Fishing in Pekan

Malaysia has thirteen states. It is my intention to visit all 13 of them at least once. The ones in bold are those which I have yet to visit.
1) Perlis
2) Kedah (Feb 2010 - Airasia to Langkawi)
3) Penang
4) Perak
5) Kelantan
6) Pahang (Jan 2010 - self-drive to Pekan)
7) Terengganu (Aug 2009 - Airasia to Kuala Terengganu)
8) Selangor (many times)
9) Negeri Sembilan (Aug 2009 - self-drive to Port Dickson)
10) Malacca (Nov 2009 - self-drive to Melaka Town)
11) Sabah (Nov & Dec 2009 - Airasia to Kota Kinabalu)
12) Sarawak (Dec 2008 - MAS to Kuching, Sawarak)
13) Johor (many times - JB, Pontian, Muar, Segamat, Tangkat, Mersing, Rompin)

On Friday evening, I drove 5 straight hours to Pekan (driving time from SG to Pekan is 4-5hours), located in the state of Pahang for a light jigging trip. I used the coastal road straight through Mersing and Rompin and I think this is the furthest that I have driven my car (unless Port Dickson in the state of Negri Sembilan was further) in Malaysia. Many stretches of the road were dark, unlit and visibility was very limited unless with the high beam switched on. However, one cannot drive with high beam switched on all the time as it is blinding for drivers of cars coming from the opposite direction. Along the way, at the Mersing stretch, I was driving along concentrating on my side of the road and the edge (in case of stray animals wandering out on the road) when a car came around the bend at a very high speed and BANG, the next thing I saw was something white and black flying past my windscreen. The car did not stop after the collision and sped off in the night. The cow standing in the middle of its path died upon impact. I was shaken by the accident and reduced my speed driving to Pekan after that.

Reached Pekan about 1am and after a very simple shower at the boatman's 2 storey house, fell asleep until 6am the next morning. Had a simple and unremarkable breakfast of wanton mee (fried wantan) at the only coffeeshop opened at that hour and went straight to the jetty. After some engine trouble, we headed out to sea.

This offshore fishing trip was worth remembering because (a) I got sea-sick for the first time. I didn't throw up, thankfully but the sour bitter bile kept rising up at the back of my throat (b) I lost a sailfish which took my SGD 18.90 Pintail Lure. All because I never expected to get a fish THAT size and had used the usual small snap swivel I use for luring for groupers... I was letting the lure sink, feeling the line run out when I felt Tug Tug and I struck hard - the others on the boat saw the sailfish jump twice sideways awkwardly and then I felt the line go slack and knew it was gone. After I reeled in the line, I saw that only the swivel was left and part of the leader was abraded where it had contact with the sailfish. Damn. I used another pin-tail and I had a few bites on it by some sharp-toothed critter but that critter didn't take in the whole lure.

At the end of the fishing trip, I was the only one who was "fishless" the whole trip. That really sucked, in addition to losing the relatively expensive lure and the total of 12 hours on the road just to get to and fro Pekan. There was a newbie on board and he caught two fishes (the most number by any angler) and the largest one amongst all the fishes caught. Where's my fishing luck?!!!

Oh well, there are lessons to be learnt every fishing trip. This trip, I learnt (a) that I CAN drive up to Pekan. :) (b) to use a freaking split ring instead of a snap swivel when using the freaking pintail lure (c) to jig (variation of speed, imagine the jig's movement in the waters) and to strike hard 2 or times (ahhhh, that cost me a fishing competition in Sabah). And I also got to see the beauty of the sea - the brown, the green, the blue, the almost black blue of the waters blending into each other. If my camera was water-proof (yes, I definitely am going to upgrade my camera), I would have taken pictures of the incredibly beautiful waters and rainbow that we saw.

On the way back, we stopped for dinner at Restoran Lei Huat in Mersing which was next to a fairly large and well-stocked tackle shop which we visited. The restaurant is open until 11pm on a Fri night and is opposite the Shell petrol station near the roundabout We had their speciality pork ribs (so-so), sambal kangkong and prawns cooked in their special-sauce (some chilli mix). The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The cost of RM 38 for the 3 dishes, drinks and rice is rather reasonable. There were quite a number of local customers so the food mustn't have been too bad and it wasn't. However, it was just that - edible.