Fishermen’s Superstitions
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Can’t wait to do it again!
We went deep sea fishing again! And the bounty was plentiful! My highlight was seeing my spirit animal: DOLPHINS!! Initially my lines kept breaking, I was afraid that would set the tone for the rest of the day. Was I standing at the wrong spot? Did I do something tabooed for fishermen? Or did I turn a fish over when I was eating it at home? (Taiwanese fishermen believe that turning a fish over will cause the ship to capsize.) If I had any reception, I would’ve googled the superstitions that fishermen believe in. I know I was desperate!
Tales of fishing superstitions are many, and can probably take days to go over all of them, even Pirates of the Caribbean mentioned some nautical taboos. Fishermen have their own superstitions. Our fishing club believes that eating convenient store fried chicken before going fishing and not taking out the cooler early will lead to a bountiful catch. I learned many other no-nos for fishermen from our deckhands. Only time will tell if these are correlated with catching bigger fish.
Don’t bring bananas onto the boat: this originated from early days of food transport across oceans, and due to the lack of proper equipment, bananas ripen easily and often are unsellable before they get to the next port. But this has nothing to do with fishing. Our deckhand debunked this superstition, he said he ate bananas the day that he caught a 500lbs marlin. After Google search, some people even believe that anything related to bananas such as “Banana Boat” sunscreen should not be brought to sea. I now remember seeing a sign at a pier that says “no bananas”, and I thought that was to prevent people from slipping on banana peels. Lol!
Pouring alcohol onto the line spool: After our deckhand finished setting up trolling (to fish for marlin), he asked us for beer. I thought it was because it was a hot day and he was thirsty, but he poured the whole can onto the line spool! Then he told us that it’s telling the fish that the bar is open, and fish are alcoholics too! This made me laugh, but apparently a marlin took our bait but got away! Hmmm...
To summarize this trip: initially I was disappointed by the breaking fishing lines, then became worried about committing fishing taboos. It wasn’t until my first catch (a fat tuna)! I started to become more encouraged, and could finally enjoy fishing. Even briefly forgot there’s such a thing as fishermen’s superstitions. Instead of worrying about all these things, I say don’t think too much about it and just enjoy fishing!
To find out more about deep sea fishing, please check out my first post about deep sea fishing. I talk about fishing companies, costs, packing list, and my personal experience. Hopefully you will have a lot of fun out there and catch many big fish! Enjoy!
Briefing before we started the day.
Group photo!
Selfie!
Dolphins swam around us!
UN caught a big tuna!
That’s us!
WE CAUGHT MAHI MAHI!
Sashimi on the boat!
Fresh Sashimi!
Getting ready!
Prepping for fishing
Deckhands cleaning fish.
Sunset time!
Reminds me of the show, Outer Bank.
Fish we caught that day!
Shark!
Mahi Mahi!!!!
It’s DOLPHINS!
Chinese Translation
我們又出海釣魚囉！這次收穫豐富，其中讓我最開心的是我們看到成群的海豚（我最愛的動物耶！）但一開始出海開釣時，我的線一直斷，斷到我心灰一冷，懷疑自己會不會一整天因斷線而掉不到魚，還開始懷疑我站的位置是不是風水不好（UN翻白眼），問工作人員我是不是觸犯打魚人不該做的事（工作人員一口否定）。我也開始回想思考我在家吃魚時是不是不小心把魚翻面（以前在台灣聽說打魚人吃魚時不能翻面，意指翻船）。要不是海上手機沒訊號，我應該會上網搜尋有關釣魚禁忌的事吧！
說到釣魚禁忌，三天三夜應該都說不完吧，像電影加勒比海盜裡也曾提過一些出海禁忌。每個釣魚人也有一堆不太合理的迷信，我們釣魚社認為釣魚前必須吃便利商店的炸雞和釣魚時不把冷藏箱拿出來。這次深海釣魚，我從Deckhand那學到更多打魚人的小迷信，至於釣大魚的機會有沒有變高，我們有待觀察！
不帶香蕉上船：起源於以前出海運送食物時，但由於船上設備不齊全，香蕉很容易在送達目的地前就壞了，因此討海人不喜歡運送香蕉，但這跟釣魚完全沒關係啊！Deckhand也推翻這理論，他說之前釣到500磅馬林那天早上就吃香蕉。上網查了一下，發現有些人認為連Banana Boat防曬油或和名字和香蕉相關的物品都不帶。讓我想到以前曾在碼頭附近看到不能帶香蕉的牌子，那時以為怕在船上踩到香蕉皮滑倒而立的告示牌！
在釣魚捲軸和魚線灑酒：當Deckhand放好trolling（釣馬林的用具）後，突然和我們要啤酒，原以為是Deckhand天氣熱想喝啤酒，結果Deckhand把啤酒撒在釣魚捲軸和魚線上！問了後才知道原來這是在告訴魚兒們，酒吧開張，來開喝吧！（哈哈哈，太酷了吧）至於有沒有用呢，我們的馬林上鉤後又逃走了！
總結一下這次釣魚心情：一開始不停斷線失落感直直上升，心情也開始焦慮是否觸犯釣魚禁忌。直到釣到第一隻魚（肥嘟嘟的鮪魚）心情放煙火，覺得今天任務完成能放鬆釣魚，瞬間忘記釣魚禁忌這一說詞！與其心情急切，平常心釣魚可能比較有用！
想知道深海釣魚的資訊，可以參考我的第一次深海釣魚經驗，文章裡有釣魚公司、需帶物品、費用和個人經驗，希望能幫助大家之後出海釣魚。
