Lannun : Sabtu depan lu senang ka?
Boboi : Senang...apasai?
Lannun : Jom tuas?
Boboi : ON!
It took us only four sentences in our conversation to determine my participation for this trip.Following reports of boats still being able to haul up Tenggiris in double digits numbers,it made me want to pay this place another visit despite the fact that the Tenggiri season was way over.
So off we went to Yan the very next week.We first met up at Lannun's place at 3 in the morning(yes!that very early!) because we had to leave the jetty early as the water in Yan was fast receding for that particular day.After meeting up,we then headed down to Sungai Petani Selatan's Pelita Nasi Kandar for a quick heavy breakfast to prepare ourselves for a long day ahead.
We reached the Yan jetty pretty early and we loaded our weaponries quickly onto the boat.We left the jetty at 6.30 a.m. to be exact.
Seen here.Kerbau and Keown(a.k.a Ayaak.He got two nicknames which really confuse us) doing the apollo jigging for Kembungs. The Cencarus were plenty and Talang Pandans were caught one after another.Sadly,the Kembungs were not around and that was bad news.Tenggiri's main diets were Kembungs and the failure to land any of this bait fish will greatly reduce our chances of landing a Tenggiri as the drifting technique was no longer applicable. All the Talangs were released as they were too small to be made into what ever form of dish.The catch rate of these two species were so good that we even joked that we should just remain at the unjam as our fishing spot for the entire day.We had 30 Cencarus or so before we finally decided to leave for our Tenggiri hunt.Another half an hour boat ride and we were already there at the fishing spot(the furthest unjam in Yan waters). It wasnt long before the action heats up.The boatman who quietly crept to the back of the boat had a vicious strike by Kembung casting and not long after that,he successfully landed a Tenggiri on his first cast.We at first wanted to appolo jig for Kembungs but we put our apollo setup aside to get a fair share of the Tenggiri actions. 5 minutes later,Latok and co's boat arrived.What the heck?Where they went?I thought they were behind us all these while and they should be reaching the unjam first as we had wasted quite sometime at the previous unjam for bait fishing. The fact was,although they were travelling at full speed,they left the jetty an hour later because the boatman has a pretty bad eyesight which he can't see well in the dark.The delay coupled with lack of knowledge of the Yan waters made them reach the designated spot a lot longer than us.I guess it's just another case of the blind leading the blind. So back to fishing.On my first cast as I was letting out lines,I could see that there was a sudden pull by the fish that made my line peeling out in a very fast speed.I shut my bail arm tight and gave it a good strike.Hook on!Moments later,I could see a slim profiled fish jumping off the water from far.It was a Singapore Marlin.Not the species we were targeting but at least it provided me some entertainment for the time being.The fish persistently jumped a couple of times before it broke free.There goes my fish!Oh well,it was just a Singapore Marlin so I couldn't give a crap about the loss. Not long after that,Lannun followed suit but he had a bust off from a Tenggiri.How the Tenggiri managed to cut the wire trace remains a mystery.
A few more casts and again,I could see my line peeling out fast again.Not wanting to lose another fish,I struck hard after I closed to bail arm.Line were peeling out as though it was not going to stop and the sound of my Tica Taurus 4000 screaming were so melodious.After a couple of minutes of tug-of-war,I finally single handedly landed this beauty. My previous encounters with Tenggiris on my previous trip was more like someone had a hook up,then the person would just pass the rod to me to have a taste of the fight.Therefore,this was another first for me. I held the fish in my hand and shouted,"LATOK!DONT ASK ME WHATS MY NAME!"(that was the favorite quote by Latok whenever he catches a fish). I remembered the look on his face so clearly.He could only smile to me as though he knew he was going to be owned by a kid by the end of the day.What a perfect way to start out the day with a Tenggiri of over the 5 kilos mark!
The Tenggiri by Lannun.By this time,Latok could only count his luck on why was he still not landing Tenggiris.He often calls himself the Mr-Always-Catch-Fish so obviously he needs a few fishes landed to live up to his name.He resorted to fishing for Kerisis and mind u,it was not a bad catch for him!5kg of Kerisis!Not one Kerisi weighing 5kg but probably around 20 of them added up to make the figure!
Soon it was lunch time.The boatman washed the Sotongs with seawater(Everything were washed using seawater including kitchen utensils that were previously used by past customers of their services.Hygiene wise,it was at its worst) that were to be added into the instant noodles that he was going to cook.To make things more interesting,he'll be adding my Tenggiri's egg roes. We were slurping here and there and even offered Latok our nice and salivating meal.Of course,he again had lived up to his name which was the Lansi Latok.He was at his usual self which he didn't even look at us or accept/decline our kind and lucrative offer.He had his back facing us all the time while we were fishing and as though the whole world were against him(Actually it was.Me,Choo and Lannun were giving him a torrid hard time.Hehe.).Oh well,it was good that he didn't take up the offer nevertheless.The less men,more share isn't it?
The boatman slowly cut up the Sotongs into bite sizes before chucking it in into the cooking pot.As you can see from above,the boatman was removing the Sotongs' skin.
After removing the skin,he proceeded to removing the inks.You wouldn't want these inks in your mouth as they taste really horrible!
Though these Sotongs were not the biggest,it still packs loads of "ammunition".Check out the inks that were removed from only one of the Sotongs.Imagine all these inks explodes in your mouth and I think that will be the very last time you will dine these tentacled creatures.
To wrap up our trip,Choo's persistent finally paid off.He had six hookups which he only managed to land his first ever Tenggiri on his very last hook up.To make up a rather interesting day for him,he had been despooled by a Sailfish in under 5 seconds!He was using a Shimano Technium 2500 when the Sailfish gave him no chance of reeling in even a centimeter of line.Had the Sailfish hit on my setup,I should be able to land it as I was using a heavier setup for the day.Again,Latok was left wondering,"What went wrong today?".What went wrong today was not really a big problem.The fact that he will be facing the rest of the Longkangers the very next day for the Air Itam Dam fishing will be a great test for him to face all the criticisms and discriminations.Guess what,I had finally seen this old man getting an egg from a trip! All in all,it was a very fun trip.The catch was not the best but the company was.We really enjoyed ourselves especially the humiliation that we gave Latok.That was the perfect revenge as we had suffered his criticisms whenever we go for a fishing trip with him.I guess God did the right thing to punish him for his naughty behaviors over the years. How did we actually fared?We had 4 Tenggiris altogether and Barracuda coupled with tens of Cencarus to be divided among us four on the boat.A good Tenggiri meal awaits us and we had already started planning for a second round to Yan again
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