Above 4.00am Shakotaan, Hokkaido
It’s been a long hot summer here in Hokkaido, recently we’ve had unseasonably hot temperatures and very little rain and no one’s been complaining. Usually by this time of the year its all long sleeve shirts and grey days. The only down side to these extra summer days has been that due to the lack of rain the rivers are running low and because of this the salmon have been reluctant to start running at least in the rivers around Sapporo and Shakotan.
Hokkaido is quite the Salmon fishing mecca with dozens of areas yielding the mighty silver fish. These fish are of the Pacific Salmon variety and include the darkly colored horizontally striped Cherry Salmon or Sakuramasu. Of course where ever salmon abound fisherman abound too and Japan is no exception. Last week there were more than 20 people lined up on each side of a river mouth near Shakotan. Not so unusual you say and you be quite right but it had just gone 4 am and the fish may have actually been weeks from making their first run!
The temperature is forecast to drop this week and we’ll look forward to rich colored maple leaves and the rich colors of fresh Salmon on the dinner table.
Check out Hokkaido Salmon Fishing at our sister site nisekosnow.net