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A Self Guided Fishing Trip to Hokkaido Japan

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8.7K views 30 replies 28 participants last post by  Ksimo  
#1 ·
For as long as I can remember I've always wanted to visit Japan. With the US dollar stronger than ever and the Japanese yen at rock bottom now seemed like as good a time as any. Small stream trout fishing is something I enjoy a lot and its a popular past time in Japan as well, in fact they take it far more seriously than Americans do and the Japanese domestic market has a far greater variety of methods and lures developed specifically for small streams including tenkara fly fishing and finesse baitcasting systems. Its through research of these methods I encountered my first photos of species unfamiliar to me and most North American anglers such as Cherry Trout (Yamame) and White-spotted Char (Iwana). After a near death experience several years ago and while lying in that hospital I constructed a list of six must catch species and among those was taimen. While researching taimen I was surprised to discovery the north island of Japan, Hokkaido, plays host to a species of taimen. The Sakhalin or Japanese Taimen (Ito) is found only in extreme northern Japan and in nearby Russia. That discovery cemented my location choice.

We landed outside Sapporo in late September. One of our first fishing targets was a species deeply familiar and a favorite of mine, Kokanee. Kokanee are native to Japan and have been widely introduced and have established self-sustaining populations. In fact there is an endemic species of Kokanee, the Black Kokanee, found only in one lake on the main island of Japan. This species of Kokanee completes its entire life cycle at extreme depths and lacks any red or green pigments. On Hokkaido most fall Kokanee fisheries are closed to protect spawning but on Lake Kussharo, a massive lake in an ancient caldera, Kokanee fishing is open year round. Here we setup camp for several days. The lake is fed by numerous streams and rich geothermal springs that pump huge quantities of phosphorous into the lake. This nutrient input drives a rich plankton community that supports the development of Japan's largest Kokanee and fishing up to 20" are not uncommon although most average 15". After some exploring we located a good concentration of Kokanee in front of one of the feeder streams along the western shore. There are numerous hot springs along the edge of the lake and it was quite a strange sensation to be walking in 55-60 F water and then suddenly be standing in water in 80 to 100 F range. There were many Japanese anglers present most throwing small jerkbaits or spoons. I did have success using a small pink jerkbait but when I switched to pink crappie tube jigs under floats I started having real success. In short order I caught over a half-dozen beautiful buck Kokanee. These Kokanee differed markedly from our North American varieties with distinct green back, a red band along the lateral band, a fiery orange spot at the base of the tail, and black bellies. We returned to this spot the next day to try some fishing and recover a hat that fox had stolen and caught several more hens and bucks as well. We also found my hat with a few holes chewed in it and urine soaked.

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With a multi-day deluge in the forecast we abandoned Kussharo for the coastal community of Kushiro, one of Japan's most famous seafood and whaling ports. Here we enjoyed the most amazing sushi and tried Minke Whale for the first time (it is delicious). With most streams blown out by the multi-day storm I located a tailwater stream not far from town that I thought we might prospect. We immediately began connecting with a number of target species on this stream including native White-spotted Char and Cherry Trout.


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Cherry Trout are in fact not trout at all. They are typically male Cherry Salmon that failed to smoltify and become stream resident. These Cherry Trout will maintain their parr like marking all the way through sexual maturity allowing them to spawn with searun females of Cherry Salmon that return in the summer and spawn in the fall. We encountered Cherry Salmon throughout Hokkaido streams and targeting them in freshwater is illegal although they are a common bycatch when fishing for char and trout that often associate with them looking to feed upon their eggs or opportunistically mate with them. In fact we had some of our best days catching White-spotted Char, Rainbow Trout, and Cherry Trout tossing spoons or drifting jigs through Cherry Salmon spawning areas. On two occasions we did connect with Cherry Salmon as bycatch. My wife found a hen on a spoon and I caught a buck on a jig.

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From here we headed northeast to wild the Shiretoko Peninsula famous for its Brown Bears (the Japanese version of Grizzly Bears) and Chum Salmon. Here locals fish for Chum Salmon in the heavy surf using 1-2 oz spoons under fixed floats with 1-3' leaders. Spoons are affixed with single point hooks with hoochies and tipped with mackerel. The rough seas made fishing tough for a few days but after the swell dropped to 1-2' I managed to hook four and land three Chum on these unique rigs. We tried North American rigs with marabou jigs under a float tipped with bait with no success.

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Part II will continue below:
 

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#4 ·
Chum Salmon are the backbone of northern Japan's commercial salmon fisheries. They use massive fyke net systems spread out along the coast to harvest these fish and reduce lethal bycatch of the rarer but more valuable Cherry Salmon. Several of the largest Chum Salmon rivers are kept closed to support the commercial fishery and fishing for Chum Salmon remains illegal in freshwater to provide a sustainable commercial harvest and reduce conflict between humans and bears. Visiting the mouth's of these rivers between storms is amazing as thousands of Chum Salmon amass waiting for rains to make their run. There are literally waves of salmon rolling in the surf. Its a sight to see. Beside's Brown Bear these Chum Salmon streams support the world's last stronghold of Blakiston's Fish Owl. The world's largest owl, its nearly twice as big as our Great-horned Owl and feeds almost exclusively on salmon smolts. Less than 500 pairs remain and we were lucky enough to watch a pair hunting along a stream on the peninsula.

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From here we traveled across the island to Lake Shumarinai in northeast Hokkaido. This man-made lake has become the last stronghold of Sakhalin Taimen. While scant information was available online about the species the impression I got is that it would take at least 3 days of fishing to connect with the species which remains incredibly rare. After paying for our lake permits, we were setting up camp when we watched an elderly Japanese angler hook and land a 5 to 6 lb taimen right in front of camp on a spoon. This only added to our optimism.

The next day reality came crashing down on us. We fished all day, literally hundreds if not a thousand casts between Sidra and I and nothing. We went back to camp. With 30 minutes to spare in the day I walked down to the shore and started casting spinners. I caught a land-locked Cherry Salmon and a White-spotted Char. Just as I was about to call it my line went heavy. Line peeled out from my reel and I shouted for Sidra to come down from camp. After a nerve-wrackingly poor net job my first Sakhalin Taimen was in the net! Another bucketlist species checked off!

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The next day we fished all day with little luck aside from a large land-locked Cherry Salmon that became dinner. Sidra caught a very small taimen from camp but nothing much else. The last day we fished hard on the lake and nearby streams. I surprisingly caught a taimen that must have washed over the dam.

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Big rains swept in our last day. I focused on breaking down camp while Sidra made one last attempt at catching a big taimen in the land of the rising sun to no avail. We only scratched the surface of what Hokkaido has to offer but it left me only wanting to scratch that itch even more...someday.

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#5 ·
Absolutely incredible writing, pics and a most admirable sense of adventure.

Would you mind a lengthy post sharing your research experience, gear selection and packing, etc? It would be a fascinating read and a good lesson I believe.
 
#6 ·
Now we’re looking up fish! Beautiful photos. Love the color of the cherry salmon. My wife is from an area a couple hours south of Hokkaido. She loved the photos. When I mentioned maybe we should go to Hokkaido next time she was stoked but informed me we would not be fishing.🤣

Thanks for sharing! Nicely done.
 
#19 ·
Amazing trip! I lived in Japan for 3 years, we would go spear fishing in the Seto sea and swim up on a beach on an uninhabited island and build a fire and cook the fish right there. I didn’t know what we were eating but the Japanese guy with us would tell us if it was good or not.