Costco Stocks a Nice Spinning Combo Kit for Beginning Anglers

This Abu Garcia fishing combo has pretty much everything a beginning angler needs.Here is a great solution if those thinking about getting into fishing in Taiwan, but don't know where to start with regard to basic gear. Let’s face it; wandering into your local neighborhood tackle shop can be a little intimidating. Every year about this time, Costco stocks some kind of all-in-one fishing kit. That’s where I picked up my first rod and reel in Taiwan, built up my tackle collection from from there.

This year they are offering one of their better setups yet. It a kit by the folks at Pure Fishing, and includes an Abu Garcia 6’-6” medium-heavy action spinning rod, Pflueger Trion GX-7 spinning reel, a spool of Spiderwire 10-pound Spiderwire EZ mono line and a small tackle box packed with a variety of spoons and spinner lures. The whole package is selling for NT$1,999The Pflueger Trion GX-7 reel gets a five-out-of-five-star customer rating from Bass Pro Shops.

This is really one of the better fishing combos that Costco has offered for tackling a variety of fish. Past combos have either been too light or too heavy to be useful to most beginning anglers. This one hits a nice sweet spot in the middle. It’s probably best suited for bass, predatory carp species, juvenile tarpon, snakeheads and barramundi. 

Target Species: Greater Amberjack

Family: Carangidae

Scientific name: Seriola dumerili

Common names: Greater amberjack, amberjack, amberfish

Chinese name: 杜氏鰤

Habitat: Primarily a pelagic species found offshore in deep water, often over or near structures such as sunken reefs, pinnacles and oil platforms. They will occasionally move inshore near reefs, bays and drop-offs.

Size range: Average size is around 15 pounds (7 kg), but large specimens in the 40 to 50-pound range are not uncommon. The all-tackle record is 155 pounds 10 ounces.

The greater amberjack is arguably the king of Taiwan’s offshore sport fishing targets. No doubt tunas, giant trevally and billfish and a host of other pelagic species have their diehard adherents, but few species send Taiwanese anglers into a rabid jigging frenzy like these brutes.

A larger cousin of the yellowtail, think of the amberjack as a yellowtail on steroids…with a healthy dose of ’roid rage thrown in for good measure. The amberjack’s powerful torpedo-like shape tells you it is built for speed, something immediately apparent to anyone with the good fortune of finding one on the end of their fishing line. They can be distinguished from other jacks by the diagonal “fighter stripe” that extends from the upper jaw, through the eye to the first dorsal fin.

Edward Lee from Jigging Master shows off an amberjack. Along with selling tackle and jigging gear, Edward and Jigging Master arrange fishing trips. Click the pic to contact them.Late winter and spring are prime season for amberjack in Taiwan. They can be found offshore all around the island, but the waters between Taiwan and Japan are the prime hunting grounds for local anglers. Charter boats often seek out sonar marks near sunken reefs, submerged sea mounts and man-made structures like wrecks and drilling platforms. Vertical jigging is the preferred approach, with anglers dropping blade jigs to the proper depths and retrieving them with a rapid yo-yo action, then repeating until they get a hookup.

Greater amberjacks feed on crustaceans, squid and large baitfish. They are found both solitarily or in small schools. Amberjacks are highly desirable as an eating fish and are particularly prized for sashimi in Japanese cuisine. Care should be taken that fish are properly cleaned, as the species is suspected in cases of ciguatera poisoning. 

Pure Fishing Asian Cup 2011 Taiwan

Pure Fishing, the umbrella company that owns Berkley, Fenwick, Penn, Johnson, Abu Garcia and a host of other tackle brands, is sponsoring a series of bass tournaments in Taiwan in May and June. The tournaments will take place at ponds in three location--Tainan, Hsinchu and Taoyuan. Registration is NT$600 per angler and participants can only use gear from the Pure Fishing brands, including lures. I'll be taking part in the June 25 event at Happy Heart Farm pond in Bade, Taoyuan County. Here is a link to information at the Pure Fishing Taiwan site. You can download a registration at the bottom of the page. Registration is limited to 50 anglers at each location and it's filling up fast.

Post Office Releases Indigenous Fish Stamps

A coworker tipped me off to the fact that the post office is releasing a series of stamps highlighting Taiwan's native fish species (so no bass or tilapia). The stamps are actually pretty nice looking and I'm assuming there will be more after the first four.

Here is the text of the post office's announcement:

The native freshwater fish of Taiwan’s rivers, lakes, and estuaries comprise the most diverse group of vertebrates within the island’s terrestrial ecosystem. Chunghwa Post has planned a series of postage stamps to introduce the beauty of Taiwan’s freshwater fishes. The first set of the series features Taiwan endemic fishes: Candidia barbatus, Opsariichthys pachycephalus, Spinibarbus hollandi, and Squalidus banarescui. The stamps will be released on March 10, 2011. The designs follow:

1. Candidia barbatus (NT$5): This silver white fish has an obvious deep blue lateral stripe extending from its gill cover to the base of its caudal fin. It typically measures about 6 to 12 centimeters long, but large examples can sometimes reach 20 centimeters. It is commonly seen in the upper stretches of rivers and their branches in western Taiwan. As a result of human introduction in recent years, it can be found in the rivers of the Hualien and Taitung.

2. Opsariichthys pachycephalus (NT$5): An adult male has some ten blue-green vertical streaks on the sides of its body and displays nuptial coloration in the area below its gill covers as well as at its pelvic, pectoral, and anal fins. Vigorous and ferocious, the species’ strong predatory characteristics make it a popular target for stream fishing. It typically measures about 8 to 15 centimeters long, but large examples can reach 20 centimeters. It is commonly seen in the rivers of western Taiwan.

3. Spinibarbus hollandi (NT$12): The fish has a medium-to-large mouth aperture and two pairs of barbels. The back of its body is slate gray and its sides are silver white. This large carp typically measures about 20 to 40 centimeters long. The largest examples can reach 60 centimeters in length. The stamp features a medium-sized adult. It can be found in the middle stretches of rivers in southern and easternTaiwan.

4. Squalidus banarescui (NT$25): This fish is slightly transparent, with a black and gold lateral line on the sides of its body. There is a black marking that resembles the Chinese character for eight “八” on each of its lateral line scales. This small carp measures about 8 to 10 centimeters long. It can only be found in relatively deep and slow and slightly muddy rivers in central Taiwan.

The stamps are planned by Chen I-Shiung, professor at the Institute of Marine Biology of National Taiwan Ocean University. They are painted by the marine painter Mr. Jheng Yi-lang and printed by Central Engraving and Printing Plant in color offset.

Estuary Target: Indo-Pacific Tarpon

Family: Megalopidae

Scientific name: Megalops cyprinoides

Common names: Indo-Pacific tarpon, Oxeye, Oxeye tarpon

Chinese name: 印度太平洋大海鰱 (Yìndù tàipíngyáng dàhǎi lián or just dàhǎi lián)

Habitat: Estuaries, bays, coastal rivers

Size range: Up to 90 cm, though more common in the 50 cm range.

The word “tarpon” usually brings to mind images of huge silver-scaled beasts making breath-taking jumps, testing both angler and tackle in estuaries and on coastal flats. This, however, is the Atlantic tarpon, cousin to the Indo-pacific tarpon that are found in abundance in Taiwan’s estuaries and tidal backwaters April through October. Though not a heavy-weight bruiser like the Atlantic tarpon, the Indo-pacific or oxeye tarpon is nonetheless one of the most popular estuary targets on the island. It is also one of the few native wild fishes that can be pursued around the metro Taipei area in Dansui River as well as streams and estuaries that feed into it.

Though adult tarpon resemble herring in appearance with their up-turned mouths and elongated lower jaws, they are Elopiformes that are actually more closely related to eels. Like all Elopiformes, they can live in both salt and fresh water, spending most of their time in brackish estuaries and moving to the open sea to spawn. Along with their pronounced jaws, tarpon can be identified by the last ray of their dorsal fin, which is considerably longer than the others, nearly reaching the tail.

Where Indo-pacific tarpon diverge most from the Atlantic variety is in size. While Atlantic tarpon can reach lengths of 250 cm, Indo-pacific tarpon max out at around 90 cm, and 50 cm is listed as a more common length. In fact, most tarpon caught by anglers in Taiwan are juveniles in the 30-40 cm range, which makes them perfect light tackle targets. Any rod and reel setup capable of handling a healthy rainbow trout, for example, is probably suited to local tarpon fishing.

Tarpon have voracious appetites and are aggressive predators. They typically feed on anything from small baitfish to aquatic crustaceans like shrimp and crabs. They can often be seen feeding near the surface in schools, making them ideal targets for sight casting lures and flies. A variety of artificial lures are suitable for Indo-pacific tarpon, but most local anglers seem to favor small plastic grubs and metallic spoons. Fly anglers usually cast streamers that imitate small baitfish.

Like their larger cousins, Indo-pacific tarpon don’t disappoint when hooked, often making acrobatic, head-shaking leaps. For light tackle fun, they are hard to beat.

Tarpon can be found in coastal estuaries in nearly every part of Taiwan, with the possible exception of the rocky stretch coastline between Yilan and Hualien.

Bass Video from Jinji Hu Pond in Pingjhen

A short clip of my Saturday morning fishing session at Jinji Hu Pond in Pingjhen. In all, it was a great morning. I went through the remainder of my plastic worms and had to switch to grubs. I lost track after about a dozen bass. Things slowed down after the plastic worms ran out. This was all before 10 a.m. It may be time to find a new wild spot for a bit more challenge.

Saturday Morning Bassin'

I headed back to Pingjhen with my son in tow to kick off the long holiday weekend. We managed eight bass, all in the 12 to 13-inch range. Josh even took a nineth with the landing net, but I don't think we'll count that one. The weather is warming up nicely. The bite wasn't as wide open as it was during the "super moon," be we weren't complaining. I had at least two well-meaning local anglers come up and inspect my wacky worm rig and try to tell me I was doing it all wrong. One guy wen't so far as to re-rig me on the spot before I could stop him. Ironically, it was another local that put me onto the wacky rig a few weeks ago. To be fair, if you have never seen a wacky rigged worm, it looks like the the kind of thing someone with no clue what they are doing would do with a plastic worm. 

Local fish catch safe to eat: officials

From the Taipei Times and CNA:

None of Taiwan’s fish catches have been contaminated by radioactive materials from Japan, the Atomic Energy Council said yesterday.

“Samples of fish caught around Taiwan have passed radiation tests and none of them have been found to contain abnormal radiation readings,” said Liu Wen-hsi (劉文熙), deputy director of the council’s Department of Radiation Protection.

Since Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant began leaking radiation after being damaged by the earthquake-triggered tsunami on March 11, the council has set up radiation checkpoints at fishing ports around the country, Liu told a press conference at the legislature.

Read the rest of the story at the Taipei Times site.