More species hunting fun on Okinawa: Part 4.

On our second full day on Okinawa, the forecast rain arrived. Driving north to Nago, with the windscreen wiper on full at times, we were hopeful that it might ease up enough that we could do some fishing. Arriving at the river we wanted to fish, it showed little sign of letting up though Getting out of the car, we grabbed umbrellas from the boot and had a quick look around. The rain finally eased up slightly and Ryan and I decided to get minimal tackle out of the car and just to get a bit wet. 

These colourful fish shaped kite artworks were all along the roadside by the river. 

Baiting our hooks with small shrimps that we’d picked up from a tackle shop in the morning, it didn’t take us long to catch a few Nile tilapia. Fishing from a bridge over the river, casting our baits downstream into a deep run in the middle flanked either side by flowing weeds, they were getting hit straight after entering the water. 

A slightly soggy Ryan with his first ever tilapia. 

Walking upstream a bit, we soon spotted some other fish in the river that definitely weren’t tilapia, so we stood in the rain and spent an hour or so trying to catch them. Getting through the tilapia proved to be very difficult. There were large shoals of them, and they were much more aggressive than the other fish, which hugged the bottom and moved much more slowly. Still, catching lots of tilapia was fun for a while.

Fishing in the rain. Just fishing in the rain.

The biggest Nile tilapia I caught. 

By the time we decided to leave, we were both pretty wet, but at least we weren’t cold as well. Our next destination, after stopping to have some lunch, was Heart Rock on the northern shore of Kouri Island. 

Heart Rock probably looks more picturesque when the conditions are nice! After professing my undying love for her to Lillian, we headed off to try to find somewhere sheltered where we could do some more fishing. What could be more romantic?

Driving back around to the south side of the island, we thought about fishing underneath one of the ends of Kouri Bridge, but the water there looked incredibly shallow, so instead we decided to fish in Kouri Island’s small port, where we could fish right next to the car. It rained most of the time, only letting up for short periods, and the fishing was very good, so we fished through the rain when I came on and before too long Ryan and I were pretty much soaked to the skin. To begin with, I cast out onto a sandy area. This produced a couple of sand dwelling species. 

First I caught this cylindrical sandperch.

Then this, my first ever, variegated lizardfish.

Turning my attention to fishing down the wall in front of us, we caught a few fish and added a few more species to our tally in the process. 

We both caught a blackstripe cardinalfish. 

Ryan caught this shorthead sabretooth blenny,..

…and a very pretty barred thicklip. 

As we fished away and dropped waste pieces of shrimp into the water right in front of us, more colourful fish began to arrive. They were quite small and were adept at stealing the bait from our #20 hooks, so we went even smaller, baiting them with tiny pieces of shrimp! This did the trick, and we caught a few more species as a result. 

These venomous barhead spinefoot were the most aggressive of the small, colourful fish that had gathered. We both caught a few of them, carefully unhooking them to avoid any painful accidents.

I spend a fair amount of time targeting a couple of pennant coralfish. Pulling my baited hook away from other species I'd already caught, I eventually caught one of them. One of the coolest fish I’ve ever caught. 

Towards the end of the session, the sky opened up and the rain started battering down. Lillian and Ryan sheltered in the hire car, but I doggedly carried on fishing. My effort was rewarded with another new species. 

Soaked right through already, I wasn't getting any wetter!

My reward for fishing in the heavy rain was this vermiculated angelfish. Not so rewarding was getting stabbed by the large spine on it's cheek which I didn’t notice until it was too late. Ouch!

The rain was still falling torrentially when I eventually decided I'd had enough. Throwing my tackle in the boot we turned the heating on full blast and made the drive back south to Chatan. We’d managed to do about four hours of fishing, getting properly soaked in the process, but had added another ten species to our tally. Lots of heavy rain was forecast for the coming days and after heading out to a yakiniku restaurant in the evening, I spent some time searching on Google Maps for some bridges we could fish under!

Tight lines, Scott.