Jeremy Lin Bass Fishing

...in case you needed another reason to like Lin.

Species Profile: Seer fish, Spanish Mackerels and King Mackerel

Looking for some hot inshore action in Taiwan? Consult a seer.

Within the family of mackerels, bonitos and tunas known as Scombridae, the genus Scomberomorus includes a wide range of species commonly known as seer fish (sometimes seerfish), Spanish mackerels or king mackerels depending on geography and specific species. Taiwan’s waters are home to five varieties of seer fish—a term I’ll use generically for the genus.

Seer fish are among the more commonly caught near shore game fish on the island, and can be fished both from shore and boat. Fast and aggressive, they are both challenge and a delight on light tackle, whether one is throwing lures or fishing with bait. Seer fish can be found from inshore waters to the continental shelf including coastal reefs, bays, estuaries and lagoons.

Here is a quick breakdown of the common local species:

Scientific name: Scomberomorus commersonScomberomorus commerson

Common names: narrow-barred Spanish mackerel, barred Spanish mackerel

Chinese names: 康氏馬鮫, 土魠, 馬加, 馬鮫, 梭齒, 頭魠, 鰆

Size range: Up to 240 cm.

Scientific name: Scomberomorus guttatusScomberomorus guttatus

Common names: spotted seer fish, spotted seer, spotted Spanish mackerel, Indo-Pacific king mackerel, Indian Spanish mackerel, Indo-Pacific Spanish mackerel

Chinese names: 斑點馬鮫, 白北, 白腹仔

Size range: Up to 76 cm

Scientific name: Scomberomorus koreanusScomberomorus koreanus

Common names: Korean seer fish, Korean mackerel

Chinese names: 朝鮮馬鮫, 破北, 闊北, 闊腹仔 

Size range: Up to 150 cm

Scientific name: Scomberomorus niphoniusScomberomorus niphonius

Common names: spotted Spanish mackerel, Japanese Spanish mackerel, Japanese seer fish

Chinese names: 藍點馬鮫, 正馬加, 尖頭馬加, 馬嘉

Size range: Up to 100 cm

Scientific name: Scomberomorus sinensisScomberomorus sinensis

Common names: Chinese seer fish 

Chinese names: 中華馬鮫, 馬加, 大耳, 西達, 中華鰆 

Size range: Up to 218 cm

A wide variety of techniques can be used for catching seer fish, kings and Spanish mackerels. In Taiwan, most are caught on lures and jigs fished both from shore and boats. Trolling is also productive, though not as popular on the Island. Bait, both live and dead, can be used as well. Our friends over at Sport Fishin’ Asia have a nice write-up on rigging live bait for Spanish Mackerel.

Lure anglers prefer bright flashy jigs, spoons (particularly Clark spoons) and plugs that can be worked quickly through the water, whether vertically or near the surface. One may be tempted to rig a wire leader—these species do have notoriously sharp teeth—but keep in mind that these large mackerels have equally sharp eyesight and may shy from heavy wire. It’s a choice between more hookups vs. fewer strikes but more hooked fish landed.

Video Share: Spanish Mackerel Caught Shore Jigging

Not sure exactly where this Youtube video was shot, but guy featured pulls in a what looks like a nice little spanish mackeral shore jigging near a harbor entrance. From the size of the ships in the background, I'm guessing this is in Keelung or Kaohsiung. 

Four Fishing Shows Worth Watching

A combination of weather and fatherly duties has slowed down my fishing lately. In times like these, I am forced to turn to the Internet to feed my fishing habit. Call it fishing porn, if you like (No, not that kind, you sick little monkeys). I’m talking about online fishing shows where you can at least see other people stalking and landing fish when you can’t do it yourself. It’s a great way to visit an exotic localem and learn about new target species and techniques, all from the comfort of your computer desk.

Here is a short list of some of my favorite online anglers in no particular order. Feel free to add your own picks in the comments below. 

Addictive Fishing
Blair Wiggins’s Florida-based angling show one of the more professionally produced of fishing programs online because it is technically a syndicated cable television show with a big Internet presence. As such, it pumped up with of plenty of action, a driving soundtrack and jarring jump cuts. Wiggins is an enthusiastic host who truly seems to enjoy his job—and who wouldn’t when you get to fish for a living. Most episodes focus on Florida’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts with occasional forays to other Gulf Coast fishing grounds and even the occasional freshwater outing. Nearly every episode can be found on the Addictive Fishing YouTube channel or the show’s own Web site. Get ready for endless of product plugs, but hey, they have to pay the bills somehow.

Sport Fishing with Dan Hernandez

This show has a special place in my heart because it focuses on my home fishing grounds—the coastal waters of Southern California. While not as energetic as Blair Wiggins, Dan Hernandez has a friendly charm that’s hard to resist. While not as slickly produced as Addictive Fishing, for me that’s part of the appeal. Let’s face it, I enjoy watching anglers engage in the kind of fishing I grew up on—party boats going after calico bass, yellowtail and white sea bass around the Channel Islands. Again, get ready for plenty of product plugs, but that’s the nature of the beast.

Babs Kijewski’s World of Fishing

OK, I’ll admit that I don’t understand a word that German blogger, outdoor journalist, video host and avid angler Babs Kijewski is saying in her fishing clips, but I sure enjoy watching them. Is it the pure joy she expresses with each catch? Certainly. Is it the pleasure I get from the picturesque settings and the exotic (to me) species she fishes for? Mmm, maybe. Is it that Babs is very easy on the eyes and frequently fishes (on warm days) in a bikini and little else? Well…er….cough. (I’m so ashamed).

Uncle Steve Fishing

Finally, you probably won’t find a fishing videographer more different than those previously mentioned above than Uncle Steve. Laid back and low-tech, starting each clip with his signature greeting “hello boys and girls….of all ages,” Uncle Steve can best be described as the Mister Rogers angling video hosts. As he tromps through the woods and backwaters around his native Raleigh, North Carolina searching out new fishing holes, you feel a bit like a kid again. No fish is too humble for Uncle Steve; he gives equal attention to bass and bream, catfish and chub, delighting in catching even a palm-sized bluegill. No fancy equipment here either, he usually favors a pair of inexpensive spincasting rods. The simplicity of the show makes it almost hypnotic. Everything is shot from a stationary camera while the host provides running commentary, occasionally striking up a conversation with a passing hiker or couple paddling by in a canoe. I can pour myself a glass of wine, sit back and lose myself for hours Uncle Steve’s adventures.

What’s your favorite online fishing show?

Jhunan Grouper Action

I finally tried something this weekend that I have been planning to do for quite some time—visit one of the many saltwater fishing ponds along the eastern coast of Taiwan. An expat angler I met through this site who lives in Hsinchu county has been telling me about a pond he and his friends frequent in nearby Jhunan. This weekend I finally had time to take him up on the offer come down and give it a try.

Our first fish was a "small" one landed by Austin.Up just before dawn on Sunday morning, I was soon heading down the highway for my 7 a.m. rendezvous with Austin, a Kiwi who, being unwed and unburdened with children (OK, a “burden” I happily accept), seems to find time for angling that I could only dream of. He is particularly keen on the saltwater variety and often makes it down to Green Island and other offshore spots for his favorite activity—jigging for amberjacks and tuna.

Once Austin’s gear was stored in the car, we headed to the fishing pond with a quick detour along the way for bait. The pond itself is tucked down a country road along an estuary not far from the Number 3 Highway. It would be difficult to locate without a guide or GPS. The Google satellite map shows it as a single pond, but it has since been divided into two.

One pond allows you to keep your catch, and anglers pay NT$1,200 to fish for the day. This “keeper pond” is stocked with sea bass, black sea bream (porgy), milk fish and several other species. The second pond is stocked with a few different species of large grouper, some tipping the scale at over 20 kg. You don’t get to keep these brutes, but for NT$200 you can spend the day testing your tackle and arm muscles wrestling them up to shore. And that’s exactly what we came to do.

After unpacking our gear, we staked out a corner of the pond that Austin said was particularly productive and got down to business. I was clear that the keeper pond was more popular with locals than the grouper pond as we were the only anglers on the catch-and-release side when we arrived. A few more anglers would show up as the day progressed, but never as many as the keeper side of things.

As we set about rigging up, I was beginning to feel a bit like a hunter that brought a sling shot on an elephant hunt. The heaviest rod I have is a 7’ medium-action bass rod. Austin had assured me that this would be fine since he had landed one of his biggest groupers on a light freshwater spinning combo. On this day, however, he would be favoring a thick saltwater popping rod. It felt a bit strange rigging my comparatively flimsy rod with 70 lb. leader and 8/0 hooks, but I was willing to play along.

Onto these massive hooks we threaded bloody six-inch fillets of mackerel. Austin said that there was no need to cast out to the middle of the pond since the groupers tend cruise along the edges when they are feeding. So, we tossed our baits a few meters out, opened the bails on our spinning reels and waited. It was a pleasant way to spend the morning. The sky was mostly clear and pines lining the levee provided shade and blocked some of the gusting wind.This bruiser was too heavy to lift with the lip grip.

It wasn’t too long before something began stripping line off of Austin’s reel. He grabbed the rod and after a brief tussle, beached a “small” 7 or 8 kg. grouper. We popped the hook out, took a few photos and sent our first fish on its way. After this point, the strikes came to a sudden halt and the action cooled off for the next few hours. We were getting worried as midday approached and there had been no more strikes, since the hours around noon tend to be the slowest in the pond. Just around 11:30, several fish could be seen foraging around the edge of the pond. It wasn’t long before the line stripping off Austin’s reel. Graciously he waved me over to do the honors.

I gave the fish a few seconds to take the bait all the way it its mouth before snapping the bail closed and setting the hook. That did little to stop the grouper’s progress across the pond as it continued to take line. Drag singing and rod bent over, it may not have been a “wild” fish on the end of the line, but it was definitely fun worth the price of admission. Finally able to turn the fish around and gain some ground after a little back and forth, I was able to drag up onto the sandy shore a bruiser that Austin estimated at a little over 12 kg. Try as we might to lift him with my puny lip grip for a photo, he was back on the ground with a shake of his tail. We took a few shots on the ground and sent him on his way.

All in all it was a great half day of fishing. Austin said the action really picks up just before dusk. The grouper pond shuts down after sunset, but the keeper pond stays open into the night. I’ll definitely be heading back (with heavier tackle) to give it another go. 

More photos

Bass on the Fly

I hit Jinjihu Pond in Pingjhen today with an old friend, Joe, his son and a new friend, Abe. Abe has commented on a few posts here and recently started working for Yoshida Seiko, a new tackle manufacture. He was keen to come along a try some Taiwan style bass fishing.

On arrival, the pond owner Mr. Tsai warned us that the fishing had been bad lately and not to expect to catch much. He suggested waiting a few weeks until he restocked his ponds. Deciding that we had come to fish, we gave it a go anyway. Four hours in, we've caught nothing. It was starting to look like all that I would have to show for the morning was a bright pink sunburn (I need one of those nylon neck socks). 

Finally around 11 a.m. I land a little 1 kg. bass on a Berkley Power Worm. OK, the day isn't a complete loss. Just before packing it in, I grabbed the fly rod for a couple of lazy casts. Wham, bass number two--my first on a fly rod. Thanks to Juan Wei in KL for hooking me up with some custom shrimp flies made by a friend of his. Another angler managed to catch a little snakehead that I'm sure is the same one I spotted on my last visit.

Video of the Week: GT Fishing in South Taiwan

This popped up in my YouTube recommondations. Not much description with the video, but that looks like Kaohsiung fishing guru Mr. Kenneth in most of the shots. 

Keen on Cats

I haven't had an opportunity to wet a line in a couple of weeks and I've been thinking on trying someithing new. I finally purchased some new fly line for the fly rod, as well as some bass-grade leader, so it may be time to get back to practicing my fly casting. Or I could go for something entirely different...

I have also been keen on trying some local catfishing. While popular in the states, catfish golargely ignored as a target species in Taiwan. They mostly seem to be caught incidentally while fishing for other speciies, like carp. This is a shame, since Taiwan is home to several interesting varieties of catfish, most in the genus Clarias, which includes the walking catfish--now an invasive species in the U.S. A few can get quite large. I have read many online posts of people claiming to have seen fish up to a meter in length in the Keelung River near metro Taipei. I guess it's time to dig out the chicken livers and stink bait.Asian walking catfish (Clarias batrachus).

Anyone who has done some catfishing in Taiwan, feel free to drop me a note and let me know how it went.