling fortunate a great pain was felt on it's jaw, it seems like some sharp object had pierced through it's jaw.
"The shell is harder? It got sharp spikes?" It was too delicious for the fish to spit out although it's hurting it, the starving fish told itself that great stuff was like that, it figured that it needed to return to it's hideout and took sometime to slowly chewed it. As it turned and wanting to return to it's dark corner, some greater pain attacked it and this time it's clear that this was more than just hard shell that's causing the pain.
"Oh Gosh! Is it the hook that Uncle Tom is talking about that day?"
The fish regretted and blamed itself for being too hungry and greedy, it should inspect more carefully especially at the tail, Uncle Tom did mention it. For now the hook must be spat out and it remembered the trick Uncle Tom taught, wide opened mouth, inhaled and exhaled then pushed out the hook with the near dying prawn on it, as the fish was about to...
The fishing line became tighter and I felt more resistance, the jerking and pulling from the fish was getting stronger too, it must be panicking now and making some desperate struggling, the fish was trying to pull the fishing line towards the seabed, hoping that some reefs with sharp edges would cut it loose. I held the rod high up and glanced to my friend for the next move.
"Strike the fish one more time, just to make sure that the hook is properly set." my friend said,
"If you feel the fish is running towards opposite direction, lower the rod slightly and hold on to it, let it run and don't forget to loosen the drag on the fishing reel."
My hands were trembling, palms were sweating. Awwoo...this was too excited! I couldn't held but howling like a wild wolf. My friend stayed beside me and gave me guidance all the time and he was right, the fish dived deep towards the far right corner. According to my friend, there are many reefs with sharp edges at the bottom of that far right corner, never allowed the fish to get near there. By now, we roughly knew that this was a fish weight less than one kg, with his vast fishing experience (two years only) my friend was quite sure that it was a Spotted Red Snapper, which he caught a few here in the past.
The struggling fish in the sea slowly got used to the pain, the subconscious told it that it must endure it and stay calm. The fish remembered that once it passed by a reef with sharp edges, if it could drag the line over there, with the help of that reef and some quick dive, it was quite sure the fishing line would be cut. With that thought in mind, the fish started to paddle hard and it could feel the fishing line slightly slacking. The will to survive made it stronger, it swam as fast as it could and the sight of the reef seems closer. During the struggling, the prawn that was inside the fish's mouth started to break apart, some tiny pieces flown into the fish's stomach. "Gosh! This is really heavenly! Once the line is broken, I will find a quiet corner to enjoy this." the fish thought.
I felt the line was slacking and I quickly reeled back the line to recover some ground, the respond was so aggressive from the other end and the line was stretched to it's maximum.
"Lower the rod, too much tension." My friend noticed, "Look! it begin to surge rightward, you need to pull slightly to the opposite direction, when the fish feels the pain it will turn back. " I slid my rod leftward and slowly guided the fish back. My friend told me, "The tactic is to wear off the fish, when the fish started to dash, we hold on, let it run. When it stop we need to reel in as fast as we can, pull the rod backward to pump the fish up, point the rod back towards the fish as you reel in the line, eventually the fish will be exhausted and give up, that's when we bring it up."
Back in the sea, the fish felt an unbearable pain stroking it's upper jaw, forcing it to abandon it's plan to surge rightward and as it's mouth was widely opened, the shattered prawn dropped off from the hook and came out from it's mouth, the hook still remained though. The fish watched the shattered pieces of the prawn sank towards the seabed and before it reached to the bottom, a group of hungry small fishes stormed out from nowhere surrounded the shattered prawn, within second they dispersed and the shattered prawn disappeared. "AH! My prawn!" The fish couldn't care much, it was in greater trouble now, the more it tried to swim towards right, the more pain it would receive on it's jaw. The fish had no choice but to swim towards the left side and hoping that the unfamiliar area there would have something similar for it to break the fishing line.
I told my friend it seems like the fish was giving up struggling and it was swimming towards me as I reeled in the line.
"The fish must be tired now, keep reeling in." he said
"Beware of the last minute dashed, the fish may give it's last shot when it surfaced, pay more attention as a lot of fishes was loss at that moment." he added
And it did! The fish made a sudden dashed when it was about 10 feet away, thanks to my friend's earlier warning I was well prepared for it. I quickly lower down my rod and let it ran and the fish slowed down as it felt the tension was off. I caught it by surprise with a hard swing to the left and pumped the fish up, I did it like a pro-fisherman (I think) and after another round of pumping and pulling the fish surfaced. Yes! my friend was right, It's a Spotted Red Snapper. My friend walked towards the shore and pulled the leader line to lift the fish out from the sea, it's around 800 gram.
If you are still reading this you probably figured out the ending as it's quite obvious, right? No! you are wrong if you think that I was addicted to fishing ever since. Few days later I received a letter from the Tunku Abdul Rahman College in Kuala Lumpur, I was accepted there for the diploma course in Electronic Engineering. The next week I was at the big metropolis and was so fascinated by the modern city, (I was from a small fishing village) and never thought of fishing again. Oh, by the way for those who studied there please don't go and searching for my picture in the year book, I was not a alumni there. After I settled down at Kuala Lumpur and had dated out a female student that I met in the Orientation Night Party, 3 weeks later my mum called me from home telling me that another school in Singapore had accepted my application as well, she wanted me to quit here and proceeded to Singapore as it's nearer to my home town. So there you go, I am here now at Singapore after 25 years, as for how and when I restarted the fishing... Stay tuned! it'll be in my next blog.
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Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!
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