So, this year has definitely started with a
bang! In the first 30 days of the first month, I have experienced ‘inner peace’
at a Bhakti Yoga Camp in Morjim, unleashed my ‘inner’ party animal on a private
yacht at a party along the waters of River Mandovi (no, we aren’t talking about
the various ‘cruises’ where the desi tourists find their ‘desi boys’ mojo, time and again), had a fabulous experience dining
and discovering an extremely beautiful part of a property that I did not know
existed – Bistro at Alila Diwa Goa, and tried my hand at late-night angling
(fishing with a rod and line) by the Dona Paula jetty in the company of my
friends and chilled beer.
In the case of last week’s angling activity
that I was lucky to have been a part of – it was a last-minute thing, much like
most of my plans. Anyway, this one friend of mine has taken a recent liking to
angling – and ensures that he carries his expensive fishing gear in his car at
all times. This made our impromptu decision of trying our luck at the Dona
Paula jetty an easy one to execute.
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So there we were, armed with fresh prawn
for bait, a fishing rod and reel, and infectious enthusiasm, in the company of
fellow anglers under the beautiful moonlit sky along the jetty. It was around
11 pm and all the buzz of the tourists that usually ensues at the jetty had
died down. The horizon could not have been differentiated from the sky if not
for the light of the vessels docked in the sea. The only audible thing that
night, apart from our banter and the sound of fish splashing in the water, was
the Punjabi music from a nearby resort, which reminded us that it was the night
of Lohri. We chose our spot carefully and threw in the first lot of bait, with
all our hopes pinned to it, into the waters. The first few attempts did not
yield any results. After seeking the advice of a few fellow anglers, we changed
our spot and continued trying our luck. After a while (what seemed like endless
hours), our hopes of getting a fat chonak
(giant sea perch) were reduced to our being happy even with a sangott (catfish), but to no avail. The
worst bit was seeing fellow anglers catch one fish after another; at least one
catch was necessary to conclude that the exercise had been worthwhile. And a sangott we caught – our only catch that
night, after having changed four different places and gulping down three cans
of beer!
Now, prior to this exercise, my knowledge
of the technical things of angling was as good as Rahul Gandhi’s understanding
of the relation between Steve Jobs and Microsoft – nothing. But I can now claim to be wiser and have no
qualms about sharing a thing or two of the dos and don’ts of angling, knowing
that most of you would already be acquainted with them. The thing about angling
is that before embarking upon said expedition, it is imperative that one knows
not only the kind of fish that one wishes to and can expect to catch, but also
the kind of fish that you would use as bait. And especially for amateur
anglers, like every new-found hobby, it is always good to have a set of goals.
In this case, a list of the type and the weight of the fish that you want to
catch. For example, I overheard from a few regulars at the Dona Paula jetty
that one can expect to catch anything from a chonak, tamoshi (Red
Snapper), kalundar (Pearl Spot), sangott and other little varieties of
fish, whose names may or may not be known.
So that was pretty much how things went,
and I must admit that it turned out to be far more enjoyable than what I had
imagined. We wanted to plan another session soon, but as they say, repeat plans
seldom turn out to be as good as the first one. Who knows? We may try something
else, but I don’t know what yet. More about that later!
