Lessons from the aquarium

Lessons from the aquarium

Paul Arden | Wednesday, 19 April 2023

Firstly: Selemat Hari Raya. I’ve been invited to break fast tonight at the resort where my wife works. Of course I don’t have any smart clothes here in the boat, but apparently it will be ok if I wear my sarong. :))) So: sarong, camouflage T shirt and studded fishing boots. I’ll fit right in. I might wear my hat. Ashy says “tie your hair back!” I guess I can do that.

As many of you will know I have a small aquarium in the “Battleship”. This was originally to learn about Giant Gourami. And I have learned a huge amount. Currently I have a small Giant Gourami and, I believe I’m correct in saying, a Nile Tilapia.

I’m not so sure about the tilapia species, in fact I didn’t even know what it was when I first captured it, swimming past the boat at night. Originally smaller than the gourami he/she/it is certainly larger now.

The tilapia is an eating machine. If it’s not feeding on insects attracted to the aquarium lamp, it’s eating algae growing in the aquarium. I believe I’m right in saying that they are invasive to Malaysia. I’ve read two reports. One is that they were introduced by the Japanese in 1940. The other is that they are escapees from the fish farms, and if that last possibility is the case, then they are successfully breeding in the lake – because this fish was less than an inch long when I captured it.

Introduced fish is usually bad news unless they have the Adipose Fin Passport, right? And while the tilapia isn’t dangerously aggressive towards the gourami (gourami will try to kill other gourami in the same circumstances… I’ve learned) it does defend the prime zone for nighttime insect feeding.

Anyway, what I want to talk about, is that we tend to think of fish as either eating or sleeping, and mostly eating. Especially when we are fishing. “We should be catching fish… why are we not catching fish? Where are they?” But the fact is, that sometimes, many times in fact, fish are simply not feeding.

And yes, there are times when you can catch fish when they are not feeding, and just milling around doing fish stuff. That’s when we fish peculiar flies (now I know you might think all of my flies peculiar, but they are not!!). Basically there are two sorts of flies; one presents a trigger or triggers – or another, arguably better, description is a “prey image” – and the other sort of fly is a “joke fly” or “attractor”. Orange Booby for example. And there is a time and place for each. If they are eating ants for example, then you need to present an ant silhouette. If they are milling around, sticking an orange booby down there, might work.

While we can catch fish when they are not feeding, even that is going to have a limited success. I know this because I’ve sight fished amongst weedy areas holding a range of juvenile fish species. Drop a flashy nymph in-between the fish and they initially get very excited. Especially if you wiggle. But very quickly it stops being interesting, and starts to become either uninteresting or decidedly dangerous.

Feeding fish are different. For these, usually quite short and intensive, feeding times, that’s when we really have to fish hard, and try to imitate what they are feeding on. Or in other words: present the right triggers, or prey image. Whether that be size, shape, movement and/or possibly colour.

There are times when we have to make our fly stand out from the naturals. Colour can do that. Presenting the fly so that it lands first, with little rings appearing from the fly, as it if it had flapped its wings, or just landed, is another way. Maybe moving it one inch and leaving it. Perhaps a similar fly but also a little bit different – let’s face it all of our flies are a little bit different. Mine especially.

Anyway, the point of this is, that you can’t beat being in the right place at the right time. And there can be a lot of the day, or night, when it’s simply the wrong time. Fish are not just eating/sleeping machines. They also have a downtime. Actually I take that back: tilapia are eating/sleeping machines. In fact I can’t remember ever seeing this thing sleeping either. As Uncle Monty would have said “he’s obsessed with his gut”.

I don’t know how you do it, but whenever I catch a fish, I think why nowComing into Termite season. Can’t wait!!!

Cheers, Paul