Returning to things

The rest of my time in by Mt. Fuji was definitely better than the first day, rather than fannying around trying to catch hyper pressured schizophrenic largemouth bass I went after carp and barbel on the flats. So rather than being out on the water at 4.30 I slept through till 8, took my time getting ready and went out once the light was good. I had a couple of shots at carp, they were both good but there was a layer of snot weed on the bottom and they seemed to lose the fly when it sunk into the slime, one fish in particular really seemed to want it and was looking and rooting around looking frustrated when the fly disappeared. After making my way further along the shore, I started seeing barbel crusing along the edge of the flat. They were coming regularly and more or less following the same path. I made a couple of shots but got no interest. Then one came a long and I felt like it was looking up- don't ask me what the difference was, or how I knew it was looking up but I was sure it was. I decided to pull a little ant/beetle pattern out of the box and set about adjusting my leader. That fish was long gone by the time I was ready, but another came along and ate something off the top. So was feeling very confident as I waited for another fish to come along. It didn't take long and I put the ant right in its path, it came up and ate the fly, or tried to, I'm not sure but I didn't hook the fish. I had never caught a barbel on dry fly so It might have been my timing, it might have been because they're incredibly poorly adapted to eating off the surface. I continued a long the flat and quickly had another shot, I let this fish swim past me and put the fly in front of it thinking the angle might be better for hooking up. It charged the fly as soon as it landed, ate it and I hooked it up. A nice 70cm fish was quickly in the net. I was really pleased with it. An excellent bit of sight fishing and I'd probably have been happy with that for the day. As It turned I had at least another half a dozen shots and ended up with four barbel, I'd probably have caught a couple more if the bluegill hadn't beat them to the fly. An excellent day's fishing, and I think fairly unique. The only other place I've heard of dry fly eating Stillwater barbel is in Spain. Maybe it happens elsewhere, but either I've not heard about it.

After coming back I decided to go and check out a river I'd left alone for several years because there was a lot of major construction work that basically ruined it. Hawaiian dave and I used to fish it a lot and it was one of the better smallmouth bass fisheries around Tokyo. Clear water, not huge numbers but large bass that could be sight fished with topwater, streamers or crayfish patterns. A good day might have been 3-4 fish with the smallest being 3.5lb and your biggest pushing 5. Not many, but big. The construction work, was canalisation and a couple of bridges being built over several miles of the river and it just ended that smallmouth fishing. I wondered if it would have come back so decided to go and see. I didn't see a single bass, or a single bass angler which is maybe more indicative. But the upper stretch is now mde up of large sections of lovely flats and shallow pools that are full of carp and barbel. It was always a good carp river, but I think we'd become smallie blind and forgotten that. I set up 2 rods, 1 with a Dahlberg headed marabou minnow and another with a size 6 fat albert as we're right in the midst of terrestrial time and I was hoping to get a smallie on top from under the trees. Making my way downstream I saw a couple of barbel and put the dry in front of them, one came to it, but I think the fly was a bit too big for it. Then I saw a shape slightly down stream and put the albert in front of it and it was immediately sucked under. What I initially thought was a bass or small carp, quickly grew into a perfectly conditioned 11lber. Not what I was after, but certainly not bad. I persevered with the streamer in more open areas but other than chases from the barbel there was no action and as there were so many barbel around I switched to a crayfish patten and managed to catch a few of the aggressive barbel despite the fly being bass sized. I know people often refer to carp as golden bones, but the way those skinny water barbel chase down and eat a fly is far more similar to a bonefish. Really excellent fun. I also caught a few more carp on the crayfish pattern over the next couple of miles, but they were only in the 5lbish range. There are a lot of bigger carp there so I'll definitely be back armed with more carp and barbel appropriate gear. I just wish the bass would come back!