logs

So much stuff has been going on, both here in Hokkaido as I’m traveling as well as disasters back in the US in NYC. I feel that writing a log each day has to be a sustainable habit, but so far I’ve struggled to remember to do so! I’m currently utilizing a rest day to help catch up on some logs I’ve been putting off.

Day 83: Monday, September 28, 2026

This was the first day fishing with Lucky Lodge guides–my guide’s name is Koudai Araki. First spot we went to was this stream in the middle of the farm field, where the banks have overhanging long grass pockets and the current is deep, cold, and fast. I looked it up later, and this makes for perfect brown trout habitat. Needless to say, I caught a ton of browns super quickly–I honestly was having a blast there.

I also learned a new word the hard way–irakusa (stinging nettle). I don’t remember exactly if this was my first time experience it (it was indeed a familiar sensation), but it was definitely the first time that I remember now. Not an irakusa fan.

In the afternoon, we transitioned to fishing for rainbow trout in the river. Same river that I fished with Okumoto before (Otofuke river), but this spot required a lot more wading, particularly through a heavy mosquito-infested section. I did manage to catch some small rainbows, but I did miss a few nice ones. Anyways, difficulty was definitely higher here, and gaps in my skill are showing when it comes to setting the hook and managing line drag/fly presentation in the water. A thunderstorm came out of nowhere, and waving a 9 foot graphite stick in the air is not a good way to stay healthy. So we decided to call it, but overall a nice first day!

At Lucky Lodge, food is cooked by the wife of the guide/owner at Lucky Lodge. A genuine home cooked meal vibe each day.

I had a fly tying lesson by the guides at night. I learned how to tie flies for the first time–super basic one: elk caddis!

Day 84: Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Day 2 with Araki. First spot we fished had some nice runs, but due to lots of rain overnight, the dams needed to be opened and the waters got much too high to fish. It was interesting, workers drive around in trucks and give you warnings via big speakerphones on the truck. Good thing I was with a guide, I don’t think I would’ve known. When the dams released water, there were big sirens, which is honestly a bit of a scary sound.

Then we went to another spot underneath a dam where water is extremely fast and rough near the dam, and slows down into a deep, still, clear gorge. Truly beautiful spot, and some giant rainbows there. Like with Okumoto, this type of fishing is called sight fishing and is highly technical. We stood there for maybe 30-40 minutes hidden amongst the rocks scouting for rising trout, and planning the cast. After finally casting, I caught this super nice 45cm trout. Suboptimal cast but worked, super sick eat, and awesome colors on the fish.

I also caught a fish on a fly that I tied! Somehow makes it more special haha. Something I made was able to fool a trout that it was a real bug!

I was a bit stupid and accidentally bonked my camera lens against a rock, so now there’s a tiny chip in the lens cover. Not enough to mess with camera quality but definitely annoying. Also, my guide and I couldn’t take apart the rod either. So I was a bit stressed, but managed to order a replacement lens to Lucky Lodge via Japanese Amazon. That took one worry off my chest, and the rod actually came apart super easily at the end of the night. So ended up okay.

At night, my guide spotted an owl on a streetlight. It was pretty cool to watch it fly down silently.

Day 85: Wednesday, September 30, 2026

In the morning I woke up to news that my storage unit had flooded. Pretty nightmarish email to wake up to, especially since the storage unit had given me so many problems before. Like when I first moved my stuff into the unit, there was another person’s stuff already there! What a mess of a company, and the staff is hilariously incompetent.

To make things worse, my phone stopped charging properly. Spent most of the morning stressing about it.

This day, we went to Lake Shikaribetsu. It’s only open 10 days during autumn season for fishing, and also a similarly short window during the spring. So timing worked out quite well, but it is quite rare to get a chance to fish the lake. The lake also holds miyabe char, which is perhaps one of the most rare trout-esque fish in the world (it’s a subspecies of Dolly Varden) as it only exists in that lake. Also hence the fishing restrictions.

Despite that, we spent most of the day hunting big rainbows. The conditions were honestly perfect: sunny and warm meant that “awafuki” (a type of bug) were out in massive numbers. The water was literally covered in thousands of these tiny bugs, and dozens of massive rainbows were just constantly eating them up on the surface. I wish I could describe the “pop pop pop” sounds of the fish eating them on the surface. Despite the large numbers of big fish feeding constantly, the still clear water made it difficult to catch these guys. I think they know exactly what the real awafuki looks like, and since the water is slow they have a good chance to eye each bug up. But at the end of the day, was able to catch some nice fish.

Side note, my very first cast I hooked into possibly the largest rainbow I’ve seen in my entire life in a spot that was completely random. Needless to say, it instantly broke me off before I had a chance to realize what I had hooked into.

Day 86: Thursday, October 1, 2026

Today we went back to Lake Shikaribetsu, I was honored since I think the guides could tell how good of a day I had the previous day. However, the conditions were completely different: super cold, wet, windy, and rainy. I forgot to bring my fleece and I got unbelievably cold and miserable. Yet, it was a rather productive day! No miyabe have been caught on the fly this season, yet I was able to hook into one and had several bites from others! So close yet so far, it would’ve been nice to have my name as the only fly fisherman to catch miyabe on a fly this season. Other than that, I caught some nice rainbows on both dry fly and streamers, as well as a surprise species.

Fishing every day is definitely leaving me quite tired, although I will say the fatigue hasn’t increased past a certain point. The only thing is my pinky finger on my casting hand is getting super sore/weak when I have to grip things tightly. Just think the tendon is overworked, hopefully the upcoming rest day will let it recover.

After the rain got super heavy, we had some instant ramen after parking the car, and oh man it helped warm me up. Nothing tastes better than some hot instant ramen and coffee under a van back door in the rain after a long day of fishing.

Day 87: Friday, October 2, 2026

Last day of fishing with Lucky Lodge, surprised time flies so fast. Started the morning off with some Dolly Varden fishing up in tiny streams deep in the mountains (initially wanted to go for brook trout but the conditions were too bad). These fish are so pretty, definitely up there with brook trout for me for my favorite fish to look at.

Afternoon was tough to find a river that was fishable. There was a moment when walking to the river where we saw a fresh bear print, which was a little spooky. Then when we got to the river, we saw wet prints on rocks, which was definitely a sign that the bear was just there. Needless to say, we got out of there as fast as possible.

Ended the day going for smaller rainbows in a tiny creek. The creek was chock full of them, but getting them to eat was actually surprisingly difficult. We finally clocked that they were eating emergers when I was getting strikes on my dry fly dragging in the water (e.g. a little sinking, a little floating still), imitating that stage of life cycle when a bug is going from underwater to flying up out of the water.

It was a nice little capstone experience, where a lot of the technical lessons with sight fishing and casting were required to catch these fish (albeit small). But I did get a few nice ones there, and perhaps the most satisfying cast of my life so far too. I saw a rise in a particularly tough spot, cast perfectly at it with the optimal line lay, and the fish ate it instantly. Not the biggest fish in the world, but an important one in my fly fishing skill journey.

Day 88: Saturday, October 3, 2026

Packed and checked out of Lucky Lodge. Finally got my thoughts together enough to try to get my stuff out of my wet and ruined storage unit. Stopped at a few points along the drive, including a cafe where I sat down and planned out the storage unit situation with a friend. I was honestly just going to put it off until later, but it was nice to crank out a plan to help fix some stuff.

The countryside is really nice to drive in, but I was honestly a little bit confused with speed limits since locals tend to drive much faster than what I believe the local limit is. But also the speeds in Japan are quite low, most of the drive is <40mph and honestly the roads are not that hard (pretty wide and straight, with curvy sections in the mountains, definitely easier than California highways).

The onsen hotel I’m staying in is surprisingly packed. Definitely the most comprehensive onsen I’ve ever been in (there are so many pools). A good experience, but I still don’t fully get onsens quite yet. In that it’s nice, but I’m not sure how much nicer it is vs a private bath.

Day 89: Sunday, October 4, 2026

Today (October 4) is the first rest day I’ve had in over a week, and it was nice to catch my breath. Anywho, I just finished viewing the Akan art gallery, where there was a wildlife photography exhibit. I have a ton of respect for wildlife guides now (as my fishing guides also double as wildlife guides during the winter). Each photo there painted a nice story about how the photographer got the shot, what the animal/scene must be thinking/doing, and the photographer’s personal takeaway from the photo! And I thought to myself, wow there are so many different moments like that while fishing in nature for me too, it would be a shame to forget all those special moments and lessons to the ether. So now I’m sitting at a cafe trying to write down some of those moments before I forget.