First time Fishing!

I went fishing with my colleagues at Yokosuka one weekend.

First time fishing, and we were fishing from a boat! The tools were already set up for us when we boarded. There is the fish food/ paste that we need to put into a cage to shake later on to attract the fishes and there was also cut squid to be added to the fishing hooks to bait the fish.

I know nothing but luckily, the colleague who suggested this came recently with her dad and taught me how to do it. Amongst the 5 of us who were there only 2 had fishing experience. Apparently, weu need to drop the cage filled with fish food to the sea bed and then start bringing it up bit by bit while shaking the rod so that the food gets released from the cage to attract the fish and then they will eventually take the bait on your hook. You can feel a slight pull when the fish has taken the bait. That is when you start to bring back your fishing line to check if you've caught a fish.

For the first hour, I was feeling sea sick even though we all took pills to help prevent sea sick. Plus I was having a really hard time figuring out where the fishes are from the sea bed. To add on to that, my fishing line kept getting tangled with the others around me, so I had to continuously buy new hooks for my fishing line.

But luckily, I did eventually figure how to do it and caught some fishes. Here is a picture of me with my first catch of the day. My very first Aji. This method of fishing here is mainly for Aji fish. Apparently, the fish swims at about a certain height from the sea bed so with this method, we were able to catch Aji. Some experts will focus on a different level and manage to catch some other fishes.

Once I got the hang out it, I want to keep catching more, especially since we were separated into 2 groups to see who can catch more. Look at the amount that I caught. While I did catch them, my colleague helped to remove the majority of them from my hook because I was having a really hard time trying to remove the fishes from the fishing hook.

Also, sometimes the slip and start jumping around the boat. Plus they are slippery so it is hard to catch them to throw them back into the pail.

The captain of the boat was also nice enough to gift me 2 saba fish that he had caught! 

In total, I think I caught about 15-17 fishes. Not too bad for a first timer I think.

I don't think I would've been able to do this without the help of my colleagues because it is not just catching them. You also need to remove their gills and clean the fishes before bringing them home. I was not able to help out at all with that part. I have never handled a live fish in my life.

Here is the cleaned fish that we will bring back to my colleague's home to cook. There is actually 2 cooler boxes filled with fish. The other one, my colleague planned to bring home to share with his family.

After drying ourselves, we went to Kaneyo Art Café (かねよ食堂) for lunch before driving back to my colleague's home.

There the 2 boys started to remove the gut and scales of the fishes, while I dried and packed them in cling wrap. 2 of my other colleague went to return the car to the rental car shop.

After cleaning the fishes, the boys were super tired and went to nap while the girls continued prepping the food while chit chatting.

After that, we all got together to prepare this feast here for dinner.

As you can see, we had Aji in sashimi, tataki, fried version and even grilled saba. After that we separated the remaining fishes amongst ourselves and brought them home. I was super happy with the outcome of that day's catch as I had fish at home for the next few days.