Kenyir - August 2005
1 fine afternoon over a weekend 20 years ago, I went to my auntie's house with my parents to have a midday gathering. Upon reaching, I noticed my 2 elder counsins were packing some weird looking sticks and motors, which I later learned they are call rods and reels. I sat there with full curiosity, asking them how they use their sticks and motors, and how they catch fish with them. To push the curiosity further, they also have 'square nets', which they used for crabbing. 'How dumb can the fishes and crabs be?', I thought to myself; a perception which is very much opposite now.
Feeling the overwhelming weight of question marks on my head and shoulder, I went to my parents and pulled a shirt tugging stunt with puppy eyes and angel smile, and a finger pointing at my counsins who are still packing, and said, 'I wanna go...' And my cooperative cousins noticed and said 'Don't worry! It's very safe. We'll take care of him.'
My parents nodded. BIG MISTAKE!!! Hahahaha...little do they know that 20 years later, they are always complaining that I'm spending too much time and money on fishing.
Off we go, in their Toyota Super Kijang, which I think was an ancestor of Toyota Innova. There are plenty river mouth in Brunei, and most of these river mouths have big huge gas pipes running across them. These pipes are big enough for you to walk sit and even dance on top of them. So you can just sit on the pipes and drop your bait, and at the same time, drop your nets for the crabs.
After giving me a brief lesson on how to cast and retrieve with the stick and motor, they dropped my earthworm bait into the water and passed me the rod. And they told me, if anything pulls, turn the motor! And off they went further down the pipes to set up some crab nets.
5 minutes...10 minutes...15 minutes passed. Both my cousins were quite far down the pipes. Could still see them, but am quite sure they can't hear me. Then it happens...
*TUG* - Huh? Wow...I thought the earthworm is already dead? Not bad...
*TUG TUG* - Seriously, how strong is that earthworm???
*TUG TUG TUG TUG TUG* - Wait...if anything pulls, turn the motor...TURN!!!
2 hours later (or was it 1 minute... :-p), I was no longer alone on the pipe. I was sitting there with a 500g catfish, staring eye to eye. I was quiet, the catfish was making squeking noise. My heart was pounding. The feeling was good. And clichély speaking, the rest is history.
After many trips with my cousins and 1 year later, my parents bought me my 1st stick and motor. The stick was a 7 footer Ryobi, and the motor can't remember. The Ryobi stick is still with me now, but the motor was borrowed to my friend when I was in Australia and was never returned.
I fished and fished and fished non-stop until 5 years ago when I started working with my current company as a Telesales Executive. Although it was a 9-5 job, but because I was taking public transport from Bdr Sri Damansara to KL, 9-5 became 6am - 9pm. And because it was my first job being a fresh graduate, I worked my ass off everyday. And for 3½ years, I never once pick up the stick. Until...
July 2005, a close fishing friend (Johnson) called me and asked if I wanna go Kenyir. Kenyir has always been my dream destination. Have read so many magazines with catch reports from Kenyir, with all their Water Monkeys/Sebarau, Toman, Belida, etc etc. Ignition #1 sets in...
At that time, I have forgotten most things and was totally clueless about fishing. I couldn't even remember any of the most basic knots. The only equipment I had then was a rod bag and my ryobi rod. Ignition #2 joins the que...
When I was studying, I could never afford any fishing equipments. Its always 1 rod & 1 reel. So since I was left with just 1 rod and nothing else, and income is steady, I went to Sykt Kepong and bought myself a Shimano Cardiff and Berkley Series One. That was my first EVER purchase at Sykt Kepong. Ignition #2 kickstarted...
August 2005, can't really remember the dates, but it was a 3 days 2 nights trip. Since it was my first experience with a baitcaster then, there were a lot of casting and birdnests throughout the trip, and NO FISH :-) Hahaha..I'm jinx from the beginning. It was a very unproductive trip for all of us. Throughout the trip, only 3 fishes were landed; 1 sebarau, 1 toman and 1 belida. But it was very relaxing and comfortable throughout. Ignition #1 boiling...
There were 2 main things that reignited the flames. #1 was the fact that I didn't catch anything, and that made all the memories came flooding back. #2 was the feeling I had when taking out my Cardiff from the box for the first time. It felt good...
Many things happened after the Kenyir trip. I went from a 1 R&R angler to an extremely obsessive one. It got even worst when I picked up jigging. Hmmm...maybe my next post will be how obsessive is my obsession... :-p
Anyway, enjoy the pictures :-)
Check out the number of rods...I'm sure the fishes are wondering 'Why suddenly got spider web all over the place?'
DD with the only sebarau landed by Kong, the guy on his right.
