sea fishing - biggest catch of my life





sea fishing is much more fun than pond fishing, if not for the rocking of the boat which can make you feel queasy. i have the experience of fishing in the sea off the southern islands of singapore, mersing and tioman. i vaguely remember having stayed overnight at a kelong where the kelong owner cooked the catch for you.

in sea fishing, if you are taken to the right spot, you can be hauling up a fish or a few fish every few minutes. when we went sea fishing, we would normally use a hand line with a few hooks attached. on our tioman trip, we caught so many fish that we did not know what to do with the lot.

it was on one of the trips to the southern islands, near pulau hantu that i landed the biggest catch. in sea fishing, the weight that you attached to the end of the line has to be quite heavy because of the depth of the water and the strong current. i was on the roof of the boat when the weight started to roll off. i tried to grab the weight, which was in the shape and size of a rambutan fruit without the skin. i missed it and instead, grabbed the barb of the hook. it pierced the palm of my hand and stayed stuck there. tried as i might, i could not dislodge it. that was how i ended up being the catch. that was also the end of our fishing trip.

my friends and colleagues got the boatman to head for pulau bukom. fortunately, there was a doctor on the island. he performed a minor surgery and removed the offending hook from my palm.