Life As A Fisherman

Why Fishing, Why Here?

You might be wondering, why would I put this seemingly irrelevant topic on a professional website? It is a fair question. The fact is, my enthusiasm for scientific research is mirrored by my deep love for fishing. These two have more in common than one might think. Dive in as I share some of my most cherished fishing moments.

Empty Your Mind, Be Water

Figure | Left: a peaceful afternoon fishing on Maui island, where I caught my first Moray eel. Right: "The Crab and the Sea" - I kept wondering what Mr. Crab has been thinking..

You will probably spend 99% of time waiting before the next catch. What would you do during that time? Is it a waste of time? For me, fishing is a great way to interact with mother nature. While keeping an eye on my rod, I pretty much think about nothing else, just feel the wind, sunshine, and horizon..

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
— Bruce Lee

Know What You Are Doing & Be Patient

Figure | Some recent catches (catfish & carp). My current personal best carp weighs 9.1lb.

Just like doing scientific research, typically you are the only one knowing what exactly you are doing/up to. Others might have doubts on you - "Can this guy really catch anything?". Well, fishermen spend most of the time waiting for the next big catch, so it seems we are not really doing anything at all? Isn't doing research exactly the same?

One of the greatest lessons I've learned from fishing, is to remain optimistic, and be patient. Good things will happen, when the time comes. Everybody knows this in theory, but fishing is a very practical way to fully understand it.

Figure | Bass and king salmon. I'm currently working on improving my bass-fishing skills.

P.S. I follow the catch & release protocol to protect the environment and ecosystem sustainability, except for invasive species such as round goby and red-eared slider.

Embrace Uncertainty

Figure | Some unexpected yet interesting catches. E.g., juvenile green sunfish, round goby, bluegill, blue catfish, red-eared slider, sea urchin, sea cucumber. Lots of fun.

After casting out your bait, you never know what comes next. Sometimes you aim for a carp, but eventually end up catching a catfish (it happens a lot). Just like scientific research, you have some sense of your destination, but the exploration trajectory is stochastic and could lead to unexpected research outcomes. To me personally, the semi-deterministic process with stochastic perturbations is quite charming.

Be Professional & Keep Grinding

I take fishing seriously, and I soon realized this is a challenging sport. The rewarding mechanism of fishing is indeed quite interesting - before figuring out the correct approach, you may always receive negative feedback. In order to succeed, one must find the right spot (find the structure), use the right lure/bait (know the diet of different species), be at the right time (at dawn or sunset), for each target species.. And of course, you also need to be lucky enough.

Feel free to reach out to me for further discussions if you find it interesting. I'm happy to share more and learn from you as well.