Another winter sunday afternoon

Strong North Westerly wind was blowing on Sunday, and the sky looked to be unpredictable.

My friend and I were talking about to test his new inflatable kayak, but we thought that the wind would be too strong for that. Also we weren't sure if the rain was coming down hard later. So we decided to stay on shore instead.

First, we went to check a sandbar where my friend saw a school of fish on the last Sunday during the club's field day, however the water was too choppy to spot fish because of the stiff wind.

We then moved to a jetty nearby where we caught fish before.  We found some fish hiding under the jetty, and I hooked one up on my second cast.  I managed to pull it out from the jetty, but the fish made its last run for freedom, and it cut my tippet with a jetty pylon in the end.

A few casts later, my friend hooked up another one, and he did a better job to keep his fish away from the pylons and manged to land one fine fish.

We tried a few other places after that, but we didn't have any success. Perhaps, the air pressure was falling rapidly as the storm front was approaching and fish had gone into their  sleeping mode.

日曜は、朝起きてみると怪しい空模様。友達と、彼が買ったインフレーターブル・カヤックの試し乗りをしようと言っていたのですが、風が強すぎるので中止です。

近場で釣りをしようと出かけましたが、さっぱり釣れません。前線が近づいているため、気圧が下がって、魚もおやすみモードに入ったようです。

ようやく桟橋の横に毛針を落とし込んで良いサイズの魚を一匹かけましたが、桟橋の足に巻かれてラインブレイク。 友達の方も、ベイトフィッシュのパターンからカニのパターンに変えてからの２投目でフッキング。運良く魚は桟橋から離れる様に走り出したそうで、ティペットを切られずランディングできました。

桟橋の様なストラクチャーに付いているクロダイは、最初の１投か２投目が勝負。その後は、すぐにスレて反応もしなくなります。こんな時は、今回の様にベイトフィッシュからカニの様に見た目が大きく違う毛針に変えると、クロダイが思わず反応する場合があります。回転ずしで魚ばっかりが回って来る所に、だし巻き卵が回って来て、思わず皿を取ってしまう様な感じでしょうか。

My Saturday rubbish collection

While I was waiting for my friend to show up, I spent a bit of time to retrieve some rubbish from the river, and there were all kinds of rubbish that I found. 

My friends and I fish different places around Perth, and everywhere we go around the Perth metro area, we see a fair amount of rubbish on the river these days. I now use my landing net not only to land fish but also to put those pieces of rubbish in. Some of them are found in the water and others are left on the river bank or got trapped among tussocks after a high tide.

Apart form being an eyesore and epitome of stupidity and selfishness that some people seem to posses, I don't know how much of these rubbish will end up in a stomach of dolphins and fish.  Breams are scavengers, so I am sure that they will chew up a piece of plastic while they are crushing some crabs and mussels.

Anyway, the river goddess must have been watching me showing a good karma, because she let me catch one fish in the end.  It was the only fish we got on Saturday.

ここ数年、川で目に付くゴミの量が増えています。空き缶やプラスチックのゴミなど、子供の頃の東京の川の様になって来ています（まあ冷蔵庫や自転車などの大型のゴミはまだ見かけませんが）。

この１０年間でパースは経済的な発展をしましたが、その結果がこれです。川に住む魚やイルカに申し訳がありません。とても残念です。

背中にぶら下げているランディングネットは、魚を取り込むだけでなく、拾ったゴミを入れるゴミ袋としても機能しています。酷い場所だと、５分もあれば、ネットはすぐに一杯です。

Rain clouds in the sky

I ordered a set of filters (a couple of new PL and ND filters) from Japan.

They arrived yesterday,  so, I went out to do a test shooting today.