Sagamiko Wakasagi Fishing

The ‘dome ships’ (doumu-sen) on Sagamiko; a seafaring man would cringe at the name, as they are really just moored rafts with huts built on top.  With an oil heater inside – where you can boil a kettle - and Western-style toilets without, they are very well-equipped for a relaxed day’s fishing.  The manager ferries you across in a small panga and you are free to come and go, such as for lunch or shopping, with just a phone call.

View of Samagiko itself:

After stuffing myself with tenpura, the leftover wakasagi were wind-dried overnight and stowed in the fridge:

For breakfast, I skewered a few of the fish and grilled them; they were quite good.

ワカサギの天ぷら

やっぱり釣りもので作ったものは美味しい。いいつまみになりました。

World’s Smallest Game Fish?

Not quite (that particular honour falls to tanago, I imagine) but these fish are tiny: wakasagi.  Taken on Sagamiko yesterday.

Despite being set upon by the office cats and having to bribe them with some of my catch, the bag was good:

Many thanks to Tenguiwa, of Fujino.

Wakasagi rods complete

Finished in exactly two weeks; I will test them on Sagamiko tomorrow..

These two are designed to be fitted with ready-made fibreglass tips:

I wrapped the pegs with 20 metres of nylon line each, and the rods are now ready for use!  My third rod – which you can see the end of in the top of the photo above – will be 100% bamboo and requires a lot more work before it is ready.

Nearly there

Last night I put on a layer of special red-brown lacquer and the rods went into the box.  When I rose this morning, it was with some trepidation I lifted the lid to check.  Well, it wasn’t a disaster (as has been the case in the past, at my teacher’s workshop) and although the lacquer didn’t quite come out 100% how I wanted, generally the colouration is very rich, and with none of the dreaded specks of dust – the enemy of lacquer – that so ruins the finish.

The joints need to be sanded and re-lacquered maybe once more, then I can wrap the line pegs on and the rods are basically finished!  Ready for my trip for wakasagi fishing next week, definitely.

NB: the rod at the front is not lacquered with the special stuff, which still just has the undercoat on.

Starting

to look like fishing rods after three layers of lacquer…apart from their ridiculously small size of course…

Wakasagi rods latest

I finally got round to wrapping the other two rods, and set to lacquering them.

Then I made the trip to Ueno, to the specialist lacquer shop Watanabe Shoten. 

I got everything ready for my first attempt at lacquering at home, and put on the first layer of lacquer on the rods.

First fishing trip since India

and my first day offshore fishing since about July. My return from the Hindustan coincides with the haze goby season, which is one of my favourite fishes.  The big boss at the boathouse, the skipper and hands all expressed joy at my reappearance – and wonderment at my photos of mahseer - and today was a very nice outing, no wind and a handy spring tide.  I took a bunch of haze and as by-catch, a few specimens of the little octopus the natives refer to as iidako.

Another favourite Delhi portrait

Local tough kids at Nizamuddin Dargah, waiting for their iftari.  They asked me to take a photo of them and were in remarkably high spirits, considering they had been fasting all day (I get in a terrible mood, missing even one meal) and most likely had not even had a sip of water for more than ten hours, despite the  heat of the day. 

Wakasagi Rod Building

I sanded down and wrapped the joints with silk thread today, the rod is ready to be lacquered.

This is one of the few stages I have actually become really comfortable with doing, and it was quite pleasant.  I need to stop by the supplies store Sakura in Kanda this week (being a long weekend they were closed yesterday and today), to get some line pegs and adhesive.