The first time I started fishing was back when I was in Colombia. I wouldn’t really call it fishing, per se—it was at a little lake. We were on a family vacation in a mountain region, and they gave me a fishing rod similar to a bamboo stick with a bobber in the worm. I think I got around four fish. The first actual time I started fishing was when I was around 10. My dad and I were in a fishing store in Fremont, and we saw fishing rods on sale. It was two for $20, and we thought it was a pretty good deal. So I tried fishing, but it did not go well, and I could not catch a fish for the life of me. 

So then four years go by, and I have a project in health class, the Try Something New project. I went with two of my friends to fish—one of them being Diego Garcia. I’m still friends with him, and he’s my fishing buddy, so we go fishing together pretty much all the time. But that first time, we didn’t catch fish. 

What I’ve been doing more recently is shark fishing. Around a week before, me and my buddies will start talking about the tides. We also discuss the gear we’ll need, and I set up everything. On the day of, we head out as early as four in the morning, or even at four in the afternoon. I’m more of a bank Fisher, so I just set up my stuff, throw the bait out, and just wait for a bite. On a normal day, I would fish for around three to four hours, and if I’m lucky, catch between one or two sharks, or even six or seven bat rays.

I’m a catch-and-release fisher. The only fish I keep are trout. If anyone is interested in fishing, during late October to early November, California starts to stock trout in lakes. So trout fishing is really easy, and they taste all right.

I remember one time when I was fishing with my friend Diego Garcia, we caught a pretty large bat ray. When we were reeling it in, the handle broke completely because it was a really cheap reel, so we had to manually twist the bail of the reel to bring it in, and that took us half an hour. We then moved to another location that was a little bit better because the location had stairs, so we could easily go down to the shore, and I ended up catching seven fish in total.

Fishing is a moment where I can relax. When I first started out fishing at 10 years old, I would get really mad whenever I didn’t catch a fish. But as time has passed, I’ve realized I’m not only there to catch the fish, but to relax. It’s peaceful, and a good way to finish the school week and just take a breather.

Fishing isn’t overly expensive, either. You can get a decent enough fishing rod for around 20 to 30 bucks. If you want to shell out more money, there’s ones that are like $80 that will last you a lifetime.

I would recommend fishing to students because you can also meet a lot of people through fishing. I’ve met tons of people that are absolutely great. One of my friends, who I now constantly go fishing with, met me by complete chance when I was out fishing one time, and we became really close friends. I think there’s just a really good community in the fishing space, and at least from what I’ve seen, we care for each other, we help each other, and it’s nice.