The Clark Family's Amazing Adventures

I’ve always wanted to fish and any time I see a fishing trip on a board I ask my parents but they just say ‘No, we’ve already booked a snorkelling trip’ or something like that!

I had a brief chance at fishing in Ilha Grande but it was off a boat and I didn’t catch anything. On Boipeba we met some Americans and some Brits and before the snorkelling trip the manager of our Pousada gave us fishing line and hooks so we tried but lost a weight.

Then a local fisherman helped us and brought us prawns as bait but that didn’t work. After saying goodbye to our new friends there was a man standing on the rocks who had a big net!!! He threw the net in and pulled it up with thousands of little fish. Me and Zoe grabbed lots of them and we talked to the fisherman in sign language.

After that there was another local fisherman who we followed to his fishing spot. We stood about 3 metres apart. He showed me how to throw it in. You spin it round your head and then you let go in the direction that you want it to go. It goes pretty far as it has a weight on the end.

Me fishing

I put a whole little fish on the hook and I threw it out into the river. After about 10 minutes Zoe felt something and she passed the line over to me and there was a big tug so I passed it onto the local fisherman who was helping us. He pulled out the eel and then ran over to grab a stick but it was wet so when he whacked the eel the stick broke so he ran up the beech and got a bigger stick which he carved into a baseball bat and then he whacked the eel until it was dead and then he cut it underneath it’s head so I could stick my finger and in and take it back to the pousada.

Holding my eel

I was happy so I drew a picture in the sand. The fisherman drew the boat and while he was fishing I drew around it. He didn’t catch anything and I think he was a bit embarrassed.

My picture of the sea

I got a new friend called Gabrielle from French Guiana and drew this picture so that I could show him that I caught the eel. The Hula girl is another story!

How I caught the eel.

We only tried some of the eel because of the bones but the people at the pousada kitchen ate it and loved it.