There is a long holiday in May. The weather is neither too cold nor too hot. The hay fever season has subsided. I wish the whole year could feel like this! But good times fly by in the blink of an eye. Before you know it, June arrives.
Rainy days are humid and muggy, while the occasional sunny day feels like a preview of midsummer. It’s also the time when new employees commuting on packed trains begin to feel powerless and start thinking about quitting their jobs.
June is the month when veterans of the “Lost Generation” provide rookies with training completely different from what they received, ensuring that rookies don't quit. However, there are no public holidays.
I go stream fishing in June because the ayu fishing season opens. I enjoy the sound of the flowing river and the birds singing while the water temperature hovers around 20 degrees Celsius. It’s perfect.
Ayu fishing doesn't use bait. Instead, a live ayu is used as a decoy. Ayu don't eat insects; they feed on moss growing on rocks. You catch them when they attack the decoy to protect their moss territory. Perhaps because of their moss-eating diet, ayu have a distinctively delicious flavor.
You can buy the first ayu for 500 yen each at a shop along the river. You can use the ayu you’ve caught as a decoy to catch the next one.
The rod is 9 meters long. If you touch a power line, you could cause a blackout in the entire area, create a massive hassle, and die. Even scarier than that is a lightning strike. Carbon rods conduct electricity, so in open rivers, they act like lightning rods. Apparently, a faint electric current runs through the rod before a lightning strike. If you feel even the slightest tingling sensation, you must run for your life.
The price of ayu rods is ridiculous. I once went to a fishing gear shop and saw a rod that cost 40,000 yen. I thought, “That's a lot of money, but it's still less than a camera.” But when I got to the register, I found out it was actually 400,000 yen. I had misread the price. I never imagined a fishing rod could cost that much.
In the end, I bought a used rod for around 50,000 yen. New ones cost hundreds of thousands of yen. Since it was my first ayu rod, I didn’t even know if it was considered good.
I’ve been fishing in streams for over ten years, but I’m still a beginner when it comes to ayu fishing. Fishing with live bait versus decoys is a completely different experience. In fact, it’s incredibly difficult. The ayu that I buy for 500 yen just keeps getting weaker and weaker. I end up catching nothing and having to grill the decoy with salt.
Every once in a while, I catch one, but it’s never on purpose. It's just a coincidence. I don’t know why it happened and can’t do it again. Even when I don’t catch anything, being out in nature is fun. Catching one is even more fun.
If I don’t catch any, I can always take photos instead. That’s one of the perks of being a photographer. I even bought an underwater camera specifically for ayu fishing. Having a Plan B in life like this ensures you’ll always have fun.
Don’t make photography your hobby. Combine it with your hobby. This will make photography even more fun. Your hobby will be more enjoyable as well. Because of photography, I look forward to my fruitless ayu fishing in June.
Whether you’re a rookie or a veteran, let's all take pictures. Find a hobby other than photography and capture it on camera. It’s easy because you don’t have to go looking for subjects. By simply picking up a camera, you’ve got a Plan B for life that guarantees a source of joy.
Publications
’Bokutachi ga erabenakatta koto o erabi naosu tameni (To Choose Again What We Could Not Choose)'
'Shashinshu (Photos)'
'Boku ga kodomo no koro hoshikatta oya ni naru (Being the Parent I Wanted When I Was a Child)'
'Nan de boku ni kikun daro (Why Do They Ask Me?)'
'Tanin no nayamigoto wa hitogoto, jibun no nayamigoto wa ogoto (Other People's Problems are Trivial, My Problems are Serious)
'Love letter'
'Daitai ningenkankeide nayamasareru #'Nan de boku ni kikun daro'（often troubled by relationships）
https://note.com/hatanohiroshi/
