It was Saturday again (27th May 2006), I bought my wife, daughters and in-laws for a site survey trip (see whether any new spots for fishing). And again, I am headed North Port Hailam Village and Tanjong Harapan. I reached Tanjong Harapan at around 4:30pm, bad luck, not much activities going on, besides, the wave was pretty strong. Nothing much to do, we moved on and headed Sea Lion Pay Pond after all of us had some ice cream bought from the hawker on motorcycle.
We reached Sea Lion pond #1 at around 5:15pm, boy, it was crowded. I can see the anglers are just few feets away from each other. Don't feel like be one of them, I drove along the road and headed Pond #2, #3 and #4... There are some hook ups in Pond #4 and my father in-law seems to be excited seeing someone landed a red snapper. However, looking at my watch, it was already 6:00pm and I really don't think that the girls (2 daughters) can hold till 9:00pm (minimal 3 hours per visit); so, without wasting much time, I drove them to the nearby seafood restaurant.
The restaurant has an extended area which is a wooden platform built on the muddy area facing the river right opposite the yacht club. The water was clear and looks very promising. My eldest daughter kept reminding me that this was supposed to be a fishing trip. Wife thought for a while and asked the restaurant operator whether we can fish from the extended platform since it was still early and no customer except us. The restaurant operator agreed since we was the first customer of the day and of course, we ordered a sumptous meal that they won't want to offend a small request from a customer... Wife tried her luck and asked for a prawn (not live, of course) as a bait, I thought to myself, I am sure that they will agree to this since we ordered a "drunken prawn" (a dish where prawns are steamed with chinese rice wine and egg white) and it is just a matter of simple math to deduct one from the total. The lady operator oblighed and brought me one with the shell removed. It was pretty fresh though. I setup the Amelia's toy fishing rod and reel, hook the prawn flesh as bait and off it goes.
It was a matter of minutes (approx. 4-5 minutes) that I noticed the tip of rod started to nod. I took the rod from Amelia and gave it a strike, I can feel the struggle from the other end of the rod but not a very clear signal, I had a second thought, wondering whether I hook up a plastic beg (it was quite polluted and still does). I handed Amelia the rod and show her how to reel in the fish (assuming there is one on the other end). While she reeling hard to retrieve the line, I notice the tip of the rod nodding again, I told her, I am quite sure there is a fish on the other end, seeing her struggle with the reel, I took over and started to reel it in. Wife was standing beside Amelia and started teasing me, she thought that I had hook up some rubbish, I challenged her that if it is a fish on the end, she will have to swallow it alive. She just laughs knowing I am dead serious.... Moments later, I can see a silverish shadow gliding below the wooden structure where we were standing. It is a funny looking fish with 3 hard bones on its fin. We took some pictures and release it back to the water.
At least, I fulfilled my promise to Amelia but I told her, I will be back again for some bigger catch... The trip ended with a sumptous seafood dinner and of course, the main dish was a steamed grouper...
