I Learned to Fish

A few weeks back, I learned how to fish. I thought, there is nothing to it but I was wrong. I have never gone fishing before. Although fishing in the Philippines is taken seriously since it’s a livelihood, I have just never really seriously thought about it before, how it is done or sort. I have imagined myself fishing though, in a fishing khaki outfit, holding a fishing rod by a river at a really nice place with a really nice scenery. Beyond that, I am so clueless.

At Matthew's Background: the Fish Pond Live Worms for Bait

So we got the fishing rods, the colorful bobblers and the hooks of different sizes. We know where we were going to fish. There are two ponds within the campus. They are located in the woods beyond the soccer field. They are small sized and most importantly, hubby was sure there are fishes there. As for the bait, hubby bought live worms from the nearby shop. I have never thought you could actually buy a plastic container filled with dirt and live worms wiggling around and intertwined together. It was the first time for me to see something like that.

We got all the materials and we are on the location. The next steps are the things I just had a hard time doing myself – setting up the fishing rod for  fishing. This step includes holding the worm and attaching it to the hook. I figured this is what men are for. Just the thought of it right now gives me that awful icky feeling I had when I tried doing it myself. When I felt the worm wiggle in my fingers, it felt like spiders crawling on my skin. I screamed! Hubby will just have to do it for me. It will be a long time before I’ll try it again if I ever would.

Daddy and matthew

When the fishing rod was set up, it’s time to cast the line. This was hubby’s instructions, “Throw this end (the one with the worm on it) to the water. Make sure you don’t throw the whole thing.” As simplistic and idiotic as that sounds, casting the fishing line, thowing the bait to the water is actually not that simple especially while keeping the other end (the fishing rod) in my hand. There is a certain swift wrist motion involved and it’s actually challenging to do this without smashing the bait on the ground or the bait ending up just across the shore. With my failed attempts, I haven’t actually thown the whole thing to the water, but most of the time, either I lose the worm when it hits the ground or it didn’t go so far. So then again, most of the time hubby has to do it for me.

My sort-of First Catch

And then we wait for the bite. This is the part where I sit back and wait while sipping drinks and eating chips, enjoying the cool air and watching Matthew having fun running around and chasing grasshoppers. This is my favorite part of fishing, however this is also the frustrating part because I keep losing the worm but not catch any fishes. Supposedly I should keep my eyes on the bobbler ’cause when it moves, it’s when a fish is around playing with the bait. It’s when I should pull it somehow to hook the fish. When I feel a opposite pull, the fish is hooked then I should start pulling in the fish by reeling. But that is easier written than done. For one thing, I can’t concentrate on keeping my eyes to the bobbler while keeping a constant glance at Matthew to make sure he is not eating dirt. And when I actually see the bobbler moves, I tend to panic and reel right away. Hubby, however, is such an expert. He has caught fishes a few times. At one time he let me reel one of his catch and we pretended it was my catch. We didn’t really plan to eat those fishes we caught so they are all catch and release.

We’ve gone fishing a few times already but mostly to watch hubby fish. And on his spare time he goes there and go fishing by himself. I can’t blame him, the quiet is soothing. As for me, the only time I can thoroughly enjoy it is when I have overcome that icky feeling of having to hold the live worm and when Matthew is old enough to be fishing and enjoying it as well.

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