Sunday, September 20, 2015
Angling
Angling
is a way of catching fish. Basically, this is done with a hook, the angle,
attached to a line, and usually extended with a rod. Angling is simply tricking
the fish by hooking it and hauling it up from its habitat. The technique of
catching fish by angling has been adapted and developed accordingly into a sophisticated
art using special tackles with various types of reeling mechanisms attached.
Fish may be found in ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, all over in the seas and oceans, and even in volcanic craters. To catch the fish the angler needs to know its physical structure, its behavior, its hunting ground and its favourite preys. Fish may hunt near the surface, at the bottom, at various depths, or even under rocks. The trick then is to lure it with the hook; a fish will not be caught if it does not open its mouth to swallow it. Thus the hook has to be presented such that the fish would spot it and go for it as if that is its prey. This is done by using a sinker to weigh it down, a float to keep it up, or both sinker and float to maintain it at the desired depth. A skillful angler could cast the hook to where the fish is expected to be, like fly fishing. Man is always ingenious, and will bait the hook with whatever he can contrive to deceive the fish, whether using live food, fake food or even the bare hook itself made cunningly.
One may say that the fish has nary a chance of survival with man around; the chance is there if it does keep its mouth shut, and not be led to swallow the hook, line and sinker, so to say. Angling, unlike commercial fishing, is done for various purposes, usually for personal living and often for casual food. It is also done for leisure, for solitude, for meditation, for relaxation, and for sport. The practice of releasing the fish which does not meet an appropriate size is slowing being adhered to where the angler is aware of it.
Angling is not totally confined to these types of activities. For sports enthusiasts catching fish is a big time expensive adventure. They employ the latest technique of angling and hunt for deep sea fish like marlin and tuna using fast sleek motor boats, and they troll, using smaller fish as bait. Commercial tuna fishing is an awesome spectacle; small fish harnessed and kept alive earlier are scattered into the sea where the tunas are spotted and many anglers on the huge barge-like ship just haul them up with unbaited hooks at the end of their long tackle. The tuna would get itself unhooked in its struggle on deck, and the process of angling the next tuna is repeated in this mechanical way physically.
The necessity to catch fish for survival has challenged man to persist in whatever way he could devise. Along the Sri Lankan shoreline between the towns of Unawatuna and Weligama the folks eke out a living at dawn and dusk by fishing from stilts planted in the sea. Crudely made by tying two cross pieces with twine the stilt becomes a platform from which the man dangles the fishing line while the water rises as the tie comes in. This method is primitive and very restrictive and without scope. But interestingly, it is slowing being turned around to appeal to tourists and photographers; one for the adventure and the other for his expertise. Even female tourists risk the ordeal, climbing up to the stilt and thereon having themselves photographed.
Fish may be found in ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, all over in the seas and oceans, and even in volcanic craters. To catch the fish the angler needs to know its physical structure, its behavior, its hunting ground and its favourite preys. Fish may hunt near the surface, at the bottom, at various depths, or even under rocks. The trick then is to lure it with the hook; a fish will not be caught if it does not open its mouth to swallow it. Thus the hook has to be presented such that the fish would spot it and go for it as if that is its prey. This is done by using a sinker to weigh it down, a float to keep it up, or both sinker and float to maintain it at the desired depth. A skillful angler could cast the hook to where the fish is expected to be, like fly fishing. Man is always ingenious, and will bait the hook with whatever he can contrive to deceive the fish, whether using live food, fake food or even the bare hook itself made cunningly.
One may say that the fish has nary a chance of survival with man around; the chance is there if it does keep its mouth shut, and not be led to swallow the hook, line and sinker, so to say. Angling, unlike commercial fishing, is done for various purposes, usually for personal living and often for casual food. It is also done for leisure, for solitude, for meditation, for relaxation, and for sport. The practice of releasing the fish which does not meet an appropriate size is slowing being adhered to where the angler is aware of it.
Angling is not totally confined to these types of activities. For sports enthusiasts catching fish is a big time expensive adventure. They employ the latest technique of angling and hunt for deep sea fish like marlin and tuna using fast sleek motor boats, and they troll, using smaller fish as bait. Commercial tuna fishing is an awesome spectacle; small fish harnessed and kept alive earlier are scattered into the sea where the tunas are spotted and many anglers on the huge barge-like ship just haul them up with unbaited hooks at the end of their long tackle. The tuna would get itself unhooked in its struggle on deck, and the process of angling the next tuna is repeated in this mechanical way physically.
The necessity to catch fish for survival has challenged man to persist in whatever way he could devise. Along the Sri Lankan shoreline between the towns of Unawatuna and Weligama the folks eke out a living at dawn and dusk by fishing from stilts planted in the sea. Crudely made by tying two cross pieces with twine the stilt becomes a platform from which the man dangles the fishing line while the water rises as the tie comes in. This method is primitive and very restrictive and without scope. But interestingly, it is slowing being turned around to appeal to tourists and photographers; one for the adventure and the other for his expertise. Even female tourists risk the ordeal, climbing up to the stilt and thereon having themselves photographed.
The most memorable fishing was done
in front of where I once lived, less than a furlong from the sea. It was
another simple way of fishing. That was in the 1950s along the East Coast beach
in Singapore. I just sat in the big fishermen’s boat moored near the beach as
the tide rose and hauled up the ikan pasir, a cylindrical fish less than a
foot long. My equipment was a No. 18 size hook tied with a six yards 10 lb.
nylon line and a two inch iron nail tied about a foot from it as sinker. No rod
was required and the other end of the line was secured to the boat, leaving my hands
free. It was so simple. My bait, sea worms, was caught the day earlier by
spitting where the waves broke and quickly gripping the worm’s head as it came
out with the thumb pressed against the arched forefinger; these worms were
later coated with the dry fine sea sand available at the top of the beach to
prevent it from wriggling when putting it on the hook. The ikan pasir coming
in with the tide were really voracious; and the unforgettable part was that the
water was so clear I could see the action happening right below. There were two
short periods in a month when the tide rose and ebbed calmly. My cost was negligible,
going home with the fish strung with the fishing line. Those were the days
before the beach was reclaimed.
# posted by chunmu @ 11:14 PM 
