Fishing Lake Xihai

Fishing is a popular pastime in China - maybe partly because fresh fish is an essential part of meals. Xihai lake in Beijing near the BNU campus seems to be a favorite place for this. The fish being caught were quite large - some enough to feed four I would guess. I don't know if the lake is stocked, or if the fish are natural.

At one end of the lake there is a small pool dammed off from the main lake. There were several people fishing there. The man in the black tee shirt caught about 10 fish for every one caught by all the others put together. He would through the hook in, and after a wait of typically 30 seconds would suddenly yank the rod and have a large fish attached. He must have had some secret!


Fishing


Got One!


Hauling in the Catch


Meet the Fish

This man had caught four, and was cleaning them in the lake.



Cleaning the Fish
All around the lake the bank was lined with fishermen...


Xihai Fishermen
....some with quite fancy equipment including very long poles (but they weren't catching nearly as many as the man in the black tee shirt!)



This spot looked very peaceful: