• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

Fishing from Canoe the Way You Don't

Glenn MacGrady

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
4,959
Reaction score
2,944
Location
Connecticut
Phooey on $200 carbon fishing rods, 12 pound monofilament line and puny worms . . .


. . . or trying to fish like this from a pack canoe:

 
Kinda cool except for the click-bait titles and still images to start the videos. Just little fish. I can't imagine even the most rudimentary of fishing lines/hooks wouldn't have been more efficient than either of these methods.

Alan
 
I can't imagine even the most rudimentary of fishing lines/hooks wouldn't have been more efficient than either of these methods.

So, your conclusion is that an entire region of the world that depends on fishing for its literal life is doing it "wrong"? Or that these videos are put-up jobs?
 
So, your conclusion is that an entire region of the world that depends on fishing for its literal life is doing it "wrong"? Or that these videos are put-up jobs?

I certainly don't think the rest of the world is doing it wrong but I also don't think they're doing it 'right' all the time either. In this case most of my issue is with how the videos were "advertised." Before clicking play I was expecting both of those videos to show me some large fish being caught but neither of them did. The still shots at the front of the videos showed very large fish that did not exist in the actual videos.

The first video with the chicken bait had extremely aggressive fish that seemed to have no fear of humans but there were a lot of misses before he landed his fish. It seems a simple cord with a hook and bait would have resulted in a quicker hookup and more fish in less time. Or, better yet, leave a trot line and come back later to haul it in. The trot line seems like a better use of the chicken on a chain and I can't help but wonder if the video was shot as it was mostly for entertainment (on their part as well as ours).

The spear fishing was cool but if the fish were anywhere near as aggressive as the fish in the first video it would have seemingly been more efficient to catch them with hook and line. If they were not aggressive fish the spearing makes more sense but most of the fish were so small, and he was expending so much energy by diving in to the water, that the calories expended compared to the calories caught hardly seems worth it.

I'm sure we aren't the only country whose citizens produce videos meant for entertainment rather than education.

Alan
 
I think there's some chance that the videos are put-ons for entertainment, but the canoe-like boats and bamboo "crossbow" spears are real and surely don't seem to me made just for a bogus video. Still, the guy could have faked spearing those fish with the exaggerated leaps into the water and some obvious video editing cuts.

Not being a fisherman, I probably should be reluctant to speculate and comment, but that kind of restraint would make discussion forums less fun. I'm thinking they're fishing for some sort of bottom dwellers like catfish in shallow water. If you are really going to be pulling a heavy fish with your hands, you might want to pull on something wide like a chain rather than something that could cut you like monofilament. Plus, if a chicken carcass really is good bait, I bet that big thing wants to float. So, a chain would have the benefit of sinking the buoyant carcass to the bottom.

There are other suspicious chicken-chain videos but they're not from a boat—e.g., down a hole in a mud bar. I'll look for some others from canoes.
 
The video reminds me of fishing with a friend at scout camp in the 1960’s. He caught a large pike in shallow, weedy water. The fish appeared to be trying to burrow into the weeds while jerking its head as if trying to break the line. So this guy jumps out of the canoe and goes under water and is fighting with the fish. He is finally able to grab the fish with both arms, comes up and throws it in the canoe. The fish continues to fight and flop around so he keeps punching it in the head until he subdues it. The camp cook made us a nice meal from it.
 
Reminds me of when we went handline fishing for barracuda in a boat not much bigger than these in Belize ! Quite exciting.. and yes barracuda are delicious !
 
In this case most of my issue is with how the videos were "advertised." Before clicking play I was expecting both of those videos to show me some large fish being caught but neither of them did. The still shots at the front of the videos showed very large fish that did not exist in the actual videos.
Exaggerating the size of fish one has caught seems to be a time honored tradition in most cultures.
 
Oh man, I thought for sure that 15" fish was going to pull his arm off. They're both lucky they came out of that one alive.

Alan
 
Back
Top