28 September 2009

A long weekend in spring


It was a long weekend, and it started with a beautiful spring weather on Saturday.

We fished the area around the Mount Henry Bridge where my friend finally broke his long dry spell.

He landed 5 or 6 breams and 10 or so yellow tail grunters, while the rest of us only caught a couple of small fish.


土曜日は、春日和の中、このところ良い実績があるフリーウェイの橋の反対のエリアへ釣りに行きました。

僕が小さい型の魚を2尾釣った直後、この数週間まったく釣れていなかった友達に連続してアタリがありました。クロダイのフライフィッシング、餌釣りやルアーなどに比べると釣果は少ないですが、まれに他の釣りに勝る結果を出す事があります。



Spring flowers found on our school yard


Friend's spell breaking grunter


Two sets of foot prints, both looking for fish

To repeat the yesterday's success, we went back to the same place on Sunday, but we didn't get even a single bite.

A lot of water-ski boats and jet skies were going up and down on the river like a school of blow fish.

Waves after waves were crashing onto the shore. It was like wading in a washing machine, and fish probably had enough as much we did.

土曜日に良かったポイントへ。しかし今日はとんでもない数のボートやジェットスキーやらが行ったり来たり。岸では波に打たれ続けて水が濁り、水深が膝位でも水中のウェーディング・シューズが見えませんでした。これじゃあ、魚もフライを見つける事ができないでしょう。


One fine bream fell for my mohair minnow

The weather kind of went backward today. The spring weather was gone, and it became cold, windy, and over cast. We thought that we wouldn't see too many boats today, so we went back to the same area again to have our revenge.

Without waves caused by the boat traffic, the water was a lot clearer today, and fish were biting again along the shore.

今日は、昨日までの春日和に変わって、風の冷たい、曇り空。

いかに祭日だと言っても、こう寒いんじゃボートも出ていない筈。そういう事でリベンジを果たしに同じポイントへ。

予想通り、ボートは一艘しか出ていなく。水は昨日よりもずっと澄んでいて、魚も高活性でした。



A grunter laying on the beach before being released

EF 24mm f/2.8

14 September 2009

Surprise attack


We haven't been able to find fish on flats for the past few days, so we decided to fish around snags after work today.


Our guess was right. Breams were in snags, and they were attacking our streamers hard by ambush.

この数日、クロダイはフラットに餌を探しに入って来てないみたいです。そういう事で、今日は、仕事帰りに沈み木周りを狙ってみましたが、読みは的中でした。






Pentax Optio WPi

13 September 2009

EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L


My friend showed me his new Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L lens on the weekend. I have been thinking about buying this lens for months, and I finally got a chance to play with it.

I was amazed how fast and quiet focusing were compared with my non-USM Canon lenses. According to my friend, the lens takes very sharp images as well.

I think it would be a good all round fishing lens on rivers, flats, and so on. It can also take pictures of fish jumping out of water or rising to dry flies.






EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L lens

My biggest concern is that the lens will be too slow to take shots under low light conditions.

A photo below is one which I took on Saturday night under a light post at a jetty. With my 24mm lens, I can still get a keeper (or sort of) without flash and a tripod.


This means I will have to carry two lenses in my already over-weighted fly vest. One for during day, and one for low light conditions like at dawn and dusk which are the prime time for trout fishing as you know.


EF 24mm f/2.8

The other issue is that the minimum shooting distance is 1.2m with 70-200mm f/4 which means I can't take pictures like this one where I hold fish in my hand, and use camera with another hand.

It will be OK if I got somewhere to put fish down, but what should I do if I was alone and wading deep?


EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

11 September 2009

Wind & Rain


Is there such thing called a bad fishing weather?

If wind and rain got to do with a bad fishing weather, then we had a bad fishing weather this afternoon. My line was blown away in all sorts of directions, and I could feel the coldness of the rain through my wading jacket.



However, fishing in a bad fishing weather is still far better than not fishing at all. So although we didn't see anyone else fishing, we were confident that we were making a right choice to be on the river rather than to go home and watch TV.

We didn't catch much today apart from trees and river banks because of the wind, but we still managed to land a couple of fish each at the end.


Pentax Optio WPi

08 September 2009

Night fishing by the bridge


We had a good session around Mt Henry Bridge on the last Friday night. So, we went out this evening to see if fishes were still there.


The tide was slow and the water was very calm. Fishing was very quiet tonight.


クロダイのフライフィッシング。今夜は夜釣りでした。

先週の金曜日の夜、フリーウェイの橋の下で釣っていたのですが、橋の明かりの下で多くのアタリがありました。上げ潮で、風も後ろから。フライはあまり動かさずにナチュラルドリフトさせた方が魚は良く反応しました。

今日は潮の動きも少なく、風も全くなし。魚も小さいのが二匹釣れたのみ。ヒットがあったのは、いつものシャートリューズやシャンペーンカラーのフライではなく、夜釣り用に今回試しに巻いた、焦げ茶の毛鉤。やはり夜には暗い色の方が良いのか? それともただの偶然か?




EF 24mm f/2.8

07 September 2009

Happy New Trout Season


I went on my season opening trout fishing trip.

I was grateful that I was finally standing on the trout water after another long wait over the winter months.

I was very happy with catching a few fish of the new season, and they were as beautiful as before.

Happy New Trout Season!


鱒釣りがやっと解禁になったので、この週末は鱒釣りに。数カ月ぶりにきれいな鱒を見る事ができました。冬を乗り越えた鱒に感謝です。








Pentax Optio WPi