Get rid of wader

It was a very hot weekend, and for the fast time this summer, I went wet wading. Water was nice and cool.

Mike looking for the sign of fish






Canon D10

Breaking a shock tippet

I went to the river to cast a popper at those tailor again this evening.

For a half hour, I was casting the popper but I had no strike. The tide was much higher than our last session on the weekend, and I didn't see much of the surface activity today.

So, I switched the popper to a streamer thinking fish were staying deep. The hit then came suddenly but fish bit off 15lb shock tippet. It was a clean cut as if it was being snipped by a pair of sharp scissors. I was thinking 15 lb would be heavy enough, so I was surprised to loose the fish like that.



I tied another tippet. 15lb again as it was the heaviest that I had. I didn't want to loose a brand new fly again though, so I decided to recycle my deer hair popper as a streamer instead.

The fly had already lost its left eye and some hairs after being attacked by those choppers on the weekend, so I was happy to sacrifice that to the fish. To make sure the fly to go deep, I put a bit of tungsten putty on the tippet.

Anyway, I thought, having such a big head, the fly should push more water which might attract attention from the chopper. It was pain to cast with #4 rod, but the rig eventually worked. The fish was on, and the tippet held this time.

Chopper

Mike and I went out to chase some river tailor (bluefish) this afternoon.

Although the fish were rising to our poppers quite regularly for a hour or so, we were struggling to get a hook up for some reason.

For many occasions, the fish came up and make a swirl underneath of the fly, and then they went down without hitting the fly. We still got a couple of good hits with splash, but again they didn't produce a solid hook up.


Mike trying his new LOOP #5.



Only fish that we hooked up this afternoon was the one which came up to grab my deer hair popper, and I couldn't believe how quiet the hit was. It was almost like watching trout rising to mayfly emergers. It was a very interesting session, I thought.

They don't get called "chopper" for nothing.


Canon D10

Breaking a record

Well, I broke my fishing record of this year. 15 cm long bream, the smallest fish of the year so far.

We really struggled to find fish this weekend. Four of us went out late afternoon yesterday and only fish we caught were, my diminutive bonsai bream, and Mike's a marginally bigger one.

昨日の釣りで今年のレコード更新です。全長わずか１５cmのクロダイ、今年で一番小さい釣果です。夕方、４人で釣りをして、結果は、僕の盆栽クロダイとマイクのこれまた小さい魚の２匹のみ。

Today, fishing was even slower. We fished hours and only got one fish. Not quite a record breaker, but again it was another small fish that could fit in my fly box, if I squeeze it hard enough.

今日の釣りは、昨日以下。二人で数時間、魚を求めてキャストし続けたものの、釣果は、たったの一匹。記録更新にはなりませんでしたが、ギュッと押し込めばフライボックスに収まる位の小物。この数日、暑くなったり、涼しくなったりとどうも落ち着きがありません。水温の方にも影響しているのかもしれません。

Catching sea weed

I went to river today after work to see if fish were biting after some rain we had for the last couple of days.

When I got there, water was already quite high and wind was very cold. I didn't see any bait fish activity, and a river looked quiet. So I thought fish would be staying deep, and I put an intermediate line to see if that would help me to find fish hanging off the bottom.

At the end, I kept catching some weed after weed. I eventually hooked one fish, and the fish was probably a vegetarian chasing weed being caught around the hook. I strongly believe, a floating is a far better choice for bream fishing, at least you are more likely to hook up fish not weed.

Metro Field Day

I went out for our club's Perth metro field day today, and it was a big turn out of 11 people (as I remember, only 6 showed up for the last metro field day in July).

Mike and I decided to fish on a flat on Canning River around Rossmoyne in the morning. Fishing was slow at mid tide yesterday aftenoon, so we wanted to fish earlier while the tide was still low.

I quickly picked out 3 breams as soon as we got there, but they went quiet very quickly. Other members showed up then, and they told us that fishing was being slow elsewhere.

We then decided to go upstream to check the place where some small tailor were getting caught on soft plastics. I was already happy to get 3 breams, and I wanted to catch tailor for change. So, I cut off my bream flies, and put a bigger streamer, which I tied last night, at the end of 15lb bite tippet.

I guess I was being lucky to hook fish on the first cast, but wasn't being lucky enough as it threw a hook out when I was trying to scoop it with my landing net. Anyway, it wasn't a big fish but nice to hook something different, I thought.

Canon D10