Maldives Day 1 Part 2
Monday 15 September 2008
Our meal program with the resort was half-board. Which means we had to get our own lunch if we wanted any. It was not a bad plan because I think there are some days we decided we would like to stay in the villa or go to the beach or lounge at the pool.
Anyways we went to the Dhoni Bar which was nearest after we leave the villas and it has a gorgeous pool in it. Since we planned to go Sunset Fishing later in the evening, we thought we’d just read at the pool and have a simple lunch. I decided it couldn’t be a better time to knit the project I had brought along for this trip.
So Sunset Fishing happens before dinner (Dinner time is 8pm since it’s Ramadan) and initially I told AS I wanted to wear a sundress. Then he said it’s a bit weird wearing a sundress for fishing isn’t it. Well, I guess. – I thought. My main point was that I wanted to wear those sundresses for dinner. Anyways in the end I wore shorts and another bikini and thought he was absolutely right.
I brought up the thing about the sundress because well, sundresses are quite common isn’t it? Even poupeegirl has sundresses for the beach event. But it’s a little weird for fishing I will admit. What happened was there was this person, from the milk-incident country, wearing not a sundress but a short dress with a poufy skirt to the fishing event. She had these huge poseur plastic sunglasses and wedge platform heels. And then she made her nerdy boyfriend take pictures of her on the boat with the wind blowing, in various poses. AS muttered to me ‘now don’t you think that looks really stupid’.
I can’t help but laugh in my heart because my face was too busy displaying disgust at her behavior. (*we later met other tourists from the same country but they were very much different. Perhaps because they were from different cities and were more matured)
Anyways back to the fishing trip. It was fascinating watching the crew.
We were supposed to look for a good place to anchor and then do our fishing from there. Here are the guides preparing to anchor.
It was windy and the view was fantastic by the way.
For sunset fishing, we were each provided with a simple line and hook. The bait is small and is dropped all the way to the bottom of the seabed (which isn’t very low in the selected fishing area, probably around 3meters). There’s also a weight attached near the bait so it pulls down the bait to the bottom of the sea.
There were 9 of us on the boat excluding the guides/crew. The ridiculous photo-taking couple, two couples from Japan, and an enthusiast from South Africa who brought his own rod. The guides helped prepare our lines and put the baits on the hook, and explained that all we needed to do was to put the hook in the water and wait for some fish to get baited. Then we just have to pull up the line.
Sounds easy right?
The Japanese couple and the photo-taking couple were at one side of the boat, while the SA enthusiast, one of the guides, as well as AS and myself were on the other. The first to catch a fish was unfortunately the girl in the costume. She caught a little yellow fish, which we later learned was known locally as a Banana fish.
Actually once I dropped the bait in the water, I felt fish eating the bait. But when I pull it up, it’s either too fast or too slow, there’s nothing left but a hook. And later, I was convinced that our side of the boat doesn’t have fish since the Japanese couples became superb fishers in awhile. One of them even caught a red snapper!
Of course I was proven wrong because the SA fish enthusiast caught some fish, and the guide – oh boy. He takes three seconds to catch a fish.
He literally drops the bait into the water, waits a few seconds, pull up his line and there’s a fish at the end of the line.
AS and I decided, maybe we were fated to feed the fish. And at that moment. He caught a Banana fish too.
That’s it. I’m the fish-feeder for the night. (Little did I know that the tables would be turned the next day though)
We stopped when everyone ran out of bait. And the last fish caught was by the same man who caught the Red Snapper. He caught a fish about 50cm long!! Here it is with the other little things.
Most of the fish there were Banana Fish and what the locals call Job Fish. The biggest catch was also a Job fish I think and it was huge. AS and I later realize that the Job Fish was the one we see very often in the waters during the day, just before noon. There were always schools of them around in the shallow waters.
Everyone was given something to take back at the end of the event. Even people like us who caught a single Banana Fish. 
I guess they just wanted it to be a fun event for all of us, and everyone could go back with something. The fishes would be kept for the next day and would be served either for lunch or dinner.
By the time we ended it was dark and the moon could be seen glowing in the night sky.
It was certainly a fun event for us to remember and we certainly looked forward to the fishing outing the next day!
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