Do Not Mess With Fish 261,

and you thought fish were fun!

these are fun, in a strange way, commonly called the tango or rosy bitterling, (Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus), photograph PFK, the object in Japan is not to catch the biggest, but the smallest of them, strange but true, tanago fishing is an ancient Japanese fishing method dating back to samurai over 200 years ago, tanago is a Japanese term used to describe several several species of a small freshwater fish we know as “bitterling”, some species of tanago grow up to 15cm in size, but these are the less valuable to fishermen, as the goal is to catch the smallest fish possible, tanago anglers believe that the smaller the fish caught, the greater the testament to the skill of the angler, 

 many enthusiasts spend small fortunes on specialized gear, Japanese bitterling are usually caught using a handmade bamboo rod called Edo Wazao, there are only a handful of such rod makers left in Japan, and the process of making such a tool can take up to two years, so they can be pretty expensive. Then there is the fine fishing line, and the hooks, which are usually sharpened under a microscope, using a jeweller’s diamond file, and the real testament to the anglers skill is shown above, the declared goal being to nail a bitterling that can fit on a one yen coin, photograph tsuribito_magazine,

but why the smallest fish?

for the answer to that one has to go back in time, legend has it that tanago fishing was born as a way of bypassing a prohibition on angling during the Edo period, fishermen could hide a tanago rod easily in a pouch or bag slung from the waist, but they became so fond of fishing for small fish that they never went back to angling, I think I will stick to cod fishing to go with the chips!