shrimp fishing

On Wednesday I went shrimp fishing with my language partner, Catherine!

Shrimp fishing is a totally wacky + fun Taiwanese pass-time. I hadn’t heard anything about it until last week, when Catherine mentioned that shrimp fishing is a really popular activity for Taipeiers + she was interested in going over the holiday. I love shrimp. I like the idea of catching my own food (though fishing in a swimming pool is kind of cheating). I was in.

There are several shrimp fisheries that you can choose to go to in Taipei City. You pay by the hour (usually people fish for three) + get a fishing pole with two hooks, bait + all the shrimp you can catch. We went to a fishery off the Zhuwei MRT Station, almost as far north as the MRT goes. I read an article about the activity before going that promised an indoor pool of shrimp surrounded by men chewing betel, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer + maybe a couple or two on dates. That is exactly what we got, sans daters.

fishery/danshui district, taipei/feb 13, 2013

ze pool/danshui district, taipei/feb 13, 2013

catherine’s first shrimp!/danshui district, taipei/feb 13, 2013

loading the hooks/danshui district, taipei/feb 13, 2013

my first shrimp!/danshui district, taipei/feb 13, 2013

then it flicked it’s tail + got me/danshui district, taipei/feb 13, 2013

I was definitely surprised that the water was colored, but we realized that that’s the only way it could be fun + fair: no one gets to see where all the shrimp are chillin. We fished for two hours + Catherine caught four shrimp! I only caught two, but an older gentleman pro who caught 8 in his first hour gave us his. Super nice!

The best part of shrimp fishing is that you get to grill them up + eat ’em when you’re done. + we were definitely happy for the extras.