Martyn White | Thursday, 17 August 2023
Just a quick one from me this week. We've had a typhoon this week, which I'm actually pretty happy about. I'm off to Okinawa, leaving just as it will have totally cleared off, and with a bit of luck I'll be returning before another one has a chance to build up.
My mate Hiromiki, is joining me for a sveral days of the trip, so I'll spend at least some those days mostly on his shoulder. He's not familiar with the island, the tides and where you should/can go safely at different times. I've been talking to him quite a bit as we get ready. He's fairly inexperienced when it comes to tropical flats, but he's keen and he's getting there. His first trip down there the triggers taught him some painful lessons about buying cheap hooks, needing a stripping basket and decent boots. He's got a new 10 weight set up and we've sat and worked on leaders, basically for all the obviously fishing related stuff the boxes are checked. But he'd missed some of the less obvious stuff. As a cold water 2 hander guy, this is to be expected because a freezing Nagano river is far removed from the tropics. You should have seen his face when I asked if he had packed some running tights or any nivea or sudocrem! It took a while to convince him I wasn't pulling his leg, It just hadn't occurred to him that on a longer trip the heat, the sweat, the salt, the wet and wading would make both of these necessities. He's not alone in this either, myself and what feels like everyone I know has suffered the flats induced nappy rash at one time or another and been saved by more experienced flats anglers. Hopefully Hiromiki does believe me and this trip he'll be more able to focus on the fishing rather than his discomfort. And with a bit of luck I'll have a good mid trip report next week