What do an office worker, 10,000 livestream viewers and a $400,000 tagged carp have in common?
They are all part of fishing's unexpected comeback in China.
Only now anglers are getting younger and gear is getting smarter.
Once a retiree's pastime, fishing has become a blind box thrill for stressed millennials and social currency for Gen Z.
From cloud fishing spectators to Wi-Fi connected rods, a new generation is riding the sport one bite at a time.
Today, we explore why millions are trading screen time for stream time.
Coming to you from our studios in Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm Feifei.
And for today's discussion, I'm joined by Steve Heatherly and Yushan.
Now.
Imagine spending your weekend watching a stranger stare at water for hours and loving every minute of it.
In China, fishing has transformed from grandfather's hobby into a youth-driven phenomenon, where patience meets adrenaline and nature becomes the ultimate status symbol.
With 140 million enthusiasts, half under the age of 44.
The sport is spawning hashtags and smart road startups and a new kind of urban escape.
What happens when a generation hooked on speed discovers the slow life?
Let's find out.
Hello, Yushan and Steve.
We're talking about... a pretty familiar sport to many of our listeners, which is fishing.
But apparently a big shift is happening.
What kind of shift is happening here in China?
You were so correct in mentioning that it used to be a grandpa's hobby because I remember very clearly that when I was young, Going fishing or rather watching other grandpa fishing and you gather as a circle surrounding that person was such a huge deal for a lot of the kids and for a lot of the elders in the community to whenever there is, you know, there's a park and back then it was still allowed in the park.
So yeah, nowadays we see such a huge shift in China, where fishing is undergoing this transformation, if I may call it.
And you can see it in everyday scene across the country.
For example, in late March, there's been a...
So there we're witnessing a clear shift.
So instead of the stereotypical older anglers and older fishing lovers attending the event, the crowd is actually packed with people in their 20s and 30s.
Some post-95 participants, so around my age late 20s, early 30-year-olds.
We were only there out of curiosity, but still end up learning how to cast and also the techniques for fishing and then eventually buying the first foldable rod set for themselves.
So that's how this whole transformation is happening.
So there hasn't been such events all the time in China that I can vouch for.
So nowadays, we're seeing young people attending and becoming part of this trend.
And it's also not only happening in like big gatherings like an expo as well.
I think in many, many city areas or outskirts of the city areas.
Yeah, it's happening here in Beijing too.
In places like Tongzhou, young people.
It's not just like a go out and do this by yourself type of thing.
Right.
This is a full day social activity where groups of friends they'll wake up quite early in the morning.
They'll get all set up by the water and they will stay there all day long until the sun goes down.
And fishing is just kind of kind of like one of the activities that they'll do.
They'll hang out with each other.
They'll chat.
They'll eat.
A lot of them, they might look like beginners, but they are there for the social aspect of it, too.
Yeah.
And you see, nowadays people even like to watch other people going fishing online through live streams.
That's something new that I've only learned about recently too, that fishing live streams are drawing in thousands of, sometimes tens of thousands of viewers all tuning into this channel.
Where you just see someone fishing so quietly.
It's like one of those slow live stream that we talked about that you just vibe with them.
And quiet, quiet live streams.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You don't expect a lot, but occasionally there is a woof this guy's got something and then you see what type of fish he's got.
Yeah, it's like a blind box in a way.
Yeah, so I have this question for you guys have you tried fishing?
You know before, not yet.
How does it feel?
Uh, i did it in college.
Um, my roommate was big into fishing and in nova scotia there are a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of lakes, so it's not hard to find a spot to go and and be by yourself kind of thing, like it's not like there's 50 other boats in the lake at the same time.
I remember many times going and we were the only people there.
Now, did I enjoy it?
Not really.
It's mostly you're just sitting there doing nothing for the majority of the time.
But I think that's part of the attraction for people is that it's just very relaxing.
It's very cathartic.
It's kind of like cooking.
I know I bring up cooking a lot, but for me I like it because of what I get from it.
I don't really like fishing because I don't get a lot from it.
Also, I don't think I'm good at it.
I never actually learned how to do it.
I just throw the line in the water and hope for the best.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's that suspense of the bite, right?
You're just watching them doing nothing.
But until that moment that they actually catch something, and then the big reveal what did they catch as they bring it out of the water.
So I kind of understand it.
So you know.
That's why, when we're talking about fishing, I think traditional.
Well, the stereotype of fishing is something that my grandfather was do, somebody who retired or the older generation would do, because it's slow, requires long hours sitting alone, sitting still and waiting playing chess.
Yeah, yeah.
You're not allowed to yell.
But I don't think there are a lot of like mind games going on when it comes to fishing.
Right.
Online though.
I mean, if you go on Red Note the hashtag, there's a specific hashtag called the joy of fishing.
That's got over two and a half billion followers.
So it's not just niche anymore, right?
This is something that young people have really embraced.
And why are young people attracted to this low-key, long hours, slow-paced activity?
I think you just maybe stated all the reasons why.
Yeah, first of all, I think we mentioned there is the blind box syndrome or sort of an attraction that's hooking up a lot of the young people nowadays.
Because you never know what you can get, when you're going to get it or if you're ever going to get anything from this trip.
And I think that's kind of... the appeal of this whole activity too.
You don't know what's beneath the water or when the fish will strike.
The unpredictability itself is what's attracting a lot of us.
And then there's also the adrenaline shot when you know you see the fish bites, when you see that little symbol I don't even know how to call it in English you know that one red line plastic thing that's, you know, going up and down.
When the fish bites it, it goes down yeah, and for the rest of the time it just stands floating on the water.
When that thing moves, like a boil or something, your heart moves and beats harder with it.
So that's when the dopamine kind of shoots you in a way to make you extra switching or extra engaging in this activity.
And that's the switch mode from the quiet and calmness and then to, oh, Did I get something?
Kind of the mindset.
So that's really an interesting balance in one activity.
Yeah, that's the thrill, I guess, side of things.
But then there's the disconnect side too.
Right.
It's not connecting. in the city.
It's not downtown that you're doing this.
So there's a connection with nature that young people get from this.
It's time to put their phone down and not care about social media, not check text messages from bosses or phone calls or whatever it is.
It's a time to just Be alone with yourself and be on the water.
It's usually quiet, really quiet there as well.
I think that kind of cure for urban sickness. is another big reason why people are enjoying it.
Yeah, we talked a lot of similar activities where young people just finding a place to zone out and to just be with him or herself and away from all the, you know, scrolling of social media and messaging on WeChat.
I think even for people who don't enjoy social fishing, watching it online is almost cathartic, because it is almost like an asmr type of experience the birds chirping in the background exactly, and you're not watching anything.
That's really, if you think about other live streams that are on social media, If people are selling something or if they're just in front of the camera, it's usually like high energy.
This is the opposite of that.
So it's kind of like the anti-everything else in people's lives when they get to either do it as an activity themselves or watch it online.
Yeah, it's interesting we're mentioning that more people nowadays are watching this online.
It's because there's got the social aspect of things too when we're looking at fishing.
Yeah, previously there used to be like a circle of friends.
Usually back in the days is like middle-aged or elders who go together to a water reservoir or a park to you know segue, like like put a bit of distance between each other and fish together and go.
But but they arrive there together and they go back home together.
And nowadays young people kind of do the same too.
They but more like through online channels.
They, if they catch something, or even if they don't, they're just posing for the fishing.
They like to send it on social media and add hashtags on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu and tell people that this is a vibe that I'm taking nowadays.
And I don't know if it's suitable to mention it as an example, but a lot of the dating apps, especially when it comes to North American markets.
I see a lot of people showing their profile picture on their dating account as themselves holding a huge catfish or something that they just got from their fishing activity and they're really proud of it.
You know, it's the first photo on their dating app account, so i guess it it's got this appeal.
And yeah, a lot of those are really young young person too.
Yeah, fishing is a big part of North American culture, I guess.
In America, there's almost 60 million people.
That's about what almost 20 of the population that fished in 2024 that actually like went and did it.
Maybe not as a hobby as a full time hobby, but at least did it once.
That was a record high in that year.
So my guess would be that it's growing in America.
And as I said, you know, when I was in university, lots of people used to do this for fun.
And I think part of the reason too, is that it's really easy to get into it.
That's true.
You don't need a lot of lessons.
You don't need a lot of lessons and you don't need a lot of um money either.
I mean, fishing rods can get very very, very expensive if you want them to.
But you can just go with a bamboo pole and a thin line to get started if you wanted to.
That's how kids in the rural areas would fish, you know, with a bamboo stick and some kind of a really stable line, and that's how they fish.
Did you try when you were young?
My only fishing experience, I would say, happens in the gaming world.
And I do get that adrenaline shot, even in the digital world, in the gaming world, when I feel the buzz on my control that a fishing just bite on my catch not catch, but bite on the rod or something um that i start to get excited and i really start to push the buttons and then voila, that's my catch and i get to learn different species of fish.
I think i think in western culture it starts often with your family, like if you have, if you have a mom or a dad who enjoys fishing, or at least people in your family, then you're probably going to get into it as a young person.
But if you don't, then you don't.
And I didn't write.
My parents didn't fish.
My cousins didn't fit.
Nobody, as a matter of fact.
So I didn't really get into it.
So when my university roommate, you know, suggested that we go together, I was doing it out of a lack of anything else to do.
I thought curiosity.
No, no, no.
I'm a bit sensitive, I suppose, when it comes to that.
Not to judge, but I always put myself in the shoes of the fish and I thought, you know, a hook in my mouth probably wouldn't feel very good.
So
I think it takes one try or two for everybody to know exactly if this is for you.
Yeah, that's a fair point.
If you try it for once and you don't like it, you know you don't like the long wait, the sitting quiet and the uncertainty of whether I'm going to get something or not.
But if you're into it, you're into it and you're willing to invest into it.
Because like you mentioned, Steve, people pay a lot of money to upgrade their gears.
I read that there's a lot of tech gadget that you can really dive into in the realm of So some young people here in China.
They are buying really tech savvy gears like portable sauna, fish finders that connects to smartphones via Wi-Fi to display underwater action up to seven meters away.
It's like a fish detector.
It's like having a little map.
Doesn't that take the fun out of fishing?
I thought one of the fun of fishing is that you don't know what's happening underwater.
But before we talk about you know, since Yushan mentioned about the gears, I think it's also very important to for us to introduce some of the basic equipment when it comes to fishing for our listeners.
Because, when it comes to fishing, you need some of your basic gears, like your rods, your reel.
That's the basic setup.
The rod gives you the control and the reel manage the line.
And then the spinning reels are easy and beginner-friendly.
And then there are also high-tech.
Not high-tech, but more expertise.
Bait casting reels offer more precision and a bit of a learning curve for beginners.
And then there comes the line, what anglers call the terminal tackle, which is the hooks, the weights, the swivels.
This is where the business ends, and also where the technique really matters.
And then, as Yushan mentioned, there is a shift in how people fish currently, especially when a younger generation is getting involved.
When smart technology is getting involved, fishing is no longer just about the rod and the lines and the reel anymore.
I think in the beginning we talked about that.
Shanghai Expo is about lure fishing, which is an unconventional way of fishing.
Well, you just don't need live bait anymore.
When we're talking about live bait, it's like the worms.
Yeah, and you can use different stuff, different crickets or whatever.
I'm not an expert.
Whatever you're fishing for likes to eat. then that's the type of bait that you would use.
But I think a worm is always a safe bet.
But that involves well.
First of all you have to go get the worms.
Either yourself or you go to a bait shop.
And buying worms is just kind of a gross experience.
There's nothing really attractive about that at all.
And a lot of people don't like to put the worms onto the hooks.
It's also gross.
Nobody likes to handle a worm.
So for the people who are against that or don't like it, then you can use Allure.
And this is portable, it's clean, and this is more for keeping your hands clean during the whole process.
So it's like the artificial bait instead of a living creature swiggling your hands.
And it's popular among young people, I think also because it's clean and also Quite environmental.
Having that environmental awareness when it comes to you need to put on leaving worms onto the bait and that can trigger a lot of people.
But we were also seeing this new phenomena when it comes to catch and release, which is something that young people is also, I think, getting popular among the young people, which is that they catch the fish and then they release it back into the water.
But I thought once the fish's mouth is... is hooked like the way you do it during fishing.
They can no longer survive in water, even if you put it back.
No, they can.
A lot of studies claim that about 95 of all fish caught on artificial lines and lures they survive if you put them back.
If you keep them, their survival rate is zero.
But people still are concerned about the survival rates.
They don't fully justify the practice.
There are people that are against this, of course.
But yeah, people who do catch and release, which is what my university roommate used to do, that's where they treat fishing as a sport, as opposed to, you know, looking for your dinner type thing.
Really, you know, looking forward to the catch.
So that's why a lot of people are also getting into the cloud fishing, which is basically online fishing content.
That's involved from simple recordings of everyday fishing to highly structured, entertainment-driven live shows and short videos.
And earlier content also showed like routine fishing activities, but now expanded into other more competitive and dramatized formats, such as battles in fishing, fishing battles, fishing competitions, fishing tournaments.
You know there's fishing tournaments in america too yeah yeah, so i don't know exactly how they work, but you go and the people in the lake or wherever it is they're fishing.
The competitors will go to different parts of the lake Oh, and they use their fancy equipment like their sonars or radars or whatever it is they're using, to try and locate the fish.
And then they weigh them.
So, however many you catch, you just keep adding on to that weight, and whoever I think has the most weight or catches the biggest or heaviest fish is the winner of the competition.
They have fishing TV shows.
They might even have a fishing channel, as a matter of fact, where it's just 24-7 fishing content, which is also the live streaming that we talked about, that young people really enjoy.
And since Steve mentioned about all of the smart, high-tech sauna equipment, I think this is where fishing gears can get Pretty dramatic when it comes to this kind of technology.
When it comes to, you know, having a live sauna technology which shows fish movements in real time underwater.
And it's like watching a screen instead of, you know, reading the water like in traditional ways.
And there are others.
Rely on GPS enabled fish finders that map lakes and store hot spots and track underwater structures with really, really surprising precision.
So we can see a lot is happening.
But another thing that I want to touch on is what Steve also mentioned when it comes to fishing, there's also a social side to it.
And I also think that's one of the reasons why young people are attractive to fishing is not just about sitting alone by the lake on a boat.
It also means that you get to social, you get to build friend circles, you get to experience maybe the local landscapes and cultures as well.
Yeah, sometimes going on a fishing tour rings a bell with groups of friends.
Sometimes they see it as, you know, going on a camping tour.
So instead of going camping and going on barbecue, they just maybe use what they got from the pond as the resource for dinner.
That sounds a bit morbid, but I've seen live streamers doing that, like they...
Go fish together and they just cook on site with the fishes that they caught.
Or on the boat too.
Well yeah, but I guess here in China it's more or less still within the smaller or more of a niche side of the travel trend.
That you got to have a group of friends who all like to go on fishing together.
In order for that to fulfill,
Because if one or two doesn't like it in a group of five, for example, they're going to try to plan to do something else.
Well, I mean, I've gone golfing with people who don't like golfing or don't golf, and they just hang out and ride around in the cart together.
So yeah, I suppose it could be a thing for people who aren't into it.
But generally speaking, these
Groups of people will all be into the hobby Another thing they do which I think is really great some groups have even started activities called anywhere trash-picking and that's where when they're out fishing while they're fishing they'll collect litter and in the wild to help keep the space clean, which I think is a really nice thing to do.
And another thing they are also doing with that litter is they're creating their own DIY fishing gear.
That could be from some branches that have broken off trees that they'll collect, or something like that.
But they're making.
They're either making use of things that are no longer useful in nature or they're helping to clean up nature, which is nice.
Yeah, exactly.
And also when it comes to families.
I think it's a perfect chance to take on your family, go to a really nice suburb or in the lake by the ocean to have, like a parent-child fishing events.
Like Steve mentioned, a lot of North American families do is one of their bonding moments to go out fishing together.
So, since we're talking about this new transformation, this new trend among young people, that also means businesses.
You know industries, you know matter, is about making gears for the fishing lovers or, you know, basically for destinations, you who may be developing their own business models out of these fishing circle friends, communities.
A lot of new numbers are coming in as well.
Did you know China produces 80% of the world's fishing gear?
I have no idea, but it's not a surprise.
I didn't know that either, but yet I'm not surprised by that number.
And 80% of the world's fishing gear adds up to a whole lot of money.
In 2025 alone, the export value of fishing gear reached about almost 2 billion, which is pretty impressive.
I mean, if we just look at the domestic market alone, that's worth about 50 billion yuan, or about 7 billion.
So it's a massive, massive industry, both domestically and through the exports to the rest of the world.
Yeah, and when we look at China from different regions, there's also regional clusters.
That's really emerging as corporate giants in terms of the fishing industry as well.
For example, in eastern China's Shandong province.
It's by the sea, so a lot of its city is really known for fishery and the local businesses.
In the city of Weihai, for example, it's known as the capital of fishing gear.
It hosts over 1,400 enterprises and accounts for over 60% of global fishing rod sales.
So that 80% of the world's fishing gear allotted perhaps comes from Weihai.
And its annual industrial output value exceeds 10 billion yuan today.
That's roughly 1.4 billion U.S. dollars already.
So that's just one city in eastern China's Shandong province.
And then if we look down south in Hunan province, in Linxiang, it's known as the hometown of floats.
So this cluster controls over 80 of China's float market, with an output value of 85 billion yuan as well.
So we see a lot of different Chinese cities.
Previously, we've been touched upon this too.
They all are known for something as their own local pillar industry.
And in China we've seen a lot of such cities, that's in the fishing industry too in Weihai, in Lingxiang, in Suning, in Hebei province, and also in a lot of other places too.
So the capital market milestone is marked in February 2026, where Lei Xin Outdoor became the first fishing gear manufacturer to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as well, meaning that we're bringing this whole trade and sales and also like exchanging of ideas and expo idea for fishing industry to the outside world and getting it connected.
Not only that we're playing inside China, but getting the market connected with the rest of the world.
Yeah.
And also a lot of Chinese companies and brands.
They are also building their own really high end technology in some products.
For example, they are developing portable dynamic sauna that connects via Wi-Fi to smartphones, replacing really heavy traditional equipment.
And there are also other advanced systems.
For example, one company they are launching specialized reels and outboard mortars equipped with vector control algorithms and adaptive magnetic braking systems to provide smooth and professional grade population for specialized boats and safe fishing vessels.
And I think what's more interesting out there is that a lot of cities and locations they are building their future, creating this fishing plus something model in their own city.
Yeah, like tourism.
Yeah, exactly.
For example, in Changhai, do you know where exactly Changhai is?
I think it's in Hubei province, right?
In central China?
It's actually in the city of Dalian.
Yeah, you know, it's also pretty close to the sea area.
And they've linked fishing with catering and hospitality.
I actually have a friend who posts constantly on his moments on his WeChat circle about him fishing around China.
And Changhai is one of his spots.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Because you get to take on a boat.
First of all, you need to rent a boat.
You book a boat.
You plan your itinerary.
And you select your fishing spots.
And then you go out and then you come back, stay in one of the hotels.
You know that's the closed loop of.
You know experiencing fishing, you know trout seafood locally, and then the tourism stays.
And we have some stats that from January to August, Shanghai received more than 1 million inland tourism deaths and 15 increase and generated 14 billion yuan in tourism revenue.
And another city I want to point out is actually Sanya that follows very, very similar pattern when it comes to creating their fishing plus tourism.
In Hainan, you mean?
Yeah, exactly.
Because we talked about the yachting industry in Sanya before that.
People are renting yachting, going out to the sea and enjoying their own fishing experiences and then coming back to the local villages, for example, for traditional cultures and food.
My university roommates.
Now this is a different group of people who had no connection to fishing whatsoever.
They just saw an advertisement.
I went to St.
Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Halifax is right on the Atlantic Ocean, so we have lots of fishing-related stuff.
Anyway, they saw an advertisement for shark fishing.
So... Shark fishing.
Yep.
So what you do, What they did was they rented the boat, they chartered the boat and then they brought a couple of boxes of beer because they thought it was going to be like a big party day going out trying to catch a shark.
I said to them... These are my close friends, by the way.
I said if any one of you idiots actually catches a shark, I'll give you a million dollars, because I have no faith in any of you.
They came back about four or five hours later with the same boxes of beer.
I said, what happened?
You didn't have your little party out in the ocean?
And they said...
That was one of the most difficult experiences of our lives.
Ocean fishing is a totally different ballgame from being on a lake.
On a lake or on a riverbank, there's no waves.
Well, first of all, on a riverbank, you're standing on land, maybe a few feet into the water.
On a lake, you're on a calm surface.
Ocean fishing...
You're bouncing up and down with the waves.
So my dumb roommates got so sick on the boat that they couldn't even fish.
They caught nothing.
They paid hundreds of dollars to go do this as well and completely wasted their time.
That's a 1,000% waste of time and money.
That's also an experience, I would say, you know.
Oh, I was laughing so hard at them on that day.
But bravo for them trying to catch a shark.
Well, saved Steve a million, how many?
A million dollars.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
But they gave it a shot.
Yeah, but you know, before we end up this discussion, I do want to point out this is that the reason that we are having this fishing trend among young people, or all ages, basically It's also because of the environment.
You know, the lakes are getting cleaner, the rivers are getting clearer, and that is basically the foundation for a lot of these nature-based activities that we can enjoy today.
