Kaohsiung City Taiwan Lotus Pond Fishing August 9

[Natural Lefty]

I wrote this post yesterday but found out this this site has the same problems with a high speed connection as with a landline. It logged me out, and when i logged back in, all I got was a blank screen, so here I go again with fewer details about Kaohsiung, etc.

We finally got a chance to go fishing on Tuesday, and got there at about 2:30 p.m. We didn't go at midday because it would be "too hot." Actually, Kaohsiung is hot day and night this time of year, so there is no getting around that.

The Lotus Pond is actually about a 100 acre lake surrounded by Bhuddist and Confucian temples, statues and pagodas, with beautiful bridges over the lake and leading to some of the statues and pagodas. There are also lush green hills nearby. Lots of locals fish there, and often keep what they catch, so apparently the fish are safe to eat, although the city itself is pretty industrial.

We found a likely fishing spot where an older man and a teenager were fishing, and went to ask them how they were doing. They showed us a bucket with 4 fish in it that well, i recognized as overgrown aquarium fish -- Tinfoil Barbs, to be exact. (I confirmed this with an internet search a while ago.) These were 6-7 inches, silvery with some red on their fins. Tinfoil Barbs are a food item here, bony but good to eat, and the website said they can grow as large as 14 inches.

We didn't bring any bait, just our jigs, flies and a few metal lures, but no problem. The other people offered us some of their bait without us even asking, bait which also serves as people food -- bread, to be exact. My wife said it was "too hot" (which it was, and i sweated the entire time, but I would not be denied my first fishing trip ever outside of the U.S.) so she sat this one out in the shade, and watched me fish. I tried jigs at first, and fish kept following them, but I only had one good strike, which I missed. Thus, I went to plan B -- bread. I put some bread on a small hook, a couple of feet down from a bobber, and lo and behold, within a couple of minutes, my bobber went under and I caught a Tinfoil Barb, which we decided to give to the other fishermen. I continued getting lots of bites, but the bait came off very easily and they were difficult to hook. Eventually, I did catch 2 more barbs which I also gave to the other people. By this time, they were very impressed with my California-honed fishing skills, as they were not catching anything except for a couple of tiny 2 inch Tilapia which they put back. They told my wife that the baby Tilapia had actually been stocked there recently, which seemed strange to me. There were swarms of the little critters, as well as some larger ones in the 6-7 inch range. As with the barbs, the Tilapia very much looked like aquarium fish, such were their beautiful colors. There were red, gold, orange, and green ones, plus ones with a mixture of these colors and sometimes some black thrown in for accent. I was enjoying just watching them. They would eat the bread, but the way they bit seemed to knock the bread off the hook without taking the hook, so they were very difficult to hook on the bread. I did catch a little Tilapia eventually, but it was foul-hooked in the belly, so that doesn't count. Anyway, I think it was a Mozambique Tilapia, same as in the Salton Sea, so no new species there. However, my internet search revealed that Taiwan has 5 kinds of Tilapia. I wish I had worms or some such there; I think i could have caught a lot of fish with them. But oh well.. beggars can't be choosers.

The older man was actually casting out quite far with a weight, and a drop-shot rigged tiny Tilapia for bait most of the time, hoping to catch something bigger. As I observed people fishing there, I found that this technique is popular there. Around 5 p.m., Eunice said we needed to leave, because her niece wasn't able to pick us up at the lake, so we had to ride the bus home. We didn't know where the bus stop was, either. As it turns out, we had to walk about 1/2 mile to a larger street and ask around to find a bus stop. As we were walking beside the lake, we saw a man taking a photo of a fish another man had caught. We went to look, and it appeared to be a large Goby, about 10 inches long. I identified it as a Marble Goby, which is sort of like a large freshwater Sculpin. I should have taken a picture of it too, but from the internet photos, I am pretty sure that is what it was. They are said to be delicious to eat, and the man kept it. He caught it on one of those tiny Tilapias fished near the bottom, so that is what bites on those. I also heard that this area has Peacock Bass, but i didn't see any. By the time we got on the bus, it was about 6 p.m. The trip home involved a stop at the biggest mall i have ever seen, the Dream Mall, and one of the best dinners I have ever had at a Japanese restaurant. By the time we made it home, it was about 9 p.m.

Even though I didn't catch anything big, I had a great time on our "catching advantage" (fishing adventure) as my wife calls it. It was sort of like fishing in an aquarium. We may have a chance to go to a better fishing spot outside of the city tomorrow, so more fishing adventures to come.

I took photos of two of the barbs, plus some of the lake, which I will post when I put them on the computer. I may need some help in doing that, so for now, I am trying to get the post successfully uploaded.

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http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...&id=1558185141

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php...type=1&theater

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php...type=1&theater

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php...type=1&theater