Fishing trip to Walpole

I went down to Walpole with my friends to kick off the summer holiday. 

We arrived at the camp site late afternoon, and after checking into our 5 star accommodation (the flattest piece of land on the camp ground I mean), we went fishing to get some dinner. 

We got some breams but they weren't big enough for a dinner plate, so we kept a few herrings which came through the channel chasing some bait fish.

毎年恒例のクリスマスホリデー前の釣り旅行に行って来ました。 南へ５時間ドライブして、やっとキャンプ場に到着。地面が一番平でウォーターフロントの一等地にテントを張ると、晩のおかずを捕まえに行きました。

We fished around Walpole next day.  We looked around a couple of flats but fish weren't there.  So, we gave up fishing on flats and fished around drop offs instead.  Again, fish that we caught were small schooling size breams.

次の日は、Walpole周辺を釣りましたが、魚は、フラットに入っていなくて、少々期待はずれ。という事でフラットでの釣りは早々にあきらめて、落ち込みなどの深場を釣りましたが、釣れて来るのは、キープサイズに満たないチビクロダイばっかり。

Fishing was slow in Walpole, so we went off to Albany on the third day to check Kalgan and King river down there.

We got to the spot where Mike caught some fish a couple of months ago, but the place was rather quiet. So, I jumped on my packraft to check the opposite side of the river where I saw many small breams on a flat.

I cast at them but they were only following my fly without hitting it.  I eventually caught a OK size fish along the drop off.

三日目は、釣果がパッとしないWalpoleではなく、さらに車で２時間行った先のアルバニーに行く事に。友達が２ヶ月前に釣った時には良かったという川の河口のポイントを釣りましたが、魚の反応はゼロ。パックラフトで対岸まで漕いで行くと、フラットに魚が入っている場所を発見。ここでやっとまあまあのサイズの魚が一匹釣れました。

After having lunch on the river bank, we packed up and left Albany.  On the way back to Walpole, we stopped at a few places along the scenic route.

２時間の帰路を考えて、アルバニーからはお昼過ぎに退散。 途中おもしろそうな場所を数カ所寄り道しながら帰りました。

On the last day, we decided to paddle a section of the Frankland River.  I set up the packraft while other guys were sorting out their kayaks at the canoe hire.  We paddled out eventually, but we noticed that the wind was getting stronger.

I guess, we were on the river for an hour or so, but after battling with the gusty head wind and having lack of fishing action, we were ready to go back to the dry land by then.

Mike and I were coming back to Perth while another friend was going south to continue his surfing trip. So, we decided to have our last lunch together before our departure. While we were having lunch at a cafe, the dark clouds came through and rain started falling. I thought it was a good timing to leave the place.

最終日は、Frankland Riveをカヤックから釣ろうという事になりました。パックラフトを膨らまして出発の準備が終わる頃に、友達二人は、、川の前のホテルでレンタル・カヤックを借りてきました。

大物が釣れる期待を胸に漕ぎ出しましたが、風が段々強くなって、空模様も怪しくなりました。川には一時間程浮いていましたが、前からの強風と釣果の無さに全員ギプアップ。「町でお昼でも食べて、さっさと帰ろう」という事になりました。

今回の旅行は、魚の数はそこそこ釣れましたが、サイズ的には去年と同じで今一つ。旅の途中で行ったアルバニーの川が面白さそうだったので、来年は、そっちにしようかなあ、と思います。

  

SONY a7

I went to a local camera store to get some photo paper yesterday, and I saw SONY a7 there.

I held it in my hand, and it was so light that I had to open a battery case to see if the battery was inside.  My 6D felt like a brick compared to a7.

The camera body was rather ugly, I thought.  It looked like as if SONY designers were tying to create another retro style Leica wannabe camera by sticking a view finder on an old black Sony Walkman laying around in their storage room.

Apart from its stylish issue, I felt that the electric view finder on a7 was terrible too. We were comparing it against the electric view finder on a new OM-D, and although I am not a fan of EVF in general, we all agreed that Olympus's view finder was much clearer and pleasant to look through.

It was hard to see details on a7's EVF because of aliasing especially on objects with straight lines.  I also noticed that the view finder image got frozen when I was using focus lock and re-framing. The time lag was quite annoying.

I love the view finder of my 6D.  It is a simple clean without having distracting over-lay info. I fell in love with this view finder, and that was a main reason for me to get 6D.  It is particularly marvelous for portraits with 85mm. People really stand out, and the view finder is very clear that I can see their subtle facial expressions. When they smile, they do look beautiful.  I don't think I can get the same feeling from looking through a7's or any electric viewfinder.

Lastly, the camera body is only useful with a good selection of lenses which SONY lacks right now.  Even for wide angle prime lenses alone, Canon has 8 lenses for users to choose. SONY only has one 35mm f/2.8 which is apparently good but very expensive for f/2.8 prime (I can almost buy my old 24mm f2/8, 50mm f/2.5, and 85mm f/1.8 put together for the price of Sony's 35mm).

Well, we played with the camera for while, and I left shop smiling with my Canon 6D hanging around my neck, I should say.

この前、カメラ屋でソニーの新型機を見せてもらいました。

軽さには驚きでした。僕の６Dの重さの半分位に感じました。ただ、 ファインダーを覗いて、テンションが一気に急降下。やっぱり電子ビューファインダーは好きになれませんでした。ただ単にフレーミングの道具だけと考えれば電子式でも光学ビューファインダーでも良いのでしょうが、ファインダーを覗いた時の、「綺麗だな」とか「良い絵だな」とかいう感覚が、どうも電子ビューファインダーからは感じられません。

それから、カメラのデザインですが、なんだか黒いウォークマンにグリップとペンタ部分を貼付けた感じでした。従来の一眼レフと比べて、ミラーボックスが無い分、ミラーレス・カメラは、デザインの面で余裕がある筈。わざわざ持ち易いとは言いがたい四角いレトロスタイルにする理由が分かりません。

 最後に、カメラのボティーは、レンズあっての物。キャノンのボディーなら広角単焦点レンズだけでも色々と選べますが、ソニーは、３５mmが一つ、しかも、これが結構な値段。僕の２４mm、５０mmマクロ、そして、２００ドルで買った中古の８５mmを合わせた値段と同じ位です。

３０分程遊ばしてもらいましたが、正直良いなあと感じたのは、軽さだけでした。

My thought on buying wading shoes

I got my new pair of wading shoes yesterday.  

It's a cheap pair of ordinary hiking boots from Columbia. It is light, comfortable, got no metal parts to corrode, and I picked it up for only $50 at a local Mountain Designs Store.

It is not purposely made for wading, but other than their soles, there isn't much design differences between wading shoes and hiking shoes anyway.  Since I have already given up on felt soles for their potential environmental risk of carrying waterborne parasites, I think any over size hiking shoes to go on thick neoprene socks will do the job.  If I need more traction on wet rocks, I am going to screw in some metal studs.

Speaking of old wading shoes, I went through five pairs of Patagonia wading shoes in the past. All of these started falling apart within 6 months. They are typical Patagonia's over priced piece of equipment carrying an expensive price tag for something doesn't last that long. 

I loved a pair of L.L Bean wading boots which I bought after giving up on Patagonia's boots.  They were comfortable and looked to be durable. However, those metal parts to hold shoe laces got corroded and came off rather quickly. I washed my boots every time after I came back from fishing, but it didn't help much. It was very disappointing as I was told that  these parts were "salt water resistant".  

I think no mater who makes or what they are, wading shoes won't last long. Glue will come off after having constant getting wet and drying process week after week. Saltwater and Sun's UV are too harsh on materials whether they are metal, plastic, or rubber.

It might be different if I fish only a few times in year, but for the number of days we fish, it will be good if the shoes last 12 months. For that, I no longer see the point of paying a lot of money for wading boots. I don't think $200 boots last 4 times more than $50 boots do.  Let's wait and see.

My old Patagonia's shoe before getting thrown into bin

My new mobile photo tool

I was given a green iPod about a month ago.

 

As a camera, it is a poor device. It only has a puny image capturing sensor and a tiny lens, and this thing will never beat $50 camera even.

 

However, as a tool of photography, it has been quite handy so far with those different photo apps that I have installed including a remote shutter release, pocket light meter, and etc.

Strange pink moon

While the mysteriously looking moon showing itself between clouds, we saw a school of fish jumping around in front of us.

It looked like something large was chasing them, but those bait fish were about 15cm long, and we were wondering what could scare the bait fish that big.

Perhaps the river monster comes out on a day with a strange pinkish moon.

Tintype

I went down to my friend's place to see his latest project of tintype photography on Saturday.

He showed me the whole process, which, I thought, was very interesting. However, the chemistry behind preparing wet plates and developing images in baths of magic potions looked to be very intricate and awfully demanding. 

Anyway here are some photos I took on my Canon DSLR, which is much simpler and more dependable compared to the archaically artistic method of tintype. Not to mention, there is no chance of me passing out from spending an hour in a small processing room filled with those strangely smelling liquid.

Weather change

The weather was cold and wet on Saturday, and fishing wasn't great either. 

The weather turned around 180 degree on Sunday, but fishing didn't improve like the weather did.