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In the River OSHINO  --Vol.55--

Every Meeting Just This Once

I let out the line from the reel and cast the fly towards the rose stock at the opposite bank. The fly really looked like a white butterfly. It settled on the surface and flowed along the stretching branch of the rose. I was excited to watch it. At the next casting there was a large splash beside the fly. It meant that Taro, the monster brown trout in Oshino, stayed nearer to the opposite bank. I let out another 1m of line and cast it downstream of the rose branch.

Well done! The fly flowed past the rising spot. Oh, no! Come on, Taro! The next moment there was a large splash. Immediately I raised my rod to hook him up. Then I got a momentary glimpse of the fish that jumped at something, ah, not my fly. But my hands had already moved and taken my fly back.
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I wish I had had the same extensive knowledge and excellent technique as today. Almost all anglers might think so in vain.

Immediately I cast the fly again. The moment the fly settled on the surface the splash spread just downstream. Bad timing! It got really dark. The fly was hardly seen now because it did not float well after repeated casting. It looked just like a white petal of flower.

I took a deep breath and cast the fly under the rose stock a short while later. I could faintly see the white piece drifting on the surface. Feeling my heart bitterly pounding, I fixed my eyes on it with my body thrust forward.

A huge water column soared. It looked as if white fireworks exploded on the surface. Spreading loud splashes all around, Mr. Taro Oshino finally attacked my fly.

I got it! Only a momentary joy. I raised the rod but it cut empty air. I was so shocked that I could do nothing to stop the returning line from falling into the reed field behind me. I stood there absent-mindedly. The ripples made by Taro came under my feet. I heard my friend’s voice downstream.

"Oh, no! Mr. Sawada has fallen down?!"
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A brown trout took my fly just down the Self-Defense Force Bridge. The fish caught in the daytime was small.

Sedge

For what bait did Taro make rise? The surface was too dark to see but I thought he aimed at sedges which started flying just before his rise. The next week I was surprised to watch the shore. There were countless nymphs on the bottom and in the algae. I had never seen such a nymphs-strewn river. Especially there were a huge number of black caddis larvae. They were larger and fatter than in ordinary rivers. They are larvae of long-barbeled giant sedges. The Oshino River was filled with those giant sedges.

A huge number of sedges fly around in the evening. Brown trout must know that, therefore they ignore mayflies in the daytime. Catching big brown trout in Oshino means catching fish that eat only sedges.

Sedges are sleeping during the day and moving from the dusk. That means fishing in Oshino is fishing in the evening.

By the way, why I could not hook him up? I could not see clearly in the dusk but a water column soared at the fly-drifting spot. Surely he came to the fly. I was standing at a little downstream of rose bush. I had planned to cast from farther downstream to make the fly drift naturally but it was beyond my ability in those days. I thought that my fly was drifting naturally. At least there was no strong drag. Why didn’t my fly catch his jaw?
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The main stream of the Kimpusan River in 1975. I made it my rule to fish char from morning till afternoon and dropped in at Oshino on my way home.

Later frequent fishing in Oshino taught me that sedges were in the habit of crawling around the surface but not leaving themselves drifting along the flow, unlike mayflies. Probably that was why only-sedge-eating fish ignored my naturally-drifting insect. I was unnaturally desperate to make the fly drift naturally.

Surely Taro rushed to my fly. But he did so very differently from his way of eating living sedges. He moved a lot to catch sedges but it was because they were large and crawling on the surface. By contrast he attacked my fly very fiercely. He became violently aggressive like a person to take revenge. It was quite possible that he did not eat the fly properly.

I should have cast the fly from upstream, causing drag, instead of casting from downstream of the rose bush. I mean I should have given up the method of dry fly fishing.

In addition, if I try to catch a monster fish like Taro with size 6 hook, I should not want to set the hook to the fish early. It is absurd to set the hook at the same timing of a splash. The best way is to wait and wait until the fish almost snatch the rod.
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Rainbow trout grow up so quickly that their head and fins are still small. In Oshino too much food makes their body ill-balanced within 2 years.

Meeting with Taro

All is quite obvious now, but in those days I had not enough experience or knowledge. Why didn't I catch Taro? The answer came to me more than 10 years later although I caught a lot of fish every year. During those long years I thought I had failed due to unlucky meeting with Taro.

It took me no time to get enough knowledge to catch the fish, if lucky, but some years to have confidence to catch Mr. Taro Oshino in any situation. To my disappointment, he has never appeared since then. I realized that evening had been my last chance. I have never met or heard about him. Furthermore, other two brown trout I had found before also disappeared without any rumour of being caught.

In summer of the same year I heard a story from a bait fisherman whom I had sometimes met. On the rainy day he hooked a giant fish. He fought violently with it until his rod was broken near the grip. Instantly he grabbed the rest of the rod and continued to fight. Then the fish broke it again and disappeared. I asked him where he had hooked it. His answer gave me a firm belief. Definitely it is Taro’s work! The hooking spot was the fast current 100 upstream from his home under the rose stock.

I had spent a lot of time in looking for him since my last meeting in vain. My search area was not a large lake but a small river with short distance. But I could not find him. Then it became an unforgettable experience of 1970. I wrote about meeting with Taro in the book "The World of a Fly Fisherman" published in 1978.

Now in 2002, all things sound an old story. Nevertheless I remember Taro’s appearance and even his body patterns very well. I feel as if I met him only yesterday. I thought I was going to meet him soon again. He might be the first fish that made me think so.

"This is always the first and last chance of meeting this kind of fish."

Now I believe so from my various experiences. Today is only one day in the lifetime. Never imagine you see the trophy fish tomorrow again, or you will lose it. Such lucky tomorrow will never come. That belief has decreased my failure.

If you want to catch big fish, treasure every meeting, for it will never come again.

-- To be continued --
2002/09/08  KEN SAWADA
Tranlated into English by Miyoko Ohtake