LOK CHIAK! LOK CHIAK!... ARON!!! (8-9 September 2007)

john and the BIG MAMA

what a whopper!!!

my consolation. will be served during my wife's birthday dinner

dayang oh dayang!!! so few of them that night

kaci oh kaci... u smell like soap!!!

close-up of part of my catch. the reddies are angkays!!!

another part of my haul

my half of the overall catch

this was the last sea trip for me. actually, my last sea trip was suppose to be august, but due to a mix-up, i was left out of that particular trip and john booked this september trip so as to fulfil my sea fishing quota for 2007. two other seats on the boat were still up for grabs but our usual fishing buddies had other plans so it was basically me and john. actually... i almost "fly aeroplane" on john because due to another unforseen circumstances i thought my license was revoked, but at the 12th hour, i was told it was not revoked so i made the trip. thankfully, john... who is forever late, managed to be late again... thus arriving at my place at the 13th hour, thus i had time to get ready for the trip. confusing? haha...

anyway, the drive to sematan was uneventful and when we arrived at the beach, hashim (our ever helpful boatman) and michael was already to load our gears on the boat and get on our way. by that time, it was around 6pm. the weather was overcast with the cool and refreshing bayu laut (breeze from the sea) blowing. 30 minutes into the boat ride, hashim shouted "laut merah kat depan!" we didn't know he meant until he explained to us that the sea ahead of us, the water has been mixed with fresh water from overnight rain that drained into sg samusan and discharged to sea in the immediate samusan area. there goes our plan to fish at samusan so hashim decided to anchor at a spot nearby to wait for darkness so that we can catch squids as bait for the rest of the night's fishing. at the same time, we did some fishing where the only fish that was landed was a palm sized angcho.

once enough bait were caught, hashim decided to move to another spot. that was arouns 8.30pm by then. that was the time when we experienced the 'lok chiak! lok chiak! phenomenon. it started at the front of the boat where john, michael and hashim (on the roof of the boat) got a fish each at every cast. fish such as angkay, kaci, angcho and pisang, but angkay were by far the dominant species around the area. the palm size fish put up quite a good fight despite their size. i, however was getting restless as i was missing out on the action as the now bayu darat (breeze from land) was making my casting ineffective. then hashim shouted to us, 'do not need to cast far... just lower your bait beside the boat". we did as instructed and was seeing the results immediately. i had landed my first ever angkay. i stopped counting when i caught 5 angkay in just a few minutes. however, the action died down a bit after 30 minutes of non-stop action. around that time, a shout from the neighboring boat, hashim's dad, had just lost a big fish. i just shrugged off the "information" but the others had all re-baited and cast further out. not long after that, john's rod had a nibbled and hashim asked him to check it. john picked up the rod, felt something at the end of the line and gently lift the rod. what was to ensued was a 'wicked' fight between men and beast. line peeled out of john's tica dolphin 10000 as if it was a small udang galah reel. the pull was constant, as if the fish was huge st bernard leading it's owner on a fast jog!!! john held on. when he managed to gain some lined, the fish fulled out more. then john said he felt the fish shook it's head!!! just as john thought had gained the edge on the fish, it decided to changed direction to the back of the boat. the 40lb monoline would easily be cut buy the barnacles that infested the hull of the boat. quickly, the rod was passed to hashim who was on the top of the roof. the fish continue its sprint to the back of the boat. i had to clear my lines out of the water so that hashim can fight the fish better. the fish rounded the back of the boat and again, it showed no signs of weakening in strength. hashim also felt the fish shaking its head. by now, the fish decided to move to the front again. john took over from hashim, and he could just hold on as the fish was not giving up easily, the tug of war felt like it was going on for ages. by now, i had speculated that the fish was an eron... nope, make that a BIG ARON (BA)!!! the BA decided to make another run around the boat. john almost lost the tackle to the sea. thankfully hashim got a hold of it. john joined hashim at the back. the tug of war continues. again the fish decided to swim to the front of the boat. by now, the fight have been going on for around 15 minutes. there we no more sudden burst of energy by the BA. it was now just banking on its body weight. as the BA surfaced, the squid light ray bounced off the shiny scales. a silvery shadow swims passed and broke surface. it was no BA... it was a HA... HUGE ARON!!! 20 kg by my estimate. 20 kg of pure muscle. hashim handled the fish with experience. he slipped his hand under the gill plate and hauled up the HA. there were cheers all around. i had to shake the hand of the "owner" of the fish. john was exhausted... but elated and lost for words. we did the usual, took photos. as reality set in, john now has a dilemma. "how in the world am i gonna bring the fish home since it can't fit in my 100 qrt ice box!!!"

while john was sorting his fish, the rest of us started fishing again. it is said... aron travels in pair when they breed, so the griefing mate should be around. one of my rods got a huge take a while later. lined peeled out from my penn 940 reel even though i had locked the drag. thankfully, the rod managed to take the shock else my 20lb mono mainline would have easily burst. it was something big. i was ahead of myself... thinking could it be another aron. 5 minutes later, the fish surfaced. it was a let down. a 3kg sea catfish. we continue to get angkay but at longer intervals. so we hashim decided to move to the third location.

once again we encountered lok chiak phenomenon... of angkay. goodness me. 3 years of fishing in sematan and i never caught them before and suddenly i am catching bus loads of them. (that's just a figure of speech). john had alreadi called it a night. there was just 3 of us fishing. as the night wore on, the bites lessen. i tried to fight the tiredness but i couldn't fight it. by the time i woke up, it was 7am.

time for parrot!!! the next best bait for parrot is fresh prawns and we got a kilo of it to catch ourselves some parrots. i rigged 2 my rods and decided to wait for action. so did everyone else. some denizens at the bottom kept nibbling on our baits. half kilo of prawns left and we still had nothing to show for. i rebaited and waited. not too long after that, the smaller of the two rods twitched!!! i decided to check it out. as i lift my rod, the line tightened and the rod 15-30lb rod bent doubled. the 20lb stren line started to peel out from my abu garcia 6500 pro rocket cs. suddenly everything stopped. rod bent, line stiff. bladdy ell... sangkut!!! the fish had managed to go into a hideout. i kept the line taut. by then, hashim and john had rushed to the back. john brought out his camera and hashim had the landing net in his hand. i decide to lower my rod. i think because of that, the fish felt that there was no more harm and decided sprint for safety, not realising the hook is still in its mouth. the fight was ON again. the fish fought for its life. line peel out but i lift the rod higher, not giving an inch. soon enough the fish tires and i reeled it in. it felt like i had reeled a long time and yet the fish didn't surface. i was cussing something like "this better be a good fish!". when it surfaced i was overjoyed. it was my second ever parrot fish. slightly bigger than my first parrot which was 1kg. so i say this parrot is about 1.2kg. to top it all, john got the whole event on video. woohoo!!! i will be posting it on youtube soon.

we decided to call it a day around 9am. trolling back to the beach, we didn't get any strikes. as the curtain falls on my sea fishing forays for 2007, i hope my points haul holds until the end of the year for my championship with sharma aka crazyfisherman.