An Exotic Fishing Trip
By Pop
Growing up, high school in the 60’s mom made us go to the barber
shop a whole lot more than folks do now-a-days. The best part of going
to Mr. Clouatt’s in this south Louisiana river town was the
opportunity to read Field and Stream and Sports Afield; which at the
time were dedicated to hunting and fishing rather than bikini contests.
My dad had worked on the river for some number of years and dreamed
of the sites to be seen around the world by going to sea by large
ships. He did make into the merchant marines shuttling cargo between
New York and Britain during WW-2; not quite the exotic ports of call
dreamed of. Back to the barber shop, those magazines always had excellent
hunting and fishing trips described in the various parts of the US.
It was a must read for a teenage boy and occasionally had a article
about fly fishing in New Zealand or peacock bass fishing in the Amazon
jungle. What an opportunity to transport one self from a sleepy Louisiana
town to a wild rich environment where the fish were big and bit every
other cast. We enjoyed going to the barber shop then.
Fast forward to 1998, and the company had a new project on the remote
eastern side of mainland Malaysia. Early reports were, tigers occasionally
roamed the plant site and elephants were wild in the mountains. Every
day was summer and the seasons changed based on the amount of rainfall.
About 200 inches per year, four times that of Houston or New Orleans
fell.
A trip to the site meant a two day long distance jet journey to
the capital city Kuala Lumpur, a local prop plane connection to Kertah
which was basically a Shell helicopter air terminal and about a 20
minute ride north to the river town of Paka. Paka was a very old Chinese
river town of about a thousand people with the majority of the buildings
built out of teak and bamboo, many of them over the water. In the
middle of this river town, on a street wide enough for one car to
pass at a time was a seafood restaurant named the Paka Hilton. For
about 12$, a couple could have the finest Chinese prepared seafood
including fried lobster, shrimp, garlic broiled prawns and Singapore
chile crab. Every thing was fresh and some were kept live in tanks
at the entrance. The local beer was good also and included in the
12$ estimate. About a block away each morning was a “wet”
market adjacent to a ”dry” market. Wet was protein, as
in fish, chicken and strange parts. Dry was vegetables. The fresh
fish was outstanding and we ate a lot of red snapper, grouper and
flounder. A four pound red snapper caught the night before was about
two dollars. Cleaning was free but you wanted to filet your own as
they used a hatchet to filet with and left a few bones. Basically
the technique was stand the fish on it stomach and whack it through
the back.
Our housing was across the river from Paka and was an enclosed area
of 30 concrete block bungalows about 800 square feet each with full
maid service, swimming pool, tennis courts and restaurant. This was
going to be a neat place to live while organizing the start-up of
this latest petrochemical company. Orchid plants in bloom were a dollar
each and the wife was tickled pink with the flower garden that the
village staff maintained for her. There were a couple of issues. About
once a month a cobra snake was seen in the ditches in the complex
and in the river you could frequently see Komono lizards about 6 foot
long that looked like alligators.
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The rest of the story is about an offshore fishing trip in this wild
and beautiful location.
About a half block away from the wet market was a well stocked fishing
tackle shop. Because the last group of petrochem foreigners were from
Japan, they had an excellent selection of light to medium offshore
rods that had been imported from Japan. I selected a 6’5 footer
that would handle 25-35 # test line well, from the deck of a boat.
Spider wire was the line of choice at 30 # test. This along with a
Penn Senator that was shipped with my household goods from Texas made
for the rig that was going to catch large snapper, grouper, king mackerel
and maybe a sail fish.
We had heard that charter of an offshore boat was reasonable from
Paka and the team of Pop, Josee, and Tarheel approached the parent
company Safety/Security manager to have him do the negotiation and
settle arrangements. It was mainly a language thing but we also hoped
for a boat that would pass for minimum safety standards. The negotiator
was unable to participate in the expedition, but he did assist in
the instruction process from American to Chinese river runt. The deal
was outstanding, for 90 dollars total we got a 35 foot boat, diesel
included, a captain and two deck hands. There was no English capability,
but fishing is the same in any language and we felt good.
The boat looked a lot like a Louisiana delta shrimp boat, with a useful
bow and sweeping lines down to a rounded aft. The wheel house was
a bit small and had a cut out in the roof to allow the head and shoulders
of the captain to stick through. The rear deck had a very necessary
sun shelter for mid day use. Age of the boat probably dated back to
the Japanese occupation in ’43. The engine may have been from
that period also. It was a three cylinder diesel that sounded like
it was four at one time. At all speeds it went kathuck, kathuck, kathuck,
pause, kathuck, kathuck, kathuck, pause etc. I looked at it carefully
and could only find three cylinders, there was not a fourth decommissioned
cylinder and balance seemed to be fine. Instrumentation throughout
the boat would have been in great shape if there was any. Cooling
temperature was verified by having the seawater cooling jacket outlet
discharge over the side through a hose.
We loaded up beer, water, sandwiches, chips, fishing tackle etc and
departed the dock on schedule at 800 am and crossed the shoals at
the mouth of the river about 20 minutes later. Weather was great and
the seas were calm. I rigged up a large Blue rapala lure and dropped
it in to run behind the boat on our way out to the fishing grounds.
The boat was making about 2-3 knots; too much speed for the lure to
run right, so it was pulled in and a weighted kona lure substituted
as the offering of choice. The run offshore was to be 30-35 miles
to a number of underwater hills where the fish would tend to congregate.
We did not get a strike on the Kona lure the entire way out which
took three hours of riding time. Along the way it was apparent that
the cell phones we had brought to keep in touch with the wives would
not work
The captain utilizing his years of experience brought us right to
the expected location without gps, radar, or compass. He was good.
We knew we had arrived upon seeing the large numbers of fish trap
floats, which had to be navigated through to properly set the anchor.
The crew broke out their fishing handlines which were baited with
ten very small hooks decorated with thread and about a three ounce
sinker. Quickly they were catching shad ten at a time for us to use
as bait. Baited up the three Americans dropped lines over the side
also and waited. And waited. Tarheel caught the first fish reeling
it in the fifty feet without too much resistance. It was a hardhead.
After a while Josee sunk the hook into a little larger fish that when
brought to the surface looked like mouth, spines, and fins. A rapid
response from the attentive crew allowed them to isolate the fish
in a careful manner and slide it back overboard. We think it might
have been a poisonous fish but never did get a gesture we could be
sure of. The same experience was had at the next three fishing spots.
Each time the Malaysians would catch ten 3 inch shad at a time while
the Americans were pretty well skunked.
About 3:00 pm Pop had a real strike. It pulled line quickly off the
Penn Senator, giving a good bend to the Japanese rod. The boat crew,
Josee and Tarheel all gathered near to witness the event and assist
as needed. It was a good pull with runs and dashes from the anchored
boat. A four foot shark gradually rose toward the boat after twelve
minutes of battle and was neatly brought abroad by the crew, we finally
caught something substantial.
Not satisfied, Pop worked hard at communicating that we really are
after snapper and grouper using language terminology picked up from
the wet market. Malaysians work hard at pleasing a guest and the crew
responded. By starting to haul in fish traps! Most of which were empty,
but yielded a one pound snapper and two pound grouper. A confab with
Pop, Josee and Tarheel reviewed the lateness of the day, 3 hour trip
back and the possibility that the traps may not belong to the boat
owner. (that’s been known to happen in south Louisiana). Communicating
go home was easy and as the boat got underway Pop saw a large bill
fish break the water about 500 yards astern. Dragging a lure home
did not give rise to any strikes.
When clearing the equipment from the boat that evening the crew made
a show of the bushel basket full of shad that would be sold in the
next morning’s market. They had a great catch, the Americans
were really not aware of due to the focus on catching something large.
The crew was very happy to take the four foot shark probably to make
fin soup out of. It was a great day outdoors, laid back and restful
which is what fishing is all about. Fellowship, food, beer and water
flowed freely throughout the group of six men by the time the day
was over.
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Epilogue…. Fellowship is great but if you include catching,
that makes it even better. Pop knew there had to be explanations for
the great fresh snapper, grouper, and king mackerel in the wet market
and the absence of fish on the fishing grounds. One of the later professional
staff hired was an avid fisherman himself and explained the disconnect
as follows. Long time over fishing with the use of traps and nets,
no closed seasons, no limits etc had wiped out the fish population
within 50-60 miles of shore. It is said locally that each time a fish
is born two more traps are put in to catch it. The fish that are sold
in the market are caught on the same type of boat we were on yet they
traveled 150 miles out to sea. The South China Sea is relatively shallow
and provides locations much further out than we would venture on our
outing.
The fisheries management along the Texas/Louisiana gulf coast may
seem irritable at times when it limits our usage, but without limits
there would be no usage.
Pop
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