My First Fishing Trip

Saturday 1st December

Mmmm – what to do. On Thursday I realised that I faced a weekend alone in Phnom Srok with no plans. After some consideration, I decided I should go fishing so promptly asked around at the office and soon found a willing volunteer to take me.

I have never been fishing before in my life. The closest I’ve got is fishing for compliments and even that has had varied success in the past. I used to be very good at a motorised fishing game when I was young. A battery would power a revolving plastic pond in which plastic fish would open and close their mouths as you tried to dangle a line from a plastic fishing rod into their mouths to catch them. I mean, how hard could it be? I have seen Cambodians catching fish in deep and shallow water all over the country in so many different ways. Some stand up to their waists in water and spectacularly throw a huge net which they drag back to themselves hoping for a catch. I’ve also seen men on fishing boats and with huge fishing rods. They also have amazing net contraptions which lie beneath the surface of the water all day and are collected and emptied when successful.

My new friend Anni and some other girls who quickly became my friends picked me up in the morning and we rode our motos to Tropieng Tmar – the beautiful lake in Phnom Srok. I was fixed up with a bamboo fishing rod with a bit of flip-flop acting as the float and then threaded small shrimps onto the hook and dropped it into the water. We got by with a mixture of English and Khmer and lots of smiling and squealing when we got a bite.Despite my distinct lack of real fishing experiencing, guess who got first catch of the day? Yes – yours truly!
It was so exciting! The float jiggled up and down in the water so I quickly whipped it out of the water and hey presto, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I had caught a fish alive! I suddenly turned quite squeamish at facing the little blighter and had to get my friends to literally let it off the hook and into our bucket. And so we spent the rest of the day. We gradually filled the bucket with lots of little fish, stopping only for some lunch (Anni politely ate a sandwich that I had bought but I don’t think she liked it much – rice being the preferred choice for lunch). Then, instead of eating our catch, we generously gave half away to my Deputy Director and the other half to my landlord!