Before the good season comes

[Satoshi]

Though it seems the season of 2010 has already started in some areas, good season is yet to come for most of the people, at least for people who live in the northern hemisphere. In our area, we have to wait one more month.
In the meantime, I post photos of the last fishing trip of the last season.

At the end of the last September, I had a business meeting held in Tohoku region (northern part of the Japan's main island). I managed to take day offs before the meeting and reserved my usual inn (Kubota lodge), so that I could fish four full days.

On the first day, I went to the stream where I had had pretty good fishing for yamame.
This time, I couldn't catch so many fish as before.


The fish were in the spawning color as this one. Yamame in this stream, mature relatively early.


This stout male took a dry fly after several drifts. Maybe he became frustrated and angry about the fly passing over his head again and again, rather than being hungry, because this fish is in full spawning color and usually such fish don’t actively feed. I wonder this fish might have been spermiating.





The next day was a weekday, and I was the only guest of the lodge. The lodge owner (in the picture) took me to a nearby stream. The stretch we fished contains only iwana (char).


The fishing was very slow at first. He said it was perhaps because the water was too low. Because he expected other guests in the evening, he left the creek earlier to prepare dinner (We had come to the river by 2 cars), which was around 2:00 PM. Shortly before he left, I changed the fly to a nymph.


The stream almost exploded with a nymph. I had responses from every good-looking spots. Often times, I took more than one fish from a small holding water.


I took photos of every fish I caught. I counted the number of fish I caught on this day after I returned home, and it appeared that I caught 23 fish within 2 hours. Most of them were around 10 inches. It is very strange, since the condition was not very bad for dry flies.

On the third day, I drove north for one hour to fish another stream, alone this time. I heard that the place was really hot 2 days before. The person who gave this information to Kubota and me fished the stream by himself. (He is a true expert. I once fished with him. He handled his fly line with 16 or 17-foot leader-tippet by an 8-foot rod like a magic.) He told us that he caught many good yamame (“good” means 10-12 inches).


This is the stream. It looked great, but I rarely had responses from fish.


I fished 4 different stretches, walked through the river all day long, and only caught one tiny iwana and two small yamame. Well...., we all know this happens at times; “You should have come yesterday, they were really biting!”


This was the best fish of the three. At least this was a beautiful fish. Unlike yamame on the first day, you notice this fish shows no sign of sexual maturation.


The last day was Saturday. I checked the access point to a stretch of a stream. I did extremely well in this place at the end of the previous season. Fortunately, there was no car around, and I started fishing upstream.


The stretch was filled with iwana just as it was last year. They were very willing to come up to the water surface to take my dry fly.



This iwana was different. This fish was staying in a very shallow water, and ignored a #12 terrestrial, which I had been using. I switched to a #16 CDC dun, but the fish didn’t even take a glance at it. Next, I changed to a #20 midge in vain. Then, I put a #16 beadhead nymph, and at the third drift, he took it! Except for this one, I used a #12 dry fly throughout the day.


I caught this very skinny fish from the pool just under the dam shown in the next photo.


These dams are made to control soil erosion. I climbed up to the road alongside and went down to the stream over the dam. There, I met three bait fishermen coming down. They told me they had quit fishing because fish were not very active. I was disappointed, but they told me they hadn’t fished till the end (another dam) of the stretch. So I decided to try anyway.


To my surprise, trout were very active. A fish or two always hung in the tail-out of every small pool or pocket water, and they were willing to take my dry fly. I wondered what those bait fishers had been doing there.


In this stretch, most of trout looks dark.
The body color of this one was especially dark.


There is a large pool under the dam that is the end of the stretch. I caught a countless number of iwana from the pool. It was like a fishing pond. So, just as the previous year, I ended the season with extremely good fishing.

[BrkTrt]

Simply beautiful.

Your streams and the gems that inhabit them are breathtaking.


Thank you,


- Brk Trt

[nic]

those fish are beautiful,
I enjoyed your post,

thanks for sharing

nic

[wrknapp]

Thank you. It was -4 deg F here this AM so it may be awhile before I can see fish other than here.

Randy

[LMarshall]

Thanks for posting Satoshi!

One of these days I'd really like to go fishing in Japan; you seem to have some wonderful streams over there!

[Satoshi]

One of these days I'd really like to go fishing in Japan; you seem to have some wonderful streams over there!

LMarshall,
Thank you very much. Don't forget to call me when you come. :)
But if I were you, I would rather go to Rocky mountain states. Though I know what palewatery would say, your grass definitely looks greener to me. ;)

[LMarshall]

One of these days I'd really like to go fishing in Japan; you seem to have some wonderful streams over there!

LMarshall,
Thank you very much. Don't forget to call me when you come. :)
But if I were you, I would rather go to Rocky mountain states. Though I know what palewatery would say, your grass definitely looks greener to me. ;)

That is very true!

[Brooktrout]

awesome pics and some really beautiful fish.
thx

[garethl]

Those streams and their trout are absolutely awesome!

[adam]

Hey, thanks for a look into your world.

I like your net, the bamboo in it is beautiful.


One day, again, I will visit your area, I will probably be an old man, taking my adult children...