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Flood and Dry Weather  --Vol.12--

Running Fish

In the first morning of the third week of July, I was staying at Vinsnes further up Tilseth in the River Gaula. It was nearly 6 a.m. The sun was shining on the mountain in front but the water was still in the shadow.

Considering the results of my experiments of two Floating lines, I chose one with better turn performance although I do not deny I had some worry. Then I put Rosemary to the leader end and walked into the river.

My choice was a remodelled saltwater line with longer belly. But it still had the problem of the flight posture, I mean that it could not keep a good shaped loop for a long time.
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Intermediate lines with remodelled Double Taper were more excellent in turn performance than Floating lines.

10 minutes had passed since I started fishing. I saw something bright in the morning haze from the water. Probably it was more than 150m away. A salmon came into the pool. Then only 30 seconds later I found three salmon jumped one after another.

That’s great! Three salmon came at the same time. I did not imagine a better chance. Well, how fast they come swimming! They have to be called not moving fish but running fish.

I cast the fly again carefully, keeping my eyes downstream. As the fish were rather away from me I could not measure the casting timing yet. I wondered how many casting I would need from now on when two salmon jumped downstream again. They were near, only 70m away from me.

I remembered my fast swimming salmon in Tilseth in the previous day (see Vol.10). Now these salmon seemed to swim still faster. Moreover, since these two jumped near to the opposite bank, I thought that my fly would cross the fish at the faraway spot from me.
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As I cast the line at high speed and threw it down from high back cast, the fly drifted naturally for the first several seconds even across the heart of the stream.

Soon after I drew out another 3m of the line in case something would happen, I retrieved the line. There was enough time left but I decided not to try another casting.

I kept waiting, extending only the fly line downstream. I was prepared for picking up the line any time, concentrating all my attention on staring at the water in front of me. I had the same feeling as I had fished brown trout in Lake Motosu in Japan.

Several seconds passed. Breaking the tense silence, a salmon split the water surface. It was a little more than 50m away, at the edge of the heart of the stream along the opposite bank.

Keeping myself calm, I picked up the line. Then I cast the fly, aiming at the heart of the stream diagonally downstream. The casting distance was about 35m. My fly line overturned a little and settled on the water. Just before I felt the line weight from the rod, I saw a large splash at the end of the extended line.

"I've got it!"

I waited to feel the fish weight that should have come to me a few seconds later but in vain. Time passed cruelly. I realized that I failed in hooking.
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As the river fell, the twig I had stuck at the waterfront was far and far away. It was dazzling in the daytime, not like in the northern country.

I had one thing to worry. I felt that I saw something fly through the splash. It did not seem my illusion. Surely it was my fly I had cast. I thought the salmon got angry for some reason and flicked out Rosemary.
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Strong sunbeam, fall of water level and highly transparent water. Mary Anne and I started casting the fly, particularly aiming at the edge of the opposite bank.

In spite of perfect timing, the salmon spit out or kicked the fly. Why? I came here to solve that problem but gave the worst example.

Since I made up my mind never to say that I was unlucky, only one reason occurred to me. The salmon kicked the fly because it got angry at the false food it now recognized as the rubbish.

When the salmon found Rosemary, the fly did not keep its proper posture. As I had thought before there was no other reason that it let go of the fly. The fly can keep its good posture by being pulled from upstream. But the line was not tightened yet.

The line end and the leader were not kept tight when they settled on the water. Walking up out of the water, I rolled up the extended line and put it away. I will never use this line.

Intermediate

The morning sun came running from the faraway mountain and shone into the water in front. The water level became lower and the water more transparent. I felt as if I had been in the source area of the North Japan Alps. I could clearly see the sand on the river bed. If I dive into the water I will be able to see salmon coming upstream.

Since either of two Floating lines I had prepared was found not so effective, I had no other choice but Intermediate. As I had found that Weight Forward had too much overturn I chose Double Taper.

Shooting Head made by cutting Double Taper a little long had better flight performance in long casting than Weight Forward. The problem was that its turn performance was not sufficient in long casting. To make up for that disadvantage I made the taper parts a little shorter.

I cast my new line to find that it had rather better performance. If I had used this line from the first what would have happened with that salmon? I must not say if in the fishing world but I could hardly wait for a chance of my next experiment.

-- To be continued --
2003/02/16  KEN SAWADA
Tranlated into English by Miyoko Ohtake