Fish and Fishing
Written on May 25, 2026
I like eating fish without having to catch it first. Some people go fishing for recreation, some enjoy it as a sport, and some do it for a living. I haven't done any kind of fishing since I was a teenager, back in the 1970s.
I'm not familiar with any form of sea or net fishing, and I'm not familiar with fishing for sport. The only form I'm familiar with is angling, using a rod and reel, but I don't even remember how to tie fishing line to a hook.
Fishing When I Was Young
I have vague memories of my family, all 11 of us, going on camping trips until I was 13 years old. A couple of my uncles would tag along and go fishing with my father, while everyone else spent their time camping. I can barely remember all the lakes we visited, but they were all in Arizona.
One of my brothers-in-law (since deceased) taught me how to angle at the Picacho Reservoir close to home, sometime before I was 12. He taught me how to tie hooks and when to use floats and sinkers, skills I used while I was living in Hawaii a couple of years later.
The only thing I ever caught there was catfish, and it was pretty easy to catch them. They couldn't resist the chicken guts he had me use as bait. He was the same brother-in-law who taught me how to swim in the Gila River, using the sink or swim method.
When my family was living in Hawaii, I was practically forced to accompany my father to his favorite fishing spots on Saturday afternoons. He rarely caught any fish. I'm pretty sure he just liked going through the motions. I remember him catching a lobster by mistake, but that's about it.
My younger brother and I always had better luck. There was a beach, in front of a reef, not far from where we lived. We would ride our bicycles (carrying buckets, rods, and reels) to that beach on Sunday mornings, on the days the family didn't visit a beach park for swimming.
We would catch quite a few fish within a couple of hours. I don't know what species they were, except that they were about a foot long, with red skin and teeth. We went through dozens of hooks and sinkers.
The only reason my younger brother and I went fishing that way was that it was the only sure way to reliably get fish to eat on a semi-regular basis. The only part we disliked was having to clean them as well.
Bait
I can remember my older relatives using all kinds of bait. All I know is you have to use the right bait for what you're trying to catch. Earthworms work for some fish, salamander tadpoles for others, and minnows for still others, but none of them work for everything.
My father used pieces of squid when ocean fishing, and it rarely worked. As I mentioned, I used chicken guts for bait. I don't remember what bait I used in Hawaii, and I guess it doesn't really matter now. My brother and I still caught more fish than our father.
Eating Fish as an Adult
After I moved to the Philippines in 2006, I started developing an affinity for all kinds of fish. I've eaten tilapia, milkfish, various tuna species (fresh and canned) and other fish species I can't remember the names of.
When I was stuck in the United States during the pandemic, my family ate all kinds of seafood. Here's a short list:
- flounder
- haddock
- halibut
- pollock
- rainbow trout
- salmon
- sea bass
We bought some of it at Asian markets and ate some of it at restaurants. I avoided crab because I don't like breaking shells, and squid because it takes a long time to chew.
Fishing in the Philippines
Like everything we eat, fish is expensive when bought from supermarkets. Even the fish being sold by street vendors seems more expensive than it should be. I have yet to observe anything other than net fishing at one of the beaches in Olongapo, probably because I haven't been looking.
Even though I like to eat fish, I will never take up fishing again just to eat it. If that was the only way I could get fish, I would do without. I don't have the patience or stamina to do it now.
Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay