Interviewed by Camille Antinori and Min Lee, April 10, 2025

With great courage and effort, Abdul Qasemi's family escaped wartime Afghanistan and created new lives in the US, first in Texas then in northern California.  After buying and managing a baitshop in Castor Valley, they became part of the fishing community and eventually became owners of the Berkeley Sportsman's Center baitshop, which has been a fixture of the Berkeley marina as far back as the older interviewees in this oral history collection can remember.  Opening shop at 5 am or earlier, when there are always folks waiting, Abdul manages the Berkeley location for the men, women and children who are seasoned fishers, go out on sportfishing boats or coming with families to learn for the first time. He relates his own fishing adventures and gives his perspective of what attracts his clientele to the area, describing it as its own little city.  The conversation discusses benefits of being on the water, especially during Covid, when many people discovered fishing for the first time and friendships were formed.   

Clip - MP3 (4.8 MB) 00:02:05 

Topics (in order): 

Getting into the baitshop business and the fishing community in Castro Valley

Uncle introduced them to fishing 

Opening shop at 5 am when he was 12 years old

Family immigrating from Afghanistan to escape the war

Father in Afghani airforce and stealing a Russian chopper

Starting anew in Texas

Mom came to SFO and went to Hayward

Parents married and his siblings

Being warned: don't go to California!

California is the state for me

Coming the Berkeley and doing the Berkeley thing

Fishing community as close knit

Hearing about this baitshop for sale and going for it

Clientele mostly from Central Valley, with folks seeking water and fresh sea air

Gets lots of people who used to live in Berkeley who come back here to fish

School field trips coming through but not too many local kids

Community of female fishers

The ~20 sportfishing boats at K-dock

Is fishing a dying sport? 

But fishing never really stops because it is resourcefulness

Fishermen as a stubborn lot in adapting and giving it their all

Phat Vo's Seabass boat was sold to David Lee and now to Jonathan aka Capt J 

 Some commercial fishing in here and more in Alameda because of cheaper rent

Hot items in the baitshop: bag of anchovies, the bait of the bay

Yes on subsistence fishing being here in Berkeley: saves money and a trip to the market

Halibut all day

How to cook shark

Crab season and the crab boil for the sportfishing boats

His own fish stories

Fishing is universal - you can go anywhere in world and fish

In his family, fishing is one thing all the guys do together

His fiance' joins them 

First thing he'll do with his kids is get them nautical early on

Fishing across socioeconomic class

Covid times: finding a way to stay open

Confusion but adapting to the rules

People seeking a way to get outdoors safely and finding fishing as an outlet

Seeing how badly people need to get outdoors

Pier closure: "that'd be sick if it opened": all California would benefit

Important as free medicine

More than a park around here  --  it is its own city 

Vision: less closure of things that help people out

Stories of fishing on pier, on Bay,  and catching fish, like sturgeon just around the Berkeley pier, with bait bought from his shop. 

Crazy catches: school of seabass coming through

Going to the Farralons

How he recommends getting started fishing

Berkeley Bait and Tackle Facebook and Instagram sites

Interview transcript (PDF)

Citation (APA style):

Qasemi, Abdul Zamarai Wasim, Antinori, C. and Lee, M.  Exploring Intergenerational and Community Connections to the Outdoors.  (2024).   Interview with Abdul Qasemi, conducted by Camille Antinori and Min Lee. April 10, 2025. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Berkeley Fishing Memories Oral History Project.