5 tips on how to fish effectively – things I learned while fishing at Taman Jaya Park

Recently, my wife and I went fishing with our friends at a nearby park walking distance from Taman Jaya LRT station.   It was  Saturday morning and the sun has just risen.   When we got there, there were already many people jogging around the area.   We hurriedly went to look for a place to put the food our friends prepared and start eating.  Didn’t I say we love to eat?  We had lots of fun eating, laughing and enjoying the experience.

Our friends brought along some fishing equipments they bought from Pudu.    So after we finished eating, we went to look for a place to cast out the nets and start fishing.

Use a bait the fish loves to eat

While we were preparing, I was surprised to know that the fishing rod we were using only has a net.  It did not have any hook or anything similar to that.  At first I had some doubts whether it could really catch some fish.  But I was soon proved otherwise.  My friend just catched a big fish with that same net without any bait!  I guess the fish was that hungry.

But that was the only fish we catched that day.  In comparison, the other guy beside us had a bountiful catch.  Every other minute or so, his fishing rod would go up and another fish would jump out of the water.   When we saw the basket he had, we were amazed to see it overflowing with maybe more than a dozen fish.  It made me think, what was he doing that we were not?  Then I noticed, he was putting something which looked like a bait on his fishing equipment’s hook.   I could not exactly tell what it was at the time what but when I saw him scraping something green at a nearby stream, I realized it’s moss.  Aha!  Maybe that is the secret!

Use a bait the fish loves to eat.  It seems obvious now just talking about it.

When I was a a child.  I had a fond memory with my Dad as we went fishing at a nearby fish pond in our school.  At the time, we used earthworms as bait in a hook to catch some fish.  In no time at all, the fish were devouring the bait we put into our fishing equipments.   Starting then, I knew fish loves earthworms.

At another time, me and my college friends went fishing at one of my friend’s fish pond.  As I was looking for an earthworm to use as bait, I came to realize that we were suppose to use leftover bread instead.  Initially, I didn’t think fish would like to eat the bread.  I thought they liked only earthworms.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the fish were as eager to eat the bread as if it were an earthworm.  They were attacking the bread ferociously and in no time at all we’ve managed to catch a lot of fish for a sumptuous lunch.  I guess in that part of the world, fish loves to eat bread!

Go where the hungry fish are

At one point, we cast the fishing nets near where we were having a picnic even though it didn’t look like any fish was nearby.  We waited for quite some time while were were busy eating hoping that maybe some fish might accidentally bump into one of the nets.   We had finished eating but the nets were as empty as before.   There were no fish in the area.  And there was no catch.

So after we finished eating, we went beside one of the fisherman, near a stream of water.  It didn’t take long for us to see that in that part of the pond, there were a lot of fish.   There was a school of fish swimming, catching some breathe on the surface every now and then.  More importantly, we saw the other fisherman was catching a lot of them.  We wanted a piece of the action too!

After a settling down and casting our nets, we were rewarded with our first and only catch for the day.  It really pays to be where the hungry fish are!

Learn from someone successful at what you intend to do

I guess we wouldn’t have caught that fish if we didn’t see the other guy was catching a lot.  In this respect, he was the successful fisherman.  My wife even thought he was a “professional” fisherman.  It seemed to me, here was a guy who knew what he was doing and he is pretty good at it.  Maybe someday, I too will.

Be Patient

It was a bit frustrating seeing the other guy next to us catching a lot of fish, while our net seemed to be lost in oblivion, never making any movement at all.  We went to the left of the guy who was catching fish.  No luck.  We went to his left.  No luck.  Then we went further left.  As we were joking around laughing, suddenly my friend noticed the movement in his fishing net.  He pulled it up and there it was!  The biggest (and the only) fish we had that day!

Have fun

It is no fun fishing alone.   It is exciting to enjoy fishing with friends and loved ones.  It’s a nice experience to just talk about things while waiting for the net to catch some fish.  I had a lot fun that Saturday morning.  It was a nice experience learning a thing or two about fishing and life itself.