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Showing posts with the label Japan

Misanthropy

 Another old one from www.sexyloops.com On Monday, I went to a river I'd never been to before. A steep, fast little mountain river, full of pocket water and small plunge pools a population of sea run and resident yamame and a population of rainbows that's a mix between stocked and wild fish. I'm not the greatest at fishing this kind of river, as I tend to spend more time on rivers with gentler gradients, riffles and bigger pools. But I do enjoy it a lot. Tricky wading, sneaking behind rocks and dropping bushy dries or heavy nymphs into the soft spots. The fish might not be that big, but it can be magic. There wasn't much in the way of hatching insects but there were a few stonefly nymph shucks on the rocks and plenty of ants all around the place. Promising! Even though it was running a little high and fast I was quite pleased when I got there and saw that the river seemed to be empty of other anglers. Unfortunately despite about a hundred mile journey, it wasn't lon

Smallmouth & Barbel Fishing in Tokyo

I took advantage of a break in the weather to head to a river on the outskirts of Tokyo that I hadn't fished for a couple of years because of some major construction works including a new road bridge. The fishing still hasn't recovered but there were some encouraging signs. To support my channel, join the online tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and sign up or donate at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers Book Of The Month 6 https://amzn.to/3zwgkyc Amazon.co.uk https://amzn.to/2WyiuiE Amazon.com BOTM 1, Smallmouth is available here https://amzn.to/3wSaJAC   https://amzn.to/3vHUANX  

Turtle Hatch

Another old one from www.sexyloops.com  written in Early 2020  My 2 fishing trips since the rules were clarified haven't been great, partly because I was too excited to get back on the water and partly because of other factors.  First day out I decided to go to a river that holds nice smallmouth with Hiromiki - who I'm starting to think might be my Jonah.  It's a tough river, but has regularly produced fish in the 22-23 inch range for me over the last few seasons. Conditions were great and I was feeling pretty good about things. Unfortunately, after covering a couple of hundred metres of river we rounded a bend to see a coffer dam and an excavator working away, and turning the water the colour of chocolate milk. Bugger. Out of the river and a quick walk down stream in search of some clearer water. All we found were more work sites, including a new bridge that's probably going to take more than the rest of the year to finish. Some of the new stuff might actually turn out

Managing Expectations

Another oldie from Sexy Loops   (10th Aug 2019) In my last FP (the Okinawa trip report)  I only mentioned two of the three anglers. This was because the third rod made me think a lot about what people expect and the impact it can have on a trip. He spent a lot of the time complaining about how the island wasn't very fishy or how the flat was empty, which was in complete opposition to my experience of the fishing.  I found it a bit perplexing and a little annoying.  As the week went on I was running it over in my mind, but it wasn't until a conversation later in the week that everything really clicked. The guy regularly fishes a sandbar on a closed resort island in the Maldives that might see 10 rods a year and another Okinawan island for sea bream, catching numerous fish each day- some of them almost 12 inches long! With a guide. As soon as I we spoke about that,  a lot of his comments and the way he was fishing made much more sense to me.  He'd become so accustomed to havi

Silver linings

Another old one from Sexy Loops When I first came to Japan, I thought I'd really get into bass fishing the lakes nearby but it just never happened.  I tried, I really did, and despite catching a few largemouth I just couldn't really get into it. and I spent several years fishing almost exclusively for carp.  I do fish for largies now and then from my float tube but they don't do it for me the way their little cousins do. Now, I love fishing for smallmouth bass, especially in the clear rivers around Tokyo.   there's something about the way they inspect a hopper before sucking it under or smash a streamer on  the pause that's just amazing. They're a perfect fly rod fish.   Unfortunately, they're an invasive species here and we're supposed to kill them. I don't.  Pretty much everyone here releases fish, and the only killing is through the bad handling that is sadly all too frequent here.  The thing I have difficulty with is the evidence of my own observ

Tokyo Smallmouth and Predatory Carp

It's getting to be rainy season here in Tokyo, which means overcast to heavily cloudy days, warm stable weather and plenty of water to keep the rivers nicely topped up.  I love this time of year in Japan because the freshwater fishing is excellent.  As the humidity started ramping up I  decided to visit a river I had been leaving alone after some major construction work had ruined large sections about 3 years ago. I am glad I did!  As it always does, nature had taken its course and  the floods of the last few rainy seasons had carved out new pools where there had been flat canalised sections, the weedgrowth and insect life had recovered. I found the river teeming with life, huge shoals of this year's fry, minnows and dace were in the shallows with bass, carp and barbel capitalising on this protein rich buffet. Most of the time, I sight fish the rivers around here as they are so clear and I would rather see 3 fish eat then catch 10 blind casting.  But I wanted to move quite q

Tailing triggers

A couple of quick shots of tailing triggerfish in Okinawa. Southern Japan has miles of flats and is probably one of the best kept secrets in saltwater fly fishing

Reach Around Crab

Heading back to Okinawa in search of triggerfish and GTs, I'm tying up some reach around crabs as they seemed to be the most effective pattern on the local triggers with several eats resulting in destroyed flies but none landed. This trip I'm using different hooks and hoping for better results. Step by step instructions for the "Reach Around" Crab.  I believe this pattern originates from the guys at Fly Castaway and is a very effective pattern for trigger fish and others.  It's thin, compact and quite easy casting which makes it great on windier days too. follow me on twitter or instagram @flickinfeathers for more fishing content https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5456726 Materials Used Hook: SL11-3H Gamakatsu Thread: Any Keel: tungsten beads on 20lb mono Flash: UV flash Claws: cock hackle Mouth parts: Cock hackle Legs: rubber legs Body: Velcro cut to shape Glue: 5 minute epoxy Weed guard: 20lb Mono

Iwai Minnow

Detailed instructions for the Iwai minnow. This is a Japanese variation on the mylar minnow theme and is a firm favourite for Japanese seabass. It's also effective for other game fish, especially ambush predators. Materails Used Hook: Gamakatsu B10S Thread: Flat waxed Nylon Tail: Flashabou Body: Mylar tubing over a foam cylinder Throat: Red EP fibres Eyes: Black plastic bead chain or glass beads fixed on Nylon Coating: Liquid fusion or similar tough flexible glue

Too much work, not enough play

This year has been a bit of  a desert as far as fishing is concerned.  Between, work,  studying and  some terrible weather over the summer and into autumn there's been little done.  That said ther have been some good  moments. In March/April, David and I headed down to Kuroshima in the Yaeyama archipelago. It was my second visit and his first. The weather was better this time, but unseasonably cool and we were unlucky with a couple of storms blowing through.  Fishing was tough but we caught a few on the flats and had some shots at GTs and triggers(the target species) unfortunately we couldn't translate these into landed fish. Victims of the triggers We also had a lot of fun jumping small sharks that were really keen on little bangers We did manage a few other species including parrotfish thick lipped trevally, needlefish, small grouper and some kind of emperor.  As well as spotting some golden trevally, bluefin trevally and what while unconfirmed could have bee

The Fat Boy Tuna fly

Here's how I tie this killer pattern for fish eating species..Tuna and dollies love em..see!

The failed GT quest of 2014

Last year I made several plans to go and fish an island in southern Japan, with the hope of getting my first Giant Trevally on the fly as well as ticking a few other species off the list.   It started when I was looking around on Google earth at some holiday destinations and spotted Kuroshima island  at the extreme Southern end of the Okinawan archipelago. Kuroshima Island It looked great and had good reports of quality GTs, bluefin trevally and both titan and yellow margin triggerfish.  I had to go, the first plan was for August, but that had to be put off because all 14 rooms on the island were fully booked by SCUBA divers.  No problem, I thought and took some leave at the end of September, being only a 4 hour flight from Tokyo makes it possible to go for a long weekend. So I got a box of GT flies and a collection of flats flies tied up and got ready to go. GT brush flies NYAPs and poppers GT profile fly And some triggerfish crabs and