Is it already spring?

We had a lovely weather on Friday and Saturday. It was warm and almost felt like winter was over. Even our plum tree at school has started blooming some flowers.

Fishing was good again on Saturday as it was a week ago.  We caught a good number of fish including a couple of nice size ones.

Then, rain clouds came back on Sunday, and it became winter all over again. I was looking at the plum tree standing alone in the rain on the school yard today, and I felt that we need to wait bit longer before we can have a tea ceremony under the tree and do flower watching in spring.

 

My old fly reel

After 17 years of service, my fly reel reached its retirement.  The reel is totally worn out now. There are some paint loss and signs of corrosion, the handle is becoming loose, and the reel no longer has any teeth left on its gear for the click drag to engage.

I took it for its final mission on the weekend, and the reel did a good job to land one fine fish in the end. The fish fought well, and the reel was crying out for the last time as the fish nearly took out whole fly line.

I have caught a lot of fish on this reel, and we did many fishing trip together, but it is now time for it to rest.  Thanks for many happy memories.

P.S. I have already got my new reel though.  It is exactly the same Hardy reel as my old one.  I liked the reel, so I bought another one when the company decided to discontinue the model years ago.  Hopefully, the new one will last as much as the old one.

写真のリールを買ったのは、１７年前。イギリスのハーディーからフライロッドを買った際に一緒に オーダーしたリールです。竿の方は、竿先に五寸釘でも入っているんじゃないかと思った位の駄作で、とっくに売り払いましたが、リールの方は、今まで色々な 所に行って、沢山の魚を釣りました。

散々使った結果、ギアは完全に摩耗し、ハンドルはガタガタ。残念ながら現役引退の時が来てしまいました。

い つもの様に週末に釣りに行きましたが、これが、このリールにとってのファイナルミッション。お子様サイズのクロダイが次々と釣れるなか、ラストを飾るのに ふさわしい良いサイズの魚がようやくヒット。最後の最後に良いサイズの魚とファイトできて、リールもきっと満足している事でしょう。

P.S. 今週から使う新しいリールは、 古いリールと全くの同じモデル。ハーディーが同モデルの生産を終了した際に、スペアーに買って置いたリールです。

Fishing was good on the weekend. We caught many fish.

We found a school of hungry breams at the mouth of the Canning River, but fish were mostly small though.

Mike fighting his fish

Another iPhone size bream

We had enough of catching those small schooling breams, so we went on a search to find a better size fish.

I finally got one nice fish. The fish fought well, and my old reel did a good job on its last outing, I thought.

Bye bye cold. It's time to go fishing again

Since our guests from Osaka have left our school on Tuesday, I had picked up a bad cold.

I was having a terrible headache and joint pain, and I was spending most on my evenings in bed. I finally recovered on Sunday, so I went fishing with my friend.

The weather forecast was saying "raining", but we had a blue sky instead.  It was a nice day to be out, and I felt that I was alive again.

大阪の姉妹校御一行が帰った後の火曜日から風邪を引いてしまいました。やっと回復した日曜は、幸いとても良い天気に。

お昼過ぎから友達と釣りに行きましたが、数日ぶりのお天道様は、気持ちがよかったです。

We had a lovely weather on Sunday

Paperbark (tree) that I saw while I was fishing

My blue frog

I took out my blue frog for a spin on last Sunday.

It was windy and choppy, and it was difficult to paddle and fish. 

However, the weather was lovely (it had been raining hard for a few days), and I got a couple of fish. So I was happy to be on the water in the end.

By the way, on this particular day, the tide was going out fast while the wind was coming against the tidal flow at roughly 45 degree angle (South Westerly).  My initial thought was that I would be drifting down the river with the current like a cork, but I was wrong.

I was actually being pushed towards the opposite shore by the wind while everything else like my fly line, seaweeds, etc are moving fast straight towards the ocean. If I was just sitting there and let everything goes, I would have ended up on the other side of the bridge, 20 to 30m upstream from where I started.

I would say packraft is essentially a balloon, and like a balloon floating on water, it is at the mercy of the wind.  The effect of the tidal movement seems to be secondary at least on the water around here, and this is a good thing to note for planing future trips, I thought.

久々にペットの青蛙を泳がしに行ってきました。

風も波もあって、のんびり釣りができる感じではなかったですが、 天気は良くて、魚も数匹つれて、それは、それで、良い一日でした。

ところで、今回改めて思ったのですが、パックラフトは風にめっぽう弱いです。潮が効いていて、僕の初めの推測では、川の流れに乗って河口へ向かって流されるだろうと思ったのですが、いざ出てみると、風に吹かれて徐々に上流へ流されて行きました。

風船のお化けの様なパックラフトにとっては、潮の流れよりも風の影響の方が 大きいようです。