Summer amago fishing

[Satoshi]

We are now in the rainy season, which started early June this year. When this short rainy season is over, the true summer comes and trout fishing becomes really difficult around here.

I went fishing on the last weekend of June, when the rain front happened to move a little bit north, giving us temporarily bright sunny weather.

It was very hot. I sweated a lot just while gearing up on the streamside road, but the water level was high and the water was cool thanks to the lot of rain during weekdays.

The color of the sky may seem strange in this picture, because I accidentally set the strange image filter of my camera.

I had been afraid that the hot weather might put down trout, but the first amago, which readily took my fly, erased my worry.

Indeed, trout were very active, which is unusual for this season here.



I had a strike or two in each run segmented by rocks in the stream in this picture.



Well, I had some unwelcome guests to my fly too. They are beautiful, though. Only if they grew much bigger!

This fish belongs to the carp family and grows to only 4-5 inches. I like trout best, of course, but if there is large fish of any species that I can catch with flies, I would gladly fish them during summer, when trout fishing is very slow here.


The largest fish of the day (less than 9 inches though). It seems this amago became smolt but is now returning to parr.


The place I fished on this day was a very short stretch above a reservoir. At the upper end of the stretch, there is a hydropower plant, which releases cool water from dams that are located far upstream. This makes the stretch a rare place where there is a possibility of catching trout even in the midsummer in this area.


A couple of weeks before, I fished all day in the rain and caught only one small amago. So, I was very happy about the day’s fishing. But the hot weather told me it’s time I went fishing for iwana (char) to the central mountain area, which would be my next report.

[joseph k]

Seeing those beautiful fish and clear streams never gets old. Thank you. I will be going back to work dreaming of amago and tiny carp.
p.s. That is the prettiest carp I've ever seen.

[flickfly]

Great pics and post Satoshi ! Very beautiful area !

[Apache Trout]

Nicely done Satoshi.

[ofuros]

Reminds me of parts of New Zealand with those crystal clear waters,
dense forest & steep sided valleys.
Not that I've been there....yet...just been researching for a tramping & fishing trip after christmas.
Looking forward to your next report, well done satoshi.

ofurus

[Satoshi]

Thank you very much for your comments, guys.

ofuros,
Yes, the streams of Japan and New Zealand looks very similar in many aspects, except for the size of trout!

Satoshi

[edeltrouts]

Most interesting for me are the colours. Water, gravel an the fishes have wonderful colours. Mountain stream fishing in clear creeks like yours is sometimes very tricky, isn't it? What is your common used fly type dry, wet or nymph?

P.S.: Your soccer women did a great job yesterday. Congratulations!!

Thomas

[Satoshi]

Most interesting for me are the colours. Water, gravel an the fishes have wonderful colours. Mountain stream fishing in clear creeks like yours is sometimes very tricky, isn't it? What is your common used fly type dry, wet or nymph?

P.S.: Your soccer women did a great job yesterday. Congratulations!!

Thomas

Thomas,

On the contrary. The fish is not selective at all. For amago, I usually care only about the size of the fly (and the visibility for my deteriorating eyes). If the fly isn't too big (which means #14 or smaller), amago take anything drifting down on the current. I think it's because there is no dominant hatch of a single species of aquatic insects in these mountain streams. The water is clear and very poor in nutrient and aquatic insects are not very abundant. Most of the time, I use dry flies. I use nymphs or wet flies only when it rains substantially.

Thank you for woman's soccer. Nobody in Japan would expect victory against Germany. It was a big, happy surprise for us all. Well...., after so many bad things happening in this country, we need some good things.

Satoshi