Foreign Fishing: Keiryu

By Ian

Note: Along with environmentalist and instructional fishing material, blog entries will also feature fishing methods from around the world, and the culture that surrounds them. 

When most people hear the term "match the hatch," they think of fly fishing. But in Japan, a method of fishing called Keiryu has evolved for fishing mountain streams, for trout, yaname, or amago, or char, iwana. 
Keri uses fixed line, and "matches the hatch" by using bait caught from the stream. 

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Keiryu fishing also uses a fixed line system - there is no reel, and the fisherman only uses what can only be described as "a stick." In the past, commercial fishermen, who fished for trout in Japan's mountain streams as a livelihood used bamboo poles, but now, recreational fisherman use carbon fiber telescope fishing poles. These poles are long, and can reach many feet in length. Rods are made by many companies in Japan, and reach many hundreds of dollars.  

Before fishing, the angler looks around the stream for bait, such as nymphs and other aquatic insects, which are then impaled on a hook and fished. Unlike western fly fishing, which uses artificial imitations of stream fish and insects, keiryu actually uses the real thing. Sometimes, live bait is brought to the stream, or salmon eggs are used. Unlike trout fishing in the U.S, where fly fishing is much more popular than bait fishing, in Japan, Keiryu fishing is  perhaps "ten times" more popular than it's fly fishing version, tenkara, which will be covered in another article. 

To minimize the number of fish that swallow the bait and become gut hooked, keiryu anglers set the hook quickly.  Like western methods of fishing, keiryu anglers use strike indicators to detect a bite, and split shots to get their bait down to to the "strike zone," where the fish are feeding.

In the US. Keiryu rods aren't often sold, or are expensive. You can buy keiryu rods at some online shops, or purchase a high quality cane pole as a substitute to use for a time.

Tight lines,

Ian

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