sunday fishing: June 2008

Location: pok tih's pond

Line up: Farmi

Abby

Sunday

Some People live as a burglar. They earn their living by sneaking in from house to house just to grab anything that is potentially valuable. Many starts from petty thief. As time goes by, their confident growth. Breaking in, is just as simple as urinating behind the bushes in the central park. Few people even getting old and died as a burglar. But plenty of them either got chase once a while or simply caught by the authority and serving time.

There are stupid or clever and even a god-like burglar. Robin Hood is the hero of the ancient time. People worship him for what he did. And Joe Manneti was a stupid one as he was caught by the police stealing women’s undergarment.

The good thing about burglar is that opportunist will have a business. First there are insurance company that will charge you for their service. I know a friend who insured his house from burglar for RM250 (about USD 78) per year. He’s being doing that since the scheme was introduced in 1999. Since then, never once he make any claim. But he keeps paying.

Secondly, there are pawnshop type store that sells secondhand goods. Or maybe a carboot sale, a garage sale . If you lost a pair of shoes in Penang, try looking for it at Lorong Kulit. Some bloke might have it at his stall for RM10.

With that, here come the third reason.

You could buy something at a knock out price. Imagine you can buy a sparkling bottom shaking Shimano Bait caster at RM50, if you are lucky to find one. Never in my life, I buy something that is so cheap that you might think it is a thing that is stolen from someone else. Not because I’ve got good morale ( neither is bad), but I never come across one. And that leads me, surprisingly, on to this week topic, THE CATFISH THAT ALMOST KILL ME.

The biggest fish you caught is almost the same as the burglar I mentioned above. When they hatched, their struggling to live kicked in. Their instinct and cleverness lead them to a happy life. Just like the police to the burglar, predator is a big threat for every baby fish. Quickly but not all, they learnt how to escape death by playing safe. In a few years time, with luck, the fish become huge and enjoys courting and breeding. Normally, those fish have their own house to live in.

But, one simple mistake, a mistake drive by overconfident and clumsiness, lead the freaking fish to a tasty smelly bait on hook. Just like the burglar when first time they ever got caught by a police, they tried to run as fast as they could. If because of the years of smoking and drinking and with no exercise, his lung starts to protest and the muscles become vegetables. Eventually, The burglar had to stop and face the threat. The struggles start with a hectic movement as he tried to kiss any freedom left. When it failed, he will grab anything to use it as weapon for his freedom. And sometimes, when we read the newspaper, we learnt that some cops died in the line of duty.

That what was happened to me. I’m not dead. But the fish stab me with its humongous sting as it tried to free itself.

It was a cat fish. Fish out by Farmi at Pok Tih’s. We thought it was a pacu as the energy felt from the very end of the line was unspeakable. So strong that Farmi’s antique reel could not control the fight. The drag scream and scream. We could hear the line gonna break anytime soon ( the sound tringgg ting ting tinggg still echo in my head). But being cool, he managed to force the ‘burglar’ closer and I netted the fish safely.

As we studied the handsome creature, the fish thrashed it body in all direction. Sharp pain came from my left ankle as the fish stung me. It hurt like you’ve been stab by a crazy menopause nurse that went Amok when she knows her Viagra-addicted husband run off with their Indonesian maid. Tears streamed down to confirm my pain. But, after the hot-balm applied, and a couple of ponstans, the pain was reduced to a slightly burning sensation.

The cat fish who tried to kill me was weighed at 6.7kg. The fish ended up in Pok Tih’s Frying pan. It tasted like a carrot fossil. Hard and dry.