More species hunting adventures on Okinawa: Part 7.

A short drive later, we arrived at Cape Zanpa. If anything, the weather seemed to be improving and the likelyhood of any rain for the next hour or so looked very minimal. Parking the hire car and walking up to the cape's lighthouse, we clambered over the jaggy volcanic rocks behind it, found a nice looking spot, carefully climbed down the rocks, and started fishing.

Cape Zanpa's volcanic rock cliffs drop off into very deep water.

Being the responsible adult, I volunteered to climb down first.

A slight swell was running, but despite climbing down on to a small rocky platform, we were still fairly high up above the surface, out of harm's way. Fishing larger hooks with chunks of raw prawn, we were both getting bites straight away. Smaller fish were quickly stripping our hooks bare, but eventually we hooked a few slightly bigger fish. Quite a few Indo-Pacific sergeant were caught to begin with, but then we started catching some very cool species.

Not really what we were hoping to catch from the deep water beneath us!

Ryan then caught this stocky hawkfish. I really wanted to catch one too, but sadly did not.

He then caught a stunning sunset wrasse. I was jealous of this capture too!

Then it was my turn to catch a couple of really cool fish in the shape of this scrawled filefish,..

...and this beautiful pastel ringwrasse!

It had actually turned out to be a nice day weather wise, with little sign of the forecast rain arriving any time soon. The variety of species was good and we really enjoying our fishing. After a while it went a little bit quiet, but before we ran out of bait, we caught three different species of triggerfish and another filefish species as well.

I caught this stunning orange-lined triggerfish,..

...a couple of half-moon triggerfish,..

...and this honeycomb filefish.

Ryan caught a couple of reef triggerfish.

Heading back to the hire car, we drove north, stopping at a konbini where we grabbed some snacks and a pack of frozen raw prawns. By the time we arrived at Maeganeku Fishing Port, the sky had changed completely to being totally overcast, and it looked like it would start pouring down at any moment. I spotted a large group of sapphire devil down the side of the wall, as well as some other very colourful tropical fish. Knowing that Ryan really wanted to catch a sapphire devil, I gave him a tanago hook to increase his chances, and he caught one pretty quickly.

I fished blind near the bottom, while Ryan sight fished for sapphire devil a few feet below the surface.

Mission accomplished! Made easier with a tanago hook!

Also fishing with tiny hooks, I was rewarded with my second yellowfin surgeonfish of the trip.

We'd only been at this spot for maybe fifteen minutes when the rain started. Very quickly, turning from fairly light to very heavy. Satisfied with getting about six hours of fishing done at the three different venues that day, we headed back to the apartment. The following day was our last on Okinawa and Ryan was keen to visit Cape Hedo all the way up at the top of the island. It looked like a promising spot, but we would be at the mercy of the weather again, and the forecast yet again contained lots of rain.

Tight lines, Scott.