Asia
FISHING IN THE BLACK ABYSS (OR THAT TIME I ALMOST GOT INKED BY A SQUID)
Minutes after boarding our boat, it quickly sped off into the darkness.
While I love the thrill of boating during the day, at night it’s a totally different story. It’s… a bit terrifying.
We were engulfed in darkness, and we could barely see beyond our boat. I could barely make out our surroundings and tried to squint my eyes to adjust to the pitch-black night.
Suddenly we saw a light ahead and realized we were rushing towards an inflatable pontoon boat. I griped the railing and had no choice but to trust our captain to get us to where we were heading safely– which of course he did.
Finally we arrived at our destination… which looked no different than the scenery on the ride out to it. Pitch-black.
Our captain announced it was time to get started, and everyone gathered together on deck waiting for further instruction. It was time to take part in what we had all come here to experience– squid fishing.
Squid fishing is surprisingly one of the most popular summertime activities in Hong Kong, so of course we wanted to give it a go! Besides, I grew up normal fishing and enjoyed it, so I figured how different can this be?
As soon as we were led to grab our gear, I quickly realized this was going to be a challenge.
Instead of a rod you are simply given a long fishing line with a hook attached to one end, and a handle to the other. Needless to say, this wasn’t the kind of fishing I was accustomed to.
Everyone walked out to the front of the boat and took their places. Not having a clue as to what I was doing, I chucked my hook into the water.
Nothing.
Some of the crew members started coming around teaching us the “technique” of squid fishing. Which really isn’t technique at all. You see, to squid fish, you just continually extend your arm over your head as high as it will go, in hopes that the fast movement will happen to snag a squid passing by.
You have to do this motion quickly, over and over again. Easier said than done.
Within 10 minutes I was tired. What was supposed to be a fun night fishing felt more like a triceps workout.
After around twenty minutes of constant triceps toning, I mean squid fishing, suddenly there was a tug on Johnny’s line.
He carefully pulled his line in, and lo and behold, there was a squid!
Upon closer inspection, the squids were actually kind of…cute.
They were dark in color until they released their ink, which then left them almost transparent, yet slightly iridescent.
Once we had hooked one, the crew instructed us to carefully take it off the hook and place it in the silver bowls that were around the deck.
You’ll notice the squids were pretty small– not much larger than a plastic cup. But just because they’re small doesn’t mean they won’t ink you! Notice all the ink on the floor from our little friend.
Another ten minutes later and Johnny felt another tug. Squid number two!
Not bad for someone who had never been fishing in his life. As the person who’s been fishing before, I frustratedly dropped my hook even deeper into the ocean. I could not give up yet!
It had been an hour. The crew had come by to collect all the squid for cooking. I still hadn’t caught anything.
People started packing it in, getting ready to eat the food being prepared. I, too, was ready to call it quits when suddenly I felt a tug at my line! Finally!
I quickly reeled my line in and almost immediately my squid started spewing his ink everywhere. Freaking out, not wanting to ruin my clothes, I tried holding the line as far away from me as possible.
Johnny tried to catch a picture of my and my prize, but with all my flailing around, this was the best we got.
As we were trying to get a good picture, the little guy ended up slipping right off the hook and back into the ocean. Oh well, I’m all for catch and release fishing, and he was too cute to fry up anyhow.
His friends on the other hand… weren’t so lucky. All the catches everyone made were literally cooked for us on the spot.
Delicious!
