Ogasawara Archipelago, Tokyo – Day 3
Soon after waking up in Oki Village, I wanted to confirm the aggressiveness of fish on the island by using grouper as benchmark. I have brought a experimental pattern tied on #2 size hook. Weather wasn’t stable, so I had to complete most of my initial research this day.
1. Port Oki and Reef
Then I headed to the same location as a day before. A rocky reef with the WW II banker looking over.
After few cast, I have confirmed that fish here can take large bait, because the very first fish was no lager than 20cm keeping new fly mouthful.
Then went back to the jetty in the port for some cruising fish.
I cast fail-safe Mikura Candy pattern tied on #4 which turned over series of bigeye scad.
2. Higashi Harbour and Reef
I got plenty of excitement in the village already, so I hired a scooter and moved out to the northern part of Haha Island.
Higashi Harbour has long jetty sticking out into the middle of bay which is intercepting variety of species throughout the season.
Not much movement was happening around the jetty, so I moved on to the nearby reef to benchmark if driving this far would make any difference.
Then…
Size of fish got much bigger here! Very fat star-spotted groupers attack fly the minute it swims over their habitats.
3. Kita Harbour
I wanted to check the northern part thoroughly, so I pushed on to another harbour near Higashi. This is where bonefish was caught on lure by kayak angler few years ago.
Timing was perfect with rising tide, so I gave it a try for few hours. No sign of cruising fish, but random squid chasing my fly hard. So I did a bit of walk through jungle road to another beach nearby.
About an half hour walk in jungle, I reached Osawa Beach. Great location, but no vital sign of fish chasing fly.
This is where I gave up to the fatigue from long day… My arms and legs are all beat up from the full day driving, fishing, and wading in water cooler than expected. As I feared, water is still too cold to attract bonefish or even trevally near shore. I may have to change my strategy now.
Result:
7 x honeycomb grouper
3 x bigeye scad
1 x bigfin reef squid