Kaohsiung City Taiwan Lotus Pond Fishing August 9

[Natural Lefty]

I wish we had squid for bait. Everything we have had so far falls off the hook with ease (except the fish guts used for shrimp bait today). The guy who who catching the little silver fish was using a drop shot type rig, with 2 hooks (AKA high -low rig), so I think I will try that next time.

Duo-Duo and I went shrimp fishing for an hour today (with A-Fen watching), and I caught my first shrimp. Duo-Duo caught one too. It cost $150 N.T. for the first hour (about $5) and $100 N.T. per hour after that. They give you a limber bamboo pole with about a five foot line, a little bobber, alittle weight and two salmon egg hooks on a leader you can attach to a swivel. They have something like fish intestines smeared with some red paste for bait. We weren't getting any bites at first, so I put the bobber all the way up so the bait would drop to the bottom, then waited awhile and wathed the line for movement. This worked for me as i kept getting bites, but I only caught one and had several come off. One of the ones that came off felt like a monster shrimp -- must have been at least two pounds (yeah right). Anyway, it felt bigger. They had several holding ponds with shrimp in them, and at one point, the employee tossed in a couple netfulls more of the shrimp. The fishing pond was under a roof but open aired, and I would say about 50 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. They had chairs for everybody, little pole holders, and baskets to put the shrimp in. I must say it was about the most comfortable fishing imaginable, and it was here in the city not far from my wife's place.

They also had one holding pool with large Tilapia (WuGuo Yu) in it, but I don't know what they do with those. Duo-Duo said we may go again in the coming days when we have more time. I think i somewhat have the technique down, although I could do better at hooking them when they bite. I think Eunice would be very good at this type of fishing. Anyway, it is a strange sort of "fishing" but I like it. I think the shrimp were freshwater Tiger Shrimp, you know, those big, expensive farm grown ones from southeast Asia that we can buy in supermarkets in the U.S.

By the way, the photos linking to Facebook are working, correct? It was easier to select the proper photos that way.

[Ifishtoolittle]

Shrimp fishing is my kind of fishing. It's relaxing, simple, and extremely urban. Oh and the Facebook photos are working, but did you post any for your shrimp excursion?

[mshsu]

Hey Natural Lefty,

What a great trip report so far! It's nice and refreshing to see more exotic fishing reports like this. Shrimp fishing can be really fun and addicting. I think you can have them grill it up for you right after you catch them.
After my many hours of shrimp fishing as a kid, I have perfected a technique for hooking them. When you get to the fishing pond, first take your rod and stick it straight down into the water. This will give you a good estimate of the depth of the pond. Then, using this estimate, adjust the bobber so that the bait will be just at the bottom. Next, put a small amount of bait on each hook. It should be only slightly more than necessary to cover the hook. Too big of a bait and you'll miss some bites.
Then, drop your bait into the pond and wait for a bite. When you start seeing your bobber move, don't set the hook immediately. The secret here is to gently pull the bobber to the right or the left. Do this in a few gentle tugs over a the course of a few seconds. As you gently pull the bobber away from the shrimp, you will see the bobber slowly sink down. Don't pull too hard, or it will let go. Once the bobber is a couple of inches under the water, set the hook in one quick motion. Make sure you set the hook straight up above the bobber. If you set the hook to the right or left, there is a lower hookup percentage.
The idea here is that the shrimp will eat the bait better if it feels like the bait is getting away. As you gently pull on the line, the shrimp will feel like the bait is trying to escape and eat it quickly.

Good Luck!
Ming

[Natural Lefty]

Hello Ming. I guess you are from Taiwan originally, maybe I fishtoolittle too. I already figured out that next time, I would adjust the bobber so that the bait would barely reach the bottom or be just above the bottom. When I looked in the holding ponds, all the shrimp were on the bottom or near the bottom, so why have the bait suspended only halfway down. They are basically bottom feeding prawns. However, the advice about hooking them, I didn't know. Thanks for that. We will probably go shrimp fishing again before I leave so I hope the advice helps. Eunice might come too. Her very good friend died of cancer and she was at the memorial yesterday, so it hasn't been all fun.

I saw people grilling the shrimp there, and putting on what looked like salt, but we took ours home. A lot of people had about 10 shrimp or so but they were there longer than us and were more experienced at it. I agree, Ifishtoolittle; it is the most relaxing, simple and urban "fishing" (shrimping) one can imagine, although I still like to go out in the wilds to fish sometimes. We didn't bring the camera yesterday, but will try to bring it next time. Duo-Duo checked the shrimping spot near our house and thought there were too many people smoking and kids running around, so he thought we were go to cancel the shrimping, but then we found a much nicer shrimping place not far away, so we went there.

[Ifishtoolittle]

Sorry for your wife's loss. Oh, and I'm not from Taiwan I just like learning the techniques from the fishermen around that area.

[Natural Lefty]

Yes, Taiwanese have a lot of good fishing techniques. So do the Japanese. There are Japanese fishing shows on t.v. regularly here. A couple days ago, they were catching fish that looked almost identical to Opaleyes from shore, presumably in Japan. I am guessing they are a close relative of Opaleyes. Yesterday, they were catching fish that looked about similar to Grass Rockfish, and Greenling on plastics, from shore with Snow Monkeys around and about. It was super rocky there and they were basically fishing from cliffs most of the time.

My wife is very accustomed to people dying since she used to take care of old folks a lot, so she takes it well, but still, Clara was one of her best friends ever. Thanks for your concern.

[formosa]

thanks for Kaohsiung(高雄) fishing adventure. this time of year, it's hotttttt, would say 90+ day, 80+ nite.


you should ask Duo-Duo take you to fish one of those saltwater fish pond(鹹水鱼池). you would have surprise there.

have fun in Taiwan.

[Natural Lefty]

I saw a video on the internet about one of the saltwater ponds, where the guy was catching Barramundi and Grouper on plastics, and i thought "I wanna go there" but alas, we have no idea where any of the pay ponds are -- fresh or saltwater --other than the shrimp ponds. I still want to go if we find one, though.

You are on the mark about the temps, 90+ during the day and 80+ during the night. We will be going to the mountains for about a week starting tomorrow, and hopefully some better fishing, but i am not sure how much cooler it will be. I know we are going to Sun-Moon Lake for sure.

[formosa]

if you are going Sun-Moon Lake(日月潭), then you should fish the lake. it has huge fresh water fish, that would pull drags. and by the way, ask the locals or tackle store about those saltwater ponds. they would point the way for you.
yeah, that is the temps in southern Taiwan this time of year-summer, i was there many years ago. the heat
was killing me..mountains would give you 10 degrees off the heat and peace.....not those crazy traffic.
have a great trip, and fun too.

[Natural Lefty]

Formosa ("Beautiful Island"), we are going to Sun-Moon Lake tomorrow, I believe, or the day after. Duo-Duo just checked and found that fishing is still allowed there. (With the recent fishing closures some places, we couldn't be so sure.) We hope to catch President's Fish there AKA Topmouth Culter Fish (heard they are tasty) among other things; anything we catch is okay with us. I am sure that there are lots of large fish there, or nearby streams, etc. I heard Sun-Moon Lake even has large freshwater shrimp, crabs, whelks, etc.

Ten degrees cooler would really help. We would like to go up to the high mountains, too, but don't know about the fishing there. Did I mention the traffic was crazy? To make things worse, I found Duo-Duo to be the craziest driver out there. We are taking a train to Taichung tomorrow and Duo-Duo's brother will drive us after that. Wish us luck.