Shore Game: Ito, Shizuoka
Broken heart from very unproductive boat game. Mr. and Mrs. Harimars and I packed up and headed for coastal game which could be carried out without worrying about fish signs, tides, and waves.
Ito Harbor: Salt Water Tenkara (No Reel Fly Fishing)
When we got to the harbor, we had a choice between fish staying tight at the bottom or wall structure in general. I chose to fish tight at wall where seaweed were forming hiding places. I took out non-reel Easy Fly rod and tied knotted tapered leader of 15 feet (30lb x 6 feet, 16b x 3 feet, and 8lb x 6 feet). For the fly, I know nothing beyond my own bead headed UV maggot on #18 hook, so there was. The setting was using no thick fly line to spook fish, but all transparent fluoro carbon.
I first presented to the school of baby striped beak fish. They played with fly a while, but none opened his mouth big enough to suck my maggot fly in. They were picking on fly, not sucking it. Good side effect was other fish were agitated by this, and the school of large-scale blackfish came about. Again, none opened its mouth wide open and sucked it in. Maybe I need to improve the tippet for further natural drift and fall.
Then finally this fish jumped out of his hiding place and sucked on the fly. It was 12cm anahaze/sunrise (Pseudoblennius percoides: Gunther,1861). Anahaze looks very much like goby, but it has beautiful blue colorization on its chin and belongs to the same family of pseudoblennius who includes marbled rockfish and fat greenling. As a matter of fact, I saw fat greenling jumped out of his hiding for the fly, but he didn’t like something about it and turned back. I should prepare variations of maggot fly in different colour then.
We heard about the rumor of someone catching trevally at the slope point. I checked it out, but there was no sign of school. Maybe some other time.
Estuary of Ito River: Fly Fishing with Two-Handed Switch Rod
I wanted to test a method Rip Tide from North American Fly Fishing Forum was telling me about. Cast a fly with floating line into drift then turn the fly with rod stroke. When I executed this with orange scud tied on the end, I just couldn’t believe what it did on the very first attempt. It triggered the chase by many small size black porgies and sea basses. This method, not only turned these fish on, but they felt agitated by the teasing motion of fly which has just the right amount of motion created by the rod stroke.
It is a wet fly technique which worked at its best. If this method works as effectively as I continue, then I should consider using dropper rig.
Only problem I had was hooking. These fish chased the fly hard, but they weren’t efficient biters. Drifting scud on #10 was little too hard for them to target, so I changed it to Copper Frede. After 12 strikes and 3 mishooks, I finally got…
Well… 11cm baby seaperch. Somehow his big brother didn’t react to fly well, but it’s a new start.
Broken heart from boat game. Mr. and Mrs. Harimars and I packed up and headed for coastal game which could be carried out without worrying about fish signs, tides, and waves.
Ito Harbor: Salt Water Tenkara (No Reel Fly Fishing)
When we got to the harbor, we came to the choice of game. Fish stay tight at bottom or structure, so I chose to fish tight at wall. I took out non-reel Easy Fly rod and tied custom tapered leader of 15 feet (30lb x 6 feet, 16b x 3 feet, and 8lb x 6 feet). For the fly, I know nothing beyond my own bead headed UV maggot on #18 hook, so there was. So the setting has no thick fly line to spook fish, but all transparent fluoro carbon.
I first presented to the school of baby striped beak fish. They played with fly a lot, but none opened his mouth big enough to suck my maggot fly in. They were picking on fly, not sucking it. Good side effect was other fish were agitated by this, and the school of large-scale blackfish came about. Again, none opened its mouth wide open and sucked it in. Maybe I need to improve the tippet for further natural drift and fall.
Then finally this fish jumped out of his hiding and sucked on the fly. It was 12cm anahaze/sunrise (Pseudoblennius percoides: Gunther,1861). Anahaze looks very much like goby, but it has beautiful blue colorization on its chin and belongs to the same family of pseudoblennius who includes marbled rockfish and fat greenling. As a matter of fact, I saw fat greenling jumped out of his hiding for the fly, but he didn’t like something about it and turned back. I should prepare variations of maggot fly in natural color and copper then.
We heard about the rumor of someone catching trevally at the slope point. I checked it out, but there was no sign of school. Maybe some other time.
Estuary of Ito River: Fly Fishing with Two-Handed Switch Rod
I wanted to test a method Rip Tide from North American Fly Fishing Forum was telling about. Cast a fly with floating line into drift then turn with rod stroke. When I executed this with orange scud tied on the end, I just couldn’t believe what it did on the very first attempt. It triggered the chase by many small size black porgies and sea basses. This method, not only turned these fish on, but they felt agitated by the teasing motion of fly which has just the right amount of motion created by the rod stroke.
It is a wet fly technique which worked at its best. If this method works as effectively as I continue, then I should consider using dropper rig.
Only problem I had was hooking. These fish chased the fly hard, but they weren’t efficient biters. Drifting scud on #10 was little too hard for them to target, so I changed it to the Brit fly: Copper Fredge. After 12 strikes and 3 mishooks, I finally got…
Well… 11cm baby seabass. Somehow his big brother didn’t react to fly well, but it’s a new start.