Wow, two post about fishing in one day from a guy who used to find fishing dull. 

My first time fishing for Aji with Kus-san.  We took a trip to Naruto, (yes, quite close to the strong currents under the bridge).  Kus-san’s secret spot was already occupied with ojichan and obachan called Wrinkly Mike and Doris.  It was a beautiful spot.

I’ve no clue about fishing.  For me, the simpler the better.  A net would be my first choice.  Next choice: a spear.  Next: A stick with a bit of string and a hook.  A 20 foot fishing rod with floats, 6 hooks and a basket of bait was almost too much.  No it was too much.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, I did.  It’s just that when you lose 3 sets of hooks and three baskets and the fishing wire gets tangled so badly around the reel that it takes 30 minutes to untangle it, I began to feel like I wanted to try with just a net and a bucket again.  I stopped fishing at that point, roughly 40 minutes after we had arrived.  I really didn’t want to waste anymore of Kus-san’s equipment.  I decided to watch and learn instead.

The bait is small shrimps called …… .  They are dead, frozen.  Scoop them into a little lead basket and attach it to the line below the float and hooks.  The hooks all have little fake shrimps lures.  Cast out around 30 foot and the real shrimps will fly out of the basket upon impact with the water, scattering them.  The Aji then would rush in and feed and hopefully mistake one of the hooks for a real shrimp.  I imagine that was the idea.  There is of course, more to it than that.  I noticed Kus san jerking the line occasionally.  The basket gets refilled with shrimps every 3 minutes, roughly.

Eventually, Kus san had some joy.  He managed to catch four.  Wrinkly Mike and Doris did pretty well too.

After lunch we relocated to some view points near the strong currents under the bridge.

It was very hot.  The breeze high up was refreshing and life saving.  We decided to try a spot in a harbour where there were lots of people fishing.

(Above: there were more people than this, really)

Not such a good spot for us.  Everyone else seemed to be doing away, but Kus san just got one tidler.  Maybe it wasn’t even aji.  Ah so.

Lots of lotus roots on the way home….

Kus san’s dogs had a fish supper.