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In the River TAKAHARA  --Vol.84--

An Illusion?

As Mase Orange was swallowed by so many char, it was heavily coated with the wet skin inside their mouths. Now the fly could barely float on the surface. So I put the second one to the leader, which floated lightly on the surface of the channel with its large spent wings fully spread. It drifted slowly like a little dragon fly.

When it reached at the centre of the channel, the other side of the fly suddenly looked bright as if the sunlight had just shifted down through the trees only there. I stared at the fly. I could not believe my eyes. There was a golden fish on the surface!

I could not move or breathe. I just watched what happened in front of me. The golden fish opened its large mouth on the surface and slowly swallowed my fly which came drifting near to it. My eyes were fixed on the fish but my arms moved automatically the moment the fish bit the fly.
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The body colour of the char quickly changed from gold to yellow, then to olive.

After being hooked up, the fish swam around the surface without going down. Every time it turned its large body, golden bubbles were scattered around.

It did not pull the line so powerfully. At good timing I scooped it into the net I had borrowed from Mr. Shohei Katoh beside me.

"What a mysterious fish!"
"What a fantastic colour of a char!"

We had nothing else to say but gazed into the net.

A Kajika Frog

I looked around to take photos of this rare char. It was dark there. I crawled up the sliding waterfall with the fish in the net. Fortunately the bank above the waterfall was still light.

I put the char on a large rock near the waterside. When I took the camera from the bag I noticed that the fish colour was changed. It had been brightly golden when I scooped it but now it was yellow. I had no time to lose. Hurry up!

It is not so easy to take a good opportunity for a photo just after we land a fish because it often moves the moment we press the shutter. Well, the colour was changing from moment to moment. Gradually it turned into olive and then the colour faded away. Finally it became pure white except for its head and fins.
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At last the colour faded away apart from its head and fins. The fish became white and dead.

Strangely enough, the char suddenly died with its mouth widely open as soon as the colour faded away. Was I taken in by a water nymph? No, it was not my illusion. A pure white char lied in front of me.

What happened? I gingerly raised the dead char and looked into its widely-opened mouth. Oh, no! I almost threw the fish.

Two weird eyes stared at me from the inside of the char's mouth. I held the fish tight again and shook it with its head down. A kajika frog flew out from its throat! I knew whom the weird eyes belonged to. I still felt creepy, although.

I wondered whether the golden colour was given to the fish from the first or the colour changed because the fish swallowed the kajika frog, first its legs and then body, by mistake. Anyway, it was my first and last experience of catching a golden fish.
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Something stared at me from the inside of the char’s throat.

The Evening

After the golden char shock, only a small number of fish shadows were seen again. Fortunately, fish were not as scarce as the lower reaches but appeared at every best point. We walked at a higher pace and fished upstream in turn, one point after another.

After 4 p.m. the situation dramatically changed. More char appeared. When we cast the fly at a new point, they almost always attacked the fly and swallowed it.

I enjoyed so many bites. But even size 10 spinner did not float well after it was swallowed by more than 5 fish successively. I needed more time to change the fly or soak it in the float dressing. It meant that my fishing pace suddenly slowed down.

As the fish responded better and better, we wanted to fish farther upstream. But the evening drew near to the valley. We fished more than 4 km upstream from the starting point of the valley. There was no dangerous place but I knew that it would take us nearly 1 hour to walk through the valley to the road.
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The colour of the kajika frog coming out of the char's mouth also faded away except for its head.

I continued to fish, worrying about the time. I planned to leave here at 5 p.m. If Shohei wants to leave earlier, I will follow him, so I thought. Probably he had the same idea. He glanced at me to know my plan.

"Shohei, let's call it a day after we get one more fish."

I said aloud and smiled wryly. When I say that I will stop fishing after getting one more fish, it often becomes difficult. I wonder why. Is it because my tension keeps me away a fish or because I want one more when I get less catch?

I decided to stop fishing at 5 p.m. whether I get a fish or not. Fortunately each of us caught our last fish at the same time. Then we started happily on our way home.
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The golden char had a completely different body colour from others even after it was dead.

A tributary flowed into the right bank of our last deep pool. I had looked at the map before and made a plan to climb along the creek to get to the woodland path. But I found that the creek formed a high waterfall a little ahead. We did not know what happened then. At least it was not a creek to climb in the evening. We must play it safe. Immediately after we removed the fly and reeled in the whole line, we started walking downstream.

Nearly 6 p.m. we found the leafy branch on the bank on our way. Thank God. No worries now! We won't get lost or have to hurry. We felt relieved and checked tackles before climbing the slope.

We saw our tasty raspberry trees in front of us. It was already half dark in the wood ahead. I felt a chill, remembering the dung and the broken branch I had seen before lunch.

"Hello there! Let us pass here!"

We shouted to let our walking known to all around there and headed for the woodland path above the slope.



-- To be continued --
2004/07/17  KEN SAWADA
Tranlated into English by Miyoko Ohtake