God’s Will and the Ocean: Episode 69

God’s Will and the Ocean
True Father Speaks on: Tuna Fishing and the Way of Life, page 222-225
July 5, 1984, Morning Garden

In Alaska, where there is halibut, I put my thoughts about this into practice and it worked very well. When I am out tuna fishing, I am always thinking like this, how to do things and what to do next. My mind is never idle. When I went fishing for halibut in Alaska I caught twice as much as the others. They wondered how I did it, but I didn't tell them. However, there isn't much to it. You just have to think, and when your assumption is right, you will catch the fish you are going after. You have to know the habits of the fish, the tendency of the fish and the terrain. The rest is logical reasoning. You think to yourself, "This is so and this must be it." You then try it out and you discover, "that must be it." That is how it works. In the ocean, there are different fish at different layers of the water. Fish live along the bottom and then a few feet above that, and then still above that there are other fish. At different layers and water temperatures, there are different types of fish. Fish are very sensitive. They want to live in the environment which suits them best. They don't live in unfavorable environments like man does. Generally, the differences in depth of water determine the difference in temperature. It tends to get colder as it gets deeper. The difference is only a little, but this difference means quite a bit to fish. Remember, the fish will also go where there is feed. Each different species of fish preys upon fish smaller than themselves. They never prey upon fish that are larger.

Someone may assume that whales and tuna are big fish, so they must be in deeper waters. But don't just assume that. Think of where they would feed. The smaller fish are up in the higher levels. Even if the tuna like to be down deep, they must come up to feed. And sure enough, they do. That's where we catch tuna the most. If you only drop your bait in the deepest waters, you will never catch them. The temperature of the water, the type of feed and the environment, especially where they can be protected, all determine where the fish are going to be. And also, fish spend some of their time playing and resting; that is where the water is still and calm. After they feed, they go to play. The afternoon and early evening are the times when they usually play around.

You have to think about the currents. The small fish don't want to feed in the fast moving currents. Even the large fish find it difficult to feed and swim in strong currents. A lot of this is learned through experience. However, you have to have some idea of things before you also experience them. On the other hand, even if you know the basic theory of something, you don't really know it until you experience it. Think about the moon. There are different phases to the moon. According to what it shows you, quarter moon, half moon or full moon, the tide changes. Every day of the month is not the same. Sometimes the tide moves more strongly. At high tide, the water moves faster. Look at the watermark. You can tell if it is the high tide of the month or the low tide of the month.

It means this. When you know it is high tide, but the watermark is still higher than that, you know that it is the low tide of the month. Do you follow? There is a six hour interval between the high tide and low tide. There is high tide, then mid-tide and then low tide. From low tide it goes back to mid-tide and then high tide. The cycle moves like this and it covers twenty-four hours, two high tides and two low tides. 

When you are tuna fishing, you have to consider the tides. You have to think, "What kind of tide is it now, high or low? Is the tide going out or coming in?" You have to ask, "If the tide is going out, what is the tendency of the fish? If it is coming in, what do the fish most likely do?" You have to put all this information together in your mind. And then, you must go out and experience it.

There are fish who eat when the tide is coming in, so when the tide starts to move in, you cast your bait and you can catch a lot. On the other hand, when the tide is moving out, you can even see the fish and yet, no matter how much you cast your bait they do not even touch it. Fish tend to feed at certain times of the day. They feed according to the tides, currents and also the time of the day. This is true of land animals. Have you ever observed a rabbit? There is a certain time the rabbit feeds. There is a very good reason for when they come out to eat. The rabbit does not want to eat in the middle of the day when the hawk is able to spot him clearly. The whole animal kingdom operates like this. They move about at the best times for their protection. For example, the tiger feeds at night. They do this when the small animals are sleeping. They travel up to 100 miles on their excursions. Elephants feed early in the morning when it is not too hot; the rest of the day they look for shade under the trees or they go to the watering hole. This kind of pattern is less and less predictable when it comes to lower animals. The small fish will feed at any time, but the larger fish have a distinct time when they come to feed in full force. Don't over emphasize that fishing is simple. Don't think you can go out anywhere, anytime and just throw out the bait. Don't think it just comes by luck. There is a whole lot more to catching fish than that. You have to study in detail. Then of course, after all that, there is some small element of luck.

Putting Theory into Practice, Practice into Life

I don't expect you to memorize this from one end to the other. You think you understand everything now, but when you get out there in your boat, you won't remember the first thing. However, teaching you in lectures is necessary. Even though you have never put this into practice yet, it is like a seed planted in your mind. By next year, you will begin to realize things and say to yourself, "Oh, what Father said has real meaning; I'm going to put it into practice."  It is like martial arts. The first thing you learn is basic form. However, when you are involved in fighting, you forget all about those forms. You just try to do whatever you can. Later, much later, as you keep using it, you come back to those forms and even use them naturally when you are sparring or fighting. How do you eventually learn anything? Through the practice of it. This is how you learn martial arts. It is not so much the lessons that teach you, but having to fight. In fighting you learn to put together all the lessons. And the one who becomes a champion is the one who challenges to fight again and again, even if he has to fight for twenty-four hours at a time. That kind of commitment eventually makes him the best in his class. It is not the big guy who wins, but the guy who has the most determination and trains the hardest.

It is the same with fishing. The message for us here is that we have to work hard and experience all the aspects of fishing, even twenty-four hours a day. For at least three years, you should fish in these grounds and explore these areas much more than anyone else. When you become familiar with all these things, you catch more fish in two or three hours than all the others who come and fish the entire day. You must become an expert like this. You just have to start trying things and find out for yourself what works and what doesn't. There is some distance between Provincetown and Gloucester. Also, the fish behave in a different way according to the different tides, currents, depths of water and terrain below. You have to know all about these things.

You have to study other kinds of fish besides tuna. You have to study the fluke and flounder. In other areas we could catch a lot around twenty feet deep, but in these waters you can't find them at twenty feet at all. So, we have to look for them, perhaps in fifteen feet of water or even less. The New Hope is a large boat and it is hard to get into shallow areas. The captain is always worried when I tell him to go anywhere near ten feet of water.

The One Hope can go into that depth of water easily. In that sense, it is an all round fishing boat. I designed that boat with the greatest fishing ability in mind. It can truly go fast and it can fit into almost every fishing situation. Some people think the boat is not economical, but if you know where to fish, you can get there quickly and get home quickly. If you don't study and know where you are going, you have to travel all over the place and still not find the fish. In that case, the boat is not so economical. However, if you study and know exactly what kind of fish you want and exactly how you are going to get it, another kind of boat which is slower is less economical. You waste time. You might save on some gas, but you waste the whole day and come back with nothing. What is so economical about that?