What the scale weighing the huge queenfish told the judges, young Mohammad Hassan Kara knew already. Bringing it in and laying it on the green mat alongside the rest of the day’s catch of other anglers, the 11-year-old already knew that his was one of the largest in size and would likely end up being the heaviest as well.

“10.25kg!” announced the person at the scale. It was the heaviest one yet but rules are rules and Hassan had to remain content with the child angler’s trophy.

“Children from eight to 15 can take part of course but they come under a separate children’s category,” pointed out Syed Aziz Agha, the pioneer of saltwater sport fishing in Pakistan.

It was the silver jubilee of the annual deep sea fishing tournament, which Agha organises. The anglers had been up and about early. “I’ve been up since 4am when we headed towards Mubarak Village from where we rented out the boats,” said Romis Ali, another deep sea angler at the tournament.

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It’s again that time of year when recreational anglers venture out into the open sea in search for adventure and game fish

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But Romis wasn’t happy with his catch. “I only caught small barracuda,” he said. “There are several areas in the sea where we can find big fish but I made a wrong decision and passed Charna Island to head towards Chhota Charna as we thought we would find kingfish or cobia there but this is what we got,” he said gesturing towards his catch. “The sea today was not good for angling,” he shrugged.

But young Hassan didn’t believe so. This was his third time among the big catchers. “Two years ago, I won the child angler’s third-position trophy, last year I picked up the child angler’s runners-up trophy and this time I would have been among the big winners, the grownups, but they say that I’m underage,” was his only grievance as he showed off his catch, cradling it in his arms as if it were his baby.

Next to him stood Fatima Kara, his little sister, who also wanted to take part in the tournament but was so young that she couldn’t even get into the child angler’s category. “Well, she’ll be eight next year, so she can take part then,” said Hasnain Kara, the kids’ father, as their mother Sabina Hasnain, another expert angler, patted her daughter’s head.

“Hassan opted out of the Sindh Men’s Swimming Championship for the fishing tournament,” his mother said. “He was swimming in the 12-and -under 100m butterfly race but decided to come here instead,” she informed.

“I enjoy my swimming and the child angler’s trophy that I won will be taken for my swimming coach to see for himself and not be too mad at me,” the boy smiled. “What can I do? I enjoy angling too. It was a tough decision but I could only make it to one place and this was it,” the sixth grader said.

Meanwhile, although there is the separate category for kids, there’s nothing of the sort for women anglers. Shahida Murtaza also caught a 7.5kg queenfish. “Angling is all about technique so there’s no separate women’s category,” she pointed out.

About her preparation for the tournament, she said, “Well, it’s up to us how often we head out to the sea. It’s not that we come out only for such tournaments, we can go out every week but hiring boats doesn’t come cheap, something in the vicinity of Rs10,000 to Rs20,000. It is easier on the pocket to go in groups then so that everyone can split the rent. But we book the boats in advance before the tournament, otherwise what if we reach there early and find nothing?”

The type of boat matters as well: “There are the dhonda boats, as locals call them and then there are the horah boats, which are sword-shaped. The horah boats are easier for trolling and catching bigger fish,” she explained.

Another angler, Kamran Ahmed explained that ideally the time for trolling for big fish in deep seas starts from the last week of September to the middle of November. “Actually, 27 degrees Celsius and above is a good time for finding the big fish. The fish here get fewer as the temperature drops,” he added.

The angler also shared that sport fishing equipment such as tackle, bait, reels and rods also don’t come cheap. “Everything isn’t even readily available in Pakistan. The best equipment is made in the US or Japan but what we get here is mostly made in China. A Chinese rod, for instance costs around Rs4,000 but a Japanese or American one will be somewhere in the vicinity of Rs25,000 to Rs35,000. Just the reel can cost you Rs100,000,” he shared.

This year’s champion angler was Captain Mohammad Altaf, who caught seven queen fish, one king fish and a mackerel but the top prize he got was for one of his queen fish that weighed in at 10.25kg. “The mackerel I caught weighed in at 8kg, which was a tie with another contestant but the rules say that whenever there’s a tie the angler who reports first walks away with the prize. That’s what happened with the mackerel but still I got the trophy for the biggest catch for my 10.25kg queenfish,” he beamed.

The senior angler, who is also a mariner working as deputy harbour master with the Karachi Port Trust, said that he has been angling for some 45 years now. “With me, it is not just a hobby but a passion,” he said.

Asked what they did with so much fish after the competition, Captain Altaf said that they ate it of course. “There are always pending requests from friends and neighbours to share our shikaar so we have the fish cleaned up and cut into pieces and presented to our friends. The rest we eat ourselves,” he said.

But the young angler Hassan was hoping to get his catch stuffed, which judging by his parents’ expression didn’t look like it was something they would agree to.

Regular sport fishing tournaments were started by Aziz Agha in 1990. Later, he also introduced the bill fish tourney, exclusively for catching marlin and tuna fish, in 1997, in which 222 anglers, including 13 ladies, participated on 54 boats.

“Catching a marlin is considered an ultimate in game fishing. It is a million-dollar sport abroad. In the US, an average tour for marlin catching will cost around US $10,000 and in Australia a nice marlin catching tour package amounts to Aus $25,000. There are dozens of such tours held all over the world where the prize money for catching the heaviest marlin is one million US dollars,” shared Agha who has also fished in destinations such as the Tropic Star Lodge in Panama, Boston, Miami and Key West, Florida besides featuring in the Marlin Fishing World Cup in Mauritius back in 2000, where he ran into English cricketer Alan Lamb playing his 8th Fishing World Cup.

“Karachi is by nature blessed with three species of marlin — black, blue and striped. Not many big fishing destinations of the world can boast of having all three so you can imagine the tourism potential of our waters,” continued the angler who has the honour of having caught all the three types.

The law and order situation is another major factor hindering the sport from developing here. “Sometime back some anglers were kidnapped on their way back from Mubarak Village and released only after paying heavy ransoms,” he informed, “which is why no foreigners would be interested in coming here any longer. But we still have plenty of potential for local tourism,” he added.

“The sea is our playground. If you destroy the pitch in a cricket match, well, how can you play? If the playground is not saved, the sport could also die,” said the man who introduced sport fishing in this part of the world by founding the King Fisher Club in 1984.

Twitter: @HasanShazia

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 26th, 2014