Species hunting adventures on Okinawa: Part 1.

After a two and half hour flight from Incheon Airport to Naha Airport on the main island of Okinawa we made our way to the car hire centre shuttle. We were both very excited about driving around the island, seeing as much of it as we could in a cool little Japanese Kei car. Handing over my documents to the staff in the car hire office only to be told that I didn’t have the correct International Driving Permit and therefore wouldn’t be able to hire one was a bit of a surprise. I thought it was some kind of mistake at the time and was quite annoyed, but when we got a taxi to our hotel and connected to the WiFi there, I discovered there is indeed more than one kind of International Driving Permit and the one I had was not recognised in Japan.

I was looking forward to driving one of these funky litlle Kei cars. Oh well, public transport, here we come!

We were quite disappointed but tried to stay positive and vowed to make the most of our time on the island, even if we’d have to severely curtail our planned exploration of it. After settling into the room and sorting out our luggage, I quickly emailed Auto Europe to see where I stood on getting any of the two hundred pounds cost of the hire car back. We both agreed it was best to try and forget the whole hire car debacle and decided to head out for a walk to explore the coastal area near our hotel. We were staying close to the southern boundary of Kadena Air Base, the largest and most active U.S. Air Force base in Asia, so going north along the coast we wouldn't have got very far before reaching a chain link fence, so we headed south instead, strolling along the Sunabe Seawall. Overhead, the almost constant noise of jet planes, low flying bombers and helicopters, was a constant reminder that we were near the American air base! Eventually we reached two small piers that are popular fishing spots. I knew about them as I'd seen some fishing videos filmed there on YouTube whilst doing my pre-trip research. I did some fishing there and to my relief there were plenty of fish around. Mostly small species, but I had plenty of small hooks with me.

These two short piers are a popular fishing spot. The water in front of them is deeper than the rest of the coastline, which is an expansive, shallow reef.

The right-hand pier already had a few anglers on it so I fished from the left-hand platform. It didn't take too long to catch my first fish and first new species on Okinawa, a scissortail sergeant. It would be the first new species of many. In fact, almost every species I caught on Okinawa was new to me and I had to do a fair bit of research to eventually identify them all!

I'm not certain that I've identified some of the fish correctly, even after hours of research online when I returned home! I think this drab looking damselfish is a Pacific gregory. If you disagree, please let me know!

Dropping a squid tentacle down deep into the dark areas between the tetrapod blocks to the right of the pier produced a couple of cardinalfish. The one above is a Cook's cardinalfish....

...and this one is a Southern orange-lined cardinalfish.

After a while we continued our stroll and I soon spotted lots of incredibly colourful bright blue damselfish in the shallow areas of a lagoon that was almost empty due to the tide being out. They were very small and proved incredibly difficult to catch, not showing any interest at all in my tiny baits. After a while, I did catch this funky little chap that came out from under a rock to snaffle my bait.

This is a crimsontip longfin, also known as a coral devil. It has several other common names in English, but I'll stick to just the two here.

Low tide and hardly any water, but there were still plenty of fish. Just not many interested in nibbling my baited hook!

In the evening, after getting some tasty food in a small Vietnamese restaurant near the two piers, we started heading back to the hotel and were almost all the way back when I realised I didn't have my Costa del Mar sunglasses. I wasn't sure if I'd dropped them at one of the fishing spots or had taken them off in the restaurant and neglected to pick them up when we left. I thought it was the latter and luckily when we walked all the way back the restaurant owner had them. Needless to say that was a relief and I thanked him profusely. Having potentially lost two hundred pounds on the hire car, losing a two hundred pound pair of sunglasses would have been the icing on a pretty costly cake!

The following day we decided to walk north towards the air base where I fished from a stone pier at the right-hand side of Kadena Beach. I did see more of the small, bright blue damselfish in the rocks at close range, but they just weren't interested in anything I put in their vicinity once again!

The fishing was very poor at this spot despite trying plugs, metals and bait tactics.

Slightly frustrated, we then walked inland and caught a local bus further north. After a short ride we'd passed through Kadena air base and we got off. We then took a walk along the southern bank of the Hija River, soon ending up at the ocean and the northern end of the Kadena North Sea Wall, another place where I'd seen local anglers fishing on YouTube. It was a fairly shallow area, but I could see plenty of damselfish, including the little blue fussy ones. I opted to use my tanago setup here and after catching a few Nagasaki damselfish, my pole float was pulled under by my first blue devil of the trip.

It may have been a little cloudy, but believe it or not, I managed to get a bit sunburnt here.

The blue devil or sapphire devil. Tricky to catch, to say the least. Tanago hooks to the rescue!

I believe this is a white bar gregory. Let me know if you think I'm wrong!

This one was a new species to me, the whitetail damsel. Looks more yellow to me, but perhaps that's because it's out of the water?

Whilst fishing away catching a few damselfish, I spotted a small mantis shrimp, making its way along the submerged step in front of the one I was standing on. Lowering a piece of prawn in front of it proved too tempting for the aggressive crustacean, and it was quickly lifted out so that I could have a closer look at it. I've seen a few documentaries about this family of fascinating creatures, so it was cool to see one up close and personal. I handled it very carefully, as its fore limbs pack a bit of a nasty punch.

What a strange looking creature!

They have extremely complex vision and the two small calcified "club" appendages at the front can inflict serious damage. These are used to smash open shellfish and in violent exchanges with other marine life. They are known in certain parts of the world as "Thumb splitters". Needless to say, I exercised caution!

In the afternoon it started raining and whilst Lillian had a nice big umbrella, I stupidly carried on fishing and got a bit of a soaking. When the rain got even heavier we retreated to some cover nearby and Lillian pointed out that, as well as being very wet, I also had a rather red head. After a while the rain let up slightly, so we walked briskly back to where we'd got off the bus and caught one going south. Heading back to the hotel to get out of my wet clothes and run my head under cold water for a while, we both ended up having a nap for a few hours. Later on, we resurfaced and headed out for a tasty Coco Ichibanya japanese curry and a few beers. The curry there is excellent and you can customise it in several ways. I had spice level five. This was a warm-up for our planned final night meal where I was going to go all the way up to level ten, the highest you can order.

The following day we decided to explore further south. When we got past the furthest point we'd ventured to so far, it turned into a bit of an angler's nightmare, with no fishing signs everywhere and the wind blowing onshore causing a fairly rough sea. I ended up finding an unusual fishing spot in the shape of a fairly big drainage canal that ran into the sea on the southern side of American Village. On the plus side, there were plenty of fish milling around, concentrated around rougher, rocky areas on the bottom. I caught a few damselfish before I spotted a small group of five butterflyfish swimming along in formation! I couldn't believe my luck! A size 18 hook was quickly tied on and my baited rig was cast out into their path. When all of the damselfish nearby shot straight over, I thought it would be mission impossible for any of the brightly coloured butterflyfish to get to my bait, but they were very aggressive, and I was amazed when one managed to get there first and was hooked straight away. I quickly swung to hand one of the coolest fish I've ever caught!

There are many members of the butterflyfish family, each with distinctive colourful markings. This one is a threadfin butterflyfish.

After catching a few more damselfish, I spotted some tiny ones that looked different to the other species I'd caught already. They were very small, so I tried fishing a very light rig incorporating a tanago hook reasoning that was how I caught the blue devil. Fishing this close to the bottom and twitching it along seemed to peak their limited interest, but I failed to catch one. My efforts were rewarded however when I caught a funky little goby.

A rather awesome looking pink-speckled shrimp goby.

Before we went for lunch some faster moving fish appeared and cruised up and down the canal a few times. Switching to freelining small chunks of prawn I discovered they were juvenile blue trevally.

It pays to try different presentations.

So, half way into our third day on Okinawa we were having a good time and Lillian was allowing me to do a fair amount of fishing. I’d caught some interesting and colourful fish. We had two full days left and I was keen to try some new spots and hopefully add even more interesting, colourful species to my tally. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Okinawa : Part 2.