On the phone, Ah Koon cheerfully agreed to meet up at jetty of Sg. Pinang. Sep 28, Sunday morning it was, I left my father-in-law house at some 10 30am, and reached Pangkor around 11 15am.
Ah Koon was a skipper that have his boat sold some 4 years ago and stopped doing fishing charter completely since then. My last fishing trip on his boat was September of 2003. in that trip, the whole group of us consists of 7 anglers, brought 4 x 100 qt. and another 3 smaller ice boxes, have them filled fully on the 2nd night of a 3D2N fishing trip. What made me remembered on that trip was, I had 4 huge takes on my offering that were not landable.
Not long after that trip, I left my employment and ventured into some sort of own business, and my desire to experience the awesome fish power has to put on hold temporarily. For some reason I could not forget the scene where a 60lb bottom rod bowed till water surface and 50lb braids been peeled ferociously. The awesome fish power was simply unforgettable. I have been telling myself "I will be back".
I called Ah Koon number and guided from the conversation I walked to a local kopitiam, some 50 ft. away from the Sg. Pinang Jetty （吉灵丸码头）. There he was, a mid age, well-build Chinese, sitting in the kopitiam, wave his hand at me.
From the talking then, I understand Ah Koon is operating a primary school canteen since he sold his boat off. We talked about general catch of commercial fisherman in Pangkor island, population of Pangkor that is dropping and plenty of other stuff. I told him my intention to meet him in Pangkor was because of my desire to repeat my experience on his boat, at that particular spot 5 years ago. Should he is not doing fishing charter business any longer, I am prepared to exchange GPS coordinates number of that and few more other spots with some monetary appreciation. That I am a simple but serious angler, were also explained to him. His coordinates will be with me not for fishing charter business but fulfilment of my chase to experience the power of unknown (but suspiciously Grouper) fishes.
We talked general stuff about fishing after that, and Ah Koon took the opportunities to explain to me methods of getting boat long sided at different orientation with different wind and current direction. Observation of fish bites rate at different winds at specific months was also explained to me. I really don't know how much I could absorb at that time, as he is those sort of person where once he started talking and the pace is in, he will keep talking, described the factors to observe for good dates, from one spot to another. "Arhhhh...I need a recorder" I was so thought.
Among others, there were about 4 spots that Ah Koon mentioned I must go there and try. One of it was a spot where he and other anglers on board hauled up ang chor, generally over 6kg-ish and have had ice boxes fulled at late midnight of the 1st night out. The biggest ang chor caught on rod-line in his 15 years++ of fishing charter experience is 9kg+ was also caught on that same spot.
From in-depth conversation later, I was a bit disappointed because I came to know he did not write down the GPS coordinates of the spot which I experienced 5 years ago, in his personal diary. That coordinates were recorded in his GPS console which passed on to the new owner of his boat. He looked at me and tell me that spot is "dirty", as numbers of weird fishing incidents happened at that spot.
"Like what?" I asked. There were few times, he said, well build angler like him, took great effort to pump a fish up. Upon surfaced, the fish that appeared was in no way matching the power of the tug-fight. "a kerapu that weight less than a kg ... Kai, you tell me, shouldn't it be effortless?"
"Errr ... ok, perhaps it is good that you don't have that coordinates with you now" I said. But still, I was disappointed deep inside me.
After we had our lunch at a restaurant nearby, Ah Koon took me to his house in Pangkor.
In his home, he sat down at the biggest table facing the house entrance and slowly open the drawer underneath and take out a book, very much alike with exercise book used in primary school, and flip page by page.
Written beside rows of GPS coordinate numbers were rows of chinese abbreviation, such as "红皂“，”白皂“， “大过“，“龙尖“ and many others. These are local names and perhaps his own way or writing those fish species; golden snapper, silver grunter, giant grouper and emperor fish respectively.
(Post-posting note: the chinese name of golden snapper is 红槽 as referred by fishbase.)
"Heart blood of 10 over years huh?" I said. He looked at me and smiled, slowly shake his head. Together with the book is another stack of A4 papers, photocopied obviously, written with numbers and numbers. Ah Koon explained to me that those were from his friends working on trawler boats. Those numbers were recorded when the skipper noticed some unusual profile at the seabed, and were passed to him hopefully someday Ah Koon will make a trip there and come back probably with fishing tales.
"Those were spots that I never tried, here in this book are all that I have tried and recorded", he said. He put on his reading glasses and go through the number, line by line. He asked me to write down specific numbers when he recalled the catch results at those spots. "Na ... this is the spot I told you just now, my biggest ang chor was caught here".
There are spots where good catches were recorded, but he said those were flat seabed and it will be impossible for fish resource to remain there, with frequent visiting of trawler boats. Generally he only requested me to note down spots where low profile rocks, ditches and sea mountain were present, for the simple reason the resources could be possibly protected under the physical condition.
I spent about an hour and a half with him with the numbers. At a glance I have about 30 spots, some north of Pangkor, some east of Pangkor and some South of Pangkor. Spots at sea moutain of Hutang Melintang were not recorded, however, because the spots were visited frequently by fishing charters around central Perak like Sea Garden (Ah Heng), GT Chaser (Ah Ho) and Tuna (Ah Chong).
It was about 4 30pm then I am done with Ah Koon on the GPS coordinates thingy. He took me to his merbuk cages right next to his house. We spent about 30 mins beside the cages then I decided to make a leave. I requested him to take me to an ATM and withdraw some money as my appreciation to him and he obliged.
We spent sometime at Sg Pinang jetty after that. During then I was told the past stories how he started his charter business with Ah Tiong of Seagull and the other friend, and later how the business was split.
I left the jetty at about a quarter to six, with Ah Koon waving his hand to me as my last sight on Pangkor Island.
I shall visit those spots very soon...I thought so when I was in ferry. Few sms were sent to few of my fishing buddies and deep in me I really look forward to test the bite rate at these spots.
~ End ~
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