Visiting Mountain Trouts – Aki River and Yozawa Fishery, Tokyo
2012 season opened with bad news of radiation spread, but that doesn't stop one from pursuing mountain jewel fish. So, I just jumped on my car still in dark.
When I arrived, North Aki River was covered in fog. Air temperature was 5C and water was 7C. Not quite as I expected, but that doesn't stop one from fishing. Nymph there it is.
First streamborn Yamame (landlocked cherry salmon) in 2012 at last! I haven't caught streamborn trout for nearly 3 years. Bead headed midge larva given from Paul's father in law works really great. I ought to ask for recipe.
This fat yamame must be stocked fish and looked very tasty. I could have western style or eastern style cooking with this fish, but considering uncertainty of radiation, I had to release it. Shame... Beadheaded larva again.
It was too cold in North Aki River and I wanted to catch fish with dry fly. So, I moved on to Yozawa Fishery. This tributary is stocked with only rainbow trout and cherry salmon. However...
This little fish I caught looked like white-spotted char, but there is no white outline at the edge of its fin or white spots on its body. Green body, silver belly, no spots. It could be mix breed. If you have any idea, please let me know.
Later on, I caught par of brown trout. Some say there is rare streamborn
brown trout in Yozawa, but I suspect this one came from hatchery along with rainbow trout or cherry salmon.
Result on North Aki River
- Cherry salmon x 2
Result on Yozawa
- Cherry salmon x 6
- Rainbow trout x many
- Mysterious "char-like" trout x 1
- Brown trout x 1
Hit Flies
Fish had strong tendency for quick sinking nymph in the morning. In the daytime, fish moved only to super small fly or keel style dry fly as if they are wary of hook.
- Beaded headed midge larva #12 (gold bead and green bead)
- Pheasant tail nymph #12-16 with copper wire as weight
- CDC floating midge nymph #32
- CDC thorax dun - keel type #18
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Great post. I think I am going to drive up to Yozawa this Saturday or Sunday…or maybe just not go to work Wednesday and head up. Any advice? Wanna join this weekend?
I could surely do Saturday, mate.
Do you have river tackle such as 3 or 4wt?
What is the best way to get there from Tokyo? Train, bus or car?
Lou
Car is the best way, but you can do train + bus.
You ought to wait for open season, though it’s worth visiting the beauty of mountain side without fishing.
My lowest is a 5wt, but I am sure I can make it work.
If been to Yozawa on the Sun. 24th and I enjoyed a great sunny day out in the country side, that made it hard to imagine that your just about one and a half hours away from Tokyo. It’s been my first mountain stream fishing experience in Japan, thanks to the great information provided on this side.
I caught two lovely 40 – 45 cm rainbow trouts on a rather whitish dry fly pattern, which I took home for dinner and a couple of small ones, which I released to the stream.
I have to confess that I expected catching fish much easier, since the river, at least in the lower parts is simply overfilled with fish. First I tried simple gold headed nymps, since no fish was coming to the surface, basically the same way I would approach such kind of rivers in Germany, but it turned out not to be very effective. I saw the fish approaching the nymp but always turning away in the last second. I think mainly because the water was very clear, the weather was sunny and the river flow is rather slow. The big fish in the deep pockets just have to much time to check what is approaching in front of their mouth. 🙂
When I started trying the hairy whitish dry fly together with changing a little bit the way of how I take back the line, I was getting exactly the trouts I was trying to catch. So basically, casting roughly one and a half meters in front of the trouts, letting the stream take the fly, than as soon as the dry fly started soaking up some water it kept slightly under the surface, starting to sink slowly in the slow running parts of the stream. Than as soon as the fly approached the fish, I was trying to imitated as if the fly was trying to get back to the surface. That seemed to be the choice of the day and the trout were really aggressively going for the fly.
I was also surprised about how lively the drills were that I got. I didn’t expect that from cultured fish.
I think I was lucky that there have been only around 20 fisherman out on that Sunday since I’ve read on the homepage, that on Sunday’s you can easily get around 40 people fishing at Yozawa. But I’ll definitely come back and check out the upper parts of the stream. The really seem to provide you with some tricky places, that are perfect to train your casting skills.
However until now my best fly fishing experience in Japan was fishing for maruta and carp at Tama river. I hooked my frist carp ever and now I completely understand why people are getting so fascinated from fishing for carp. Some friendly Japanese fisherman provided me with appropriate flies to fish for maruta and I can’t wait to try them next weekend.
I read about maruta fishing in this article.
http://www.nihonsun.com/2009/06/29/fishing-tokyo-tama-river/
Max
Oh I should have mentioned the place, I went for carp fishing the last couple of times.
Tama River is just a 5 min. walk from Futakotamagava Station on the Denentoshi Line.
It’s a lovely open space with slow and fast flowing parts. Fishing from the side of the river is possible but I suggest you bring your waders than you can even cross the river in some places.
Hi Max,
I reckon you went there Sunday “25th”?
Glad you had wonderful time.
Tama River off Futakotamagawa Station is actually good location for
pale chub on dry fly. It’s probably a good idea to include that fishery then.