Flying ants

My summer favourites.

They work very well on our local rivers and streams especially when the water level is low, and fish are easy to get spooked by big and flashy flies.


Flying Ant

Hook: TMC100BL, #24 - #18
Body: fine natural dubbing, black / red brown
Underwing: CDC, natural tan
Hackle: black


夏の定番の羽アリです。これからシーズンの終わりまで良く活躍してくれます。

ダンやカディスは見切られる事があっても、夏の鱒は蟻には弱いようです。




EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro

Making a rod binder

I was driving around today to get these.

Hopefully, I will be able to make a rod binder using these parts.


今日は、午後からロッドバインダー用のパーツを探しに行きました。

４枚のワッシャーの様な物とスプリングは、古いミシンのパーツをリサイクルしました。バインディング時に糸のテンションを調節するのに使う予定です。ミシン屋のおやじさんに、「こんだけのパーツでいくら？」と聞いたところ、「暑いからビールが飲みたい」と言うので、ビール一杯分のお金を渡してきました。

３個のプーリーは、ドライブベルト用。スライディングドア用の滑車を流用しました。このどうでも良さそうな滑車が一個７ドルと結構な値段でした。ただ、色んな店を回ってみた結果、他に使えそうなパーツが無かったのでしょうがありません。でもバインダーの完成品を買うとなると２００ドル以上はするので、まあ安い買い物でしょうか。

The sky was beautiful today

庭から見上げた今日の夕方の空です。

Caddis Hatch in WA

We have a good hatch of caddis flies which begins just after sunset on one of our local dams.

The window of opportunity is short but the action is quite intense. If the hatch starts as normal, you can expect to see fish rising everywhere around you for about a half hour. I usually stop fishing when I loose the site of my dly flies as the sky gets darker, but my friend told me that there is a second wave of hatch starts a hour or so later in a total darkness.

I usually see a few different types of caddis during the hatch. Larger ones and smaller ones come out together, and this makes fishing more interesting. On top of this, trout can be targeting on resting adults waiting to take off, or feeding selectively on emergers. It is a fun time for anyone interested in "matching the hatch game" specially for us in Western Australia where trout fishing is quite limited.

From my experience, the hatch starts around late September and runs into November. It appears to me the hatch gets smaller as the weather becomes warmer as well as the water level gets serverly dropped (the water is being used for irrigation on farms on down stream).


This pattern is to match those larger ones usually come out at the beginning of the hatch.


C.D.L Flatwater Caddis

Hook: TMC2312, #10 - #12
Body: fine natural dubbing, tan
Underwing: CDC, natural tan
Overwing: Coq De Leon, medium prado, two feathers trimmed
Hackle: light ginger
Antenna: wood duck

よく釣りに行くダム湖では１０月から１１月の夕方３０分程トビケラのハッチがあります。２センチ程の大きめの種類を初め、中型、小型と３から４種類の虫が羽化します。

これは、大きめのトビケラ用にデザインしたパターンです。

釣りの際には、この毛針の後ろにトレイラーとして＃１８程の小さなカディスを結びます。多くの場合、鱒は小さい方の毛針に出ます。大きい方はむしろストライクインディケーターとして使っています。

Let's plane some bamboo

I began rough-planing today.

Heat straightening was fiddly and stressful.

Planing, on the other hand, is more therapeutic. I like the feel of a plane taking thin shavings on each stroke. It is rhythmical and much more like casting a line with a fly rod.

いよいよ荒削りを開始です。

一定のリズムで鉋をかけていると、なんだかフライキャスティングをしている様な気持ちになります。

Hello Mr. Trout

Hello Mr.Trout

How you are doing in this lousy hot weather.

I hope water is not too hot for you.

I will come down to catch you once the weather gets cool down, so please don't get dried up, and don't get caught until I get down to the river.

トラウト先生へ

この暑い夏の日々、いかがお過ごしですか。

水はぬるすぎではありませんか。

もう少し涼しくなったら釣りに行きますから、それまで干上がらず、また下手な釣り人に釣られないでいてください。

それでは。

EF 50mm f/2.5 macro

Garden flowers part II

Some shots of flowers again.

今日も暑い夜なので、涼しげな花の写真をアップロードしました。








EF 24mm f/2.8 & EF 50mm f/2.5 macro

my new plane for rod making

My new plane just arrived yesterday.





This is my second block plane from Lie-Nielsen.

I've been using a low-angle plane (left on the picture) for general woodworking.

The plane on the right is a new high-anlge one that I bought for rod making. It has a grooved sole to work on the planing form.


View from the back.


The grooving on the sole of the high-angle plane

新しいブロックプレーンです。刃のアングルが低いローアングルの物は、以前から木工に使っていましたが、今回買ったのは刃が乗る台座の角度が高いタイプで、竿作り用に底には溝も切ってあります。

Straightening bamboo

I thought splitting was hard, straightening bamboo strips were even harder. I already broke two strips.

I think straightening requires patience and decisiveness, two important human characters which I often lack.

To heat strips up, I used an alcohol lamp first, but I soon felt it wasn't for me. It was very difficult for me to get a right temperature without strips being flamed up and carbonized like Captain Solo.

I then switched to a heat gun, and it worked better for me.

My heat gun is one made by Bosch. I bought it because it has a variable temp controller with a digital setting. Unfortunately it didn't come with a flat nozzle, which is only available as an option with a price tag of $24. Instead, I went to see a local workshop fixing exhaust pipes. They made one for me on the spot for $10.

This fish-tail shape exhaust pipe reminds me of old BSA Bantam I used to have.



I am wonderling how "straight" each strip has to be before I can start rough planing.

Some people say the strips only need to be straight around nodes, while others say they need to be as straight as arrows.

Also, rod makers appear to have diffeent views on actual straightening techniques. One school says, "put in the vice and tighten as hard as you can", yet another argues not to put strips under too much pressure as they can be deformed, etc.

I guess this is an area where I need to get a feel of it, and find out what works best for me. This only comes with a lot practice, which means a lot of broken strips...

竹割りに続いて曲げ直しですが、いやー難しいです。ちょっと力を入れただけでポッキーンです。

ティップとバットと合わせて１２本終えましたが、なんとなくどれだけ熱を加えれば良いかが見えてきました。

ところでこの曲げ直し、どれだけ真っすぐにしなくてはいけないのでしょうか？

Splitting bamboo

"Like a bamboo split". It is a Japanese expression to describe people with straight and fair personalites.

After having my first experience of bamboo splitting, I now feel this old expression is bit misleading. I don't think bamoo splits straight that easily.

I've tried a few different methods to split bamboo, but so far, I feel "a knife in a vice" method is the easiest for me to get 4 to 6mm wide strips.

I chose a cheap kitchen knife (not a samurai sword) to use as a splitting knife. It has a 10 mm x 200 mm blade, and it is a long enough to use in a vice on my workbench. The thickness of the blade is about 3 mm.

I cut off the tip of the blade with a hacksaw, so it now has a square tip. I did this, so it won't stab me in case if I slip. I also took off its cutting edge with an oil stone again for the same reason.

I put a piece of pine (40mm thick and 1500 mm long) in the vice to act as a table on which a bamboo strip can lay flat when I do splitting.

I have found out that it is a good idea to plane down the pith side of each strip to flatten nodes and other high areas. By doing this, the strip can stay flat on the table without rolling to left and rihgt as I split it.


EF 50mm f/2.5 macro

バットセクションの竹割りは無事終了。最初の何本かは、きれいに半分に割れずに片方に先細りになってしまいました。この問題は、ピス側の節とエッジを鉋で平にする事で解消しました。ただ、慣れた人ならナタ一本で５、６mmの幅に簡単に割れるのでしょうね。

それにしても、「竹を割った様な」と最初に言った人はロッドビルダーでは多分ないでしょう。

Garden flowers

I've never seen a flower of spring onion before.

都会育ちなもんで、ネギの花って初めてみました。


EF 24mm f/2.8

Fly fishing in Perth

Swan River and Canning River are two water systems runing through the Peth metropolitan area.

Although you don't find trout in these rivers, you can still catch other fish on flies.

パース市内を流れるスワンリバーとカニングリバーでは、クロダイなどがフライで釣れます。残念な事に、いくら上流に行っても鱒はいませんが。








EF 24 mm f/2.8



An unknown bait fish caught on C.D.C Caddis

Trout fishing in Western Australia

Some pictures of our trout in Western Australia.

夏が暑く雨の降らないこの土地でも鱒はひっそり暮らしています。








EF 50mm f/2.5 macro

Planing Form

I have just finished making my planing form.

I know that there is a still long process to get the first rod, but I am realy happy with the form being done because it took a long time to finish.

I have used an off-cut of steel bar which I found in a workshop. That workshop gave it to me for free, and allowed me to use their tools to drill holes and tap them.

60 degree groove is cut with triangular files.

I think the form came out very well.

A tolerance is between 0.01 mm to 0.02 mm too deep or too shallow at each 5 inch station. I don't think I can go closer than that with my skills.

The only catch is that the form is bit too short because the length of the off-cut I found. It looks like the max length of 2pc rods I can make is 7'4".

I don't worry too much about the length of my form at this stage though because the reason I decided to build cane rods is to build short rods for local streams anyway.

The form is finally finished, and at last I can start working with bamboo.

ハンドメイドのプレーニングフォームがようやく完成です。


暇な時間にちょこちょこと作業し、やっとの事で出来上がりました。ヤスリでガリガリと表面を平にして、今度は三角のヤスリで６０度の溝をガリガリ削りました。


工場の廃材から生まれ変わったこのプレーニングフォーム、ちょっと短いのが難点です。でも作りたい竿は７フィート以下のショートロッドなので、まあ問題はないでしょう。


先の長いロッドメイキング、これでやっとスタートラインです。

Hello Everyone

Hello Everyone, and welcome to my blog.

I love fly fishing and photography,
so this will be another fishing & photo blog.


Thanks