Why do we need a boat?

I went to a boat show in Fremantle with my friends today.

Although I still like to see different boats as I used to sail when I was young, a boat is something which does not interest me that much in terms of fishing. I know that most of big ocean going fishes require some sort of boats to catch them, but for 99% of fishing I do, I don't need a boat to catch good fish.

A kayak may still be a good idea, but even a kayak requires fiddling to get it onto the water. A boat sounds like just too much work involved to keep it going. More time on playing around with boats and less time fishing. Some of my friends own nice fishing boats, but I don't see them going out on boats every weekend, and may be there are some reasons for it.

Have you boys decided which one to buy?

This was only thing caught my eye and only thing I could ever afford.

Anyway, after the boat show, we went back to fishing on the Canning River, and Mike hooked up a really nice fish. He was actually on fire hooking up 5 fish with one very ugly looking but highly effective fly whereas the rest of us got none.

The river looked so beautiful this afternoon, and it was lovely to wade in the river feeling water and sand with own feet. I just don't get the same feeling of intimacy with environment if I was on a boat.

As I was watching my friend's releasing his nice fish, I asked my self, "Why do we need a boat on such a peaceful day like today anyway?".




Mike fighting his big fish.


Only big fish kicks water like this.






Good on you, Mike.


Mike's beautiful 40cm bream.

Do clouds really suck?

We had a typical bream fishing weather today.

The sky was covered with clouds and wind was strong, and fishing was very good. I stopped counting my catch after ten fish. Although, I didn't hook up any monster, I got a few fine fish which took some line.

I have seen my friend wearing a T-shirt saying, "Clouds Suck". I can understand his sentiment as he loves chasing big fish on flats of Exmouth. Sight fishing is a name of the game of flats, and as we know, to sight fish well, we need a clear sky.

For bream fishing in general, I think clouds are good things. Breams are very cautious and timid fish, and I believe that they come into shallows to feed much more readily on an overcast day.





今日は、昼から曇り空。サイトフィッシングには晴天が良いですが、ブラインドでの釣りではむしろ曇りの方が良いです。

晴天の凪の日などは、クロダイは鵜や釣り人を警戒してか浅瀬にはあまり入って来ません。逆に曇りの日や風で水面がちょっと荒れているコンディションだと魚は岸際までエビ、カニ、小魚などを食べに来ます。

モンスタークラスは出ませんでしたが、久々の２桁の釣果に満足です。

近くでエサで釣っていた家族はフグばっかり。「どんなエサを使っているのか」と聞かれたので、フライボックスの中を見せてあげると、？顔。クロダイのフライフィッシング、この辺りではエサ釣りには負けません。

Before the storm

The storm we had yesterday was shocking, and caused some extensive damage to houses, trees, power lines, and etc through out Perth.

It was scary driving back home through the thunder storm watching lightnings falling down to the side of the road. It took me almost 2 hours to get home, and I was glad and relieved when my wife opened the door for me when I finally got back.

I don't know if breams knew how bad the storm was going to be, but they were hitting flies very hard on Sunday as if they would never be able to eat again.

The sunset was beautiful on the Western sky, but we could see some storm activities on East which were after all a preview of the yesterday storm, I guess.





昨日の夕方に来たストームは、本当に凄かった。地域によってはかなりの被害が出ました。

あんなに真っ暗な空は久々に見ました。帰宅途中、車から見た稲妻の数は相当な数で、車の中は安全と話には聞いているけど、やっぱり怖かった。渋滞を抜けて、やっと家に着いた時は疲労困憊。夕飯度時に嵐が遠ざかった空に太陽の光が見えた時には正直感動と感謝。

嵐がどの程度の物になるなのか、魚に予知能力があるのかは分かりませんが、日曜日は、魚の活性はとても高かったです。まるで最後の晩餐とで言っているの様にフライに次から次へと出てきて、Walpole遠征後の一番の結果になりました。

Crescent

We caught a few fish each on the last hour of the out going tide.

Fish disappeared as the tide became slack.




Very nice fish, Tony.

A crab test

I went to Mandurah boat harbour to test a new crab pattern for a free fall fishing for breams.

The idea is to drop a fly straight down from the jetty along pylons, and hopefully breams will grab a fly while it is falling down to the bottom.

There were a lot of chases and bites on the crab pattern while other imitations like bait fish and squid were being ignored. At the end, however, the fly was still not right enough for those finicky breams.

Many fish including some good size ones came out to look at the fly, and some fish even hit the fly, but hits were too tentative to get solid hook ups.

No bream, but got tarwhine on the crab pattern today.

Face up

Pictures of different fish which I encountered this weekend.

週末に出会った魚の写真です。


Our old favourite, black bream.


Herring that I caught on a popper today.


Gobbleguts caught on friend's fly. I've never seen this fish before.


This tarwhine decided to hit my friend's popper.

Popper and a fair game

According to my friend, there is no herring which is not hungry. I don't now if this is a true statement, but it seems that herrings are always eager to hit flies if they are around.

I fished in Mandurah today, and I had a good time to catching them on a small popper. Although I love catching herrings, they get hooked up too easily sometime as they can't stop hitting anything that moves.

To make thing more interesting and fair, I tend to switch a fly from a steamer to a surface popper when fishing gets too easy. Herrings hit poppers well, but chasing them on a popper can be more challenging and interesting than hooking them on sub-surface flies.



The last half hour before the sun set was very interesting today. The water became flat as wind dropped, and on the incoming tide, the whole estuary looked like a big slow moving river.

I then saw tiny rises kept popping up in front of me. The rises were very subtle like those dimple rises that trout make when they were rising to ants or beetles.

First I was casting streamers and my squid pattern which were working well earlier, but they didn't hook up any fish this time. So, I changed my fly to the popper, and I cast it out to where I saw rises. The fly went plop, plop, and bang! The hit was big, and fish went flat out.

The fight was much stronger than other fish that I was catching. I got the fish close in but the hook came off. It was too bad that I couldn't find out what took my popper but it was a good way to end the day.


オーストラリアン・ヘリングは、ライトウェイト・ソルトウォーター・フライフィッシングの好敵手。色々なパターンで釣れて、クロダイの様なパワーはないですが、ジャンプを繰り返すファイトは、３番とか４番の竿ならとてもエキサイティングです。

群れが目の前を回遊していると入れ食いになる事が多いですが、脚の速い魚なので、いったん群れが離れてしまうとパッタリ釣れなくなります。

＃６から＃８位の小さなディシーバーなどのストリーマーで釣れますが、活性が上がると釣れすぎる事もたまにあり、そういう時は、フライをストリーマーからポッパーに変えると面白い釣りができます。

Fire in the hole

Breams were on fire on Swan River on Saturday.

Hits were hard and sharp, and fight was strong.

We only had a short session, but it was packed with excitement. As one of my friend pointed out, it reminded us of Walpole.

Today, we went back to the same place just to find out that fish were gone. I love bream fishing. It is a game of surprise.

昨日の夕方、友達数人と新しいクロダイのポイントへ。魚は驚く程にアグレッシブで次から次へとフライにヒット。ファイトも強く、リールは高回転して、ハンドルに指を強く叩かれる始末。

味を占めて今日も同じ場所へ同じ時間帯に行きましたが、結果は思った通り、全員さっぱり。

クロダイのフライフィッシング、何が起こるか分からない所に面白さがあります。

EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro

Back on trout water

I realized that I haven't fished for trout much this summer, so when I found out that the weather was going to be cooler on Friday, I decided to go trout fishing even though my friend was asking me to come along to his new bream hot spot.

I was expecting the water level to be low, but I was still shocked to see how little the flow was.

Fishing was very difficult as it should be in such condition, and I also started feeling bit guilty to be there as I was going to add further stress on fish which were already going through the toughest time of the year.

Any way, although I felt sorry for fish for disturbing their peace which they deserve, at the end I was still happy to see a few fish surviving through another long rainless summer.

この２、３日はちょっと涼しくなると言う事なので、久しぶりに鱒釣りへ。涼しいと言っても、気温は２５度、水量も驚く程少なく、魚は竿をちょっと振っただけでも逃げてしまう程。

それに狙った場所に一発でフライが入らなかったり、リーダーが木に絡まったりと、ひさびさに鱒の顔を見たい気持ちが先行して焦ってミスの連発。どうやらちょっと鱒釣りをしていない間に大分腕が鈍ってしまったようです。

EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro

Space Invaders

This is a squid pattern that I tied the other day. It is designed for chasing herrings at a river mouth and those cleaver breams around harbours at night.

This new tentacle friend reminds me of those little space creatures from a famous arcade game, "Space Invaders".

When I was little, my grandfather hired a Space Invader arcade machine for a month or so, and every time we visited his place, we could play the game for free.

I was too young to remember where he got the machine from or how much it cost for him, but I do remember that I managed to keep the highest score among our entire family for while.

I dedicate this squid pattern to my long gone grandfather for our memory of the Space Invaders.

当時一世を風靡したアーケードゲーム、「スペース・インベーダー」。僕が子供の頃、祖父の家に一ヶ月程ですが当時そこらの喫茶店にあったのと同じテーブル型のゲーム機が置いてありました。孫達のために祖父がどこからか借りて来てくれたそうです。

画面の上から攻めて来る宇宙人を撃ちまくる単純なシューティング・ゲームで、その宇宙人の中にイカ型のキャラがいました。そこで、このイカ型フライ、ゲーム機を借りてくれた祖父との思い出にちなんで"Invader"と名付けました。

クロダイ・ナイトゲーム用に巻いたパターンで、ヨットハーバーなどのパイロン周りのスレたクロダイを狙うために開発したフライです。

"Invader"

Hook: TMC 2312 #8
Eye: Chain eye (gold / silver)
Tentacles: Round rubber leggs (grizzly), Kristal Flash (olive brown)
Arms: Saddle hackle feather (white)
Body: Wool dubbing material (white)