Fishing Excursion to Tioman/Pemanggil 2007

Fishing Excursion to Pemanggil and Tioman Island (April 23-26, 2007)

The journey began after maghrib prayer at Bandar Putra Kulai. Five of us travelled in a black Unser driven by Adnan. We were to meet Mat Husin in Mersing and scheduled to depart around 10 pm, the night of 23rd April 2007. Awal came earlier that morning from Kuala Lumpur. On the way, we stopped for dinner at "Sup Daud" in Kota Tinggi.

At 11 pm we boarded the rented boat. As I offered my hand to Black, the boatman's assistant, he smiled and said "it has been a long time since we last fish together.The last time was when we hit a school of Tenggiri in Tioman". Yeaah, I said. Probably we'll repeat it again.

We reached Pemanggil Island at about 3 in the morning. I was asleep all the way, but without delay, we started for the action. We had quite a number of ikan Tambak, Tanda and few other species that early morning. As usual at the early hours of the day, you'll never miss Wijay's azan, calling for the dawn prayer, and as usual, we offered our prayer in congregation at the front compartment of the boat.

After breakfast, we went to one of the Unjam nearby. The aim was to catch some small fish to be used as bait later at night plus whatever available. I was taught not to be so fussy at sea. Just take it easy and enjoy the trip, I was always reminded by my innerself. Yes we did take it easy... On the way to Unjam, we caught some Tongkol Putih (Tuna).

The unjam turned out to be generous that day. We caught lots of Ikan Tamban (small herring) plus some big ones such as Tenggiri (Spannish Mackerel) and Belitung (Dorado).

Lunch was served on the boat. It was a delicious Tenggiri Masak Kicap offered by Tholudin, the chef of the group. We are a group of "leisure anglers" who treat deep sea fishing as a holiday. It has always been enjoyable and we like to keep it that way.

On the morning of 26th april we were supposed to spend about 2 hours fishing at unjam near Tioman Island, targetting for small fish such as Kembung, Selar, Kerisi or Cencaru. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side. The sight of storm was evident and we decided to leave early. We departed and reached Mersing at noon.

alhamdulillah, a good trip it was.

Some of the catch