Martyn White | Thursday, 20 March 2025
It snowed yesterday in Tokyo. Unacceptable. I'm really glad to be heading down to the island, even if it is a bit early in the season.
The forecast is middling, high 20s-low 30s with some chance of rain. Hopefully I'll be OK as the island I'm going to is flat but the nearby islands are mountainous and usually hold the clouds and rain there. And encouraginly I was sent a picture of a blochii that was caught in the area on Tuesday.
Aside from getting not enough casting practice, I've been frantically tying flies. As usual I'm tying loads of stuff that I probably won't need or use. It's irrational, as I'm pretty much expecting to just fish a crab or a squimp all week. I know that I would probably be quite happy with a dozen squimps, a couple of clousers and a few crabs. But for some reason I can't resist the urge to imagine all manner of scenarios that need something else. Poppers in case I'm only seeing little sharks, or I fancy trying to pick up a yellowspot on the top instead of on a squimp (I won't).
Small blurple and natural EP flies in case I head out to the reef edge in search of a bluefin.. Possible but that's a bit sketchy on your own and will very much depend on conditions.
I know I'm not the only one who does this kind of thing, but that doesn't mean it's sensible. There's a lot of things that are "normal" but foolish and this is definitely one of those. It's probably got something to do with fly boxes, casting practice and gear being something that is within our control, while weather and fish aren't. Anyway hopefully the fishing is alright and next Thursday's FP will be about a selection of species on a selection of methods...