If you know me, you know that I love to fish. I don't play golf, and I don't get into team sports. That's fine if you do these things, but don't ask me to join in. When I get time off, I fish.
I went searching for fishing opportunities here in India. My search first brought me to a place called "The Boathouse" which was about 8 km south of Pondicherry. The Boathouse is a backwater area that has some paddleboats for rent. There is a ferry you can take, along with about 20 other people, which goes to a beach. No swimming is allowed, and any fish caught here would be something like a carp. The water looks to be over 100 degrees F, and is muddy. Next!
My auto-rickshaw driver took me to the government port, near downtown Pondy. We got thrown out of here because this area is "restricted." But the puzzled guards (they had no idea why some white guy wanted to take an auto-rickshaw into the government port) told us to try a place called New Harbor.
New Harbor was down a long, dusty road, over an old bridge, past a long cement wall, through another dusty field full of potholes with no real road to drive on, and then finally we came to a port. This port had about 100 Indian commercial fishing vessels. These boats were each about 40 feet long and made of OLD wood. I mean old. These boats were probably 80 yeras old, and had huge, nasty diesel engines in them. The fishermen were around repairing nets and such like, but they wouldn't interact with us at all. While I was here, I did see a small sailboat go by with two white guys on board. I followed them and saw them dock around the other side of the harbor. They were French and spoke only moderate English at best, but they did give me some helpful information.
Next, I found a wonderful resource - http://www.indianangler.com/. This on-line forum hooked me up with very knowledgeable anglers all over India. They gave me good info, and you can read my long post with lots of replys there if you want, here: http://www.indianangler.com/viewtopic.php?t=1208
This morning I wound up walking down to the waterfront right here in downtown Pondy and giving it a go. I had a homemade Sabiki jig and some poppers. When I got to my chosen spot, I soon realized that this was going to be, uh, DIFFERENT! Within two minutes of attempting to fish, I was quickly surrounded by no less than FORTY people. They came within a foot or two of me while I cast my jig into the water. The deep roots of America in me needed more elbow room. Growing up in areas with some amount of crime, I also had that awful feeling that my belongings were about to be stolen. But I've been in India long enough now to know that Indians don't steal things from you. If they want your money, they ask you for it with some kind of very crafty head trip.
And then, it happened. Now I've caught some ugly fish before, but this was altogether different. Among the 40 people there was this small person wearing a devil-like mask, and all sorts of colors and jingly bells on its legs. I couldn't tell if it was a dwarf or what. This little person came right to me and was TOTALLY interested in what I was doing. It turns out this was a 13 year old boy who was dressed up as some kind of Hindu deity. His job is to go around and "bless" people for money, sometimes doing a dance for them. But underneath all this he was just a typical 13 year old boy. And if there is one thing that is 100% universal about 13 year old boys, it is that they are irresistibly drawn to FISHING. Well, at least a couple other things too, but fishing is among the top 3, I'd say. He watched me for a good hour, and afterward had the gall to ask for money. It was certainly a weak argument, and I almost asked him for money instead! But I shook his hand, tried to remember his name, and I hope I get to see him again. This picture is about as close as I could find on the web to what this boy looked like.
I also met Ivan. Ivan was a real old salt type of guy, probably 50 years old but had about 70 years of experience on the ocean. He said hello and tried to interact with me in French. I told him I speak English and he did just fine in English. Ivan looks like he is originally from Malaysia, but is thoroughly at home here in South India. Turns out he learned French and English in Paris, and that is also where he learned to fish with a rod and reel. He went and got his rod and reel (a big sufcasting rig) and fished with me for a couple of hours. I pretended not to notice that he was smoking ganga the whole time. In spite of this, it was quite a comfort to have him there because I could ask him all sorts of questions about the fish in these parts, and I knew that my personal safety and belongings were safe as long as he was calm and enjoying fishing as well.
The fishing? I caught a tiny sardine on the jig, and then did not have a hook small enough to live line him. One of the local fishermen rigged a hook for me out of Ivan's bag and then I caught a strange little fish using the live sardine. Here is the fish that I caught. You can see that this fish was not so memorable, and it did not taste remarkable either. But I will not soon forget the extreme STRETCHING that I got while attempting to fish among these 40 people. When all is said and done, I now feel completely safe with these people who earn their livelihood underneath the government pier at downtown Pondicherry.Next time I plan on taking an auto-rickshaw about 10 km north of Pondicherry to a place called Quiet Beach. Hopefully there I will be able to fish in the peace and quiet, actually getting time to think and hope for a strike by a kingfish or barracuda.
