First Time Fishing and the Deer Farm.

Just yesterday, I went back to my grandma's hometown to celebrate her birthday. Talking about eating, the previous day was another feast which was also another birthday celebration that resulted in a very bloated me and a heavy stomach. I never felt so full in a while and the meal portion was huge. Luckily, for me I don't have to go through the same trauma yesterday, when the meal portion was smaller but the food quality compromised. Maybe that's why I was so full on the previous day, food was much better and the environment.. great.

After having an OK lunch, went back to her house just for a little while before going out again to my uncle's deer farm and apparently a fishing pond. Actually I'm quite excited about the fishing pond when I heard about it. All the talk about going fishing was repeatedly resonating in my head after hearing the fishing pond. I didn't think that the pond was going to be crystal clear where you can see fishes swimming right under the surface. What do you expect from a kampung man....?? So in my mind I thought it's either going to be quite muddy, not very big with many fishes though. I heard there was tilapia and some catfish and a whole lot of other fishes which I simply don't know the name but have no problems eating them. :)

We drove off in our car to the place which is weirdly located where you have to travel an unusually long distance before actually getting there by making a U turn. The alternative would be to drive in the opposite side of the road against traffic which my uncle always do to cut the distance by more than half. For me it's cool but to my father and uncle it's a crazy idea but still I thought what the heck there are so few people driving on the other side of the road like 1 car every 3 minutes. Getting into the place, wasn't a problem with the 4WD, it was a breeze, even with the muddy terrain and narrow path into the place.

After stepping out of the car together with my sister, we slowly made out way towards the pond just behind the deer farm. Walking on foot, isn't that easy when you have to negotiate across muddy paths, sometimes obscured by lalangs, weeds and some rocks. Finally after a short distance, I managed to catch a glimpse of the ponds. There are actually 4 of them. As expected there were muddy and you can hardly see fishes except if they come too close to the surface. One thing I didn't expect is the amount of dragonflies. Quite a lot were flying around and we actually tried to catch one while we were there.

But anyway, went on to catch fish. I was introduced to fish bait which was chicken's intestines which smelled wonderful on the stench scale. My hands were smelling like them and there were so many flies fighting for the bait. NO...there were no flies on the bait when I put it on the rod. Took a rod which was...sadly....not fully functional or should I say a little bit spoiled. The turning mechanism for the reel was spoiled , sorry I don't know the jargon for it. So I had to swing it into the lake after manually pulling out some string. My best effort only managed to place it slightly more than 6 feet into the lake which was pathetic. Looking at a pro nearby, fishing looks so natural to him and for him having to swing the rod with the turning mechanism fully functional makes me look like a whim. AARGHHH!!!

After standing there for half and hour, I had no fish and the other guy had two really nice looking fishes. Both..tilapias. EEESSSHH!!!

Is this because, it's the first time for me or is it the rod?? Maybe, if I used the better one I could get at least 1. Sad to say, the other rods are in use by my other uncles and they also managed to catch a few back. Some tilapias and some catfish. My father intervened, so I thought maybe this will make a difference with all his fishing experience in his life while he was a kid. He took the "not so good" rod, and used the same method to throw it in and guess what... He caught one, but it was too small so the "Pro" guy told him to throw it back into the lake. I heard that fishing requires lots of patience. So I waited and waited, then I thought maybe it was the way I held the rod, or maybe that corner I was standing wasn't fish-friendly or maybe it just wasn't my day.

I really wanted to feel the fish tugging on the rod like my other cousin did. My father was somewhere around catching dragonflies and he decided to use one that he caught as fish bait. Eewww, it was still alive when my father perforated it with the hook. I can still hear the chilling shell piercing sound. Maybe this "live" bait will make a difference. There was one that came so close to being caught that but when I threw in, the fish swam away. Darn it.

I was half satisfied with the whole fishing thing then. But it was great knowing about the little details of fishing which may someday help me get lucky.