A 10-foot stick with a line on the end. Simple. And at the end of the line is a hook, and that hook has been sharpened on glass. That’s it. No flies, no bait, nothing imitative, just the easy clarity of a rod, line and the bird stillness of an expert. It is a mesmerising fishing style to watch. The fisherman is perched, [literally] on a single bar called a Petta an inch in diameter and a foot long, some 5-foot above the coral. His right arm holds the rod and is wrapped around the stilt. He is very still save for the rhythmical arc of rod flicking the hook into the water, then drawing the hook towards him, a snap of the wrist and the process is repeated. No different from the nymphing techniques pioneered across European competition fishing. No line to disturb the water, just the single entry of a hook and the rod vertical above as the hook sweeps across the shallow water, no more than 2 foot deep. I watched fish after fish being caught and the circular motion concludes with a small Mackerel or Herring plucked by the non-rod hand and placed into a damp hessian sack. Goblets of silver time after time were caught.
Stilt fishermen in Sri Lanka
They say that after the horrors of the Tsunami in 2004 that this form of fishing is dying out and that the Indian Ocean coastline has been forever changed to a point that this type of fishing just isn’t productive any more. Fishing for pleasure is a totally different experience to commercial fishing but the principles of how to catch fish are the same. Total concentration, remaining utterly still, minimal disturbance of the water and a single-minded pursuit of fish. It was fascinating to watch and their mastery of their environment was striking.
Check out the echoesfromariver instagram account for latest photos and content.
