33 outings produced 122 catch, our best result over the 6 full seasons in the past. Daily ave of 3.7 was also among the best.

Short of rain worked against us as far as the seabass goes, but fair to say we made it up with the exceptional bream games.

A solid fish that took the chunky streamer while fishing in a typhoon flood. While seabass didn't show up this season, breams were always about, willing to comfort me.

One memorable catch was this yellow finned bream, 46cm in length.

They have taller body than black bream but seldom grow bigger than 45cm. My PB, a fine fish this one.

Into the latter part of September, the days become short, sighting game more challenging - and every success even more rewarding.

Discovery of the 2 new venues and newly gained field knowledge add to the satisfaction looking back.
There must be more new secrets to uncover - at our doorsteps - which makes me even more looking forward to the new season to come.

- Trout games

The sun is still strong scorching the sandflat. The water getting on gets heated up well beyond 30c. Breams seem not to mind, the hotter the water the more aggressive they become.!

My hunch met an instant success - though the density of breams was somewhat lower up there, the clearer water more than made it up, supporting exciting sight games.

October. Still a balmy , pleasant autumn day.

Some silhouette of breams on patrol captured in the bottom part of the pic.

But better watch out! When the water temp drops below 20c, those annoying stingrays come back into the shallows in scary big number. Mind your step!!

The first catch of the venue was, a little surprisingly, a yellow finned bream, which is more common in muddy flats. All the catches that followed were standard black breams, of rather modest 30-35cm class.

Murky waters in the lowest stretch makes sighting difficult. The good thing is they cannot see us either. Hitting those tailing fish at point blank range is a nerve testing fine sport.

Thanks to the solid rainfall the breams must have enjoyed good freshwater bathing, their bodies were free of sea lice, nice & clean!

September I guided Sayuri to my newly explored venue nearby, to experience the result of my intensive research so far.

Parking our bikes at the top end of the beat, we can rinse off the dirts on the shoes and pants in the clean fresh water after our day's work.

Absence of rainfall does invite some problem - the algae on the river bed kept dangling up with the fly every cast and every strip.

To fish in such condition we must stand back focusing on the extreme shallow perimeter and patiently wait for the cruiser approach the pre-planned engagement point.
Lightly weighted fly helps, to ride softly over the weeds as the gentle strip pulls the fly to the bream's scope - a very subtle, most exciting method in its own right.

High summer, from my past experience, produced numbers than size, but the summer this year gave us both, more than half were above 40cm mark, not a few in 45-50cm class.

In movie here too!

July saw somewhat mixed weather.
Almost no rain, but thick cloud cover persisted, making sighting game difficult.

I saw it as opportunities to enjoy family fishing - sitting on the banks casting worm in the cooler evening hours.. Not as productive nor as thrilling, but this way you catch them in all weathers.

A solid 80mm rain in mid August flushed out the turbid water renewing things new. And sure enough, action was hot and furious!!

In August strong sun dispelled the clouds,
the true high season's now on.

I went scouting a new venue in the city of Kure. The sandy beach stretches wide, with nothing to obstruct the view of (once a top military secret) Kure shipyard, the home of the legendary WW II battleship Yamato.

Unusually dry, sunny June supported great bream fishing - both in terms of size and number.

One thing bothered me was unusually high number of the sea lice. (Place the pointer on the pic, only if you are curious!!) This is the reason why big number of breams push their way up river, to bathe in the fresh water, where the sea lice come off.

Tide and weather didn't match, which delayed the start of my flat game season till May 8th. With the riverside flowers in full bloom, the sunshine was strong with a hint of approaching summer even.

Last year I studied the lowest stretch of this river. This year I went on to explore the upper section of it, where the sandy floor looks fit for my kind of game.

The first catch was in mid April, not in the sandy flat but up river, with a baby Ayu fly. Seabass was few and uncooperative, but friendly breams comforted me.

Bream game

When the drought and hot weather slow down the seabass game, what else can I do but chase those ever reliable black breams!?

I managed to explore some new waters and catch number this season reached my all time high.