The Japanese Carp Hunt

I'm Canadian, from the boonies. Fishing has been close to my heart for as long as I can remember, and I could always just fish my backyard river, walk down the street and meet some friends at the lake, or ask my father to take me out on the boat if he was free.The water was pristine and the fish were abundant. After coming to Japan, not having access to this type of fishing was much more painful than expected.

Although I live in small city here, the rivers that run through it arent as clean as what I'm used to, and most fisherman here use a number of gadgets to baitfish from the sea's shore. It was a totally new world of fishing, one that I wasnt totally interested in. I didnt want to be that guy shooting balls of krill with a slingshot towards my bait in the ocean to try and attract the fish, while my line is crossing those of tens of other fisherman.

Feeling a little dejected one day after work I saw some massive carp in the shallow streams that flow into the nearby ocean. I thought to myself, why is noone fishing those? I asked my coworker about it the next day, and he said that such carp were so finnicky even the most skilled fisherman cannot catch them. Town carp have survived because they are so wiley. This is something I can understand and I took him at his word.

Imagine being a big fish, visible in a shallow river in the middle of town. Its currently the year 1500, and there is famine. You survive and pass on your genetic material. This is what these carp are made of.

Didn't keep me from trying. Armed with my carp rod I bought for 300 yen at the junk shop near my house(most of the secondhand rods were carp rods), I pedaled down to the river to face my foe. My bait was corn, which was unheard of in japan for carp, and some breadlike pellets from the bait shop.

I tossed my bait right in front of the carp's face. He was totally disinterested in my corn. Switched to bread pellets. He sat there for awhile, approached the bait, and swam over it a few times. When he felt the line touch him, he slowly swam away, never to return. Two Hours later no carp to be seen. Images of the countries' fisherman slinging bait into the ocean went though my head. Then I had an idea. Eureka. I would spead the bait along the surface of an eddie in the river, and hide my bait among them on the surface. The carp would eat away, enjoying the bread, until one of them turned out to be a trap. . .

Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion folks!! Do any of you have fishing stories? I would love to read them !