My boyfriend is obsessed with fishing. I mean, the boy has got more fishing gear than... than... Imelda Marcos has got shoes. No kidding!! AND the boy air flew all his gear back from the States. OK... so in the interest of our relationship, I decided to give fishing a try. I mean, as a kid, I used to go fishing at this place called Mimaland... this resort which has literally gone to the dogs and wild pigs. My family used to spend a couple of weekends there a year. Mimaland is literally built on and around this huge lake and there used to be heaps and heaps of fish there. Well, dad would tie this string around either our finger or a can... attach a hook and some brad (for bait) and off we went. Now, the fish in this lake was so abundant that we didn't have to wait for more than a minute in order to catch one... no kidding. It literally was, in with the hook and up came the fish. Dad has a fabulous time trying to keep up with three children... ie. he was the one who had to unhook the fish . I had fun then but that was by no means what actual fishing is all about.

Anyways... my boyfriend and I went to Mersing, Johor during the Chinese New Year break. We spent three nights there. His uncle owns this resort. Seeing that half of the resort is still under construction, we literally had the whole place to our selves... minus the cook and a few staff members of course. The resort is located on this hill and the view was spectacular. The beach was a few minutes away. Anyway, the main attraction of this resort is the fact that it is VERY relaxing and its golf course. You know what golf courses are like don't you? They have these lakes placed strategically and stuff. Well, we had 4 lakes on this course and we went fishing. We paid numerous trips to the local tackle shop (which miraculously was open seeing that it was the Chinese New Year). His uncle was interested in fishing but didn't know how to get started so my boyfriend kinda helped him in that department. I even got myself a rod and a cute tackle box .

Well, there I was... in the hot, humid sun... melting and covered from head to toe in insect repellent, thirsty as all hell... looking like something the cat dragged in and sitting in grass which was laden with huge ants and I was having a good time! Now, I am a city gal through and through... I was trying to avoid getting these huge black ants up my panties and I was actually having fun! Now there is a wonder. Despite the muck, thorns (weeds in the grass) etc. it was fun... the thrill of actually catching something is fabulous to say the least. My boyfriend was VERY patient with me when it came to casting and I am kinda proud to note that I am getting quite good at it.

Of course, he was the one who did all the baiting (earth worms *puke*) and the untangling and stuff. He had his own gear with him but he did the work of two people when it came to untangling the line, baiting etc which was very nice.

We were after this fish called the "haruan". It is a predator fish and thus, we had to use frogs. You should have seen the both of us... in the middle of the night, armed with a torch light and a few plastic bags... walking around the golf course looking for frogs seeing that none of the shops had them. It was hysterical. One of the guards and a gardener who worked at the resort helped us out. The gardener was hysterical as he came back, all dressed up in his finery (after a night out in town), on this old bicycle. He rolled up his pants and shirt and took off his shoes and helped us look for frogs. We caught five that night and no, I did NOT touch one. Stupid slimy creatures. I think that it is in the female genes to NOT like slimy things. I mean, I can tolerate a lot of stuff but worms and frogs?? NO WAY!! Oh by the way... somewhere near my hand (in the picture above) is a "haruan" fish... I caught the first one *proud*... it is a little tiny I have to admit but my first predator fish... WOW!!! And I didn't have to use frogs... it eats worms too .

Anyways, the fish we were after... well, they only feed in the evenings. As dusk drew closer, my boyfriend took out the frogs and that is when he became all obsessive and stuff. It was quite funny to observe him. I mean, he talked to the frog more than he did to me!! I wasn't upset or anything seeing that I had my own baited line to watch out for. Seeing that the frogs spent the night in a garbage bag with a few holes and a bit of water in them, they weren't exactly the liveliest things on the earth. They were half dead to be quite honest. He was encouraging the frogs to move... to swim... to do anything but sink into the water. Privately though, I suspect that half the frogs were dead by the time we got them out. Man... fishing sure is a cruel sport. I mean, hooking the frog by a leg and then casting it multiple times into the water... poor thing. No wonder they died so quickly!

My boyfriend... well, he was being himself... the guy totally into fishing. We didn't get to do much fishing as the weather wasn't with us. We did manage to catch a lot of fish though... although they were fairly small ones and we threw them back. It did rain a couple of times whilst we were fishing but we opted to stay in the rain. It was too long a walk back... we would have gotten drenched anyways. We changed lakes a few times seeing that the fish weren't biting. I am still thanking my lucky stars that he managed to get a decent size "haruan"... gawd only knows what kind of mood he would have been in if that hadn't been the case. Never have I seen a person so obsessive over fishing in my life!! Still I wouldn't have him any other way .

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