A Tribute to My First Fishing Rod

One sunday evening, many years after the little fish was caught in Raglan, I saw the Instant Fisherman rod advertisement on TV. It fitted my purpose exactly as I can quietly pursue fishing with a portable rod, since no one I know at that time was into fishing.


My Reasons for buying the Instant Fisherman:
1. I can quietly hide it in the car - doesn't take up much space when folded
2. I can put it in my backpack when we go hiking and use it when we camp by a river
3. Its only RM140 and I can afford it ... Yahooooo!!!

I whipped out my mobile phone and credit card and was dialing the number shown on TV when Ebekgila barged in the front door and asked me what I was doing and discouraged the purchase of the fishing rod by giving all kinds of excuses and finally telling me that I was getting conned.

With a heavy heart, I stopped the call and kept my credit card. I was disappointed that my one attempt at trying to connect back to the world of fishing was thwarted so easily. From that day onwards, I made up my mind not to think of fishing as long as I was with Ebekgila. Apparently, he was not going to be influenced into take up fishing by me.

Two years later, Ebekgila bought me the Instant Fisherman for my birthday. To tell the truth, I was not ecstatic about the gift anymore... but on the bright side, Ebekgila was starting to pick up fishing because my cousin who lives in Pahang brought him fishing and was constantly telling him fishing stories.  

I used the Instant Fisherman in a pond near my uncle's house in Jerkoh, Pahang. I remember the really fierce black Talapia that was hooked up in that pond. The line was peeling from the Instant Fisherman like mad and I gave it the strike of my life only to find out that the "giant" fish was a little fellow smaller than my palm. The massive strike I made jerked the fish clean out of the water and it landed in between branches of a tree behind me. I learned that day that the pond was obviously too shallow to actually accommodate any big fishes.

The biggest fish that I caught using the Instant Fisherman was the Rabbit fish at Ah Fatt Kelong. It was slightly bigger than the size of my palm, maybe about 300g. It was considered a big fish compared to the little Kerisi and Selar that was usually caught on Apollo.

After that sadly, the gear rusted and the lines somehow tangled on its own and that was the end of the Instant Fisherman.....