Island Game Part 1- Kunigami, Okinawa
This was probably the coldest Okinawa I have ever been. As I started wading in the shallow reef in Kunigami, I had to wear 3 layers of clothes on top. Water wasn’t too cold, but it was somewhere around 22-24 degree zone. Northwest wind was blowing hard which made the breaking wave pretty
big. Good thing is that I spent so many hours in surf this year. Wave
this size doesn’t scare me at all.
It was all fine on my side, but not so much on fish side. I started to scan the reef from rocky side on every small pocket, but none yielded big strike. This made me worry for I did every single step correctly. Both tide and my positioning was good. Every cast I made to the spot was down current so that fly, not fly line, passed by the fish first.
Then the moment of truth! 21cm honeycomb grouper on #4 orange turd fly (left over from bonefish trip). I had 2 more similar strikes, but fish didn’t bite hard and I couldn’t hook them.
Then sun came on top of this beautiful small shallow reef. Looks very promising in better season, so I shall return in future.