Flicking feathers

 Another old one from www.sexyloops.com My second vaccine date was confirmed last week, I'll feel a bit better about traveling once I've had it. I still won't be able to leave Japan. Well I will, but it's unlikely I'd get back in. So instead of an international trip, I'm heading to Okinawa for a week of DIY flats fishing. I'm going to an island I've visited several times before, staying at a great little inn 30yards from the beach. The thing about this island is that it's known for having bad fishing, but I've found it to be pretty good and getting better each time I go. There are no guides in the area and it took several trips to work out where to go on what tide, probably why people don't think the fishing is great after a single  2 day trip. I persevered there because my first trip was in and unseasonably cold December and despite that I still spotted triggers and GTs before a freak cold snap put things off and killed off a lot of small re

 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

 Another oldie from www.sexyloops.com I've been tying a big batch of boobies for a friend who fishes a lot of competitions recently. I don't tie many of them any more as I don't have much use for them in my fishing so it was a nice change from the usual warm water flies and traditional wet flies. Well, the first dozen anyway. I like boobies. I know not everyone does and they've been tarnished a bit by the way they used to be most commonly fished- static on a fast sinking line and short leader, essentially like ledgering a bait.  It often results in very deeply hooked fish making release impossible and has led to the fly being banned on certain waters, it's also super boring. But there's no need to fish the booby this way, and I'm a bit surprised the method still persists. They're incredibly versatile, especially when fished in a team of flies.  point or top dropper on any line from floater to the fastest sinker they can be ripped stripped, popped and cra