Walpole trip part2

The Walpole / Nornalup inlets offer many areas to fish.

The Walpole inlet is a smaller inlet where the town ship is located, whereas, the Nornalup inlet is much bigger, and has more and better places to fish.

The main target for fly fishing will be black breams, and you can chase them by carefully wading on flats and around drop offs, or go up the Frankland river and cast around snags.


Walpoleは町がある小さなWalpole inletと大きなNornalup inlet の二つのエリアからなっています。

クロダイがフライフィッシングのメイン・ターゲットで、二つのアプローチがあります。一つは、フラットやドロップ・オフなどをウェーディングして釣る方法、もう一つは倒木などのストラクチャーに着いている魚を狙うやり方です。


A black bream fell for Mike's Clouser.

Flats like ones on Coalmine beach are easily accessible from shore (watch out for stingrays. They are big and many in the system), and other fishes like flatheads, and Australian herrings can also be caught on flats and around drop offs.

The Frankland River is a good place to fish if people like fishing around snags, but a boat or kayak is needed to fish there (no access from the shore, and it is too deep to wade). A boat will also be an asset to fish other places like the mouth of the Frankland and Nornalup inlet.

フラットの釣りは、サイトフィッシングもしくは、ブラインドで落ち込みの際やウィードの周りを釣ります。クロダイの他にflatheadと呼ばれているコチの仲間、そしてドロップオフ周りでは、フッキングするとジャンプを繰り返すアジとマスを足して割った様なAustralian Herringも狙えます。ポイントとしては、Coalmine Beachのフラットやなどが人気で、車でポイントまでアクセスできます。ウェーディングは岩場以外は、砂地なので簡単ですが、エリアには多くのエイがいますので、誤って踏んだりしない様に注意が必要です。

ストラクチャー狙いの場合は、Frankland Riverが釣り場となりますが、アクセスにはボートやカヤックが必要です。このアプローチは、倒木ギリギリにフライをキャストしてからフライをゆっくりと引いて来ます。クロダイは神経質なので、ポイントからなるべく距離をとって釣った方がヒットの確率は上がります。また、一投目で狙ったポイントに入れる事が重要で、キャストを繰り返せばそれだけ釣れる確率は下がります。個人的な好みですが、キャスティング・ストロークが速いファーストアクションの竿よりも、ロッドを振るスピードを遅くできるミディアムアクションの方がこの手の釣りには向いていると思います。


We caught so many Australian herrings in the channel.


They jump out water when they get hooked.



Although I am a fun of light tackles, the place gets very windy in the afternoon, and heavier outfits like 7 or 8 are popular choices among local people. A floating line is fine, but an intermediate or sink tip line will be a better choice to deal with wind and to fish a deeper water on the Frankland.

For the fly selection, I use smaller streamers in olive green, tan, and brown, and I like patterns to imitate small bait fish with a lot of movement in the water.

個人的にはライトタックル至上主義ですが、風が強い場所なので地元のフライフィッシャーは７番や８番など重いラインのシステムを使う様です。フラットの釣りでは、フローティングラインで良いですが、風が強い場合やFrankland Riverで深いタナを釣る場合は、インターミディエイトもしくはシンク・ティップの方が有利です。

僕が使うフライは、小さなベイトフィッシュのイミテーションで色はオリーブ、タン、ブラウン系です。フライに使うのは、透明感があり柔らかく動きのあるマテリアルが好みです。フラットではエビやカニのパターンも有効かと思います。

The caravan park we stayed.


A small pink snapper which took Alberto's fly.






Looking for food?




Strange orange things growing on rocks.




It was so cold, and I needed to wear full gear to fish in the morning.


An alien ship on patrol


I found these magic stones everywhere along the bank.


Beautiful Walpole bream

Walpole fishing trip

Walpole is regarded as one of top black bream spots in the state, and my friends and I went down there for a few days.

It was very cold down there, and people said fishing was relatively slow because of that. It may be true, but I kind of liked the weather we had down there. The air and water were cold and crisp which can sharpen people's mind.

It was a very nice place to be. Fishing was fine, and scenery was beautiful. Everything was just peaceful. It was a good trip, and I would like to thank my friends who came along.


パースから南に４時間程行ったところにWalpoleと言うガソリンスタンドが二件と店が数件あるだけの小さな町があります。浜名湖に似た様な地形で、クロダイのフライフィッシングではトップランクのエリアです。

ここで釣りをするのは今回が初めてでしたが、本当に良い場所でした。釣りが良いでけでなく、景色がとてもきれいで、遠くまで行ったかいがありました。

この旅の段取りをしてくれた友達に感謝です。

My first fish of the trip




Captain Alberto






Our first dinner was flathead pasta










Even my rod looked to be happy to be there






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

Night life

We got a few breams around the Mt Henry Bridge on Friday.

I got my fish on a dark brown mohair minnow, and my friend got his on a green zonker.

We went back there last night but fishing was very quiet.

We then tried a small jetty down stream, where we saw many schools of grunters and whitings under the light. Unfortunately our hope quickly nose-dived as one family decided to throw nets into the water.

金曜の夜は良かったのに、昨日の夜はまったくだめ。

下流の小さな桟橋に行ってみたのですが、今度はアホ家族が桟橋から網を投げ入れ始める始末。もちろん網の使用は全面禁止です。網を投げていた子供を注意しても無視。親父さんは腕にタトゥーに時代遅れの長髪で、フグを釣っては桟橋の上に投げ捨てていました。

やっぱり週末の夜は人のいる桟橋などは避けた方が良いです。それでも、真っ暗の中、誰もいないフラットでウェーディングするのはちょっと気が引けますが。

Heat wave & a field day

We had the first heat wave of this summer as the temperature were around 37 degree on Friday and Saturday.

It was too hot to go fishing on Saturday, so I decided to chill out at my friend's place.

He showed me a Hasselblad that he was borrowing from his friend. He took some test shots on Polaroid films (actually they were Fuji instant films), and it was interesting to see how the whole thing worked.

Sunday was another club field day on the Swan River.

We had a late start, and fishing was very slow. By the time we got to the meeting place, other people were already giving up with fishing for the day. They told us that they weren't catching much apart from one or two flatheads.

So we decided to fish on the Canning River on the way back after the meeting. An irony was that fishing was fine on the Canning, if not excellent, on Sunday afternoon. We landed three breams and dropped a few grunters at the end, and one of bream was a good one.

EF 24mm f/2.8

Saturday night action

We went out to try a few different spots on the Canning on Saturday night.

Night fishing can be a very good option during the summer months because we can avoid blowies and ski boats all together.

We fished on the freeway side of the river and around the Mt Henry bridge, and we caught a few fish each. Crazy Charlie was a killer on Friday a week ago, but fish liked something less flashy this time.

夏になるとやっかいになるのが、外道のフグと週末のモーターボートの大量発生。

そこで、週末にクロダイ釣りをするなら断然夜釣りの方が良いです。

ボートは日没後にはいなくなりますし、フグはなぜか暗くなるとフライを追わなくなります。

International guests

We had a lovely early summer weather on last Sunday, and I went South to take my friend and his family from Japan to catch some trout.

Fishing actually turned out to be difficult, and we only caught one fish at the end. It came up to take #18 mayfly emerger interestingly ignoring a small nymph tied behind it.

The fish wasn't a monster, but it was as beautiful as those native Japanese trout they catch over there, I thought.

I wished fishing could have been better for my international guests who came a long way, but at least we saw a few fish and got some actions (one fish nearly took my friend's fly).

It was a fine day for me to fish, and I hope they had a good time as well.

See you again folks.

EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro

It's still a good place to fish

Moore river was a nice place, but Canning river is not a bad place to fish either, if I can catch a fine fish like this from time to time.

We went to have an after noon session on Canning after we came back from Moore. This was only fish I got on Canning on a late sunday afternooon, but it was a good one to end the day.




EF 24mm f/2.8

Moore River field day

It was our club's field day yesterday, and we went out to Moore river (about 80km north of Perth).

I had never fished the Moore river before, so I was keen to see the place which my friend was describing as "a hidden treasure".

We got together in early morning at the boat ramp. I then jumped on Ross's boat, and we decided to head upstream.





The river was running between steep hills and sand dunes, and after leaving the car park area at the mouth of the river, I didn't see any sign of "civilization" or "progress" along the bank.

There were a lot of fish in the river. Grunters were everywhere from flats to snags, where as, breams were found mainly around snags. Some snags were very large and we managed to pull 3 or 4 breams from one snag.







The place was as beautiful as my friend's depiction, and I would like to thank every one for organising the field day, especially Ross for putting me on his boat.

Thank you guys. It was a very good day.








EF 24mm f/2.8