A man in Kinmen County who left his job in construction due to a chronic illness has found a new calling making eco-friendly fishing lures.
Wang Tsung-lieh (王聰烈) said that his love of fishing motivated him to make lures for a living, adding that he makes them only with wood to prevent damage to the marine environment.
The pandemic has caused a dent in sales, but he is still working hard at making the fishing tackle, he said.
Photo: CNA
Wang was introduced to lure fishing by a senior classmate when he was 17, and later taught himself to make lures, he said.
“Lures do just as their name suggests — they lure fish in by mimicking smaller fish. Lures can move differently in the water depending on how you manipulate the fishing line,” he said.
Asked how he ended up in Kinmen, Wang said that his mother and two brothers moved to the county 20 years ago to work in construction.
After his mother and older brother later passed away in Kinmen he made the trip for the funeral, he said.
While there, he felt that his fate was to live in Kinmen, so he relocated to the county, he said.
However, after his muscle atrophy worsened he was unable to continue doing construction work, and decided instead to follow his interest making lures, he said.
“I had graduated from a vocational high school and was good at working with machine tools, so for me, making lures was not difficult,” he said.
Wang said that while making lures by hand could be considered an artisan craft, a knowledge of fluid mechanics is necessary to make the lures move well in water.
Wang said that his lures move vertically and horizontally, in a natural way that mimics the movement of real fish and are not affected by waves.
The lures take one to two weeks to make, and cost between NT$280 and NT$4,000, depending on the level of their complexity, he said, adding that his lures are priced higher compared with those sold on the market, which are made of plastic and mass produced.
“Unfortunately, most of those plastic lures break from the line and end up as marine waste,” he said.
Well-crafted lures also have the benefit of being a collectible item for fishers, he said.
“Fishing enthusiasts have the habit of taking photos of their catches. If the lure is visible in the shot, it’s not uncommon for other enthusiasts who see the photo to buy the lure from the person who made the catch,” he said.
However, despite the collectability and practical nature of lures, the relatively small number of fishing enthusiasts in Taiwan means that he has a small market to pitch his wares to, he said, adding that the pandemic has made sales even more challenging.
“But I’m not giving up. I hope in the future I can add some local Kinmen element to my lures to make them even more unique,” he said. “I want to forge ahead on this island.”
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