by
Published on 10-06-2010 01:46 PM
By Satoshi
I often feel envious of people, more specifically, fly fishers who live in places where there are good trout streams just behind their backyards. I’m envious of fly fishers who live in northern part of Japan. I’m envious of fly fishers who live in the U.S., especially in the Rocky Mountain States like Montana or Colorado. I’m envious of fly fishers who live in New Zealand.
My fishing trip to northern districts starts from this small local railway station.
It isn't easy for me to go to good trout streams. I live in a rather warm place, where the water temperatures of streams are accordingly high. In this area, trout are confined to nutrient-poor mountain streams where the water temperature is relatively low. Yet, even those streams are marginal habitat for trout. Trout of 8 inches is a very decent catch here. As I wrote before, the best season here is April, and fishing becomes slower after that. For good trout fishing (in the Japanese standard, of course), I have to go either to high mountain streams in the central mountain area, or to much northern part of Japan’s main island. Among them, you can expect better fishing in the northern part of Japan, because the central mountain area is rather close to many big cities, and hence, receives higher fishing pressure.
The northern part is called Tohoku region. “Tohoku” actually means northeast in Japanese. There is also good trout fishing in Hokkaido, the northernmost island among the 4 major islands of Japan, but the fishing in Hokkaido is less predictable than that in Tohoku. Although Japan is a small country, it would take 12 hours to drive from my house to the place I usually go in Tohoku. I don’t like to drive that long. So I use trains and rental cars for fishing trips to Tohoku. The trips are very expensive and once-in-a-year event for me. Typically, I first go to a hotel that is close to my final destination by train, stay at the hotel one night, and rent a car in the next morning to go fishing. From that night I stay at a small lodge where fly fishers gather till the end of the trip.
...