Ketagawa Weekend

My fishing friends and I spent Saturday and Sunday fishing the Ketagawa River, a branch of the Tenryu River North of Hamamatsu. The weather was perfect! Saturday I fished with Dr. Kawano, my good friend and fishing sensei (teacher). I had a few rises but no fish-on.
A very large Amago rose to Dr. Kawano's fly at the area pictured below, but he did not take it. We both tried many casts in this area but he would not rise again.The next day on Sunday, Mr. Sakai-san joined Dr. Kawano and I. Mr. Sakai caught the first fish, a very nice 20cm Amago. He took the fish in a deep clear pool. This is a difficult situation, because the Amago can easily see you approaching and head for cover. This area is heavily fished which makes the fish even more difficult to catch.
As we continued up river we came to the bend where the large Amago rose to Dr. Kawano's fly on the previous day. We watched the water for a few minutes and immediately saw the fish rising to natural flies. Dr. Kawano made several casts but had no luck. We decided to stop here and eat our lunch as we continued to watch the fish rising. Dr. Kawano said the water had undermined a large rock at the back of the bend and that the trout was hiding under the rock.
After lunch, Dr. Kawano told me to give it a try. I was a little reluctant at first because I new I only had a 7X tippet (2.3 lb test) on my leader. I decide to tie on a #12 black parachute mayfly with peacock herl body (a gift from Shimizu-san last weekend). I crawled to within casting distance and made about 6 casts to where the Amago had been rising. I was about to give up but decided to make a couple more tries. Finally, he took the fly and made a mad dash downstream. I was in a panic, because I did not want to break him off. Luckily there were no rocks downstream for him to dive under in which case I surely would have lost him. The first photo below shows me landing the Amago, what a relief!

He measured 25.5 cm. This is by far the largest Amago trout I have caught in Japan.
I appreciate the patience and coaching from all my friends from the Lifestyle Design College.