Happy days

[Satoshi]

Happy days

Since the fishing on March 22, which I posted here, we have been suffering from very cold weather. It even snowed in Tokyo on April 17. Whether it is because of this or not, I don’t know, but fishing was very slow in three weekends in a row (I caught either only one fish or no fish). It may be because I went to places where fish just happened to be very scarce in this season.

The season is progressing nevertheless, and now, people began planting rice seedlings in our town.

Finally, we had rather warm days lately, and I did a fairly good fishing fortunately. So I report the fishing on the last Sunday and Thursday, which was a national holiday.

My home stream is formed by two creeks in its headwaters. I usually go fishing to one of the creeks and had never fished the other. Though a logging road parallels the creek, the stream is on the bottom of a steep canyon and the access is not very easy. This also makes the stocking fish into the creek difficult, and I had figured the fishing would not be good there.
On the last Sunday, however, I decided to explore the creek and headed there earlier than usual.

I parked the car at the gate which blocks the logging road. There was no other car around.

This is the view from the gate.


Looking down from the logging road, you cannot see the bottom of the canyon, but descending to the stream was not so hard as I had expected.


The stream was very beautiful. The weather was rather cool as for this season, but it was very comfortable.
We had cold rain in the middle of the week, and the water was extremely cold. I started fishing with tandem wet flies at around 9:30, but I caught first fish around 10:30.


The first amago looked still dark, but chunky.


Other trout seemed to be in good condition.


The stream was so beautiful that I couldn’t help taking pictures frequently.


Though fish were not plentiful, I had responses enough to entertain me.


A very nice looking pool, but no response from trout.


A beauty. When food is plenty, amago grows rapidly and the size of the head becomes relatively small to its body as this one. On the other hand, it means that the number of fish is rather small.



Snakes also seemed to come out for sunshine. These are not poisonous kind.

On Thursday, I took a friend to my home water. As I said, there are 2 creeks there and we fished lower stretches of both of them. Though we had a rather heavy rain on Tuesday and water was high, the weather was fine on Thursday and fish came to the surface in the middle of the day. Usually at this time of year, fishing is becoming slow in midday, but the season seems to be prolonged this year, which is very nice.


This is just below the confluence of the two creeks. The stream looks very open here, because there is a dam filled with sand just below. It is rather surprising that this shallow water always holds some good fish, though it is not good holding water. I think it’s because bait fishermen are not very good at fishing these very shallow runs, and they cannot take out fish from these places.


We caught several fish among us.


Because the stream is narrow in most of the stretch, we took turns. It is not a good idea to go upstream passing your friend, because amago is so sensitive that if you walk along by a holding water, or if you just stand on the head of a pool, the fish in the water will be spooked and never come to a fly for a while. (I think this is also true for other trout species.)
The rule was that either of the following happens, the person stops fishing and the other start fishing.
(1)Trout rises to the fly, no matter whether you catch it or not.
(2)Stuck in trouble, like snagged on the bottom, or tree branch, your tipped got entangled etc...


Luckily, it was my turn when we came to a pool that held this extremely good fish.


He is much younger than me and not very experienced, but he also caught some nice fish.


The overall size of the fish was larger than usual on this day. This may be because the water was high.


Food for the evening of the happy Thursday; Brk Trt style.
OK, I admit they don’t look so delicious as those by Brk Trt. Is it because I took the photo in the middle of the meal….?
But please believe me, they were good. ;)

[CM_Stewart]

What beautiful little stream. Thank you for posting that.

[Fly Chef]

Beautiful stream and fish. I love the trout you have over there, really cool fish.

Keith

[BrkTrt]

Satoshi,

Well done.
Your mountain streams are beautiful, with crystal waters.
The fish speak for themselves.

And your meal is very tempting.

Thanks for the enjoyable post and photos.


Brk Trt

[soupmix]

Excellent post as usual Satoshi. Thank you for sharing.

[adam]

Nice.

I get to travel every time you post.

Thank you.

[ksbioteacher]

Truly, happy days. Thanks for taking us along on your trip. I really like those mountain streams and the colors, hmmmmmmm.

BW

[rayfound]

Satoshi, your posts are routinely my favorites. From the water to the gorgeous fish, that just looks like a place I want to fish someday.

Thank You.

[Danny S]

I have never visited Japan (but would love to; hoping work may take me there one day), but was impressed with the initial pictures of the valley, in addition to the stream and fish pictures. I had always wondered what Japan's mountain and valley areas might look like. Now I have a better idea thanks to you, Satoshi. THANKS!

[ofuros]

Very very envious....that you have such beautiful streams
so close to your home.
Nice post.