More species hunting adventures on Okinawa: Part 2.

As the two of us fished away in Ginowan Fishing Port, a few other anglers arrived and starting fishing just along from us. One of them was fishing with live baitfish, so there may have been some bigger fish around, but Ryan and I were content targeting smaller fish and trying to rack up as many species as we could. The next species I caught was a Campbell’s goby.

I’d caught Campbell's goby previously on the South Korean island of Jeju.

This was followed by my first ever unicornfish which was pretty awesome. I’d discover later it was a bignose unicornfish.

They develop their "big nose" when they become an adult.

The species just kept coming. It was quite remarkable really. Almost every other fish we caught was an addition to our tally. For Ryan, every species he caught was a new one and for me, about half of them were new.

I then caught a sapphire devil which Ryan was a little bit jealous of. I was sure he would catch one.

Next up was another new species for me, a Batu rainbow wrasse.

Followed by a Yellowfin surgeonfish. I caught one of these in Phuket last year.

We then caught a few of these staghorn damselfish.

Shortly afterwards, I caught my first threadfin butterflyfish of the trip.

Two more new species then took my small pieces of prawn. The first was this yellowtail emperor.

It was followed by my first ever brown dottyback.

I also caught a whitespotted devil, which confusingly has blue spots.

By this point, we’d been fishing for about three hours, and things eventually started to slow down a bit. Perhaps the commotion caused by dozens of fish being hooked and wound in by the two of us had spooked the rest from the area, or maybe it was due to a change in the tide. Either way, or whatever the reason, we were also aware that it could also start raining at any moment and that any dry weather window was precious, so we decided to move to another venue not too far away to try our luck there. Hopefully it would be just as productive!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the next part…

Species hunting adventures on Okinawa: Part 2.

After a relaxed lunch on day three, we did a bit more exploring and wandered further up the drainage canal. About half a kilometre from the sea it opened out and two smaller drainage canals ran into this area. There were lots of small fish swimming around and before too long I’d caught a few of them. Predictably, a few of the fish were damselfish. After a while, I eventually caught something else in the shape of a crested grunter. Much easier to identify!

This is a crested grunter. Even Google Lens can positively identify them with ease!

Based on the shape and slight yellow tinge of the tail fin and dorsal fin, I think this one is a brackish damselfish, which would make sense given where I caught it. 

After a while the action dried up and even the damselfish lost interest. We decided to walk back towards the hotel. On the way, we passed a couple of spots I thought looked a bit fishy. I had a quick fish in these two areas and caught another new species at both. Different types of environment usually hold different species.

Over a shallow sandy area I caught this cylindrical seaperch. The seaperch family was a new one to me, so when I caught it I had no idea what this fish was which was pretty exciting in itself!

In a deep silty area I caught this solitary common ponyfish. They are incredibly slimy.

Walking back in the direction of the hotel again, we made one last stop before heading for some food, I fished at one of the Sunabe Seawall piers for an hour or so as light faded. It turned out to be a great decision because fishing with small hooks straight down the front of the pier, I added four new species to my tally.

Yet another damselfish species added to my growing list. The whitespotted devil, whose spots are in fact blue!?

A vagabond butterflyfish, another awesome capture

I somehow managed to catch this tiny but very colourful member of the triplefin family that has no English common name. Cousin of the black faced blenny, this one is a male and is called a ヨゴレヘビギンポ (Yogorehebiginpo) in Japanese. 

After the sun went down, I caught what I suspect is a blackstripe cardinalfish.

So, it had been a very productive day! We relaxed in the evening with burritos and beer. The next day we were catching a bus and heading north to the Busena Marine Park where we would visit its underwater observatory. As well as seeing what fish were around further out from the shore, I was hopeful that I would perhaps find a fishing spot nearby or perhaps on the way back where the water was deeper and where I could maybe fish with heavier tackle and try to catch some bigger fish. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Okinawa : Part 3.