A school of about a dozen fish heading upstream. A heart warming scene.
Having played with 2 fish each, we both had enough and called it a day.
We drove further up to the city of Kitami.
A big glass of Kitami's specialty, Okhotsuku beer did us very nicely.
Summer in H'kaido 4
The ranch has gained enormous popularity over the last couple of years,
and their star product is ''fresh caramel'' sweets.
Here in their home factory visitors can view how the caramels are made.
Not really the biggest, in fact, they are the smallest of the Salmon families,
but they provide us Japanese flyfishers with such fun, excitement and that
taste of summer.
The next target of ours was Pink salmon, locally known as Karafuto masu.
As in Alaska or Canada, they come back to the rivers to spawn from early
August to late September, and the first run usually contains the biggest
fish.
A forlorn looking light house stands on the wind blown treeless cliff.
The cape is known for the perpetual fog blown up from the Pacific.
Sayuri was soon into her first fish too.
A 7wt rod will do the job nicely. They never run far enough to pull out
the backing, but they have rather soft mouth so a consistent pressure with
a disc drag is nice to have.
Surrounding the ranch are endless fields of sunflowers to produce sunflower
oil. A happy picture of Tokachi plains in Summer.
There were great number of Yamame trout, but their modest size convinced
us that half a day's just about enough.
After some stroll in the chilly mist, a bowl of seafood ramen noodles made
a real treat.
Having spent 2nights in Obihiro, we left south to Cape Erimo, on the south
eastern tip of H'kkaido.
A big buck with an oversized back.
'10 H'kaido in Summer - 3We drove further back to the little village of Nakasatsunai, and visited
the popular Hanabatake Ranch to fill up our stomach.
We drove up to Hiroo town halfway back to Obihiro and spent a night there.
To our delight the next day was blessed with brilliant sunshine again.
We spent an enjoyable half a day out on the Rakko river for some dry fly
action.
