A new Junkie...
Last week I took out David, an experienced angler, but a new comer to the sport of fly fishing. Since coming to Japan he's been struggling to catch fish of any kind, so found us through the TFFC Facebook page and decided to buy am 8 weight set up to get started. After having a chat about flies and gear etc. we arranged a Monday on a target rich little river near me. However, these targets are carp, but given the choice of fishery and the time constraints it seemed like the best option.
At the start of march it's still a bit chilly in the morning, so no need for early rises, we met at the station around 9.30 and made our way up to the river. David was amazed at the number of fish we were seeing and it was pretty hard to convince him to wait till we got to the top so we could work our way back down stream.
By the time we got to the weir that marks the top of the stretch, David was champing at the bit to get started. Having watched a few of my videos he'd tied some of his own flies and wanted to try them, so I picked a biggish pink soft blob from his box and we went down to fish the run in at the weirpool.
Obviously as a beginner David is still ironing out his casting, but he could cast far enough for anything in this stream, and we just had to try and work on his accuracy, but after a few minutes of coaching he managed to flick a short 18ft cast at a nice little carp which cooperatively sucked in the blob.. David didn't strike, he was waiting to feel it. So a quick reminder to watch for the fish sucking it in and a sharp strike and we were ready to go again as three fish came into range, heads down and munching, another cast and the blob was drifting nicely down to the pod.... gills flared blob disappeared, David struck! First Fish on fly after about 20 minutes of fishing and it's a river carp!!
Not a big fish, but a great first fish on fly!
As we went down stream the fish in the clearer water away from the weir were rejecting the big bright blob, and I had stuck a few fish on a little "mikam" bead head so david elected to switch to another fly, something a bit more natural. We pulled out a head stand from his box and after a few attempts and spooked fish managed to drop it on the nose of a feeding fish..result! Carp number two and caught properly too.
Not bad for someone who's only been tying a couple of weeks
The mikam bead head
We carried on downstream and David managed another few shots, missed some fish and caught another, finishing on 3 for the day for my 9...that's a pretty amazing effort for a first day of fly fishing in anyone's book...and he's totally hooked I got a message last week saying he'd order another three outfits in 6, 10 and 12 weights to cover everything that is around here... welcome to the addiction David.
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