Fresh water Bone

About 2 years ago, some of my fishing buddies find a new spot in the downtown where can catch this kind of fish stably. This fish will feed at night like 9pm and it fights very hard. Hardly to pull a 30cm up fish back with my 4wt rod... Fishing at night with a fly rod is really a fresh experience, everyone should try once. Btw, I call this fish "fresh water bone", check how sexy it's lip is!

Hank, here is a photo of a Korean nu-chi (photo from spiderfly).

1st Taiwan Fly Casting Workshop!!

This weekend, we invited Raffaele Mascaro, a Board of Governor and Master Casting Instructor of Federation of Fly Fishers, to be our instructor.

This is the first time we have this kind of workshop here, but it won't be the last time. We will keep invite some other experts to be here.
Thank you Raffaele, you let us see what is truly fly casting!!

name of this fish?

Caddis, Hank-

Do you know what the scientific name of "top mouth"? A reader was asking on the post (http://fourseasonsangling.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-miss-pingling.html ) but I don't know the actual name other than top mouth. Thanks.

Tarpon fishing in southern Taiwan

This one is around 50 cms.

Tarpon fishing is always a kind of dreaming target to fly fishers. Last month one of my US friends Jeff came to Taiwan. He has been here several times. I have taken him to fish Zacco, big eyes bream and blue skin carp. But, never tring tarpon is one of his pity things here.

For fulfilling his hope, I decided to take him to south.

Taiwan's tarpon is one of the oldest species. It is just like the giant tarpon in the US. The only difference between both is US' tarpon is in big size and Taiwan's tarpon is small. Their habits and shape are almost the same. When tarpon is hooked, it always tries to jump to remove the hook. As they are feeding, they will show their dore fin.

natureflyanglers

Wesley & gang teaching kids in Taiwan. Oh I miss PingLing & that top mouth fishing.

Check out more at: http://natureflyanglers.blogspot.com/

Relaxing fishing in Friday afternoon

Yesterday afternoon some of my friends went to ShinChu, in the northern Taiwan, Hank's hometown. Last time Hank introduced this place for Taiwan fly fishers. Some of them are really interested in this place. Therefore, they invited each other to discover this place.


It did not change a lot, compared the situation with the last month. The cement construction may extend to here. It may cause the aqua environment change dramatically.


Met a fly fisher here, just beside the small pond. There were about 20 to 30 small Kuuri here waiting for breeding


The unknown flower standing on the river side

A sort of unknown beatle

One of my friends, Jason Chu, was teaching anchorman to use dry fly

A Iau was testing his new bamboo rod

This little brother is only 18 years old. When he was 17, he came to my shop and joined my class. Now he is a good fly fisher as well.

Fishing guide

Yesterday, I guided a new friend Stan to my hometown creek for Kurri fishing. Stan's father in law is a Taiwanese, and he comes to Taiwan to visit some relatives with his family. Stan told me he was a fishing guide in MT when he was college student, and now he sometimes guide his friends to MT, but not officially.

Stan is a fly fishing master, no doubt, but the way he treated his rivals was really impressed me. No matter the size of fish he hooked, he released them in the water. He never pulled the fish out of the water. bThat was a wonderful day, and I got a lesson of TREAT YOU RIVAL FRIENDLY.

I miss PingLing

...in Taipei County and the top mouth that live there. I also miss the great green tea from the hills of Ping Lin. Damn, I was hung over this day, should never drink till 6 in the morning when you have to fish the next day. Especially if it’s going to be way over 90 degrees with intense humidity. I got in the water every chance I had, trying hard not to throw up & trying hard to keep up with my friends as we walked through the steep hills. Eventually I just gave up and swam in the pond where we were fishing and my friends shook their heads in disapproval. It was either that or I was going to pollute the pond with whiskey from my stomach. I’ll never forget that day. Ksanchun wasn't in much better shape either but I think he had a bottle of water... he never offered a sip. That's alright, I wouldn't have either.

Hometown creek

Last weekend,
I went to my hometown.
There is a creek just in front of my home.
I have seen that creek since I was a little kid,
but I never got a chance to fish there.
Actually, last time when I came back, I brought all my fishing stuff with me,
but the whether is really sucks...
it was raining badly.
This time, I already check the whether forecast,
it will be a sunny day, great!!!
So I got up very early,
drove by myself, and got the spot before the sunrise come out.
This creek is covered by lot's plant,
some even can cut your skin.
So it is really difficult to walk on the river side.
But the plant also gives the river fish a great refuge,
I saw lot's fish swum under the plant when they got spook by me.
Therefore, the fishery is wonderful here,
even you still can see people use net to catch fish here,
but the fish can find refuge easily!!
The net dose not work at all!!!
In my one day fishing trip,
I got more than 100 Taiwanese kurri with soft hackle fly.
The biggest one 17CM male kurri.
I really have to tell you guys,
the fishing is HOT in this season!!!!

Warm spring, good fishes

Spring is coming in Taiwan. Weather is getting stable and temperature is growing slowly. But, if you are a fly fisher, you can definitely understand spring is a wonderful time for fishing. Last week were full sunny, some of my friends went to Keelong for fishing Taiwanese Kuuly. They use soft hackle fly to catch some good size kuuly. One of the kuuly is pregnent, looking really like a small bass.

From the result, it can imagine that the year is full with good-size fishes. Last year typhoon did not hit northern Taiwan, which helped fishes growth for this year. Plus, it had rainned a lot and keep the water level more stable. This is also making fishes growing.

new Approach rods

I caught up with Caddis at the Taoyuan Taipei Airport. He swung by to show us the new Approach rods he’s been developing, the 2 weights. Always good catching up with Caddis.

Welcome Caddis.

Our friend Caddis joins the FSAC blog from Taipei, Taiwan. He’s a seasoned fly angler who is a stock trader by profession but also owns a fly shop and develops fly rods (now into his multiple generation). Having done his graduate studies in England, he’s fishes different waters there as well as across different waters globally. Caddis is a good friend of mine and I’m glad he’ll be writing to let us know the fly fishing world of Taiwan (fresh & saltwater).

PinLing & Ladyfish

We’ve had a couple of days above freezing temperatures here in the Midwest, and in this heart of winter, I often miss the days out at PinLing. The schools of 3+ pound ladyfish there are amazing to watch and each corner of the valley displays distinctive character. You can sometimes catch hint of tea scent in the air from the tea fields that climb up the hills. According to Wesley, who research the upper section of the river, there are over 25 species of different fish in this river, 15 native. I miss the warm breeze, the good company, and the exciting variety of catching there.