Summer fishing trip

I went South for a few days for an annual pre-Christmas fishing trip.

Fishing wasn't good, but it was nice to be on my packraft and explore a few places.

Reparing my packraft

My packraft got a small hole on its side, and it was holding air anymore. So,  I did a repair job on Thursday before I was taking it out on the weekend.

I followed Alpacka raft's repair tip by putting a dab of Aquaseal. I pumped up the raft, and I was grad it was good to go again. 

My friend and I went out to fish on Saturday, but unfortunately the wind was blowing bit too hard, so I left the raft at home.  

I will bring out the raft next weekend as I am thinking to fish on the Moore River.

岩に当たって小さな穴が空いてしまったパックラフトを修理しました。アルパカラフトに問い合わせところ、ウェーダーの修理と同じ様に、アクアシールを塗るだけで大丈夫との事でした。

アドバイスに従い、接着剤をちょこっと塗って修理完了。来週末に釣りに行く前にラフトを膨らませてみましたが、問題は無さそうです。

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。

Fishing on the Frankland River on my packraft

I went to the Frankland River down at Walpole during the last week of this school holiday.

This is the river that I was wanting to fish for a couple of years, but it had been out of my reach until I bought Explorer from Alpacka Raft a couple of months ago. The Frankland runs through a dense forest of tall Tingle and Karri trees, and because of that, it is not fishable from the river bank. The only way to fish this great looking river is from a canoe, kayak, and of course packraft.

この休みに南に４２０キロの国立公園の中を流れる、Frankland Riverという川へ行って来ました。以前から釣ってみたいと思っていた場所なのですが、この川はカヌーやボートからでないと釣りが出来ません。パックラフトのおかげで今回やっと釣る事ができました。

There is a boat ramp near the highway bridge which I used to launch my raft. The first 1 km or so from here goes along a tiny community of Nornalup. After that the river meanders through a national park which offers a great scenery and a little feeling of remoteness and adventure.

As I was setting up my packraft, I saw people on two canoes coming back from upstream. After that I didn't see anyone else on the river. It was nice to keep a such beautiful place only to myself, I thought.

Mind you though, I was there on cold autumn days with a grey sky during the week.  It could be a different story on the weekends. Having a convenient boat ramp near by, on the top of scenic wonder of the river, I expect there will be some noisy boat traffic specially during the summer months

下流の橋からパックラフトを降ろして、川を遡り、途中でUターン。釣りをしながら下って来る作戦です。パックラフトで流れに反して進めるのかが心配でしたが、川の流れが非常にゆっくりだったので、なんとか川を上って行く事ができました。ただ流れがもっと速かったらそのまま下流まで流されていったと思います。幅の広いパックラフトは、カヌーと違ってスイスイと川を進んで行く事は出来ません。

スタート地点から１キロ位は、小さい町の近くを進みますが、その後は高い木々が生い茂る森の中に入ります。途中で２艇のカヌーに乗っている人たちに会いましたがが、それ以外は川には誰もいませんでした。ホリデーシーズンも過ぎ、しかも秋の寒空の平日。こんな日に川に浮かんで釣りをしている暇人はそうそういません。

The Frankland River is a typical bream territory. There are lots of snags and deep pools for fish to hide, and it seems that the river has a large population of black bream. I was amazed by so many fish that I saw while I was getting ready to launch my packraft on the river bank.

However, being able to see them and being able to catch them are  totally different things. I quickly discovered that even on a river full of fish, catching bream is always challenging. 

Compared to the amount of fish that the river holds, I was getting far less bites. May be, the condition wasn't right, as there was a sudden temperature drop for example, but I must admit that fishing on the river wasn't as productive as fishing on the main estuary. This perhaps explains why most people go down to the estuary to fish rather than go up the river to get teased by those finicky breams.

Fish however did come eventually after trying a few different flies and tactics for a few hours.  They weren't big fish, but those Frankland breams were beautiful having a rich golden colour on their body, just like one shown on the photo.

このFrankland Riverにいるクロダイをフライフィッシングで狙うのが今回の目的。 深い淵やオーバーハングに倒木と、魚が潜んでいる場所が沢山あり川には多くのクロダイが棲んでいるという話しです。実際にパックラフトを膨らませながら川を覗くとクロダイが数匹泳いでいるのが見えました。

しかし、「 見える魚は、釣れない」とはよく言ったもので、毛針を色々と投げてみましたが、魚からは全く相手にされません。パドリングをしながら大きな魚がいそうなストラクチャー周りをあちらこちら攻めても同じ結果。アタリすらありませんでした。

そうこうしていると、川の真ん中程でベイトフィッシュが追われ始めました。近くまで漕いで行って毛針を投げ込むと、キャストしたストリーマーを引いてくる間も無く魚がフライにアタック。淵の底や倒木の影にジッと潜んでいる魚を狙うより、やはりエサを追っている魚の方が釣れます。釣れた魚は、小型から中型サイズの魚でしたが、今までに見た事の無い金色のボディーのきれいな魚でした。

A Frankland River bream

After the time I spend on the Frankland, I have become more confident with my packraft.  I am getting a better idea on how the raft handles wind and current, its limitations as well as advantages for the fishing application. 

Packraft is slow. It feels like I am moving at speed of a sloth getting chased by a hungry jaguar. It gets easily pushed by the wind and almost impossible to paddle against the river and tidal flow even at a modest speed.

Going slow is not a bad thing though.  I can see more stuff along the way.  Yes, the wind and tide can be against me, which means I will be paying more attention to the environment, and I will be better at reading wind patterns and tidal movements.

Packraft is about a zen approach to fishing and river going. It is a slower, simpler, quieter, and more peaceful on the water. It is a great way to "be one with flow", I think.


今回の釣りの釣果はそれほどではありませんでしたが（ちなみに川の外の湾の方が、クロダイはよっぽど釣れます）、森の中をパックラフトで進んで行くのは面白くて、新しい楽しみを見つけたと思います。西オーストラリアの州南部には、同じ様な場所がいくつもあり、どの川にもクロダイがいます。パックラフトがあれば行ける場所が沢山あります。

今回の旅行でパックラフトに関しては、良い所も弱点も発見出来ました。パックラフトは、速さや効率を求める人には全く向いていない乗り物です。パックラフトは、どんなに頑張って漕いでも歩くスピードしか出ませし、風にも川や潮の流れにも簡単に流されます

逆にパックラフトは、釣り場へ着くまでの行程を楽しむための道具だと思います。浜辺や山道や渓を歩く事は、釣りの一部だと考える人には、軽くてシンプルで自然にローインパクトなパックラフトは、川や湖や湾を探索するのに素晴らしい乗り物かと思います。

A small fish with a large fly in its mouth

Lucky me, they weren't sharks

A pod of dolphins showed up in front of me on Saturday.

One came very close to my packraft, and it surfaced next to the raft in a rod length away (unfortunately, my waterproof point & shoot camera was fast enough to take a good shot).

I saw another dolphin crossing a meter in front of the raft, only its fin was showing on the water.  It was just like a scene that I saw in the movie, Jaws, and although I knew it wasn't a shark, I couldn't help hearing that theme music from the movie in my head.

Anyway, It was very exciting.


土曜日にパックラフトに乗って 釣りをしていると、１００メートル位先にイルカのファミリーが見えました。

どうやらエサの魚を追っているみたいで、どうやらこちらへ向かって来ている様子。そうこうしている内に、すぐ目の前まで来ました。

歩く速さしか出ないパックラフトを一生懸命漕いでイルカの群れの近くまでいくと、一匹のイルカは、パックラフトのすぐ真横に浮上してきました。

その後は、違う１匹が、船首から１メートルの所をフィンの先だけを出して通過。まさに、映画ジョーズで見た様なシーン。

サメじゃないと分かっていても、。正直、もしかしたらパックラフトをひっくり返されのでは？とビビりました。

On the river on my packraft

I have been paddling out on my packraft since I got it a couple of weeks ago.

I haven't caught fish from it yet though, but fish will come soon or later, I guess.

For now, I just love to float on the water to re-discover our local river.

The packraft allows me to see the river from a different perspective.  It is the same river that I fish every week, but it looks like there is a new world out there for me to explore.

Alpacka Raft makes a few different models of packrafts, and it was difficult for me to decide which one to get.

However, I opted for Explorer for two things at the end for two things.

First, Explorer has a longer waterline than other models which allows the raft to go bit faster track better on flat water.  

Second, it has a roomy cockpit to put extra stuff like my fly fishing gears.

Explorer has a spacious cockpit for fishing gears, etc

To fly fish for black breams from the raft (or any watercraft), I believe it is a good idea to drop an anchor to stop the raft from drifting, or at least slow down the speed of drift significantly. 

The bream often hits a fly when the fly stops moving, so it doesn't help, if the raft is being pushed by the wind like a piece of polystyrene foam.

I have tried a couple of different options for anchors so far.

One was an old drink bottle filled with sand.  It slowed down the raft, but wasn't effective enough to stop the drift (it may be different, if I use a bigger bottle).  It was bit awkward to put sand in it, and get sand out afterwards too.

The another idea was using a plastic bag again filled with sand.  The plastic bag was then placed in a cotton shopping bag.  

It worked very well in terms of stopping the raft from drifting.  However, it was a messy job to bring it back on board after pulling it up from a muddy bottom.

I look for something else this weekend.

I took the raft out on one evening.

I was just drifting with wind and  watching the sun going down.

It was very peaceful.