Kids Web Japan

Masami is well known for his fishing skills.

When asked what he likes to do after school, Masami, who takes swimming lessons and is studying English, says that he likes fishing in the ocean. Masami lives right by a small port, where fishing boats and other vessels come and go, and he loves going to the pier, where he fishes until late afternoon.

Today, he gets out his tackle as soon as he gets home from school and heads for the pier, where he sits down in his usual place. His bait is small shrimp. Masami says he picked it out himself when he went to the supermarket with his mother.

Masami starts to fish, expertly hooking a shrimp and carefully casting his line without using a rod. He watches the surface of the water closely to see whether a fish has bitten and quickly pulls in the line when it has. Because he holds the line directly in his hand, he can tell how the fish is moving. It is an original and ingenious way of fishing.

Not five minutes after casting the line, he catches a fish called an ame. He then hooks three baby sea bream, one right after another. But he immediately returns them to the water, since they were released by the local fisheries cooperative. Masami knows exactly what types of fish he can and can't take.

Masami has his own harpoon.

"I once caught a 30-centimeter-long whiting. And my record catch is 42 horse mackerel in one sitting! I've also caught octopuses, squid, and eels. The best time to fish is after it rains, when the water is still muddy," Masami proudly tells us all about his achievements. He goes on to describe how he once speared a crab whose shell was 15 centimeters across with a two-meter-long harpoon, one of his prized possessions.