Any fishermen here?

I am from the States, got here about 2 weeks ago. I miss fishing. I live in Taichung. Does anyone have info on where to go, or better yet does anyone want to go? I like fresh water fishing!

I’m not an expert fisherman myself, but when I lived in Kaohsiung, there were lots of indoor shrimp fishing places (check lonely planet for a synopsis). I know some true fishermen frown on that kind of thing, but there was actually lots of technique involved. The experts often brought their own rods and had special bait. If you watch them closely, you’ll learn what it takes to snag the shrimp consistently. I know it’s not ‘real’ fishing, but I’ve seen it work as a temporary substitute.

Other than that, I’ve often seen people fishing in the ocean off a pier (wherever the closest pier is to your place) and it seems wherever there’s a natural body of water people are willing to throw in their line.

The curious thing is the fact that I’ve never seen anyone catch anything outside of a shrimp-fishing joint.

Don’t know about the Taizhong area, but you can get some pretty good fly action – dry and wet – on some of the mountain rivers in areas where there are fish farms. The fish (rainbows) often escape during floods and end up in the river system. Don’t know if they can breed there or not. Trouble is, you have to be prepared to really hike to get to these fish. The native species don’t get very big at all, are heavily fished, and the local anglers keep EVERYTHING, even fingerlings. I got myself an 8-piece boron “smuggler” flyrod sent over, but have yet to make it deep enough into the mountains to make use of it. Seen some decent (2lb-plus) rainbows on several occasions though.
If only I wasn’t so damn lazy.
PS There is one species that gets up to about 5 lb – the Formosan landlocked salmon, but I think they’re only in one river system and they’re protected and extremely endangered, so I wouldn’t try catching them.

There is a little stream down the road from my house out here in the mountains of Da Kung. Has some fish in it.

There’s also tilapia, of course, but they tend to be bottom feeders so bait fishing is the way to go (not my preference) plus, if you were brave enough to ignore the polluted water and eat one, they taste of mud. They get to be a pound or two in weight.

Thanks for the info. I don’t know if i will make it up to the mountains. It’s been a while since i tried a flyrod, although it always drew my interest. I guess i never seemed to make time for tying the flies. It seems a real fly fisherman ties his own. I was thinking of using a spinning rod for now. Yesterday, we had wedding pics taken at Sun Moon Lake, outside of Taichung about 1 hour. It was very beautiful there. I want to go back. It reminds me of the lakes in NY where i am from.

Are you referring to the Finger Lakes? My junior high school in Long Island took us on a week-long canoe trip there, camping in primitive campgrounds beside the lakes. Or Raquet Lake? They took us there in the winter for a week-long trip of snowshoing, cross-country skiing and orienteering. Then there were the hiking trips in the Catskills and Adirondacks. Many people are unaware of how much beautiful wilderness exists in NY.

But I digress. Good luck finding your fishing in Taiwan.

[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Are you referring to the Finger Lakes? My junior high school in Long Island took us on a week-long canoe trip there, camping in primitive campgrounds beside the lakes. Or Raquet Lake? They took us there in the winter for a week-long trip of snowshoing, cross-country skiing and orienteering. Then there were the hiking trips in the Catskills and Adirondacks. Many people are unaware of how much beautiful wilderness exists in NY.

But I digress. Good luck finding your fishing in Taiwan.[/quote]

I’ve always loved the Catskills, MT, ever since reading MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN as a kid.

Yea, that was a great book. The kid spends a year or so living in the woods, builds a shelter in a hollowed out tree, learns how to find food in the wilderness, etc. That’s the book right? I also loved it.

For those who are into fish, I just discovered the following site that includes 603 fish posters of the World and info on ordering them:
fishposters.com/index.html

Don’t know why the posters don’t show now. They did before. hmm.

If I were interested in developing a fishing hobby, I’d skip the farms and go ocean rock fishing off the coast. The fish are cleaner, the seas not too bad and the access fine.

I know this is far from the original poster (TaiZhong) but for others…

JiLong you can rent a boat and go out. If you’re from the states, remember when you’d rent a spot on a deep sea fishing boat.

I imagine it’s something like that. I’m looking into it now. If anyone else is interested let me know and I’ll send ya the info. Allegedly $1000 per person which isn’t bad. Just bring a cooler of drinks (read: beer) for a consolation prize.