So on a Friday night in Taiwan we got our group together and there is an excellent activity you can do for only 150 Taiwan Dollars! Go shrimp fishing - we were in the city of Shinying for it.
It was hard to find the venue initially but once inside as the only foreigners in town we found it easy to organise - a shrimp marked a sign on the entrance and the place was busy - there were seats by the pool where you go fishing.
At the counter we paid 150 dollars each for the pleasure of shrimp fishing. There are no hidden costs or extras. If you catch 20 fish, you can cook and eat them there and then, or even take them away with you. This cost included a fishing rod (pick your own), a small bag of bait (wee fish), the seat where you want to sit, a net to put the ones you catch, and as much time as you want sitting by the pool trying to catch shrimps. Whether you catch one or 31 its the same price. And after that you put them on a skewer and grill them yourself before eating them!
We got our beers in and my goal was simple - I only wanted to catch one shrimp - that was it. I hoped I could do it - it was my first time. David and Binh, my friends were flying - they already had caught a few. I added bait to my rod and hung about - I put two fish as bait and waited!
This was certainly a random night that we will remember - first time for shrimp fishing for me and just loving the travel lifestyle of it all! You can notice the shrimps in the murky green water - trick is not to move your rod too much and put them off.
When one of our rods bent down towards the water, you knew a shrimp was chewing the bait and it was a case of choosing the right moment to pull your rod up, hoping the shrimp wouldn't fall off. Hoping the shrimp was caught, Hoping the shrimp would make it into the fish net, which already contained quite a few shrimps. Ugly white and pink creatures these. I certainly had never seen or eaten one before. Soon I'd be doing both.
Neil caught his first one and I thought I was next but it appeared the shrimp had taken my bait and eaten it and swam away. I was out of luck!
Then I got it - a shrimp was eating the bait and I slowly pulled it up! It fought with its pincers but I got it into the net! I had caught a shrimp! It was my first time and it wasn't too difficult!
In total by the end we had 10 shrimps between 5 of us, but David had to shoot off home to his wife, so the 4 of us could share and cook the shrimps. Neil caught 2, David caught 2, Binh caught 5 and I was happy I had caught one. The shrimps were all still alive in the net, they survive a wee bit out of water. Then we placed them in a pot of jelly which kills them sadly. After this we got some silver strong skewers and put two of them through each shrimp ready to barbecue/grill them. A Taiwanese guy showed us how to do this, helped us and gave us an extra large extra shrimp for free for doing this.
To cook them just grill them on both sides and it's fast - between 10 and 20 minutes. They were quite big and of course we shared them and ate them with just salt but you can get all sorts of dishes and side orders to eat them with. All in all this is a fantastic way to spend a Friday evening in Shinying - Taiwan!!
It was hard to find the venue initially but once inside as the only foreigners in town we found it easy to organise - a shrimp marked a sign on the entrance and the place was busy - there were seats by the pool where you go fishing.
At the counter we paid 150 dollars each for the pleasure of shrimp fishing. There are no hidden costs or extras. If you catch 20 fish, you can cook and eat them there and then, or even take them away with you. This cost included a fishing rod (pick your own), a small bag of bait (wee fish), the seat where you want to sit, a net to put the ones you catch, and as much time as you want sitting by the pool trying to catch shrimps. Whether you catch one or 31 its the same price. And after that you put them on a skewer and grill them yourself before eating them!
We got our beers in and my goal was simple - I only wanted to catch one shrimp - that was it. I hoped I could do it - it was my first time. David and Binh, my friends were flying - they already had caught a few. I added bait to my rod and hung about - I put two fish as bait and waited!
This was certainly a random night that we will remember - first time for shrimp fishing for me and just loving the travel lifestyle of it all! You can notice the shrimps in the murky green water - trick is not to move your rod too much and put them off.
When one of our rods bent down towards the water, you knew a shrimp was chewing the bait and it was a case of choosing the right moment to pull your rod up, hoping the shrimp wouldn't fall off. Hoping the shrimp was caught, Hoping the shrimp would make it into the fish net, which already contained quite a few shrimps. Ugly white and pink creatures these. I certainly had never seen or eaten one before. Soon I'd be doing both.
Neil caught his first one and I thought I was next but it appeared the shrimp had taken my bait and eaten it and swam away. I was out of luck!
Then I got it - a shrimp was eating the bait and I slowly pulled it up! It fought with its pincers but I got it into the net! I had caught a shrimp! It was my first time and it wasn't too difficult!
In total by the end we had 10 shrimps between 5 of us, but David had to shoot off home to his wife, so the 4 of us could share and cook the shrimps. Neil caught 2, David caught 2, Binh caught 5 and I was happy I had caught one. The shrimps were all still alive in the net, they survive a wee bit out of water. Then we placed them in a pot of jelly which kills them sadly. After this we got some silver strong skewers and put two of them through each shrimp ready to barbecue/grill them. A Taiwanese guy showed us how to do this, helped us and gave us an extra large extra shrimp for free for doing this.
To cook them just grill them on both sides and it's fast - between 10 and 20 minutes. They were quite big and of course we shared them and ate them with just salt but you can get all sorts of dishes and side orders to eat them with. All in all this is a fantastic way to spend a Friday evening in Shinying - Taiwan!!
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