Venue : Sibu Hotboys Kelong
Group : Marcus, Richard, Kar Seng, Patrick & Myself
Catch : 1 squid, 3 Todaks
Well, after a long break from kelong fishing, decided to go and relive that kelong fishing feeling again. Rounded up a few kakis including our new member Kar Seng who wasn't really into fishing but more of netting! Richard suggested Hotboys kelong since we been to Ah Ngan's and Ah Fatt's Kelong before, he wanted a new experience. Reluctantly, both Patrick and myself go with it despite our heart telling us otherwise.
As we were anticipating some traffic hold up at the causeway, this time we decided to meet at a damn bloody early hours of 5am at Kranji. I have to wake up at 4am and pick the guys up to meet Patrick. To our surprise, we cleared the custom in a puff of smoke. Richard begun his whinning on having to wake up so early and directed all ammo at our dear Patrick-san who obviously suggested to meet this early.
Our usual kopitiam for breakfast was closed for renovation, thus we have to move to the next junction for our breakfast. The Char Kuay Tiao ordered by Patrick tasted delicious, while most of us stick to the usual wanton mee which sucks.....
We reached Tanjong Leman Jetty at 8am, still got an hour or so to kill before the boatman come. Richard decided to catch spider to kill time, and he did got 2 males to fight it out. It was a dull match as the spiders didn't really put up a long fight. It was over in a matter of seconds....both males were released unharmed back to their habitats.
Spider fighting
Finally we board the boat at about 10am, and were quickly led to our bed when we reached the kelong. First impression was the place was clean, and luckily not many people on board.
We set up and went to the kitchen area immediately to catch some rabbit fish. The potatoes were put to good use as bait to lure the rabbit fish close to our treble hooks hand line. Yes......we didn't fish them, we foul hook them! There were a few good size ones swimming around, but they were not interested in our potatoes at all.
Rabbit foul hooking
In the afternoon, there was a big group of 20 plus teens coming onboard. I overheard one of the lady asking the kelong helper where can she swim....omg....she must be either damn good swimmer or a dork! The ladies was a distraction to Richard, who can't help to look over every once a while. With the group joining, we lost all hope of fishing, not even tambans want to be caught by us. Whole day of jigging with the apollo jigs, only miss wong, miss wong, and more miss wong. Patrick and myself was targeting the elusive squid, which our yamashitas, yozuris all out in full force, but alas, nothing was caught. Richard as usual hook up a few todaks for enjoyment.
Todak killer lives up to his reputation!
Kar Seng taking over from Richard's todak rod
Richard who haven't recovered from his flu was the 1st to retire to bed, follow by Patrick, Marcus and Kar Seng. Unbelievable, they actually slept at 9.30pm!! I continued to try my luck with the squid, but after 2 hrs of no action. I too gave up and went to bed.
We woke up the next morning and informed the helper of our intention to get out of this place at the earliest possible boat, we were disappointed with the catch and the lousy meals they serve. We were made to eat strangers salivas at one of the meal sitting which made the experience even more worst.
The dishes served
On the way back to Singapore, we stopped over at the infamous bak gu teh stall. The soup was very nice indeed but the meat wasn't that soft. Richard explained that most Malaysians like it that way. At the causeway, we were stuck for an hour. And by the time I sent everyone back, it was already 4pm before I finally reach home. Home sweet home......
