Refresher

We met up about 6 and got ready to start fishing, unfortunately there seemed to be some more construction work underway on the stretch we were going to fish, so we had to move. A quick journey to a few km downstream. Oddly it was actually quite cool in the morning, which was a bit of relief for us after a couple of weeks of high 30s and high humidity. Unfortunately the fish didn't seem to agree. We saw plenty of neutral -negative carp and shoals of barbel just sulking in slacks or deeper pools. Probably not that surprising given the significant drop in temperature and air pressure. We stopped to speak to an couple of ayu fishermen and they said they were finding things much the same-solidly negative. Further downstream there is a factory where they discharge coolant water back into the river which makes for pretty consistent temperatures for a considerable distance downstream. We came across a couple of tailing fish and had a shot at one but didn't get an eat. Miki had to get to his office in the afternoon, so we took that refusal as a sign and called it a day.

The change in the air got me thinking about autumn, which is depressing on one hand because those cold summer beers in frozen glasses are soon to be a memory, but on the other hand it does make for a change in the fishing. It'll soon be Seabass time and if we can get out between typhoons some autumn tuna and amberjacks and maybe some mahi. All my offshore fly gear is ready to go but I felt I needed to have a look at the conventional gear. I never do a blue water trip with only fly rods, it might just be the case that there's nothing near the surface or it might be to windy for the fly, it doesn't matter which; the jigging rod or popping rod frequently save the day. So yesterday I spent the morning spicing and whipping assist hooks for jigs and plugs, an easy task if a bit boring. Then sat down to practise tying SC knots, I've really come to prefer this knot to the FG or PR for connecting the braid to the leader. A similarly boring task but worthwhile. I don't do enough conventional fishing that I'm tying these knots more than a few times a year and I think it's a good idea to have a refresher. I don't want to leave a fish trailing a full shock leader, even with barbless singles a jig will still keep tension on them and they could be hooked oppositionally. Definitely worth an hour.