Due to the prolonged heat of the summer, the surface temperature was still high at 16c. Our surface offerings were quickly gulped down by these less exciting suckers. Hands up!!
Day 5. We moved to our last stage of our trip, Lake Akan, where we had good dry fly fun on our earlier, summer visit.

Unfortunately the weather was not in the best mood. The solid rain would have kept us indoors, but no, not while we are up here.
We took lodging again in the lakeside hotel, Kussharo Prince. Their gorgeous buffet now complete with home made crepe almost killed us with a stomach blast!
A fine autumn view of Lake Kussharo,
from the top of Bihoro pass.
The southern shore of the lake, near Iwogawa inlet was full of wind blown colourful leaves.

A consolation to the eyes, though not conductive to fishing!
Even Sayuri, who usually insists on dry fly, was quick to revert to bottom prospecting if only to avoid those sucking mouth..
Though their size is modest at only 10-12 inches, they do make for a fine sport in the knee deep shallow corners.
That tasty potato dumpling was here to stay. Even ''Jero'' a popular black singer (who specializes in Japanese traditional folk music) attest to that!!



Wading waist deep, we kept casting to the breakline with all sorts of streamer variations whole day. Despite the tempting sight of Wakasagi bobbing in the waves, we couldn't nail down a single fish on this wet day out.



H'kaido in Autumn - 4
Fishy Trips
'10 H'kaido in autumn - 3
There were occasional sightings of fish definitely two sizes bigger. Place your pointer on the pic to see their almost-sockeye-like robust bodies! Or indeed, could they be?
Again as in our visit last year, Himemasu, or land locked Sockeye salmon were in good numbers chasing our small streamers.