All about Wild Carp
My fishing home ground is the trunk of the Tone River.
１１． My Carp Fishing Spots in Japan
Two areas of Japan are shown separately in each map of Tokyo area and Nagoya area.

The Map of Tokyo Area
One of the fishing spots of the Tone River,
"Kokunou"		 i) My favorite spots
　 What kind of fishing spots you like depends on the personal preference. However, I have twoconditions for my fishing spots:

　First, they should be quiet. 

　Second, they should be clean. 

　I’d like　to tell you some of my favorite spots.
The Tone River The total length:３２２ｋｍ
The volume of water is No. 1 in Japan
The Tone-gawa(the Tone River) Oohasi (the big bridge)

　The lowest spot of carp fishing in the Tone River near the barrage to stop the salt water in case of the high tide.

　The salt water is harmful for the agriculture		 Imamura

　On the left, you can see the wooden piles to control the strong current.
Ookurasinden, Chiba Prefecture
Ookurasinden, Chiba Prefecture Inzai, Chiba Prefecture
　I am chatting with a carp angler side by side nearby my car.　
　We are facinated with the story of carp fishing of each other.
　We can exchange every knowledge of carp fishing, although we have not known each other up to this moment.
　But we both are carp anglers, that's all.		 　The neighboring angler is sleeping in his car, because he has been fishing for two consecutive days.
The Map of Nagoya Area
The Nagara River １６６ｋｍ in length
　Long time ago, the Kiso river consisted of three rivers, the Kiso River, the Nagara River and the Ibi River at the south of the city of Gifu. For thousands years, the residents near the rivers had suffered from repeated floods. Whenever one of the three rivers flooded, the other rivers were also influenced because they were not separated. But in 1900, the separation of the three rivers was completed and now they almost independently flow into the sea without affecting the others..
The Nagara River is famous for Ukai, fishing by cormorants which were originally caught near the sea.
This fact tells that the Nagara River is very clear and there are still many tasting and valuable kinds of fishes to eat.		 The fireworks display on the Nagara River
Meishinn Highway runs on the bridge.
The right bank of the river in January, 2007.		 This is the site near the bridge of the national road 1, the old route between Tokyo and Osaka.

You can see the old style bridge on the Nagara River.

The foto snapped in January, 2007.
Nearby Shinkansen in the lower part of the Nagara River
The right bank in the evening of summer 2006.
The Ibi River １２１ｋｍ in length
　Near the river mouth, the Ibi River joins the Nagara River.
Since there are many dams up river, the volume water has decreased remarkably..
The upper part of the bridge of the Tokaido railway The bridge of the Tokaido railway
The Kiso River ２２７ｋｍ in length
　Human beings have satisfied their desires at the sacrifice of the rivers. They have twisted the natural current of the rivers or stopped the current by dams or barrages to use the water for their projects. The big volume of the water can not reach their mother, the sea any more.
　Eventually the fish have lost their inhabitable areas where they had lived peacefully for many centurie, and the fishery has decreased remarkably durring the recent century.
　Once we destroy the nature, we can not recover it again.

　It seems that the beautiful nature remains here, but, you can not see any anglers though it is the best season in the year ,October.　The water is mainly utilized for irrigation or industries at the barrage which is located several km farther up this point. There is no more enough fresh water to stop the salt water at the high tide.Then, you can not enjoy carp fishing here.

　The photo in October, 2005
The wooden piles to control the strong current. The civil works were designed and supervised by a Dutch civil engineer.
The last but huge barrage of the lower Kiso River
　In a little bit upper of the above barrage, there is one more barrage. You can see it in the below photo.
　It is located below Inuyama castle.		 　Inuyama castle in the cherry blossom season
The best carp fishing season will follow the cherry blossoms.

　Recently we can get various kinds of information so easily in a flash.  So, on hearing that someone has caught one meter long carp, a large number of enthusiasts rush to the spot.  I prefer a quiet spot where I can catch nice carp to eat.  Several roads leading to the Tone riversides have been closed, because there is too much illegal dumping of trash and some recreational vehicles run around the river beaches. 
　When I go fishing, I usually sleep in a tent for a few days on the river beach.  So I have to take a lot of stuffs.  Therefore, it is nice for me to have quiet spots again.

ii) River improvement
　Under the pretext of river improvements, many riversides have been made of concrete and a lot of concrete blocks have been thrown into the rivers.  As a result, I can no longer fish at some spots that were my former favorite ones.  They have gone with my good memory!
　There is still some hope, however.  I hear that there is a movement to stop building river-banks made of concrete and also throwing concrete blocks into the rivers.

iii) Scattered trash
　What makes me sad every time I go fishing is scattered trash.  It is really disappointing to seetrash along the beaches at Kasumigaura( the Lake Kasumi)  and the Lake Biwa.  I once lost my desire to fish there when I found such awful sights.
 I make it a rule to bring back not only my trash but others’ after fishing.  Sometimes too much trash makes me tired of it, but I keep carrying it. I’m sure that carp anglers don’t leave their trash behind, but let’s bring back others’ trash together with ours.
　I have heard volunteers in local area complaining about scattered trash, which made me ashamed of myself as an angler.

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１０．My records of carp fishing 　１２．My hobbies

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