I got hooked like a fish to fishing a few years back. No, I did not enjoy fishing all that much in the very beginning. For one thing, I was not very good at it. But I did notice from the start that other things did not crowd my mind while fishing.
I was so full of stress and pent-up frustration that I was near the exploding point due to my line of work. I was quite busy teaching Oral English Communication at a high school and also spending two afternoons a week at a school of information technology teaching what was labeled as “English Conversation” on the curriculum, as well as technical English, which included medical care, and clerical medical terms.
Most of the students were very well behaved, but there were some who were disinterested, lethargic, and sometimes unruly, and a few who were downright hostile. With well over 400 students a week in my classes, problems would pop-up unexpectedly.
I started to master the uneasy task of hiding my anger and frustration, but having a “short fuse” made this feel like trying to ice skate on two bars of soap. Fishing was like a form of self-therapy as it felt so laid back and relaxing. It seemed to relieve a lot of my stress and anxiety.
Perhaps the only draw back was that my therapy sessions were too frequent. There were many days when I would start at first daylight, continue until 6:30, and return in the evening for night fishing.
Weekends were solidly booked with bait, rod, and reel. The only thing that kept me from being a divorce statistic was that my wife enjoy fishing as much, if not more than I did!
My fishing adventures took place in Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. I’m originally from Hawaii, but I didn’t do much fishing in Oahu. It is a shame as my uncle and cousins passed the front of my house when they went swordfish or tuna fishing.
I never accepted their offer to take me on their boats. What got me started is that my wife felt my anguish and opened up this world of fun to me just as her father did for her as a little girl.
The first ocean fish I caught was in a shallow area with a sandy bottom in Numazu Port. It’s only about five meters deep (a little over 15 feet) there. The reason I say that it’s shallow is because Numazu City has Suruga Bay and the Pacific Ocean at its forefront, and there are very deep spots in the gulf, the deepest being about 2,500 meters.
Getting back to the fish, the Sillago which was nice Sillago, first ocean fish caught enough to bite my hook really surprised me. Most of them are about 20 centimeters (a bit under eight inches), but this beauty was over 35 centimeters (well over a foot) long.
The only stress to be felt was in my eyes, as they widened to golf balls. Catching about a dozen more would be just right for a Sillago tempura (deep fried) dinner for two!
But it wasn’t that easy for this beginner as none of its friends came by to be part of the tempura party. The lone fish kept swimming in a circle in my bucket of saltwater, and I decided to release it at the end of the day. The fish won its freedom while I on the other hand, was hooked.
My favorite fishing spot was on a long and wide seawall where on Casting at Shizuura Portany weekend when the wind is not blowing in from the ocean, about two hundred people cast their bait baskets to the sea. The casting distance depth averages about 30 meters (98 feet).
There is quite a variety of fish to catch, with squid, horse mackerel, mackerel, flounder, and scorpion fish being the most common. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if someone caught red snapper, smaller yellow-tail, various types of bonito, striped beakperch, or sea bass, as fish from the deep blue came to spawn, and the little fish would grow bigger in the gulf if they avoided falling prey to the bigger fish.
5.3 or 6.3 meter (17 feet 4 inch or 20 feet 8 inch) long, high quality carbon rods, and spinning or open face reels are standard equipment. Small bait shrimp surrounding a larger fresh shrimp on the hook being used in the bait basket, watching the ocean flow pattern and irregularities, and knowing the correct depth for the target fish put the percentages in your favor.
Having few people casting on a particular day was also a key factor. When a couple of hundred people were casting bait, the fish would be drawn to the area, but there would be a lot of big, juicy shrimp to choose from on many different hooks.
It’s not a coincidence that the same people would catch the fish regardless of conditions. They understood the relationship of the tides and the best times to get their targeted fish.
I always targeted red snapper. I’ve caught hundreds of them from my favorite seawall. Those fish were more plentiful and bigger than the ones I’ve caught on fishing boats.
This is only natural, I suppose because I know my favorite area as if it was the back of my hand. My favorite catch was 77 centimeters long and weighed 6.5 kilograms (30.3 inches long weighing 14.3 pounds) Nice Jumbo Red Sea Bream.
I’ve caught larger ones, but none of them glowed in such radiant pink with bright aqua blue trim as that one did when I pulled it up. Actually, this is more than just a fishing story.
If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t tell you that my wife has caught more red snapper than I have. I targeted fish at just over a 100 meter distance. It was mainly a macho thing, trying to be the “Master Long Distance Caster”.
She couldn’t reach that distance, so she marketed her efforts at 45 to 60 meters. The fish tend to approach closer after the bait draws them in from afar.
Specialized knowledge, experience, having specific targets, knowing exactly what to do and how to do it while focusing and applying effort in one’s special range of abilities brings success not only in fishing, but in other important things as well. Business, and life are two examples.
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