MEET MR. RAY @ Marang, Terengganu

Salam dear Gorillaz,

Meet my latest "friend" Mr. Ray, fullname Sting Ray. By the time you read this, he will be (or parts of him, at least) in his final resting place...my stomach hehehe. He was my first Ray, but hopefully not my last!!!

Mr S. Ray and some tentacled colleagues

We were introduced on a boat off the coast of Marang, Terengganu, about 20 kms from the state capital Kuala Terengganu. Me and friends were on a squid and fishan trip. The local term for squiding is "mencandat", which is the specialized lure used to catch squid.

The bustling Marang Fisheries Jetty, where we boarded

And seeing as to how this is the tail-end of the squid season (March to July, usually), we hedged our bets by bringing our fishing rods along, in case the squid don't come up by the tonnes. Just by looking at our group, you could tell we were more interested in the fishan than the squid-an hehehe

KEY SUCCESS FACTOR : Make sure the Tekong is reputable and experienced.
Fishan and Squidan are totally different. We discovered, to our disappointment, that our "tekong" or boat owner was not familiar with the hot fishan spots, so we didn't catch as many as we had hoped....potonggg

The Guerilla crew and associates on Squid+Fish duty

How to solat on a boat

This is our freshly painted boat, can accomodate 10-12 fishamans comfortably

But it's a specialized "candat" boat, as can be seen by the spotlights (used for drawing the squid from the deepwater ) and lack of fishing rod "placers" on board
Syekh Abuya (short for Abu Garciya)

Gateway to the Fishery Port. Notice the breakwater casters....RESPECT!!!

Mango Jack, Tumeric Kudel and Hantu Laut chillin' in the back


Heading out of Marang Port

Dusk at Sea....breathtaking

Guerilla Royston, all smiles for now!!!

Fishan out at sea has its own unique challenges. Most of us were seasick, with a majority deciding to feed the fishies like mother birds regurgitating the semi-digested worm for their beloved offspring. There's no telling who can succumb to seasickness.

KEY SUCCESS FACTOR : Do not overstuff or starve yourself prior to boarding a boat. Doing so may make you more susceptible to throwing up

Even experienced sea monsters can get seasick

Roy for the rest of the journey

Cuz one minute you're OK....

but the next minute you're KO-ed

After a couple hours of disappointing candat, I decided it was time to soak my bait, which incidentally was the head of the squid that I just "candated". We had stopped at an "unjang" where fishies came to play.

And wouldn't you guess, after 10 minutes of soaking my squidhead, my rod was overcome by an almighty urge to jump into the ocean!!! I got a HIT!!! It was wierd, the drag on my reel was almost to the Max but the fish still Bzzzzzttt pulled out some line, so I knew it was a fish, not stuck on some rock.

But it was holding on real strong, but not pulling the line out and struggling. It was like stuck on the ocean floor (30 metres down), something reeeeelly heavy and I had to literally scoop it up and out with each pump and reel. It was giving way but sloooooowleeeeee....and every 10 pump or so, it would ...bzzzttt.... pull back out a few feet of line, just reassuring us that it was a fish. Further proof was the U-bent shape of my rod, it was crazy heavy!!!

Meet my new Hand Puppet....Heeellloooowwww

After about 10 minutes or so, the boatmen helped me hook up my first STING RAY!!! Weighing about 2kg+, it was the exact quarry I had hoped for!!!

No wonder it fought the way it did. Rays aren't bullet-shaped for escaping or outswimming and shaking a predator off. What they do is stick to the ocean floor and make themselves super flat and heavy!!!

Gotta remove the barbs from the tail, one swish and I'm kebab!!!

After that came Wak Paeng with his haul of Baby Shark.



Following the shark and some small fishies, the tekong took us to a few more spots, with very disappointing results :( Only Paeng had the next major hit, and it was a Whopper!!!!

Tekong a.k.a. Chef on Board

The sweetest Fried Squid and Sweet Kicap Rice on board!!!
Nite fishan can be lonely sometimes, but extremely therapeutic

Our Champion for the trip, with his 5.30am haul!!! Muka pun ngantuk lagiiii ZZZzzzzzz

Alhamdulillah, was a great trip for me but not quite as satisfying for others. Gotta plan these things better!!!

Heading out to shore, we were blessed to witness another of God's beautiful landscapes..or rather waterscapes. it was Air Mati or Dead Water. There was hardly a ripple in the water, which reflected the grey dawn sky. And if it wasn't for the slight drizzle (which persisted since 2.30am that night and didn't stop even after we were ashore), the whole ocean surface would have looked like a flat glass table top, completely smooth and reflective, SubhanAllah.

Dead Water

Till the next ocean trip, See ya gorillaz!!

Man Pari (pari)