11-22-2024: Scroll down for English
今年のスイング・フィッシングの目標は、アメマス 70cm越え、イトウ 90cm越えで、アメマスは4月時点で目標は達成。今月は満を持して臨んだウィンターイトウだったのだけど、旭川空港に到着した時には、見事に大雪と言う悪い知らせ。この冬一番の寒冷前線が、北海道から本州にかけて南下して来たのだった。一ヶ月前の東京では観測史上最遅の30度越えの真夏日があったと言うのに、一ヶ月後の北海道名寄近辺は、連日、雪混じりで気温は一気に−２度から３度での連日の釣りとなった。釣りバカにとってそんなのはへっちゃらなんだけど、流石に魚は急激な温度低下と大増水には弱いようで口を余り使ってくれない今回の釣行ではあった。で、結果はと言うと、イトウは２度食わせたけど、共にバラし。イトウの場所が途中から雪しろによる大増水でコンディションが悪くなって来たので、天塩川のもっと上流のレインボーのスイングに切り替えることにした。
50cm代のレインボーと60cm代のアメマスは、何匹が獲れたので、十分満足。背中に金箔の鱗が混じっている希少アメマス（写真）も釣れたし、相棒のM君は何とレインボーとアメマスをドロッパーにダブルヒットと言う超レアな場面（写真）にも出っくわした。と言うことで90cm越えのイトウは来年に持ち越しだ。
My swing fishing goal this year was to catch a White-spotted Char over 28in and a Taimen over 35in. As for White-spotted Char I achieved the goal by April. This month was the long-awaited winter Taimen fishing, but the bad news was when I arrived at Asahikawa Airport, it was snowing heavily. The coldest front of this winter had moved all the way from Hokkaido to Honshu. A month ago the latest Indian summer hit Tokyo with the record high 90°F. But a month later, in the Nayoro area, the place where I fished in Hokkaido this time, was snowing every day and the temperature suddenly dropped to below 30°F. Not a big deal for some silly fishing fanatic, but the fish seem to be slow due to the sudden drop in temperature and the increase of water level, so they didn’t bite much during this fishing trip. I hooked two Taimen, but both of them were lost. As the conditions for the Taimen started to worsen halfway through due to a large rise in water level caused by snow, we decided to switch to a rainbow trout swing fishing further upstream on the Teshio River.
I caught several 20in rainbow trout and 24in white-spotted char, which was quite satisfying. We also caught a rare white-spotted char with gold leaf scales on its back (photo), and my buddy M-san even had a super rare double hit on droppers with a rainbow trout and white-spotted char (photo). I’ll have to wait until next year to catch an 35 inchers Taimen.
