Hilo Days: A Humiliating Day in the Park

When I was young, I could always managed to find experiences that tempered any arrogance and self-confidence I might have felt at the time. Like the time I fancied myself quite the fisherman. Boy, did I learn another lesson in life, so much so that I wrote about it in my now-defunct website, Hilo Days.

Fishing  Derby White-Wash

A bunch of us entered a fishing derby at Liliuokalani Park, which was newly opened after the [1960] tidal wave took it apart.

The county parks and recreation department had announced that a fishing derby was going to be held at the park, and anyone who wanted to enter could do so by showing up on the designated Saturday.

Artie Kimura, Ron Takata, Gary Sato and I (there may have been others) got our gear in shape, buying new bamboo rods, tsuji [what we called fishing line], floats, hooks, buckets to keep our fish in, and frozen prawns to use as bait. I was actually quite excited and had dreams about the huge mullet that I was going to bring home for dinner.

So we show up, and there are about a million people there, all jostling for space and the hot fishing spots. After registering, we picked a likely looking area and waited for the starter's whistle. When the shrill blast filled the air, a million lines hit the water, floats started bobbing, and suddenly the water boiled with hungry fish.

To the right of me, a kid pulled out a big tilapia. To the left of me, another kid pulled out a large mullet. Across the pond, dozens of fish were being hauled out of the water. At the pond behind me, the anglers were going crazy.

And I stood there with my line in the water. I dabbed my bait on the surface, pulled it in, threw it back out, moved it from left to right, pulled it in again and threw it back out again.

Nothing.

What? Did I have bad breath, or something?

How embarrassing. Kids who had no idea what they were doing were catching fish, and there I was, my line in the water. Artie caught a few, Ron and Gary did okay too. Me, I was the only one with nothing but warm, stink bait to show for my day's efforts.

Plus, I got a sunburn — the back of my neck, my forehead, nose and cheeks were red and irritable for a week. Serves me right for thinking I knew how to fish.