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Hooked!
Lankika de Livera gets a feel of a trolling expedition as she joins the anglers of the Sports Fishing Club for a spot of Sunday fishing
April 2 promises to be a memorable day in the sports fishing calendar of Sri Lanka, as anglers of the Sports Fishing Club hold their open Trolling competition.

When angler Roshan Wagiswara invited us for a day of trolling in the open sea, we accepted readily. At the crack of dawn, we were down at the Hamilton canal at Hendala to get a head start. After security checks by the Navy, we finally set off in a trolling boat.

Trolling is a method of fishing where one trails a baited line from behind a slowly moving boat. Sometimes anglers troll five to six baited lines from a single fishing boat. Care has to be taken to see that the lines do not get entangled and thus several boats cannot troll in close proximity.

The bait is a plastic fish in different shapes and sizes, with hooks attached to trap the fish. But in this trolling competition the minimum weight is to be three kilos.

Trolling requires skill and patience. One has to have a Swiss army knife ready in your belt to cut off the lines and do quick repairs if the lines get tangled. At the back of the boat is a chair that is permanently fixed to the deck. This is called “The Fighting Chair”in which an angler sits when a big fish has been caught in a line and there is a tussle between the fish and the angler.

Our boat took to the open sea as the sun was coming up. Inquisitive Gull-billed Terns, Whiskered Terns and Common Terns were swooping close to us. There were several birds of prey (eagles) hovering above, but it was difficult to identify them as we had not gone armed with our binoculars.

The sea was relatively calm. The sun shone down fiercely at about 11 a.m. The sea breeze was cooling and the boat was rocking as it kept going further and further away from the shore. We found it impossible not to doze off and I wondered how the guys handling the boat could keep awake. The rocking of the boat to the rhythm of the waves, lulls and soothes one to a deep sleep. I wryly remembered Captain Haddock in “Tin Tin” eternally dozing off in his boat at sea. Now I understood why.

Suddenly Roshan beckoned to us. “Look a shoal of dolphins” and there they were almost jumping as they swam away from the boat. It was a wonderful sight. Now we were about 10 km into the sea and the depth would have been around 300 feet or more. Interestingly, underneath the waters, the anglers have landmarks for good fishing areas. Most of the landmarks are huge rocks of different shapes. Some of those spots are called Athgala, Pitagala, Kelanigala, Tharadi gala etc. Apparently around such rocks there are good fishing grounds.

Of course, every angler knows that unlike fishing with a net, there are days when one may catch a fish or several in the open sea and also days when one’s luck will not be in and one would be unable to get a single catch. So although we enjoyed our trolling trip immensely, it was however disappointing for Roshan for he went home empty-handed that day despite having had four lines on his boat the entire six hours that we were out at sea.

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