MaXtream Fly Studio - Fly fishing professional in Japan


	Although trout fishing in Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu has some limitations, Hokkaido offers the high quality fishing experiences. Some people say it is even ridiculous to compare trout fishing in Hokkaido with that in the rest of Japan. Most Hokkaido trout are wild fish or grown up hatchery fish which have been stocked years before, so you don't see many trout with injured fins. You can say they are almost all wild fish. Condition of the fish is extremely good. And there are plenty of big fish, too. One of the most unique features about freshwater fishing in Hokkaido is that you don't basically need a fishing license, simply because there are no systematic fisheries in the prefecture. Some lakes and a handful of rivers have fisheries so you need a fishing license but most waters are open 12 months for you.

	The reason why trout fishing in Hokkaido is so rich and outrageous is because the population per acre is smaller than other parts of Japan but we often guess something else affects it. It's a presence of Higuma, the Ussuri brown bear or black grizzly bear. This bear is close to North American grizzly bear and thought to be the ancestor of them. Grizzly bears live only in Hokkaido within Japan. Historically many people are attacked to death and the Ainu, the native people in Hokkaido, have regarded grizzly bears as the God for a long time. If you fish in Hokkaido, you always have to think about grizzly bears. They are close to North American grizzly bears in appearance, size and behaviors. Some grow up to 500kg so you know how big they can be. They can kill you in seconds but usually act shyly and mainly live on veggies. As they are social and smart, you don't have to be too scared but have to be bear-educated before entering deep forests in Hokkaido. Foreigners wouldn't believe Japan still has such wild animals but every year we hear news of the fatal attacks by them.
	A bear encounter in Tokachi region of Hokkaido.

	Probably the most popular trout among Hokkaido anglers is rainbow trout originally from North America. These trout show off their outstanding fighting power, acrobatic ability and long lasting stamina. They feed on more insects than other trout do. This is why rainbow trout become a great target for "insect "fly fishing. Rainbow trout keep rising for drifting insects, which makes anglers the captives. Almost all rivers have rainbow trout so they are very familiar to people born in Hokkaido, even if they are not fishermen. Nowadays many lakes and reservoirs have a lot of rainbow trout and they grow very big up to the size which any angler would show off its photos. We hear odd reports of some rainbows over 80cm in length . Although some say steelhead, sea-going rainbow trout, live in Hokkaido, they are still in mystery.

	Wild rainbows allure anglers.

	Brown trout, originally from Europe, is numerous in some areas of Hokkaido. One of the famous regions is near Hakodate, south-western Hokkaido. Lake Shikotsu south of Sapporo and Lake Nukabira north of Obihiro are both famous as the big brown trout producers, too. Brown trout feed on baitfish so they tend to grow bigger than rainbow trout. Some rivers and lakes in Hokkaido offer the world class brown trout up to 100cm. Rumors say sea-run brown trout are caught in some southern rivers but the information is extremely limite. Now brown trout is listed in the harmful foreign animals. In Hokkaido you are not allowed to carry live brown trout. You can catch and release but cannot take a live fish to another water. If you want to eat it, you have to kill it.

	Dry fishing for brown is a fun.

	Yamame used to be the protagonist of the Hokkaido freshwater fishing scene but they seem to have been pushed out by rainbow trout in many rivers. Now many rivers have few or no yamame swimming in them. Most Hokkaido anglers call them yamabe. This is a dialect and most fishermen in mainland call them yamame. In Hokkaido fishing for yamame is closed in springtime, while fishing for sakuramasu is closed throughout the year in rivers. It is a problem that old bait fishermenstill kill hundreds of parrs and smolts of yamame to eat every early summer. This has been traditional in Hokkaido but became controversial, due to change of anglers' view. By and large yamame living in stillwater is called sakura-masu. They are shiny without vivid parr marks in stillwater for some reason. Very tasty fish so meat fishermen ar after sakura-masu as foods.

	Amemasu is a popular char, due to its good number and size. Few people eat amemasu as they claim amemasu don't taste as good as rainbow trout or yamame. This may be the reason why the number of amemasu is still large. They go down to the ocean and come back to the river before spawning. On the Pacific Ocean side, they usually come back sometime from mid summer to autumn to spawn, stay in freshwater in winter and go down to the ocean around April and May. However this pattern changes depending on the area. They grow up to 80cm but average fish are probably around 50cm. In some rivers, you can see schools of hundreds of them in gin clear crystal waters. Amemasu also live in lakes and reservoirs. Lake Akan is especially famous for hatches of the big mayfly named Monkagerou and the following fish activities. You can catch big amemasu on mayfly dries around June. In this season, you can see many anglers walking with fly rods and waders on in the hotel town. At this time it can be hard to book a room on weekends there. There is a camp site by the lake so you can try the lake without booking a hotel.
	Amemasu is a beautiful native char to Hokkaido.
	Itou, Hucho perryi/Sakhalin taimen/Japanese huchen areis a legendary freshwater fish which can grow up to 1.5 meter. One of the biggest record from the 1930's is 210cm (7') in Hokkaido. Wow! The number of Itou is getting small, due to civilization, overfishing and vandalism. There are some groups which support their recovery. In a few places you can catch a decent number of Itou and their size is still big up to 100cm, but in most rivers it is very hard to see them. They are gone in many rivers where they used to abound. Mongolia is famous for huge taimen (close relative to Itou) fishing among keen fly fishers around the world. Chum salmon and pink salmon come back to their mama rivers to spawn sometime from August to November. As it is illegal to fish for salmon in freshwater although a couple of exceptional rivers are open for fishing, most people fish for them in saltwater. To protect healthy runs of salmon, most river mouths are closed to fishing so you have to check regulations before you leave home. Shiretoko is so famous and popular for salmon fishing that some famous spots are jammed with a lot of anglers who camp and fish day and night for weeks. As we said already, you can fish most rivers any time without a fishing license. In this meaning, fishing is a wallet-friendly sport in Hokkaido but freedom should come with a right action. By law you can kill as many fish as you like so if you keep overharvesting in a small river, you can annihilate those fish without difficulty. To maintain our great environment and fishery, please reduce the number of the fish you keep. We basically always exercise Catch, Shoot and Release but have no rights to ask every single angler to do the same thing at all. Lawfully you may kill trout as you like in most cases but let's think about the future. Remember that fish released by you will come back to you with their offspring.


	January and February is the time for die-hard fly fishers in Hokkaido. As it can be close to minus 30 degree Celsius in some areas of Hokkaido, most lakes are frozen. Small creeks are frozen up, too. Bigger rivers run OK so it is possible to cast a fly in a sizeable river. However casting a fly and catching a fish are totally different things. Line guides freeze, which freezes your spirit, too. Amemasu staying in the rivers can be cooperative enough to play with you occasionally but rainbow / brown trout fishing is not quite practical, due to low metabolism. However some spots with hot springs and other thermal factors can provide reasonable fishing on a warm winter day. Even dry fly fishing can be done in Janurary.

	Mid winter in western Hokkaido is reserved for saltwater Amemasu fishing. This fishing is done on beaches in most cases so you have to be ready for windy conditions. It is mandatory to be armed with warm clothes before you think about fishing itself. This Zen fishing is worth your efforts and guts but it is not an easy type of fishing for wimps. This really tests your guts and determination.

	March tells you the advent of the springtime in many ways. Snow starts melting and it starts raining for the first time in 5 months or so. As water temperature goes up little by little, you are likely to see some insect activities such as chironomids and stoneflies. This time of the year excites fly anglers so much. In sometime around April, rivers start flooding. Be advised not to fish in unfamiliar rivers, since unexpected accidents may happen. In the springtime, it is dangerous to deep wade in a big river, because car sized blocks of ice are drifting down and can hit you any time. If you wade deeper than your knee, watch upstream every single cast so that you can keep your eyes on drifting ice and trees. Usually water tends to be murky this time so visibility is not great. It is too late when something hits you in the freezing moving water. Lakes encounter ice-off, too. Stepping on the thin ice is extremely dangerous. It is the best to let time pass a bit till ice melts enough for your safety. In May you may see great insect hatches like mayflies, caddis flies, chironomids, stoneflies in some rivers in the lower altitude. Those rivers have already gone through ice-off and made trout ready to feed actively. In mountainous rivers, May is usually the peak month of the ice-off. Some rivers cannot be approached due to the violent high water conditions. You have to fish rivers and streams running on the flat lands, till the water of those rocky rivers get down to the fishable level. Consult your map to find suitable rivers whose headwaters start on lower land. There are some good spring creeks in Hokkaido, too. The most famous one would be Nishibetsu River north of Kushiro. June might be the most popular season among fly fishers in Hokkaido, since this season offers some of the best aquatic insect activities, which invites fish up to the water surface. Monkagerou, a big mayfly, hatch this time of year. Lake Akan is famous for this fishing. Higenaga Kawa Tobikera(Long antenna river caddis) hatch in big swarms as well. Higenaga provides fantastic dry fly fishing during calm evenings. This big caddis (approximately 4cm) is very important to catch big monster trout on dry flies. We love this time of year when fish feed on caddis in a frenzy, and enjoy the party time night after night. On a good day, you see black shadows of millions of caddis flying around bushes and trees at about 7 o'clock. If you see this, fish are ready to rumble on the surface. On the contrary if you don't see many shadows, which is usually a windy or cold evening, the chance of the big party is quite slim. Another principal insect in June is cicada. Big spooky fish cannot resist this big terrestrial dropping from the air. Fishing in the wild rivers and lakes where cicadas' voices echo is so special and momentary. This phenomenal fishing only occurs for 2 weeks or shorter so the timing is the key to catching nice trout on cicada flies. Weather is very important for cicada fishing. If it gets cool with clouds over the sky, cicada won't show up in a great number, while they go crazy under the hot sun. Wind is not very welcome, although some say winds will make them fall off trees down to water. By mid July some rivers in lower elevation have become low and water temperature is a bit too high for insects to hatch. Evening and morning is the time to go fishing. But now we are ready for the real fun. The season of the fishing in the mountainous rivers and stillwater starts. Water is clear, forests are thick and green. Whole kinds of terrestrials show up to enjoy the short summer. Fish are rising for them. It's a big game paradise. We honestly need nothing more. As there is a high possibility to meet up with bears, we need to take the best caution. Basically we hike or ride a bike up to the remote areas so one mistake can be fatal. Solo activity is not desirable, as you have no way to get a rescue, but we go solo on a regular basis. We just cannot stop..... Summer fishing is so dynamic because you can use big-sized dry flies such as grasshoppers, dragonflies, mice, cicadas, spiders, lizards and any type of imaginable imitations. Big trout swallow your big and ugly dry flies. You cannot help coming back again and again to meet those fish. Rivers are so nice to be at this time of year. Check out highland lakes, too. In those lakes fishing can be all good thru the summer with big dry flies. Cicada flies are used in many cases, even if cicada season has finished. Some times fish are focused on ants so never forget to bring some ant patterns at the size of #22-12 Salmon fishing starts in mid summer. People (not only fly fishers but all types of bait, gear fishermen) start checking information of the salmon run on the newspapers, in the internet and more. Usually mid August is the time to hear the news of the first shot of pink salmon run coming close to the coast. Chum salmon follow pink salmon to come back to the natal rivers. Amemasu come back to the rivers and prepare for the spawning, too. In September, rivers are packed with salmon and Amemasu. Just like in other salmon streams all over the world, presence of the salmon in the rivers means a lot. The resident trout like Yamame, rainbow trout, brown trout start to focus on the salmon eggs, which have lots of nutrition inside. Those hungry fish shift their diets from insects to eggs in the waters where salmon and eggs are available. In October, big fish start to be active around the water surface in rivers and lakes. As water temperature gets close to 10 degree Celsius, fish become so active. You can see many more rises back again since springtime in the lower elevation. Some of the important autumn dry flies are ants, grasshoppers, ladybirds, Kamemushi beetles. Especially Kamemushi can be very effective in some lakes and rivers, although this insect family is not very common for fly fishing in the mainland of Japan. Lake fishermen focus on streamer fishing for the big monster trout this time of year, too. Amemasu fishing can be very exciting in the late autumn after they finish spawning. Around the end of October some anglers declare the end of their seasons but some energetic anglers never stop casting till water freezes up. Most lakes become partially frozen by mid December. There are few people who cast flies in the Christmas season but some waters are open and fish keep feeding in a slow and quiet manner. Amemasu feed on chironomid adults on top of the water on a calm winter day, even if temperature is below freezing point. However cold wind easily turns fish off and anglers follow it. General fishing stores start selling ice fishing gear around December. Even those who don't fish in rest of the year enjoy ice fishing for Wakasagi, Japanese smelt, living in lakes and brackish waters. Usually Wakasagi are fished with baits such as maggots but they are fly fishable. We use small dubbing nymphs. Baits catch more fish but flies are good because you don't have to change baits in the freezing world. If temperature is below freezing point, you don't want to take your gloves off, so flies can be convenient. This is a concise explanation on the passage of one year in Hokkaido. Hokkaido is a cold place but there are way more times and chances to fly fish than the mainland where it is much warmer. There is little time to be away from fly fishing. Hokkaido is waiting for your visit and challenge. But again, grizzly bears should be taken caution with.