sunday fishing: Tok Bali revisited

Tok Bali – The Eidulfitri Frenzy

Line Up: Didie, farmi and me

It was Aidilfitri. I decided to celebrate the big day at my inlaw’s . Not until the 3rd day of celebration that finally everybody was free from any family program. I woke up early that day, went to TCE tackle at wakaf Che yeh to get some supply on sinkers and hooks.

At 3.00 pm that day, Farmi and didie picked me up at my Inlaw’s. We circled around town for live baits and perumpun but to no avail, no shop opened due to the celebration. So we decided to use fish fillet and dead prawn as baits. But we also brought small ‘penyauk’ (angler’s landing scoop) just in case we if we come across anything that can be used as baits.

Arrived at Tok Bali around 5.00pm. Good news, our favourite spot was vacant. We unload our stuff and start to fish. We managed to land few Bajis and palm size tetanda and few Gelama Bongkok. Arround 8pm that night, a school of kekek (kikek as local said) was terrorizing the place. There was no rest for us. I was using 3 rods, but because of the frenzy, I had to use only one rod, yet, still I went crazy because of the attack. I never encounter with this kind of situation before. There were so many of them, thousand and thousand of kekek. The pack was huge, and we landed nothing but Kekek. It seemed, other spicies had run away from the spot. At 10pm that night, I had enough of Kekek and went retiring at a nearby food stall while Didie continuing fishing and securing our spot.

I went back to fish around 11pm. The water level had risen to the max. we could only fish from the pier. I witnessed another amazing phenomenon . There were hundreds of expolosion on the water surface. It showed something big and murderous lurking their prey. Apart from that, the kekek stopped taking the baits and replaced by Gelama Bongkok. It was not as crazy as what Kekek did, but still, it was great fishing.

At 3am, the attack of murderous predator from underneath getting much more frequent and the water exploded with tremendous sound. I was bitting my lips, hoping to catch one of them. I took my casting set and begin casting . I was using Rapala Shad Rap ( orange and yellow) belong to Farmi. I got nothing. I have to admit , I was suck at casting.
Both didie and Farmi went to buy some food, I was bored waiting for the fish to bite. I went under the pier with ‘penyauk’ to catch some sotong katak ( some sort of squid). Again, no sotong or udang around but so many small fish, later I learned, it was call Seliding by locals. It was never being used as a bait before because the fish had sharp needle size sting . I caught so many of them, put them in container filled with water to keep them alive. The fish have a transparent body, thus, when u expose them to any strong source of lighting, the fish look extremely beautiful. I carefully picked one, using a nail clipper, I cut away the sting and used it as a bait. I casted as far as I could and went lay down.

I was in and off… dizzy. Tried to sleep, but the pier’s concrete was too hard that my body aching. It was cold and windy and foggy. But the attack of murderous monster was never stop. Suddenly, didie’s rod shook violently. It was jumping up and down. The railing had stop it from thrown into the water. I quickly unzipped my sleeping bag and jumped to grab the the rod. It was didie’s ( actually, didie had no fishing set, it was mine and I let him use it every time he went fishing with me) that I used Seliding as a bait. Lucky for me that the drag was not lock. Just when I grabbed the rod, the fish started to run. And it fast. It was so strong that I thought either it was a silver barra or hippopotamus. The fish jumped and thrashed his body everywhere. I was using a 10p main line and 12 p shock leader. The fear of the line might broke was beyond anything. Slowly, I tighten the drag and apply a soft retrieve. When the fish struggled, I loosen the drag . It was 10 minutes and the fish showed no sign of surrendering. But I kept the line safe and try to avoid the fish run to the boats anchored near by. Then , I realized, if it was a big fish, how on earth I’m going to land it? There was no way I could just pull it up from the pier. It is a 10 feet drop. And my line would not doing any good. I turned off the reel’s brake and went to get the penyauk. With one hand on penyauk, other on the rod, I jumped the stairs down trying to get as close as I could to the water . Then the real fight begin. I retrieved fast and keeping the line straight. Finally, the fish gave up and ready to meet his maker. It was a freaking Senangin. My first ever senangin. Never caught one. But that night, that one was my first ever. I thank god, and thank the fish for taking my bait. Here, today, I have to admit to you all. I landed the biggest Senangin of the day using both unbranded rod and reel. That set was meant to be used by anyone who went fishing with me in case that person don’t have a fishing set. It was a great RM40 set.

I took the fish up on the pier. Grabbed my other two rods, using Seliding as baits, I casted at the same spot. I went back under the pier to catch some more Seliding as most of them that I kept in the container was dead. As I was doing my hunt on seliding, My daiwa Crossfire and Rapala Fsi 4000 shook. I throw the net scoop and bucket away and rushed up to the pier. To cut the story short, it was another Senangin. I hit a freaking jackport. I founded the perfect bait for Senangin to be applied at Tok Bali. Why ? Because, apart from another 3 more senangins, I also landed 3 huge Belukangs using the same bait. So did Farmi. He was shocked to learn that Seliding is a perfect bait. Tok Bali is Farmi’s play ground. He never heard people used Seliding as baits. Normally people will use Belanak as bait. He also experienced a good moment landed some monster that morning. In fact, he landed the biggest Belukang, around 4kg in weighs.

At 8am that morning, the water got calm again. The attack of Senangin on Belanak had stopped. I packed my stuff and rested. I have no more energy to fish. Its been 15 hours of fishing, and my right hand had swollen . I just watched farmi and Didie having great time landing Belukang one after another.

We reached kota Bahru at 11, and after a nice cold shower, I went off to the Angel’s land. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz