Fishing in Peru

April 2013

I have tried fishing three times so far since arriving in Peru, once on the pier in Huanchaco, and twice from the beach a little way outside the town. The Pacific Ocean is quite rough along this stretch of the coast, famous for some of the best surfing in Peru, and I have blamed this, my ignorance about local tides, and my lack of knowledge about what bait to use, for my lack of success so far. But today, using squid as bait as I have been doing all along, almost as soon as I cast my line I was feeling bites and landed my first Peruvian fish!

In all I cast my line 8 times, and 6 times pulled in a small fish, and also managed to snare a coloured sack, which at first I thought was a monster colourful fish! All in all a very enjoyable session.

Catfish - Bagre

I have always enjoyed fishing – and this is rather at odds with my strong hatred of casual hunting. Hunting for food is OK in my books, but the mindless mass slaughter (shoot anything that moves) that most hunters practice is odious. Many feel that fishing is barbaric, but I suppose I justify it, to myself at least, by believing that as I cannot see the fish, and am not deliberately targeting it, that makes it different! I cannot explain this – I wouldn't shoot an animal or a bird, but am happy to drag a fish out of the water on a hook. Today, at least, I did carefully remove the hook and returned the fish back into the sea.