I was sent a Hardy 6 foot, 3wt glass rod for testing on the mountain streams. After the day was over & a good reflect on all that took place streamside & the ability of the rod to perform on a mountain stream, I came away with mixed thoughts on the rod. A little more fine tuning with different lines will soon show if the rod will be a keepe... OR NOT?????.

...

"Drive Past, It’s not worth fishing."

Ignoring these words of advice, about a stretch of water on a remote Hawkes Bay River was to produce one of those lucky breaks that come your way every once in a while.

From the road there was nothing one could see to suggest there was anything other than long reaches of featureless Papa bottom throughout the length of water in a steep sided gorge. On foot we found numerous sheep tracks leading down toward the bottom of the gorge and using one of the tracks to reach water level, our first reaction was one of utter surprise and delight.

The anticipated featureless bottom, had a hidden river bed cut into the Papa with a good flow of water over numerous rock and boulder strewn pools scattered throughout the length of the gorge, with an occasional rapid cascading into a larger deep pool which made the hairs on the back of one’s neck stand up in anticipation.
...

More than three weeks have passed since the unprecedented disaster of 3.11. The mental health, as well as physical health of refugees from the disaster is much concerned. Strangely, many cases are reported that people who did not directly suffer from the disaster also fell sick. Those people are mentally depressed by being exposed to grieving media reports about the tsunami disaster or nuclear crisis every day for 3 weeks. Women seem to be more susceptible than men. A woman working next to me in our office also told me she felt almost sick by seeing those news reports on TV or newspapers, though she is usually a very easygoing person. I told her to make herself enjoy by doing something like having a gourmet dinner or picnicking under cherry blossoms (which is a tradition in this country), but she said she just wasn't in such a mood to enjoy something.
Just worrying about the disaster never makes any differences. So in these days, TV is often turned off in my house, because channels are still much occupied by programs about the tsunami aftermath or news of ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis.
My family and I do what we can do. We donate money. We write to friends living in Tohoku region. We spend daily life as healthy as possible.
...

The Christmas Gift

The sun felt warm on half of my face and burned comfortably on one shoulder but the air was cool where it blew on my shaded side. The gin clear riffle shimmered like crystal with the refraction of the sunlight, the water deepened into a light green, filtering to an even darker green as the riffle poured into a deep eddy pool. I couldn’t see into the depths of the water but I was positive it held fish.


...

By Satoshi

I often feel envious of people, more specifically, fly fishers who live in places where there are good trout streams just behind their backyards. I’m envious of fly fishers who live in northern part of Japan. I’m envious of fly fishers who live in the U.S., especially in the Rocky Mountain States like Montana or Colorado. I’m envious of fly fishers who live in New Zealand.



My fishing trip to northern districts starts from this small local railway station.

It isn't easy for me to go to good trout streams. I live in a rather warm place, where the water temperatures of streams are accordingly high. In this area, trout are confined to nutrient-poor mountain streams where the water temperature is relatively low. Yet, even those streams are marginal habitat for trout. Trout of 8 inches is a very decent catch here. As I wrote before, the best season here is April, and fishing becomes slower after that. For good trout fishing (in the Japanese standard, of course), I have to go either to high mountain streams in the central mountain area, or to much northern part of Japan’s main island. Among them, you can expect better fishing in the northern part of Japan, because the central mountain area is rather close to many big cities, and hence, receives higher fishing pressure.

The northern part is called Tohoku region. “Tohoku” actually means northeast in Japanese. There is also good trout fishing in Hokkaido, the northernmost island among the 4 major islands of Japan, but the fishing in Hokkaido is less predictable than that in Tohoku. Although Japan is a small country, it would take 12 hours to drive from my house to the place I usually go in Tohoku. I don’t like to drive that long. So I use trains and rental cars for fishing trips to Tohoku. The trips are very expensive and once-in-a-year event for me. Typically, I first go to a hotel that is close to my final destination by train, stay at the hotel one night, and rent a car in the next morning to go fishing. From that night I stay at a small lodge where fly fishers gather till the end of the trip.
...