What to give?

"What to give?"

The last week, I was having an argument with a guy over local fishing regulations. After listening to him trying to justify what is essentially a self fish act of chasing fish out of the season, I started thinking about this question.

先週、禁漁期間にも関わらず、鱒釣りに行くという人と議論する機会がありました。色々と理屈や言い訳を並べていましたが、要するに、他の人が行かない時に行けば釣れるチャンスが高いといった利己主義で単純な理由で、彼には、禁漁にする事で、魚に冬を生き抜くチャンスを与えると言う事よりも、いかに自分の欲を満たす事の方が重要な様でした。



When comes to fishing, our focus is often placed around what we can take from the world, more fish, bigger fish, harder fighting fish, that sort of stuff, instead of looking at what we can offer to the world.

Some time, people get lost in fishing, and people become a slave to own greed and obsession like Captain Ahab in the story of Moby-Dick (and I can very much relate to Ahab especially for those monster breams swimming around the harbour).

釣りには、あたりまえですが、釣果と言うものがあり、多くの場合、数や量が大きければ良いと言った、結果重視な考えがベースラインにあります。しかし、川や海からどれだけ獲るかと言う事にだけに囚われてしまうと、釣りは、資源を搾取するだけの行為になってしまいます。そこには、水の流れを美しいと思ったり、空の青さに惹かれたりする余裕も感性もありません。小説「モビーディック」のエイハブ船長の様に、欲に駆られて獲物を追い続けるだけです。



I was wondering, in stead of just being a mere taker being driven by blind selfish desire, perhaps I need to start thinking about what I can give back to fish and environment for what I have taken from them. Here are some ideas that popped up in my head.

May be, I should try my best to build excellent bamboo rods, so more people will be using rods made of natural material instead of unrecycleable plastic.

May be, I should try to take better photos of fish and rivers to make people feel that they are beautiful and need to be looked after.

May be I should teach our school kids flyfishing, and they can be inspired with all of those wonderful places they can go and fish.

May be, I should spend 5 min at the end of each fishing session to pick up rubbish on the bank.

Or perhaps, I should go fishing twice week instead of three times to give fish a break, and give a day to my wife who gives so much to me who gives back her so little.

川や海から魚を獲るだけでなく、自分が獲った分を、どうやって自分で返す事が出来るのかどうか、今回ちょっと考えてみました。

まず、ロッドメイキングの腕をあげて、周りにバンブーロッドの良さを広めれば、リサイクルできないカーボンロッドではなく、自然により優しい竹竿を使う人が増えるかもしれません。

川や魚のもっと良い写真を撮れる様になれば、それを見た人は川の環境の事をもっと考える様になるかもしれません。

学校でフライフィッシングを教えるのも良いかもしれません。

釣りの終わりにゴミを何個か拾うだけでも良いのかもしれません。

今回の様に、禁漁やサイズリミットなどのルールを守る事よりも、それらを破ってでも自分の欲を満たす方が重要と考えているしょうもない人間を相手に議論するよりも、自分で何かした方が簡単なのかもしれません。

July field day

Today was the club's Metro field day.

It was wet and windy, and sadly only 6 people showed up with a miserable result of two fish between us.

While another group was fishing on Canning River, Mike and I took a run & gun tactics, fishing around a few places on Swan and trying to out run rain clouds at the same time. We eventually found a jetty where a school of bream was hanging around.

It was a perfect opportunity to try my new shrimp pattern, but it was again being ineffective. So, I changed the fly to my ever trusty mohair minnow which did its job at the end.

I cast out, let the fly go deeper, and gave a few twitches. I then saw three fish started following my fly. One of them shot off and turned side way, and I knew it took the fly. It was just an average fish, but it is always exciting to see fish hitting a fly even with a small fish, so I was still happy with the result.

今日は、地元ソルトウォーター・フライフィッシングのクラブのフィールドデイでしたが、雨と風のあいにくの天気で、参加者は全部でたったの６人、釣果は合わせてクロダイが２匹と、寂しい結果に終わりました。

昨日までの雨で川の水位が驚く程高かったので、僕と友達のマイクは、いつもの様にフラットを探るより、桟橋や橋周りの大場所を叩いて回る、Run&Gun作戦に変更。幾つかポイントを変更した後、魚が群れている桟橋を発見。

新しく巻いたシュリンプ・フライを試す良い機会でしたが、魚は完全に無視。そこでベイトフィッシュ・パターンに換えると、なんとか一匹がフライを引ったくってくれました。小さい型でしたが、まあ久々にサイトフィッシングで釣れたし、大荒れのコンディションの中の一匹だったので、今日はこの結果で良しとしましょう。

EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro

Swan River shrimp

I was fishing around Mt Henry bridge last week, and I came across schools of small shrimp. These shrimp are found in many parts of Swan and Canning River from the upper reach to the river mouth, and they seem to be there throughout year.

They are about 30mm long with a jelly like translucent body. Some of them are bit darker (bit more opaque) while others are completely clear as if they are made of glass. I am sure that these shrimp are chomped by black bream and flathead all the time.

When it comes to fly patterns, however, I have only had a minor success with shrimp patterns so far. Although they have caught some fish, they haven't been as dependable as my other bait fish imitations, and I haven't been bothered to keep them in my fly box for some time.

Anyway, I just felt that I should try using shrimp patterns again to spice up my fishing as casting the same old bait fish imitation is getting bit too predictable these days. So, I sat in front of my vice, had some thought process, and came up with this shrimp pattern.

This weekend is our club's field day on the metro water, and I am hoping this fly will be smashed with those big monster bream on Sunday.



I guess my previous design had a critical design flaw. The body was wrapped / dubbed with some dubbing fibers, very much like tying a hare's ear nymph. Obviously the body made this way will not let light through whereas a body of a real shrimp is being transparent like jelly. So I needed to make a body in a different fashion.

To suggest a translucent body of a river shrimp, I have decided to use mohair fibers this time. I tied these fibers on top of the hook shank very much like tying a streamer and a minnow pattern instead of wrapping fibers around a hook shank as I did last time.

A tiny set of black eyes are made of a piece of mono (0X tippet material) dipped in water based urethane glue mixed with black ink from an Art supply (the ink is also water based obviously). The glue ("Liquid Fusion" which can be purchased from Flyworld) is said to be "non-toxic" and is easy to clean with water. I used to use 20lb mono and melt it to make an eye ball. It worked fine, but the smell of melting nylon was unbearable. Also painting each eye ball with a marker was time consuming. The new method with the glue is much easier, I think.


川では３０mm位の小さなエビを良く見かけます。ボディーは飴細工の様に半透 明で、川の上流から河口まで広域に渡って生息 している様です。ベイトフィッシュの種類によっては季節によっては川からまったく姿を消すのもいますが、このエビは、川のブッシュ際やウィード周りいつで もいます。

魚に大量に食われているとは思うのですが、フライのパターンとしては、個人的には、あまり良い結果が出ていません。そこそこに は釣れるのですが、ミノー系の毛針と比べると釣果は今一です。

期待されながら、活躍できていないエビのパターンでしたが、今回、週末のク ラブのフィールドデイ様に、改良を加えての新バージョンを巻いてみました。

今までのパターンは、ボディーをメイフライのニンフを巻くかのごどく、ダビング材 をシャンクに巻いて作っていましたが、この手の方法だと、本物のエビの様にボディーが半透明にはなりません。よって今回は、ダビング材をストリーマーやウエットフライのウイングを巻く様に フックシャンクの上に取り付けて、その上にカシミアゴートをのせてみました。その後でハサミを入れて整形。ファジーな感じが半透明のエビのボディーぽく なったと思います。

目玉は、ナイロンの釣り糸をライターの火で溶かして整形する、定番のやり方を止めて、水性のウレタン接着材に黒の水性インクを混ぜたものに０Xのティペットを適当な長さに切った物をディップする方法に替えました。この方法だと、ナイロンの溶けるあの嫌な臭いも無いですし、目玉を一個一個、黒いマジックで塗る手間も省けます。

"Swan River Shrimp"

Hook: TMC 2312 #14
Eye: nylon mono and water based urethane glue
Antenna: cashmere goat (tan)
Under Body: mohair (champagne) & 2 strands of Krystal Flash
Over Body: cashmere goat (tan)
Weight: tungsten bead