flow like a winding stream: 2012.12

I was walking on shallow bays and sandbars, looking for some fish a few days ago. I eventually found fish, and I had a half dozen chances to cast at tailing fish, but they were just way too smart and too spooky for me to catch.

I saw some really big ones too, but they were all beyond me. One false cast, they bolted. One little plop of a fly landing on the water, the fish got spooked. One twitch on a fly line, they turned around and ran to deep.

The fish we found on the flats in Walpole last week were still cautious, not something we could march into a flat and expecting to catch them, however, they were chasing flies much more aggressively. May be fish were more approachable because of less fishing pressure and boat and human activities down there. Also fish are in a bigger school, so they probably have more competition to beat other fish to get food.

Our metro fish, on the other hand, are as wary as a sorry little sardine got thrown into a big shark tank. All it needs is the tiniest sign of danger, and it gets spooked off.

I went out again yesterday, and after spooking a few schools of fish, all I could do was to give up my sight fishing option, and instead I waded closer to drop offs, throwing a little streamer, prospecting for ambushing fish there.

I managed to pull out one fish at the end, and I was very happy just to hook up any bream after hours of frustration and having a clear sense of defeat.

My last fish of the year. Thank you fish.

Canon D10 waterproof camera

I went to Walpole for our annual pre-christmas trip last week.

We arrived at a camp site late afternoon on Thursday. We were given a nice location being close to water to pitch our tents. For getting an extra roof space for cooking and chilling out, I also set up my silnylon tarp which came handy as it rained on the last day.

After setting up our camp, we went fishing to catch some dinner. We were hoping to get a couple of small herring or kahawai as they usually do their hunting runs around sunset over there. Unfortunately, they didn't show up until the last night of our trip for some reason.

仕事が夏休みに入って早速、釣り旅行に行って来ました。場所は、パースの南に５時間程のWalpole。この数年は、友達と毎年クリスマス前に行く事にしています。

木曜の午後にキャンプ場に着いて、テントの他に、この前作ってもらったシルナイロン・タープもダイニングエリア用に立ててキャンプが完成。その後で夕飯用の魚を確保しに行きましたが、キープサイズに満たないクロダイが一匹釣れただけでした。

Camp Walpole

My first catch of the trip

Mike looking for fish at the Channel

A view from Rest Point

We cooked vegetable stir fried noodle on the first night

My bed room for next three nights

A big Christmas tree at the camp site

On the second morning, we went onto flats to find some fish. After all, a reason for us to drive 5 hours to get down there is to sight fish for breams on flats.

Unfortunately wind was blowing hard and water was chopped with big waves. It was clear to us that we won't be able to sight fish with that condition. So, we decided to drive around and explore different places.

We went to check Frankland River first. The water had a very strong tannin stain and it looked very much unfishable. So, I was very surprised when I got a fish.

I actually lost another one and saw a different fish following my streamer, and it was my biggest discovery that we can actually catch fish in a tannin stained water as black as soy sauce. Even the water appeared to be too dark for fish to find artificial baits, somehow fish can still see well enough to whack flies.

わざわざ５時間もかけてWalpoleまでいくのは、フラットでクロダイのサイトフィッシングができるからで、そういう事で二日目は、朝からフラットに出向いたのですが、運悪く強い風で波が大きくてコンディションが良くありませんでした。そういう事で、フラットをさっさとあきらめて、他の場所を探索する事にしました。

まず近場を流れるFrankland Riverを見に行きました。もともと岸から深くなっていて、ボートからではないと釣りにならない場所なのと、川の水は、森から流れ出て来るタンニンで茶色くなっていて底も見えない状況。

なので、ちょっと遊び半分で数回キャストしましたが、驚く事にクロダイが食いついて来ました。他にも引いてくる毛針を追ってくる魚が見えたので、どうやら、あんなに茶色くなった水の中でも魚は獲物を見つけられるようです。

Bream from Frankland River

After checking Frankland River, we then visited Peaceful Bay which didn't look that peaceful to me. May be it got to do with a lousy weather that we had, but the water looked rough and the place appeared to be rather sad. Having said that, it looked to be a promising place to chase big Kahawai when they come close to shore.

Frankland Riverでちょっと遊んだ後でPeaceful Bayという場所を見に行きました。名前に反して、大きな岩のゴロゴロして、波も荒い場所でしたが、魚はいそうな感じでした。残念な事に、今回は波と風が強すぎでした。

A view at Peaceful Bay

Mike at Peaceful Bay

We came back to the camp late afternoon to have some snack before going out to fish at the main channel in the estuary in the evening. It turned out to be a good short session before mosquitoes started biting us.

午後遅くにキャンプ場に帰って、おやつを食べて、コーヒーを飲んでから、夕方に近くのポイントに出かけました。ちょうど潮の周りが良かったようで、小さい湾に突き出たポイントでクロダイの群れにあったり、小さい魚でしたが、けっこうな数がヒットしました。


Fishing was quite productive on the second evening

We probably had the best condition on the third day. The wind was still blowing strong, but it shifted from South to South West, so we were able to find a couple of areas protected from the wind to sight fish.

Even then, it wasn't easy to find and catch bream. It appeared that there weren't many fish on flats. We saw a few fish here and there, and those single fish were amazingly spooky.

Also the size of fish was being small, and most of these breams were lightly coloured and well camouflaged against sand, so it was very hard to spot them even with the slightest ripples on the water.

After roaming around, we found the area where a few schools of breams were coming through, and we had a very fun sight fishing session for a couple of hours.

There were lots of small bait in a small bay, and breams were chasing them hard, and my green on white minnow pattern did a great job to match the bait they after.

Interesting though, those breams didn't like my shrimp patterns at all. I thought they wouldn't be able to resist a small shrimp jumping across their nose, but instead, the fish kept ignoring shrimp patterns or in some cases, they got even spooked off. I eventually changed back to a bait fish imitation, and I started catching fish again.

三日目も風は強かったのですが、風向きが変わったおかげで、風裏になったフラットでは、ようやくサイトフィッシングができるコンディションになりました。

あちらこちらと探し歩いて、やっとクロダイが群れで小魚を追っている場所を見つけてからは、クロダイをサイトで１０数匹釣る事ができました。前の日と同じで釣れる魚は小さかったけど、ようやく旅の目的を達成です。

Walking on the edge of a flat to find fish

A bream from a flat on Nornalup Inlet

A flower we saw on the side of a track

Another flower we saw

Mushroom pushing through a hard ground

While we were on the flat, schools of small kahawai came through, and Mike got a couple of them. They also came in front of the camp site in the late evening. I hooked up one first, but the hook came off as I was bringing it to my net. Mike manged to land one, then the school was gone and everything went quiet.

夕方は、いつもの様にキャンプ場の前を流れるポイントを釣りました。夕方になるとKahawaiの群れが入ってきて水面が逃げる小魚でバシャバシャとなるのですが、今回は、ボイルが数回あった程度でした。

Mike casting to nail some kahawai

Making a cup of tea and coffee after dinner

We left Walpole on Sunday. After having breakfast, we fished a couple of hours around the camp site. Then we saw the rain clouds were moving in, so we packed up our gears and left the place before lunch time.

As we were leaving, we saw a lots of cars coming through with camping gears and towing a boat behind on their Christmas exodus, so we thought we left the place just at right time.

It was very cold down there at night (I had to pull out my down jacket), and water was chilly still. So perhaps, the place has not been in its summer mode yet. It may be a reason for the average size of fish that we caught was being smaller compared to fish we normally catch in Walpole.

At the end though, we still caught a fair amount of fish during our trip, and it was nice to spend a few days in a beautiful place like Walpole.

日曜の朝は、前の晩に降った雨で濡れたテントが乾くまで、二時間程釣って、その後はテントを撤収してWalpoleを昼頃に出ました。

土曜日までは、だれもいなかったキャンプ場が、日曜日の朝には満杯状態。クリスマスを過ごそうと、家族連れの車がいずれも大きなキャラバンやボートを引いて来ていました。中には洗濯機まで持って来ている人もいました。

誰かが連れて来たペットのカンガルーが逃げ出して、あやうくテントを潰されそうになるは、犬やチャリンコにのった子供が走り回ったりと、キャンプ場は、クリスマスを前に既にお祭り騒ぎ。帰るには、ちょうど良いタイミングだったと思います。