‘I can really fish… I’ve been fishing since I was a little kid.’
— American professional football player, Deion Sanders.
Since I was a small boy, I have enjoyed fishing, whether it’s during the day or at night. Daylight fishing involved using a rod, net, or a specially woven basket called ‘pemansai,’ which was typically seen as a feminine activity.
In my previous columns, I mentioned fishing trips with my cousins using the tuba or ‘tubai’ poison in the upper reaches of Sungai Tapang stream. This stream is a small tributary of the Melupa River, which is a Krian tributary in Saratok. These trips took place in the mid-sixties and involved two cousins, Madil Jatan and the late Kimboi Bungin. We had a great time catching and dividing the suffocating fish among ourselves during three separate trips over a three-year period, from approximately 1964 to 1966.
I also shared my personal experience of rod fishing at the same stream during those years and at my favorite fishing grounds, Lubuk Muney. Lubuk Muney, formerly known as Lubuk Raran, is located just below the tributary of Sungai Tapang, near our farmhouse at Bukit Tinggi in upper Melupa. A 40-minute walk below Bukit Tinggi was (and still is) Nanga Assam Primary School, which opened its doors to students in 1962, just a year before Malaysia was formed. In that year, when I was eight years old, I was registered as student number seven (No. 7) at the school.
My fishing expeditions to Lubuk Muney and another pool below it took place between 1962 and 1971, the year we finally moved back to our longhouse, Kedap, and left our beloved home at Bukit Tinggi. During this time, I was studying Form Four at Saratok Secondary School, which was located at the fourth mile of the old Saratok-Roban Road. The school is now known as SMK Saratok, and in 1985, I had the privilege of becoming its principal.
Lubuk Muney got its name from an incident in the 1930s when the lifeless body of a Chinese trader named Muney was found entangled at its side. He had been shot dead with a shotgun from a steep gradient below Sungai Tapang tributary. My uncle, Ujih Untan, was arrested after a preliminary investigation and held in police custody for at least three weeks. However, the British government found no evidence against him, as the alleged murder weapon, the shotgun, was never found.
Consequently, he was released and passed away at an old age in the late ’90s. While fishing in Lubuk Muney, I encountered what was considered the king of fishes in the Melupa around 1965. It was a ‘Ikan Tunggal’ white carp with a few stripes, with a head about the size of a 14kg Shell gas cylinder and a length of at least 15 feet. It stared at me for about a minute or two, leaving me motionless for quite a while, still holding onto my fishing rod. It was surrounded by scores of smaller Ikan Tunggal, which eventually left when their king or queen disappeared from my sight. After that, I enjoyed catching at least ten big Ikan Tebalang, another species of white carp, which were the hungriest fish species around at that time.
During the same period, I also enjoyed accompanying my dad on nocturnal fishing trips using a specially crafted lantern called ‘pigo.’ Its lighting power was similar to that of a powerful torchlight. Those were the moments when I truly cherished bonding with my dad. My role was to carry the basket to hold the caught fish, prawns, and bullfrogs. On one occasion, we caught more than twenty bullfrogs, including seven that my dad speared while they were mating. Despite getting bitten by red ants while exploring the grounds along the deep pools, I thoroughly enjoyed the nocturnal adventures and the bond with my dad, who lived until the ripe age of 92 and passed away in 2002.
As I grew up and became an adult, I continued the tradition of nocturnal fishing with my brothers Edward, who is now 81, and Jon, who is 75. We chose to fish at Kedap stream, which is about a 10-minute walk from Kedap. Unlike the lower part of the Melupa River near the longhouse, this stream is free of the river king crocodile. However, we encountered snakes, especially pythons, a few times. Since my family doesn’t consume snakes, we let them go. Our main catch consisted of the popular big prawns called ‘Udang Galah,’ which can now fetch a price of up to RM60 per kilo. Nevertheless, we kept them for our own consumption. At the lower Melupa, I went rod fishing with Jon and caughtsome ‘Ikan Tunggal’ carp and other fish. We also used a net to trap fish and prawns, positioning it to block their escape from the small streams during high tides. We only put the net in blocking position after a full tide at the estuary of the stream. These activities yielded significant returns for the day, including some fish that my brother sold to our longhouse mates.
Throughout all these fishing trips, patience was crucial, especially when using a fishing rod, which truly tested one’s patience. From my childhood until now, I have always enjoyed rod fishing the most and have developed the patience to wait for the catch, even if it takes minutes or hours to land a favorable one. There were moments of abundance when the catch was plentiful within minutes, and there were also times when I had to go home with just one fish or none at all. Nevertheless, I have always cherished all my experiences of rod fishing, as well as the nocturnal fishing adventures.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the New Sarawak Tribune.
