Yan Fishing Round Two 19th December 2007

Date : 19th December 2007

Venue : Tuas(Yan,Kedah)
Anglers : BigBite88,Vincent Bok,OrangMinyak
Weather : Sunny and windy until evening.Drizzling during late evening.
Species & Method : Selar Papan(jigging,foul hooking), 5 Cencaru Kuda(mid-water,paternoster rig), 3 Talang(mid-water,paternoster rig),1 Skipjack Tuna(mid-water,paternoster rig).All caught by boatman except Selar Papan.

"2 Yan trips in a space of 5 days?You must be insane!",said Lannun.

Yes.Insane indeed.I had planned this trip long before Lannun invited me to join his trip on Saturday.For this particular trip,I chose it on a Wednesday because I knew Vincent Bok will be free from work while Ben and Nique will always be available.Surprisingly,Nique could not make the trip as he had to spend time with his girlfriend.Oh well,the show must go on.

Vincent and Ben stays at the Pulau Tikus area so I suggested we meet up at RECSAM before heading to Yan.For this trip,I was the driver and it's actually my first time driving for such a long distance.Of course,I wasn't driving my mini Kelisa.If not,they will seriously have a tough time trying to feel comfortable in the car.I drove my dad's old Camry which provides better comfort and stability when speeding down the highway.It was rather challenging to drive during the wee hours as I had to force my eyes to open as I didn't have a good night sleep the night before(slept for only 2 hours).We left RECSAM at 4.45 AM and traveled averaging 120 KM/h and we reached Yan rather early at 6 AM.

Upong reaching Yan,we loaded our things into our boat first before heading towards the same kopitiam by the sea for breakfast.We were the first customers of the day for the Mak Cik and also the first volunteers to donate blood to the uneducated mosquitoes.These mosquitoes will continue sucking even though you place your hands real close to them.I guess they were born to live up 50 Cent's motto which was,"Get rich or die trying".Tying FG knots in such situation is the last thing that you would ever want to do but Ben had yet to tie his leader.Me being the only guy in the group that knows how to tie it,I duly agreed.Vincent with his cigarette emitted smoke to the group of mosquitoes but they simply ignored it.A normally 12 minutes knot tying session became a 20 minutes of nightmare for the three of us.Screw up mozzies!

We soon left the place before sun rise.Following the previous Saturday's fair catch rate,hopes and spirits were high.You know,less men more share.Hehe.

Longkang Gang pose VS Sombong Gang pose

Our hopes were sky high

Two very cool dudes who taught me so much about fishing.Vincent in dark blue shirt and Ben a.k.a. OrangMinyak in MFN forum.

The arsenals.From left - Ryobi Zauber 1000,Daiwa Caldia Kix 2500,Shimano Stardic 3000FI,Abu Garcia Ambassadeur,Daiwa More Than Branzino 3000,two more forgotten what it was and the last one which is the Accurate 175.

The first order of the day was we went towards the unjams to fish for bait fish and we managed to land plenty of good sized kembungs.Hopes were even higher now that we managed to get plenty of live bait compared to the amount we had on Saturday's trip.

Though we had loads of live bait,fishing was really slow that day.The drifted live bait were left untouched and the only action of the day came from the the boatman who had a whack from kembung casting but after that it was dead silence.The three of us were so bored without any bites from the kembung casting so we ended up doing lure casting.

New peeing style from Ben.You transforming into a doggie,Ben?

Oi Ben!The sea is so vast and you go pee in the boat?What the heck?!

Oh!You were retrieving your lure.Hehe.

Time on my watch showed that it was already 1 PM.No Tenggiri landed.No any other species landed.Where did the fish go?Vincent then came to me and said,"The boatman told me yesterday a group of anglers came and also went back home empty handed".My sky high hopes suddenly plummet down to the Earth's core.I changed my goal instantly.Now the goal for the day was to land a decent fish!Be it a Tenggiri,a GT or a Cobia!

The boatman suggested that we change to another fishing spot.That was like the best thing that I heard throughout the whole day!We went to this place where there were plenty of buoys and looked like a potentially good spot for bait fishing.Theoretically,where the bait fish congregate,there will always be predators.A very potential spot for lure casting indeed!

Ben suddenly turned to me and said,"While I was casting,I saw a HUGE crest like tail as big as my one arm length!".Me and Vincent looked at each other and giggled.What fish in Malaysian waters could possess such enormous tail?I then told Ben it might be a huge sailfish or a shark or maybe perhaps he were too frustrated that he started seeing weird things.

5 minutes later,I could see a fin sticking out the water.I shouted,"Sailfish!Sailfish!".Before I could end my sentence,I saw a bigger figure slowly surfacing to the top.I shouted again,"It's a Whale!".Everyone were so excited trying to guess what GIGANTIC(I literally mean it) animal was that.It's a Sailfish,NO.It's a Whale,NO.It's a FREAKING HUGE WHALE SHARK!

Note the size of the Whale Shark if you look closely,there's another one feeding at the back too.

The Whale Shark calmly cruised around the boat slowly feeding on the water's surface.Nicole Kidman's stunning pose could not even match the elegance of the Whale Shark slow and gentle movement.At one point,the huge bugger was facing us and then it suddenly opened it's mouth and gulped down plankton-rich sea water leaving both me and Vincent who had our cameras in our hands stunned.If you think Angelina Jolie's mouth is huge,wait until you see the gentle sharkie's mouth!It could SWALLOW YOU WHOLE and WON'T EVEN CHOKE!The feeding was scary,yet phenomenal.Not many people have the opportunity to see one,but we three anglers who braved the choppy sea were very lucky to see two!

According to Ben,Cobias will usually swim below Whale Sharks.The reason being why Cobias swim below it was because when the "giant submarine" moves around in the water,it provide the Cobias a hiding area from being detected by the bait fish who usually stray at the water surface feeding.When the Whale Shark surface to feed,that's when the Cobias will storm out from its hiding place and attack the bait fish which were at the surface as well.Fish do have cunning tactics too,eh?

Knowing there might be Cobias lurking under the Whale Shark,Ben quickly cast towards the direction of the Whale Shark with a Duel Live Bait(pink and white in colour) at the end of his line.A few cranks and he registered a solid hit!Line kept spewing out and a few seconds later,the leader gave way.The leader could've survived the ordeal had I tied an FG knot on it(Boasting...Hehe.I tied the FG on his MTB).

Though feeling pissed,but he's glad that he had some action for the day!For both me and Vincent,we could only dream that it was our lure that had the hit.

Not long after Ben lost his fish,I saw a small frenzy right in front of the boat.At the same time,I could see a dark figure lurking right under the boils.Without wasting any more time,I casted my Rattling Rapala Fire Crawdad 5cm right above the dark figure.Few cranks and BOOM!Fish on!The fish dived deep as line peeled out quickly from my Caldia Kix/Shimano Basstera 12-25lbs combo.Because I was using a 20lbs mono line(was aiming Tenggiri only so did not spool in braided line) with no leader,I did not set my drag too high as I fear I may break the line.

Few minutes into the fight,it was closely contested between man against the fish.I yanked and reeled hard countless times and finally I could feel the fish being quite close to the surface already.The fish took a dive again and now it went right under the boat.I sticked my rod into the water,yanked it at the opposite direction of the direction of the fish swimming to with the hope that it will move away from being under the boat.No matter how hard I tried,the fish still stayed right below the boat.I hung on to dear life but soon my main line gave way due to the barnacles below the boat.DAMN!Lost a big one!With my setup,it should be able to withstand a 4 Kg fish quite easily but this bugger smoked me real bad!I suspected it was a Cobia as Tenggiris were known to be surface fighters and the acceleration speed were not as great as the Tenggiris or GTs.I could feel its power and endurance which seems to never die out.Though I lost the fish,I did look towards the bright side.I managed to fight a fish!What a lame way to console myself. *Head Shakes*

While I was busy cursing about my lost fish,the Whale Shark kept surfacing near our boat.Ben tried his luck by casting near the Whale Shark with the hope of luring the Cobia to strike his lure."Now I got you!Give me back my pink lure!",yelled Ben.5 seconds later,we saw what he hooked onto.The Whale Shark itself!Haha.He was crying for help but there's nothing he could do.The "Underwater Tank"'s thick skin could not feel Ben's lure on it's body as it continued feeding happily.Ben's line were peeling away slowly and he tried to get the lure back by hoping the lure hook will go straighten.To his dismay,he lost the lure instead due to leader failure again.Hehe.Why so daring to go for Whale Shark my friend?

We tried taking pictures of the Whale Shark but it often showed us its back side when we tried taking pictures of it.Ben then purposely foul hooked it with the hope that he could BRING THE WHALE SHARK NEAR TO US.Ben,are you out of your mind?

Ben with the biggest fish he ever hooked on in his life!

Each time when the Whale Shark stayed near,we were holding our fishing rods instead of the camera.When we held the camera,the Whale Shark were straying so far away.I guess it's just too shy to be photographed.After numerous occasions being fooled by the Whale Shark,we went back fishing and couldn't be bothered about the big dude.

Ben tried jigging and was "handsomely" rewarded with a Selar Papan.Though a baitfish,he's the champion of the day when neither me nor Vincent caught a single fish!

Selar Papan don't whack lures but they can be foul hooked!

The sky started to get dark indicating that it will be raining soon.We suited up our raincoats and left the unjam at 5 PM.Ben's gestures said it all about the trip.

I present you,VINCENT BOK!The next Yellow Man of DIGI!

Thank you!Thank you!I'm so honoured!

We reached the jetty at around 6.30 PM after an hour of bum-bruising ride.The waves were huge and our boat kept swaying left and right as though it will capsize at any moment.Thank God we came back alive and in one piece.

Feeling hungry,we went to the kopitiam upon reaching the jetty but no food were available so we headed out of the kampung to search for food.What can I say?When the fish don't whack,we WHACK!We stopped by a Malay stall along the way and had our Maggi Mee Goreng Tambah This,Tambah That.After eating,we continued our journey home.

Few hundreds of metres down the road,we stopped by one of the Jagung stalls and we had one of the wackiest ever Jagung-in-a-cup.Instead of putting only margerine and salt,this "clever" seller added canned corns and condensed milk.First mouthful,it was really good.Second mouthful,SUPER DUPER SWEEEET!A diabetic would seriously die if consume a cup.To make things worse,the seller(a not-so-nice-looking lady) kept smiling at us while we were purchasing it.Kept recalling her smile made me couldn't swallow the corn with ease.

After finishing the corn,we cruised back to Penang and we finally reached at around 8.30 PM.Though the trip was a total failure,the two Whale Sharks' appearance made it quite an interesting trip after all.

To date,I've heard numerous stories of boats landing 20 over Tenggiris in a single trip which made me wonder when it be my turn to hit the jackpot.Let's put it this way.If I don't come back here(Tenggiri heaven),I will never fulfil my dream.

Tenggiris of Yan,I will be back when the season comes again!