Summer of 2009

[Satoshi]

As I told you, I'd like to show you some of my summer fishing experience. This is about the 8 fishing days with many pics.

In the middle of July, I took a week off and went on a fishing trip to northern part of Japan's main island.


Unfortunately, as I said before, Japan was cursed with rain this summer. On the day I arrived there, it had been raining for several days. Though the weather became fine in the afternoon, streams were all like this.

I consulted a map to look for a smaller stream close to their origins where the water may go down faster to a fishable level. I found some small creeks on the map. One of them originates in a meadow of high altitude and seemed promising. So I headed there. It was a really small, bushy creek, and I wondered whether there was fish in it. Apparently, casting was out of question, so I rigged a small nymph about 4inches under a small indicator that was hanging on the tippet less than 50 inches below the rod tip. I began fishing by dapping the nymph in the water. Surprisingly, I got an immediate response.

This is relatively "open" place of the creek. I had frequent responses, but I couldn't set the hook, because of the low, overhanging branches.


This is the only fish I caught on this day.


When I climbed up from the bush tunnel, there was a rainbow over the meadow.


In the next two days, I fished for yamame.


In one creek, I met a black bear and retreat to a different stream, and there, I saw two "goat-antelope". You can see the back of the animal in the center of the picture. Actually there is one more just behind it.


I only caught small fish, but I caught many of them and they were all beautiful.

I was staying in Kubota lodge, which is my regular inn, owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Kubota. Mr. Kubota likes fly fishing very much, and the guests of the inn are mostly flyfishers during the season. At that time, there were two other guests who were both flyfishers. One of them told that he knew a very good stream. So, on the next day, which was my last fishing day of the trip, three of us headed for his "good stream.
There was a landslide that blocked the dirt road along the stream, effectively blocking the access to the upper stream by car. We parked the car there, and hiked upstream for 30 minutes before starting to fish.


The stream was beautiful, but fishing was a bit slower than expected. The two people turned out to be skilled fishermen. They soon began catching iwana (char).


I also managed to fool this one.


He caught one here. The fish came from the water just in front of the rock in the stream where the current curves on the right of this picture.


Each of us caught 4 or 5 fish.


I also caught this good one, which was the only yamame of this day.


They are observing a good fish staying in the pool. But the fish were never attracted to flies and went away.


All in all, fishing on this stream was a great experience.

In the early September, I went on a business trip to Akita city, which is in the Tohoku region, northern part of Japan. Anyone in my office was reluctant to go, so I volunteered, which was very much appreciated by my boss ;) . Of course, I took 5 days off just after the business days and reserved Kubota lodge and a rental car, thereby securing four full fishing days :D .


On the first day of fishing, I fished this creek.


Soon this pretty fish came to my fly.


I also caught this one. This fish looks much like rainbow trout, but this is yamame, the land-locked form of masu salmon. In fact, a recent analysis strongly suggests that masu salmon is the most "primitive" species among Pacific salmons, and that masu is most closely related to rainbow trout (and cutthroat) among genus Oncorhynchus (which comprises masu, rainbow, cutthroat (and related species), coho, chinook, sockeye, chum, and pink).


I once came to this creek a few years ago, and fishing had been very good. The small creek was also generous this time, giving me chances to meet many fish, though they were not particularly big.



On the next day, I went to a stream of yamame, but before showing you the stream, I'd like to show you breakfast of the inn.

In the back, there are milk and water. In the middle row from left; a kind of salad of boiled vegetable, some fruits, pieces of nori (seaweed), fermented soybean (nattou), pickled vegetable, and meeso soup. In the front left is cooked rice. On the large plate are small salad, egg, and fish (soaked in a sauce and broiled). So, this is typical Japanese breakfast, but they serve coffee after the meal.


This stream flows through a village. When yamame and iwana live in the same stream, iwana usually lives in the uppermost part of the river, whereas yamame lives below the territory of iwana.
So, if you try to fish yamame, you often fish streams flowing through villages.


Fish were very active. I soon began catching good yamame.


You can see yamame is an orange-spotless version of amago.


This is the fish of the day. About 28 cm. Compared to iwana, it's much more difficult to catch yamame over 30 cm (12 inches). So, this is a very good fish.


Smaller fish are still bright. All fish were taken by dry flies.


This fish shows a hint of spawning color.


As I went upstream, the response from the fish became less frequent. In this picture, you can see a flat water, just above the small rock covered with moss in the middle of the stream. I put my fly on the water,


and this one took my offering. This fish had begun to show the spawning color. After this fish, there was no response, and I called it a day.

On the next day, I fished another small creek. Well, I never hesitate to say that I love fishing small streams, but the truth is, we have only small streams for trout fishing in Japan.


This is the scenery from the place I parked beside the creek. There are several ski areas around here, and you can see one behind rice fields. It was Saturday, and I expected streams would be crowded. On the lower reaches of this creek, the banks are concrete dykes and the bottom of the creek are also paved with concrete, so that the creek just looks like a long concrete ditch, and is used to irrigate rice fields. So, I thought not many fisherman would try to fish it. Judging from the map, however, there seemed to be some fishable water in the upper reaches.


I parked the car on the upper end of the concrete dyke, and began venturing upstream.


This is 50 meters upstream from the place I parked. Here, a good iwana (in the next picture) suddenly took my dry fly.



There are still many concrete structures, like dykes or small dams in the upper reaches of the creek, and the density of the fish was rather low. But occasionally I caught iwana here and there.


There were not many good holding spots, but fish came out from small holes like this; I mean, at the foot of the protruding corner of the dyke on the left of this picture.


Fish were all in good condition.


As the creek climbed up high onto the hill, the water temp became lower, and the fish became smaller. Finally, they stopped responding to dry flies. This is the last fish of the day, which I caught in a pool under a dam with a nymph.

The last day of the trip was Sunday. The stream I fished was under a diversion dam for irrigation, so that the water was barely flowing. This is because I wanted to avoid crowds. People certainly don't fish there, but I thought there might be unexpected good fishery.

And this is the only fish I caught on the day. A small iwana.
By the way, we have a lot of fishing programs on TV. On these TV programs, the biggest fish is ALWAYS caught at the end of the fishing. In reality, it doesn't go that way of course, but I wasn't disappointed much. Because I knew I would have to go on another business trip to Tohoku area at the end of the month........ ;)

[BrkTrt]

A beautiful photo journey.

You have many fine streams in your country, and the salmonids are spectacular.

I truly enjoyed your post.


Thanks,




- Brk Trt

[terry]

I love those trout, I love the scenery, and I love your pics. Keep em coming. Thanks.

[mikeytwoshoes]

striking as always.
I would love to come and fish japan. those trout are lovely.
that breakfast is also quite attractive. what does a breakfast like that cost?

finally what the hell is a "goat-antelope?"
looks to be similar to a mountain goat, but hairier.

[adam]

Beautiful, thank you for taking the time to post your experiences.

I have drank Saki on the flanks of Mt.Fuji and I can only say that I have the greatest respect for your country and it's citizens.

Thank you again.

[Satoshi]

Thank you very much for your responses, guys.

striking as always.
I would love to come and fish japan. those trout are lovely.
that breakfast is also quite attractive. what does a breakfast like that cost?

finally what the hell is a "goat-antelope?"
looks to be similar to a mountain goat, but hairier.

mikey,
The fee for just bed and breakfast at the inn is about 5000yens, and I guess the breakfast would cost around 1000yens (about 10 US$). I would be happy to reserve the inn for any of you and show you streams by myself if the schedule permits, if you ever have a chance to come to fish there.
For the animal, I looked at a Japanese-English dictionary, and it says goat-antelope or serow (Kah-mo-she-kah is the Japanese name). Then I checked it by Wikipedia, which says serow are goat-like or antelope-like mammals. I think this particular species is unique to Japan.

I have drank Saki on the flanks of Mt.Fuji and I can only say that I have the greatest respect for your country and it's citizens.

adam,
You have been to Japan before?! Great! I was born and have grown in a place close to Mt. Fuji.

[greendrake]

Great post and pictures Satoshi. I love seeing places that I will never have the chance to visit and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.Thanks!
Will

[adam]

adam,
You have been to Japan before?! Great! I was born and have grown in a place close to Mt. Fuji.

Yes, I lived in Japan for 30 days and much of it was working hard alongside your countrymen.

I have an image somewhere, let me see if I can find it.

by the way, I left you a message in your private message in box...

[attachment=0:1f820m6z]Adam_Fuji.jpg[/attachment:1f820m6z]

[Satoshi]

adam,
Now, I know where you took that picture.:)

[caseydale]

Those fish and streams are absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing!