After a long drive

On the way back home from South, I stopped at the Canning River to fish in the late afternoon yesterday.

I actually went out to fish for trout one more time before the season ends, but as I have predicted, there was only a trickle of water left. I checked around a few places, but I didn't even see any single trout let alone hook up one.

We had the driest winter ever last year, so there was only small amount of water in rivers and lakes at the beginning of another hot and dry summer. Not having rain for so long, the water has simply dried up, and it looked like fish have gone too. I hope some fish made their way to some deeper water and they will return after this winter (hopefully this winter will be wet one).

Anyway, after having a long drive, I came back home to fish on the river just down the road. Unlike those puddles I saw earlier, the river was alive. Bait fish were jumping around, and I saw an armada of pelicans moving in to intercept them.

It was interesting to see those pelicans approaching in a V-formation, and then moving into a circle to trap a school of bait fish before gulping them. I then hooked up a couple of bream (only small ones) in the same area where pelicans were feeding. I wonder if bream also hunt in their tight formation and round up bait like pelicans do.


The Pelican Armada

禁漁前の最後の鱒釣りでしたが、去年の冬から今年の夏の間、殆ど雨がふらず、川や湖の水は完全に干上がった状態で釣りどころの話ではありませんでした。

まあ話には聞いていたのですが、自分で確かめておこうと思い出かけてみました。どこにも行っても魚はおろか水も無い状態で、残念な事に魚は全滅に近いかもしれません。

帰りに近くの川で気晴らしにクロダイを釣りましたが、こちらは飛び跳ねるベイトやそれを追うペリカンの群れなどで、いきいきしていました。

Another group of pelicans on the other side of the river


Speaking of life in the river, dolphins have been showing up lately.

To double my chance

The tide was very high and moving unexpectedly fast yesterday morning. On top of this, strong westerly pushing my line to drift even faster.

On a condition like this, I want my streamer to go deep because, in such a fast flow, fish are less likely to come up higher to intercept a tiny bait fish. It will be just waste of their energy. It is better for them to stay deep and wait something to pass in front of their nose instead.



So, as I was watching my line drifting quickly and dragging my steamers with it, I was thinking about a few different options to make my fly sink deeper to get where fish would be holding.

First, I could jump into my car and go home to bring back an intermediate line.

Second, I could go home and quickly tie a heavily weighted fly using a large tungsten bead or something.

Third, I could add an extra weight on to my leader using tungsten putty which is not only pain to cast in the wind, it keeps coming off while I am casting.



The fourth option was to use a tandem rig, and this was a trick I chose yesterday morning. Casting with two flies can still be tricky especially in a strong wind like we had yesterday and on my short 4 weight rod, but unlike tungsten putty, a dropper will not fly off and more importantly it can catch fish. It can double my chance to hook up.

My trick worked well, and I managed to hook up a few fish until the wind became so ridiculously strong that we decided to go for coffee instead. Interestingly, one small fish took a bigger fly (a dropper) and other bigger fish took a smaller point fly. Both are the same pattern, just in different sizes.

Free to flow

Another school term is over, and I am free.

It was a very long term, almost felt like a half year. So it is nice to unload work stuff for now, and just enjoy freedom for while.

I went out to a river yesterday. The sky was grey and the air was cold in the morning. It then cleared up during the day, and there was a lovely sunset to finish the day. It wasn't a bad start of my holiday, I thought.

学校は、昨日からスクールホリデーに入りました。この所色々と忙しかったから、休みに入ったら何もせずにゆっくり寝ようと思いましたが、やっぱり朝早くに起きて釣りへ。

昼は家でごろごろして、夕方からまた釣へ。落ち着きが無く、暇が耐えられない性分ですが、２、３日は、こうやって自由な時間を満喫しようかと思います。

I think I have broken my size record with this baby

Patagonia's T-Shirt for Japan's rivers and watersheds

Bream bonanza?

Fishing has been very good for the last two weekends for some reason.

I got so many fish on the last Sunday in one hour session to the point where I lost count of fish I was catching.

I got a half dozen fish yesterday including a few nice ones. One of them was a real beauty which made a powerful run and I ended up on my backing line.

It has been a great fun, but like many things in the life, a good spell doesn't go forever. My friend and I went back to the same place this morning, and we didn't get a single hit. How interesting.

先週末は、久々の二桁の釣果。１０匹以降は釣った数が分からなくなる程の大漁。昨日は、６匹程でしたが、平均サイズは先週よりも格段に上でした。中でも、４５cmのやつは、バッキングまで引き出すファイト。

釣りの善し悪しは、釣った魚の数や大きさでは決まらないと思っていますが、やっぱり釣れないよりは釣れた方が良いです。

This thumper took me into the backing.






Splash! It is another good reason to carry a water proof camera.

Thank you for shopping

Thank you for those fellow fly fishers who bought our fishy shopping bags at the club's meeting on Tuesday.

All profits will go to our school's Japanese earthquake relief project.

この度の地震、津波からの復興のための募金集めに作ったエコバッグ１０数枚。火曜日のクラブのミーティングに持って行きましたが、あっと言う間に完売でした。

買ってくれたフライフィッシャーの仲間のみんな、どうもありがとう。

The sky after the rain storm on Thursday

shopping bags for fly fishers

At our school, we have been making shopping bags with Japanese designs and patterns, and we have already raised some money for the earthquake relief by selling them to people at school.

For my fishing friends, I made a few bags with a fish print on it last night using the same printing technique which we have learned and used for making those bags for the our school project. I am hoping I can sell these at this month's fly fishing club meeting to add some more money to our charity project. With these shopping bag, spending time at a local shopping mall will be more fun.

今回の地震のための募金集めに、エコバッグに日本のデザインや絵柄をプリントして学校で売る事にしました。既に生徒達と放課後に２０枚程刷りましたが、先週の保護者会の際に全て完売、現在追加注文の分を作成中です。まあ一枚１０ドルなんで、大した額にはなりませんが、生徒にとっては、「世の中の為に何かできるか」という事を考える良い機会になったと思います。

釣りの仲間にも買ってもらえる様に、昨晩はフィッシュプリントのフライフィッシャーバージョンを数枚を刷りました。文字が細か過ぎて、綺麗にプリントが出来ないという問題が発覚しましたが、今さらどうする事もできないので、良しとします。



Fishing was good on the weekend. I caught up with Mike and tow other guys, Trevor and Andrew, who came along to fish with me on Saturday morning.

There was a strong easterly when we got to the river, so we moved to a bay which gave us some protection from the wind. It looked like those bait fish also had the same idea to hang around in a calmer water, and of course bream were there to be waiting to chomp on any bait fish who ventured out from the shore.

Mike and I went back to the same place this morning, and despite of having some dogs jumping and kids throwing rocks into the water, we were still catching fish.

週末の釣りの方は、土曜日の朝に友達数人と釣りましたが、集合場所のポイントは、風が強すぎると言う事で、風裏になるポイントへ移動。

慎重にウェーディングすると、至る所に３、４センチ位のベイトの群れを発見。どうやら、小魚たちも、自分たちと同じ事を考えている様でした。そしてベイトが群れれば、それを狙ってクロダイも入ってきます。一投目から魚がヒットして、その後も数匹のクロダイが釣れました。

そして、今朝も昨日と同じポイントに入りましたが、読み通りの好結果。一匹は、ヒット後に沖に向かって走り出して、バッキングまで３、４回転程の所まで行ってUターン。サイズ的には、３４cm程でしたが、良いコンディションの引きの強い魚でした。

Trevor got more fish than anyone else on Saturday




I got this on this morning, and it took me almost into my backing.

Canon D10