Fishing

A Couple of days ago I went fishing with a Malagasy man, Ernest, and his son Bonne Chance. We walked down to the dock and dragged their fishing canoe into the ocean. As I got into the canoe, Ernest instructed me to sit near the left side so that we could maintain a balance and not capsize. The whole situation seemed a bit precarious, yet we were going into the ocean.

            After rowing out of the bay a bit Ernest decided that we had arrived at a good spot to fish. His son Bonne Chance prepared the anchor, a rock roughly the size of a rugby ball wrapped in a net and attached to a rope. After tying the anchor, Bonne Chance prepared our fishing lines. They consisted of a hook attached to some fishing line; a small piece of metal was attached to serve as a sinker. Instead of a reel, the line was wrapped around a stick about a foot long and 3 inches in diameter. This was not used to pull in the fish, but rather to store the line when finished. We attached a piece of fish to the hook as bait and began fishing. With the simplicity of the set up, I was skeptical that we would catch anything. 

            After about thirty minutes, Bonne Chance began pulling in his line and had caught a fish. A few minutes later, I felt a pull on my line and pulled it in. I had also caught a fish. During the two hours that we fished we caught 3 fish total. After a while Ernest decided that was enough and we returned to the dock and stowed his canoe.

            I was surprised by the camaraderie that existed between the fishers. Each time we crossed another canoe, the fishermen said hi and talked to each other. One canoe even came over and helped us with a line that had gotten caught on something. There was no feeling of competition; each fisher simply wanted to make a living.

            The experience was different than I expected. It didn’t seem like there was a competition between fishermen to see who could catch the most fish. They were content if they were able to catch what they needed to and didn’t worry about going beyond that. Although their gear was simple, it got the job done and that was all that mattered to them.