My flying camera

The weather was terrible to go fishing, so I stayed home and played around with Photoshop.

Anyway, here is an image of my flying camera.

今日の天気は大荒れ。釣りに行くどころか、屋根が飛ばされそうでした。

という事で暇つぶしに、古いカメラとPhotoshopで、こんな事をして遊んでみました。

Flower and fish

Here is a few photos from the weekend.

Vivid purple flowers found in my friend's garden

Fish started hitting flies when the tide picked up its pace. It only lasted 20 min, then it became quiet again.

Fish were holding in the current and picking food as they were coming towards them. I got all fish on the drift.

Please bring back our clean ocean instead

The last week, the IOC announced that Tokyo is going to host 2020 Olympic.

During the IOC's meeting in Buenos Aires, the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe made his final presentation to win the bit.

During his presentation, he made his claim that the situation at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station is now under control.  He promised to the world that the radio active water has been contained within the plant, and the contaminated water is not leaking out to the ocean.

Anyone, who has been following news of the power plant since the accident in 2011 and having a bit of common sense, knows what the Japanese Prime Minister was saying is untrue. 

Even Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), who is responsible for all human errors which caused the 2011 accident and all other stuff up to follow after that, now admits that the radio active water had made its way to the ocean. They say that the contaminated water is still flowing out to the sea as we speak. It is just so timely that they announced this a week straight after Tokyo winning the bit to hos the game though.

Fishing on the Tokyo Bay 2010

It is pretty clear that TEPCO not only can't stop the radio active water leaking from storage tanks on the ground, but they now have to deal with the underground water being contaminated. The radio active water is silently traveling underground and is gradually seeping straight out to the sea, and the company got no effective way to solve the problem at this moment.

Scientists and researchers continue to catch highly radio active fish in the area. If the Prime Minster really believes that the crisis is over, then he should be getting those fish on his dinner plate to back up his claim.

I don't know about how other Japanese people feel about this, but I am not in the mood of jumping up and down to celebrate the news of the 2020 Olympic game. Tokyo won that because of Mr Abe's lie anyway (at least it feels like that to me), and above all, I believe that there are other far more important things that Japanese people and government have to deal with first.

In stead of spending money on things like media advertising, creating an Olympic mascot, and making those crap merchandise with its face on it,  money can be spent on the development of more efficient and safer renewable energy source.  In stead of spending money on building new stadiums, money can be used to build new hospitals and research centres for those who have been exposed radiation from Fukushima power plant. There are still countless number of people living in temporary housing.

I don't care much about the Olympic.   I would rather get our clean ocean back instead.


２０２０年に東京にてオリンピックが開催される事に決まりました。日本にとっては東京にオリンピックが来る事は喜ばしいことの筈ですが、僕は、両手を広げて万歳三唱という気分にはどうもなれません。

阿部首相は、プレゼンの中で「福島の問題は、コントロール下にある。汚染水の海への流出は完全に食い止められている」と笑顔で言っていましたが、とんだ嘘っぱちです。汚染水は今も海に流れ出ているし、東電には、それをなんとかする技術もない。

オリンピックに使うお金があるなら、原発を先になんとかしてほしい。しょうもない五輪キャラを作って、そのキャラのグッズを沢山作って、オリンピックが終われば、全てゴミの山。そんなものにお金を使うなら、風力発電の風車をもっと建ててほしい。被爆した子供たちの将来のために、最新の医療機器がそろった病院を建ててほしい。

嘘をついて勝ち取ったオリンピックなんていらない。それよりも、みんなが安心して泳げて釣りが出来る綺麗な海を返して欲しい。

A small rock fish that I caught on the Tokyo Bay in 2010

How come fish weren't biting?

Here are a few photos of fishing on the weekend.

The weather and the tide were looking good, but fishing was slow compared to a week ago. I was getting odd hits from time to time, but fish weren't really biting for some reasons.

It was quite warm around the mid day, but the temperature dropped very quickly in the afternoon. Perhaps fish felt cold too and became sluggish.

The wind was coming from a strange direction in the afternoon too.  I find that the wind plays a big role for black bream fishing. Fishing seems to get better on a certain wind direction on a certain place.  For example, on one spot I fish, I have never caught fish on Westerly in the afternoon.  The same spot can fire up, on Easterly in the morning for some reasons.

In terms of wind, I haven't caught many fish on a flat calm day.  Fish become super spooky, and as soon as my fly line hits water, they bolt.  On the other hand, I have had good results on very windy conditions.  Even I can only manage to punch out 3 m into the wind, I still hook up fish sometime.

A simple logic

I don't know how much cognitive ability fish possesses, nor I have a definitive understanding of what makes fish to attack their prey, but If my flies look and move like those real creatures that I find in the water, fish surely won't mind eating them.  This is a simple logic that I use when it comes to fly patterns. 

I often sit on the river bank and watch how bait fish moves with the current or hides under a rock. I sometime wade in the river at night with a torch in my hand to find out what kinds of shrimps and crabs are there.I then apply my findings to my fly design.

I believe that this approach leads me to much better understanding of those little creatures that fish eat and gives a better chance of creating something works well.  It is far better than spending money on fly tying books and DVDs or trying to steal someone else's fly box.

If you are new to fly fishing and got stuck with which flies to use, I recommend you to go to a local river and estuary and catch some bait. Put them in a little clear plastic container and watch how they really look like in the water. Pay attention to their size, colour, and movement.

This will reveal some nature's secrets, and all you have to do is to tie something looks like them.  If they look real, fish will be happy to eat it.

以前、川で捕まえて来たカディスの幼虫などを水槽に入れて、毛針を巻く為の観察をしていた事があります。気付いたら蛹になっていて、ハッチする瞬間を期待して待っていましたが、寝ている間に羽化していてがっかりしました。

ところで、鱒釣りの世界では、Match the Hatch という言葉が古くからありますが、海のフライフィッシングは、それに比べて随分と適当な感じがします。地元のフライショップのフライコーナーには、キラキラした光り物を沢山巻き込んだピンクやオレンジや紫などのド派手な海用のフライが沢山売っています。

そんな大阪のおばちゃん仕様のフライでも釣れる時は釣れるのですが、クロダイは警戒心が高い魚で、コンスタントに釣るとなるとやっぱり本物の小魚やエビやカニなどに似ている毛針の方が釣れます。西オーストラリアでは、４０cm位がクロダイのトロフィーサイズとなりますが、そんなやつらは、怪しいフライには、なかなか食いつきません。

もうとっくに空っぽになってしまいましたが、かつて部屋のコーナーに設置してあったカディスの水槽から得た発見は大きかったです。それと同じ様に、実際に川や海で小魚やエビなどを捕まえてみると、自分が思っていた以上にサイズが小さかったり、動きが速かったり、体が透き通っていたりと、眼から鱗的な事が色々とあります。タイイングの本やDVDなどから得られる情報よりも何十倍もの価値があると僕は思います。
 

Fishing was great on the last weekend. It seems that the tides had been on the good phase.

This was the best fish of the last weekend.