Have you experienced the pleasures of fishing? If not, it’s an adventure that you should try at least once.

I was quite caught up in fishing a few years back. No, I did not immensely enjoy fishing in the very beginning. In fact, I was not very good at it, but I noticed from the start that other things did not crowd my mind while I was doing it.

I was experiencing pent-up frustrations at the time due to my line of work. Most of my time was spent at a high school teaching Oral English Communication, but twice a week was spent at a School of Information Technology, where I taught spoken English, labeled as “English Conversation” on the curriculum, as well as some technical English, which included medical care, and clerical medical terms. It was not the job itself which troubled me. The problem was dealing with disinterested, lethargic, and at times unruly, or downright hostile students. Most of the students were well behaved, but with well over 400 students a week, problems would suddenly pop-up quite unexpectedly. I made it a point to never show my anger and frustration, but having a “short fuse” made this feel like trying to ice skate on two bars of soap; very difficult to do.

Fishing was so laid back, relaxing, and relieved a lot of my stress. It was a form of self-therapy, but perhaps my sessions were too frequent. There were many days when I would be fishing early in the morning until 6:30, and return in the evening for night fishing. My weekends were completely booked-up with my bait, rod and reel. What kept me from being a divorce statistic was my wife enjoyed fishing as much, if not more than I did!

I’m originally from Hawaii, but I now live in Numazu City, Japan. I didn’t do much fishing living in Oahu, except to tag along with friends a few times, and never jointed my uncle and cousins as they passed right in front my house to go swordfish or tuna fishing on their boats. The only reason that I started was that my wife could easily feel my anguish, and opened up this world of fun to me that she learned as a little girl from her father.

Numazu City has Suruga Gulf and the Pacific Ocean at its forefront. There are some very deep spots in the gulf, the deepest being about 2,500 meters at the entrance. The first fish I caught was in a shallow area in Numazu Port. It’s only about five meters there (a little over 15 feet), with sandy areas at the bottom. A sillago was nice enough to bite my hook. That fish surprised me. Most sillago are about 20 centimeters long (slightly under eight inches) but this beauty was over 35 centimeters (well over 13 and a-half inches). My eyes widened to golf balls, and stress was nowhere to be found. Catching a dozen more would get me a sillago tempura (deep fried) dinner for two! As it turned out, none of its friends came by for the tempura party. I kept it swimming in my bucket of seawater, and decided to release it at the end of the day. The fish got its freedom back, while I on the other hand was hooked.

My favorite spot was on a long seawall where about two hundred people cast their bait baskets to the sea on any weekend when the wind doesn’t blow swiftly from the west. The casting depth there is about 30 meters (about 98 feet). There are many types of fish to be caught, the most common being horse mackerel, mackerel, flounder, scorpion fish, and squid, to name a few. Fish from the deep blue would come to spawn, and little fish grew bigger in the gulf, so no one would be surprised to catch red snapper, smaller yellow-tail, various types of bonito, sea and parrot bass.

5.30 or 6.30 meter long (17.3 feet or 20.6 feet), high quality carbon rods, and spinning or open face reels, were considered standard equipment. Using small bait shrimp in the bait basket, larger fresh shrimp on the hook, watching water flow patterns and irregularities, and knowing the correct depth for your target fish really put the percentages in your favor. If there were few people casting on that particular day, these were all key factors. With a couple of hundred people casting bait, the fish would quickly gather in the area. It helped if you understood the relationship of the tides and peak times to catch your fish.

I always targeted red snapper. I’ve caught hundreds of them, more and bigger ones from the seawall than on fishing boats. The best one was 77 centimeters long and just under 6.5 kilograms (30.3 inches long, just over 14.3 pounds). It glowed as I pulled it up in radiant pink with bright aqua blue trim.

Well, this is more than just another fishing story. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be telling you that my wife has caught more red snapper that I have. I targeted fish at just over a hundred meter distance. It was partly a macho thing, trying to be the “Master Distance Caster.” She couldn’t reach that distance, of course, so she marketed her efforts at 45 to 60 meters. The fish do tend to approach closer after the bait draws them in from afar.

Specialized knowledge, experience, specific targets, and knowing exactly what do and how to do it makes you succeed not only in fishing, but other more important things as business, and life.

The longer you stick with something and the better you get at doing it, the more you’ll know what I mean.


Good luck to you in whatever you do!