Fishing

12/07/09

All the time, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer I never went fishing. Well, I finally got my chance.

Deep Sea Sport Fishing

I went out with the Peace Corps Country Director, Dale Withington, and his German friend from UNESCO, Jon, to participate in Dale’s first Samoan fishing contest. We were out for 10 hours in heavy, rainy seas. I couldn’t take a picture or even pee because at no time did the boat come close to being still, let alone have a predictable moment. Like all fishing trips stories abound about the “one” that got away. This “one” was a sailfish I was bringing in to the side of the boat when the line broke, or the gaffer, Dale, muffed. We later discovered that sailfish would have put us in first place. For all our efforts, we did catch three tuna and felt like our bodies had been beaten up the next day.

The Boat & Crew

The Catch

The end result, delicious "Oka", raw fish

Spear Fishing

Ben Harding who is from my group and has extended for another year, took my to the reefs outside of Apia. Spear fishing, nothing to it. You just pretend you are a fish, lull them into complacency, and spear them. I have seen it done hundreds of times on television. The details are too ugly to tell. Ben did get two nice reef fish and I took his picture.