Flicking feathers

  A short video of a short 2 hour-ish fly carping session on my local river in Kashiwa, Japan. I didn't think I'd get any fishing done today so was pleased to get out. Despite the tough conditions I managed to catch 2 small carp around the 3-4lb mark; one on an orange glo-bug/egg and the other on a hybrid.

Another old one from www.sexyloops.com Over the summer I heard a podcast about using a dropper fly while sight fishing carp. My initial thought was that I didn't like the idea. But I tried it as I don't like just dismissing things if I haven't tried them. After deciding to try droppers, I fished them a lot over the last few months. I was out several times a week, on the river as with the teleworking and adjusted schedule I was able to get a few hours in before work when the weather allowed. So I feel I've given them a good testing, I'm still not sure it's a great idea most of the time.  I did catch fish on the dropper fly, but I also spooked enough that I considered going back to the single fly exclusively. Maybe I would have spooked some of those fish without the dropper but I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have spooked all of them-the question is the balance of fish gained vs opportunities squandered. The rationale for the dropper seems primarily to be pu...

On Monday I braved the heat to hit a river outside Tokyo for a few hours.  Conditions were pretty good early on, although it was incredibly hot there was nice, high, even cloud cover giving fairly decent light for spotting fish.  As I approached the river, the banks were alive with grasshoppers chirping in the long grass and cicadas screeching in the trees.  Things were looking good. I set up and watched a couple of unlucky terrestrials land on the water's surface, only to be quickly sucked down by waiting carp as they struggled in the surface film. Working my way a long the river I saw so may tailing carp that I almost took of my foam hopper but, stuck with  it until a few refusals demanded a fly change.  I stayed on the surface, switching to a size 6 Carl's cicada.  It proved to be a good choice. Carl's Cicada The switch was immediately rewarded with a nice common carp around 12lb that sucked the dry  down in slack water below a tree, almos...