And the winner was...

As you can see... It wasn't a marlin as Stephen Francis had anticipated, neither was it a shark, nor a sailfish. All it took to win the first ever edition of the NPC Kelong Attack at the Kelong Paradise off Bagan Nakhoda Omar in Sabak Bernam on April 19-20, was a 100gm semilang. It was caught at 9pm on Saturday night by a man who would normally be doing another kind of fishing at that time of the week - Dino Herrera (pic), NPC's own Minister of Affairs.

Eight enthusiastic anglers headed for the kelong that Saturday, all for the first time ever in their lives. After some hours of serious and dedicated, but fruitless fishing, most retreated to the comfort of the top tier of the kelong for some chit-chat, snacks and games, while some tuned into the football on TV.

Yes, there was TV with Astro on the Kelong Paradise. There was also a pool table, a karaoke set and a lot of rubbish in the sea. But bait was not as readily available as advertised by the company on their website, so fishing was kinda getting out of the question. One of our friends, Norman Shamsuddin, Le Tour de Langkawi's travel supremo, did land the most number of catches. He took in three poisonous kerapu pasir and a smaller semilang. So, by 5am that Sunday morning, he too retreated to the comfort of his bed in the dorm.

The food was simple and tasty, the retreat to a place where no car had passed forever a real relief. The weekend getaway to a place none of us had been before was fun. Even without fish, none of us, apart from one (Zack Wee), was complaining. We'd say this wasn't really a fishing trip as we'd imagined.