Species hunting adventures on Okinawa: Part 3.

On day four of our stay on Okinawa, we made a one and a half hour bus journey to the Busena Marine Park. Getting off the bus, we headed straight to its underwater observatory at the end of a long walkway that extends out into the ocean. Once you walk out to the end, there are spiral stairs that take you down below the surface. In the circular room beneath the waves, there are lots of glass portholes that you can look out of. Depths at the end were about five metres and there were lots of different types of fish swimming about.

Busena Marine Park's underwater observatory.

On the seafloor were lots of damselfish!

But the odd larger fish were swimming around too. No doubt attracted by visitors tossing in lots of fish pellets from above.

Making our way back up to the platform, I bought a small container full of fish pellets. Throwing a few in at a time, there were lots of snappers, emperors and even large wrasse coming right to the surface to gobble them up. The fish were clearly conditioned to quickly grab anything that made a splashing noise. Seeing this, I knew if I could find a spot to fish nearby, then I would be in with a great chance of catching some larger fish. Fishing from the walkway was out of the question, but the pier nearby that the park's glass bottom boat was operating from didn't have any no fishing signs posted, so we walked out to near the end of that, and I set up a float rig. Large squid tentacles were the bait of choice and after about twenty minutes I had caught three nice fish.

My first wrasse of the trip was this blue barred parrotfish.

This spangled emperor put up quite a scrap.

These were followed by a manybar goatfish that I caught after increasing the depth of my bait so that it was being slowly dragged along a sandy patch on the bottom.

My fun was interrupted at this point by a member of staff from the park. They politely informed me that fishing was not allowed on the pier, so I apologised and told them I'd pack up and leave immediately. Suspecting that fishing was not permitted anywhere in the park, we opted to walk all the way along Busena Beach, so I could fish from a small rocky pier at its southern end that was just outside the boundaries of the park. Sadly, the fishing here produced absolutely nothing. Quite a contrast to the spot I'd been ejected from, and in my mind a result of the fish all being regularly fed around the observatory's platform.

Plan B was quickly formulated, we caught a bus south and got off near Cape Maeda. I was hopeful that I'd be able to find a fishing spot there, but after walking up the hill to the point, we were greeted by a very large sign that looked important. Google Lens translated it for us, and I was frustrated to find out that fishing was banned around the cape due to the area being very popular with divers. Quite annoyed, we stomped back down the hill and waited for another bus to take us back to Sunabe. I can respect no fishing areas. I think it was all the waiting for and sitting on buses that was the worst part of the day. The public transport network on Okinawa isn't great. The buses aren't on time, visiting every small town along the coast, and passengers take a long time to get on and off due to the fare system. It was a reminder of the benefits of having a hire car. Anyway, I'd probably have taken the three fish I caught at the start of the day, so I shouldn't moan too much!

It had been quite a tiring day, so after dinner in a restaurant we grabbed a box of umibudo, which translates from Japanese as sea grapes, and headed back to the hotel.

Farmed in Okinawa, it is a type of seaweed. The taste is hard to describe, but is very pleasant. It tastes like the ocean in your mouth.

Our last day on Okinawa had arrived. It was very windy, and the sea was quite rough, so we headed back to the drainage canal near American Village. At the bottom section, where I'd caught plenty of fish a couple of days earlier, the water was all coloured up and there was no sign of any fish, so we walked inland again to the area where the canal opened up. The water was clearer there, and a few fish were clustered around the rocky areas and using small hooks I was able to catch a few including two new species of damselfish.

This one is a freshwater demoiselle. This was the small species I'd tried to catch already at the canal.

This one is a twospot demoiselle. The name comes from two spots it has as a juvenile fish but loses in adulthood.

Catching damselfish was getting a bit boring, so we headed off to visit a tackle shop. I wanted to try and get a couple of spools of Sunline Small Game braid, but unfortunately they didn't stock it. We then caught a bus and headed north through Kadena Air Base before getting off and heading back to the stepped area near the top end of the Kadena North Sea Wall, as I thought this area might be out of the wind. Again as luck would have it this proved to be a great choice as I caught a couple of small but very colourful triggerfish, the first time I've caught triggerfish in fact.

First to munch my squid tentacle was this blackbelly triggerfish.

Followed shortly afterwards by this funky whitebanded triggerfish. Also known as the Picasso triggerfish or the Lagoon Triggerfish, amongst other names.

Before we left, I also caught a few grey demoiselle. Yet another damselfish species!

Before heading back to Sunabe we walked all the way to the other end of the Kadena North Sea Wall and I had a go fishing in the deep channel entrance to Kadena marina. This didn't produce anything at all and rather bored I dropped my bait in front of a land crab. It scuttled straight over and grabbed it. I've tried this before, but they usually let go and scurry off. This time the crab was tangled in my line and I managed to lift it up for my second crustacean close up inspection of the trip.

Crustaceans are so weird! The land crab had really strange looking claws. Obviously specialised around their diet. Popping it back on a near vertical rock surface, it climbed back down slowly like a spider.

Walking back to the bus stop, Lillian pointed out all the Shisa statues outside people's houses. They come in pairs and are the guardian lions of Okinawa. One has an open mouth and the other's mouth is closed. The open mouth Shisa wards off evil spirits, the closed mouth Shisa keeps good spirits in.

Shisa keeping the good spirits in.

Arriving back in Sunabe, we started walking up the hill to visit Coco Ichibanya again. We both love Japanese curry, and I was looking forward to trying the level ten spicing. Lillian, who doesn't like spicy food as much as I do, challenged herself by trying level five, which is still pretty damn spicy!

On the way up there, we stumbled across a small stream and I could see it had a few small fish in it. Permission was given for one last short session. Light was fading fast, and as I had tossed all of my bait away, a quick trip to a nearby supermarket to get some bread was necessary.

Small, but fishy!

Standing on one of the bridges that crossed the stream, I tied on a small hook to see if I could catch the small fish I'd seen. Dropping a few free flakes down saw some larger fish coming up from the bottom and grabbing them from the surface with a splash. Lowering down the hook bait quickly saw me catching some of these very cool little predators. I didn't manage to catch any of the smaller fish I'd initially spotted as a result, but didn't mind too much!

I caught three of these little jungle perch. What an awesome looking fish!

I also caught two snakehead gudgeon. What a cool name!

My final, if totally spontaneous, fishing session on Okinawa over, we carried on up the hill to enjoy our spicy meal with a few beers. I should investigate freshwater fishing opportunities more when I'm doing my research for foreign trips. I tend to focus on saltwater fishing, but freshwater can be great fun too!

Coco Ichibanya curry level ten! It was very hot, but most enjoyable. I'd have it again, for sure.

In the morning, we were flying back to Seoul and catching the high speed KTX train to Busan on the south coast. Lillian loves the Korean action horror film "Train to Busan.", and whilst I enjoyed it too, I was hopeful the second stage of the journey would be a comfortable and zombie free experience!

We'd enjoyed our time on Okinawa. Lillian had been very patient, allowing me to do a lot of fishing. I think given how poor the fishing in South Korea had been, she wanted me to catch a few fish. I'd done just that, catching thirty species in total. We'll certainly be returning to Okinawa again, perhaps as part of another extended trip to Japan, as it's only a few hours to fly down there from the mainland. We want to explore more of the island and perhaps even visit others in the chain. Next time however, I'll definitely be making sure I have the correct International Driving Permit!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Busan.