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 of these Tolson's snakehead gudgeon.

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. 

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.

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 Japanese 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 Kupang 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.

Species hunting adventures in South Korea: Seoul, Muuido and Somuuido.

Last month Lillian and I headed to Asia for a three week long adventure. Before the pandemic we enjoyed two three week trips to Japan in 2018 and 2019. This time we’d be spending the majority of our time in South Korea with a short trip to Japan squeezed in. We were very excited to be going back to that part of the world and had four stops planned in our itinerary. Our first was the South Korean capital of Seoul, we'd then fly south for a short stay on the tropical Japanese island of Okinawa before returning to South Korea where we'd catch the train to Busan on the south coast of the mainland. We'd finish the trip on Jeju island, the “Hawaii of South Korea”. Arriving in Seoul in the evening after a full on day of travelling, we dropped our bags off at our hotel, went out to explore the area near our accommodation and found somewhere to get some tasty food.

Many of the streets near our hotel were a hive of neon lit activity.

We found somewhere to eat and tucked into some delicious bimbimbap, pickled and spicy sides and some super fizzy ginger kombucha.

After dinner, we still felt quite good, so we went for a stroll along Cheonggyecheon Stream, a long stretch of water that was restored fairly recently, having been previously covered over by transport infrastructure. I was curious if it held any fish.

A pleasant space to stroll along in the heart of the massive city. The water was crystal clear...

...which made spotting the resident carp very easy.

Rather predictably however, no fishing was permitted in the stream. I did expect this to be the case, so I wasn’t too disappointed. No fishing signs would however become a fairly common theme throughout our holiday. We carried on along the streamside paths before visiting the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a very large modern building in the middle of a larger urban development with a curved futuristic aesthetic.

The DDP looked quite cool after dark.

By this point we'd covered a fair distance and were both pretty tired, so we walked back to our hotel and got some much needed sleep.

The following day we did some sightseeing, visiting some of the palaces near our hotel and their gardens, taking a stoll around Bukchon Hanok village, resting our feet at a cafe where we enjoyed a drink in the company of racoon dogs and in the afternoon we took some silly photos at the Ihwa Mural Village and in an optical illusion museum.

We just happened to be at the main gates of Gyeongbokgung Palace for the rather colourful guard changing ceremony.

It was quite a contrast between the beautiful palace grounds and the sprawling city around them.

This is a racoon dog. Not a racoon. Not a dog. A racoon dog.

Who needs Red Bull when Ihwa Mural Village can give you wings?.

I wish the fishing had been out of this world!

We were having a great time exploring Seoul, but by this point I was keen to try and catch some fish, so the following day we visited a tackle shop to seek advice. I asked a few questions with the aid of Google Translate and the shop owner informed me that fishing on the Han River was possible but only in designated areas. He also told me that most anglers left the city to do their fishing. I found this incredible for a city the size of Seoul! Anyway, armed with a fishing area map for the Han River, we headed north, making a stop at the nearby Lotte Tower to visit the observation deck at the top.

Lotte Tower is currently the tallest building in South Korea and the sixth tallest in the world.

Quite a bit of smog hid the city off in the distance, but the expansive Han River was there in the foreground.

Glass floors in overhanging sections of the observation deck mean it’s pretty difficult not to look down!

Soon back on solid ground, we headed to Jamsil Hangang Park, so I could do some fishing on the bank of the River Han. When we eventually reached it, we were met with dense swarms of horrible little black flies. Walking west we eventually found an area with fewer airborne insects to annoy us and I spotted some mullet cruising around. I set up my rod and a piece of bread was cast out in their vicinity. Much to my amazement, none of the mullet showed any interest in my hookbait or any of the free offerings I also threw in. Admitting defeat after a while, we continued our walk along the river and soon arrived at a spot where a tributary flowed into it. The area was very busy with anglers, so I didn’t try to fish there. Most of them seemed to be carp fishing, and we only saw one small fish being caught. Further west, I did try fishing at a quiet spot beneath the southern intersection of Seongsu Bridge, but nothing showed an interest in anything I tried.

A very popular spot with most anglers targetting carp on fairly heavy tackle from what I could see.

The next day, we caught the cable car up to N Seoul Tower, a communications and observation tower that sits atop Nam Mountain in central Seoul. It was a hazy day, so the views weren’t great, but when we came back down to the base of the tower there were a couple of interesting demonstrations happening that we sat and watched and both quite enjoyed.

N Seoul Tower. Not anywhere near as tall as Lotte Tower, but it is situated in a lovely park.

Traditional Korean musicians were first to give the gathered crowd a very energetic performance.

Next up, martial artists made short work of bamboo poles using a variety of bladed weapons.

The following day, the weather in Seoul was pretty wet, so we caught a Line 1 Metro to Wolmido Island on the coast. Wolmido has a circular monorail which we used to explore a bit and I tried to do some fishing, but the wind was horrendous, and the sea was like chocolate. Any sheltered areas were all out of bounds. All in all it was a bit of a wasted journey really. A bit frustrated, we had a look at our Naver Map pins on our way back to Seoul and decided to cheer ourselves up with a visit to the War Memorial of Korea.

One of the impressive statues outside the War Memorial of Korea.

There were also several military vehicles on display.

We'd done a fair bit of walking over the first few days of our trip, and as it had also been very frustrating on the fishing front, we treated ourselves to a burger washed down with an unusual alcoholic beverage made with tangerines.

That evening, we checked out of our hotel in central Seoul, caught the Airport Railroad Express Train and checked into a hotel close to Incheon Airport. Whilst researching the fishing possibilities for each location on our itinerary, I'd found hardly any information about fishing around Seoul, so I had suspected that the fishing there might be tough. For this reason I'd planned in a day exploring a couple of small islands, Muuido and Somuuido, both located to the south of Incheon Airport, before we flew to Okinawa. In the morning, we caught a local bus over to Muuido, where I did some fishing near the harbour on its southern coast. The fishing sadly was dreadful, so we crossed over the footbridge to nearby Somuuido to try my luck there.

Not one bite! Perhaps Somuuido in front of me would be more productive?

Over on Somuuido the fishing wasn't much better sadly. The bottom was very snaggy and the bites pretty much non exsistant. Eventually I did manage to catch a couple of tiny rockfish though. My first two fish of the trip!

A tiny Korean rockfish. This one is Sebastes koreanus I think.

A slightly bigger, but still tiny, Korean rockfish! Same common name, but I believe this one is Sebastes schlegelii.

Having spent the whole day fishing at a few different spots on the two islands, I was glad to get off the mark and was pleased I’d done so with two new species. I could have fished for longer but after another hour or so with no more bites I packed up, we walked back over the footbridge to Muuido, and we caught the bus back to our hotel for a big bowl of spicy mapo tofu. We were flying to Okinawa the following morning, and I was pretty confident that the fishing there would be much, much better!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Okinawa : Part 1.