Mahseer fishing

Well I am about 60% decided to make the trip to north India this September.  I am in touch with a very helpful and nice guide via e-mail, and it just sounds amazing.  For me, the main thing is getting the time off work; a lot of the time I can’t really predict what will happen in the next few weeks. If I am really organised I can do it; but I will be away from the lab  for eight days, by far the longest away from my current job, ever.  I think I will talk to the boss next week and then if it looks good, start telling my paise.  If I do go, I will need to start getting my jabs done now.

If you haven’t seen a mahseer before, or want to know what the fishing is like, click the link for this amazing video:

In Search of the Himalayan Golden Mahseer from Stuart Walker on Vimeo.

アジの干物できました

外はこんな湿気なのでもちろん冷蔵庫仕立てです。それでも仕上がりは悪くない。

Catch and By-catch

Although I normally go out fishing on a Saturday, yesterday I went to see the sawbones in Gaienmae for a 1-month postop checkup, so I went fishing today instead.  Being a Sunday I thought it would be crowded, but the boat wasn’t that bad.  It was excellent fishing conditions on the Bay, no wind and overcast, but the sun must have peeking through somewhere because my nose, the top of my head and curiously, my left hand (but not the right) got roasted again.  I took a good catch, and as a bonus, snagged three tasty aji.  My homemade rod put up a good show again, but it needs a good straightening out over the fire to really strengthen it.

There was plenty of shirogisu for the neighbours.

The aji were small but very plump and perfect size for himono.

Today’s Tiffin

From Goa: clam thisri and sevai.

Christmas came early

On Sunday I got a call out of the blue from my rod making teacher, saying that he was on the way to my place.  Well it turned out he had built for me, from scratch, a wooden box for curing urushi lacquer, which is now ready for use.    Despite his stern teaching methods and rather uncompromising attitude, I am always struck by his kindness and generosity.

Now all I have to do is buy some lacquer and I am ready to start.  Due to the use of synthetic materials, the dying out of the lacquer artesans and that everything is now mass-produced by slave labour in China, almost all traditional dealers in urushi lacquer have disappeared from Japan.  In fact, there are only two in the whole of Tokyo; fortunately one is very close to me, in Ueno, so I will make the trip some time soon.

Good day out

fishing for shirogisu (whiting) today.  I am getting more used to the action on my new rod and the weather was much better today compared to last weekend. So much so that I am rather sunburnt (and yes, I did slip, slap and slop) and have the overall countenance of a boiled prawn.  My nose, in particular, would outdo almost any alcoholic Bishop in its redness, and it’s times like this I wish I were a scientist like Tycho Brahe. 

I was lucky enough to take an aji, so my brekkie tomorrow is sorted!  As usual, I scaled the fish on board to save myself work at home, and so the fish don’t quite have the same lustre as the intact specimen would (shirogisu are actually a very beautiful fish).

Maybe, just maybe

Seeing as my pipe-dream trout fishing expedition to Chitral (with some pottering about in Lahore) is probably out of the question for the foreseeable future, this year there is a chance I will make it to north India, to go fishing for mahseer.  If so, it would be September – where we have a four or five day holiday here in Japan, so I could take the time off work easily – and I would fly out to Delhi (Air India has direct flights from Narita) and take in some history and culture for a few days before heading north, for guided mahseer fishing.  In Delhi herself I guess I would have to visit some of the usual suspects such as Lal Quila, Jama Masjid, and Humayun’s tomb, &c. but on the list would definitely have to be a trip to Nizam-ud-din’s shrine to listen to qawwali.  And if possible, a trip to see Johnny Nicholson’s grave (sorry, India) and have a look at Tughlaqabad.  Of course during my time in the city I would indulge the local specialties, the hotter the better.  And after the mayhem of Delhi what better way to relax than in the foothills of the Himalayas, fishing?  We shall see.

New Rod

did the trick.

I would have smiled more, but the strong southerly wind was basically driving rain right into my face and eyes. 

More Rod Stuff

Here is another shot of the action on the rod. The tip is pressed hard against the floor of my teacher’s workshop: if you kind of tilt your head 45° to the left, so that both eyes are looking down the length of the rod, you can see the joint of the fibreglass and the bamboo (about the fourth guide along from my hand)  is almost seamless, just right!  The rod is much stronger if the bamboo takes the strain as well.

Buffing the rod down with wax.  My teacher said the guide wraps could use another couple of layers of lacquer to really bury the feet of the guides and make a smooth wrap, but since I wanted to use the rod this weekend, and it is hardly a high-end work, he said the three layers I did would suffice.  “It’s not like you are going to sell the rod to a customer, eh” he noted dryly, over his after-work cigarette.

Close-up of the lacquering and the reel seat (made by Fuji). 

Check back in a few days for a report on its first test at sea!

Shirogisu Rod

My teacher oiled the wrapped parts earlier today, so all that was left for me to do was to wax the whole rod and now my first homemade fishing rod is ready!  It comes in a little less than six shaku (approx.180cm), its original intended length, but it feels nice in the hand and when I got home and put a reel on it, the balance was pretty good.

The last thing to do is check the action of the rod on the ceiling.  It looks okay for shirogisu.  I really hope the weather holds out on the 21st (it’s absolutely chucking it down here in Tokyo now), as I can’t wait to use it.