A fun urban fishing for a change. Tilapia, having its origin in N. Africa, were brought to Japan for food purposes. Some of them escaped, to enjoy life in the food rich city canals.

The environment is the exact opposite of pristine mountain streams. In fact, people passing by looked at us twice. But life isn't all about delicately prepared plate of Sushi. Once in a while you enjoy junk food just as much.

I invited my friend, a lure fisher to expand his scope of angling. He did well - for someone who refused casting practice ahead of the game. And indeed he did well to hook up a fish but that's where his luck ended, till he comes back better prepared.

As a new trial, I captured my bream fishing game and made it into a video clip.

Though the narratives are in Japanese, I added English subtitles pls. have a look here

On other games

Boat fishing around Hiroshima, and a little farther away in search of Tuna and Mahi Mahi, , , pls. see more stories on the thread 'Boat fishing of the seasons'

- Back

　

A fine Gogi, a sub species of Japanese char, found in the western part of Japan. You can also see the Video Clip.

One of the late season catch - against the perfect autumn sky.

End of sightfishing season is the start of Ochi Ayu season. It has been so in the past 3 years. However for a reason I mentioned in the seabass synopsis, there were no bream activities through Ocotober. When it finally rained in November, the river was already chilled too much, for breams a warm water fish.

On Freshwater Games

Just some fishing scenes, from our trip to Shikoku
in early May.

We tend to catch smaller fish in summer - and that was the case again this year - but Sayuri managed to pick up the best of the pack - a 45cm solid fish.

The green algae, after all, persisted through to the very end of the season. The adverse effect of it is clearly seen in my poor catch rate.

We hope this would prove to be just a one off event, not affecting this precious sight fishing venue over the longer term.

One thing that concerned me was the algae. This year they, appeared particularly rich. The algae itself poses no threat to the breams, in fact, breams enjoy poking their nose into the green forest. On the other hand that makes sighting more difficult, retrieving the fly through it almost impossible.

June, in usual years we see the green algae die and float away. But this year they persisted, even increasing their coverage!

We had to fish in a more static manner - standing on the edge of the green patches and intercept the fish that travels out or into the green carpet. Not how I want to play it but after great patience, a victory was sweet.

August, the water heats up exceeding 30c. The air is even hotter around 35degrees. That's tough on us fishermen, but not apparently so for the little one. I was spending more time baby sitting than fishing. Well, the little one hardly sits that is the problem.

One day I took our little one for clam digging and, naturally, a good father as I am must always vigilant. In a breaking waves great quantity of breams were surfing..

While 99% of them dashed away at the sound of the popper hitting the water, the 1% that demonstrated greatest machismo ended up learning the lesson the hard way.

A close observation (in a guise of baby sitting) revealed the big population of these shrimps - similar to mantis shrimp but way smaller. They live in their burrows in the sandy bottom and no doubt, making a part of bream's diet.

In May, there were obscene quantity of breams coming into the shallow. The water temp hit the magic 20s and the breams were feeding actively.

Breams being breams, never ''a fish a cast'' kind of bonanza. But on a good day I managed 4, while seeing off the less cooperative 96.

On Bream Games

The 4th season into this game. I welcomed its opening with just as much enthusiasm as ever.

The first bream of the season is something to celebrate. Oh, did I say that last year too?