Going back to my childhood years I could recall my fishing days with my Old Man using the old traditional way of hand fishing and weaved bamboo traps in the rivers, streams and canals of our farm at the foot of the beautiful Sierra Madre Mountain in the Northern Province of the Philippines (Barrio Luzon) catching delicious crabs, shrimps and fishes.
As a kid I used to steal my brothers' hooks and used rice sack's fibres as my fishing line with a bamboo pole as a rod. A very simple-innocent way yet so effective way of fishing for I caught fishes too. I remember one experience that's still very fresh in my mind when me and my sister Benalyn caught a big catfish from the stream beside our farm house. We were shouting, dancing and singing as we bring home the big catch trying to tell the neighbors how happy we were catching a big fish.
I was born a farm boy in a remote mountainous community where there's plenty of fresh water fishes but we moved to the plaza proper of our small town Claveria (they call the Coastal Paradise of the North) when I was eight years old and the house my father built is located few meters away from the seashore. So, I grew up literally around the neighbourhood of fishing folks where fishing is the primary source of living and it is a way of life.
They fish before the sun rises and retires late at night just to survive and feed their family. Poverty is so rampant in our community that most of the kids from these poor families can’t afford to continue in going to College or University that’s why they end up fishing in the waters of our hometown until they reach their maturity and finally starts their own family.
I have witnessed with my own eyes how people fish just to survive and it was inculcated in my very young mind from my childhood years to help these folks if I ever have the chance. In the fight for poverty I have seen with my own eyes how people in the coastal place of our small-town lost their fingers and arms or died from illegal dynamite fishing and seen how the big cruel waves of the sea wrecked small boats of our local fishermen trying to brave the storms of the sea just to go out and fish for the survival of their family.
In our community I have my own circle of friends we call it Barkada. They are all ascendants of experienced fishermen from our community. We never get tired of fishing. We fish every afternoon after school and spent our weekends mostly in the seashore fishing if not in the farm with my father. But even if my father and I had to work in the farm I always have a fishing line with me.
I remember when I was still in the Seminary that I was caught fishing in the bank of the stream at the back of the seminary instead of getting a mandatory siesta (short sleep) at one o’clock in the afternoon. This is the fun part: I was asked to kneel on my knees and say the rosary on that same spot where he caught me.
Fishing became a part of me that even when I already finished my Degree in College and already studying in the law school I always have time to fish even my schedule is so hectic that I have to read thousands of pages in my law books.
When I was second year in law school I broke up with my girlfriend and it affected me that much that I regretfully dropped out some of my minor law subjects. But I breathtakingly got over that break up because of fishing.
When I finally got my LLB and failed the bar exam I joined my parents in migrating to Canada and I thought that would be the end of my fishing habit. But I befriended Kuya Romie Millares who's also a fishing aficionado and found myself fishing again in the middle of Canadian prairie lakes almost every weekend especially during summertime.
Now I have my 18 year old nephew joining me as a fishing buddy who loves fishing as much as I do. I still smile every time I remember how I prayed one day we went out fishing and he hooked his first fish of the season. My nerves seems like holding on to the fish as he spins his reel to remove the slacks of his line in order not to loose his fish again just like what'd happened in our previous fishing trip. I was more excited as he was when he finally landed his first Canadian Northern Pike out of the water. With big relief gave him a congratulation high five and took my phone out and gave him few shots.
I still remember the days back in the Philippines when I was a kid and always arguing with my mom every time I go out fishing. And even now that I'm already old and mature enough to decide on my own, she still questions my fishing hobby. "Why don't you just rest and stay at the house instead of going out fishing in the cold?" my mother would always murmur every time but I always tell her that fishing for me is not just my hobby but a way of life and a medium to attain peace of mind and relaxation. A type of rest to take away my stresses from work.
It's true, there's a peace of mind that fishing does to my body that my bed can’t provide. Even how tired I am if I go out fishing in the rivers or lakes my body feels relax and my stress will be gone in seconds. It must have been the enjoyment and the happiness I felt whenever I catch a fish that relaxes my body and brings me the peace of mind.
People always ask me why I love fishing that much. I always smile back at them and says not a single word because tell them your reason today and tomorrow they'd ask you again.
Someone who'd never held a fishing rod before is like a person who’d never experienced sex at all. By the way, fishing is like cigarette, it’s highly addictive.
Not to mention about the beautiful sceneries that only outdoorsmen like me see outside city limits away from the roars of the developing industries and the foul pollutions that unknowingly killing us little by little.
Now we are a month away from springtime, the most awaited time of the year for us fishermen and I can’t wait till I will be casting my stresses away again in the lakes and rivers of Alberta, Canada.
To my mom and family, please don’t blame me for this addictive hobby. Blame Tatang.
No comments:
Post a Comment