Fishing in the canals

Walking along the canal the other day,  we came across two guys fishing, well one was fishing the other was followjng along behind totting an empty bucket. I assume he was there to carry the catch, he maybe have been the back up for pulling in the fish. I did ask if they had any and was rewarded with a shake of the head and was shown the empty bucket.
When I say he may have been the relief or back up fisherman, we saw that it took great arm strength to pull up the net. It was dropped in, that was not a problem left for a couple of minutes then he crossed his arms and hoisted the net. The muscles in his arms really came into play when he hauled it in.

The poles are bamboo and the net stretched about three metres with small weights on it. We watched him throw it in a bout four times walking up the canal a few metres and throwing it in again. Twice he had to walk around a woman washing clothes in the canal. Everytime we walk by the canals there is always at least one woman washing clothes in there. Last night, I left for a walk at 4.30, this is the middle of winter and half way around on a different part of the canal where two women washing clothes and one washing vegetables. It is not the cleanest looking water either.