Monthly Archives: June 2015

Motocamp SUP Fishing (Video)

Friday I saddled up the bike with the inflatable SUP, tent, tarp, and fishing gear and made my way to the Japan Sea. Even caught a fish. (An edible one this time.) Check out the video below.

The other day I posted about my arrival at the Iwami Seaside Park on my weekend Motocamp, SUP & fishing trip. Well, it turns out, that while the bugs were biting on Friday night, the fish were biting on Saturday. I ended up pulling in a Flathead (コチ in Japanese) while trolling over crystal clear water just a few hundred meters offshore.

I figured I might get lucky and pull in a flounder, as I see them skirt away from my shadow fairly often, but I was a bit shocked by this fish. My reaction was something like “What the hell are you?!?” Luckily there were a few old guys surf casting near my take-out, so they filled me in on the details. Apparently, these only grow to about 60 cm locally, so at 50 cm this was  pretty good catch. They suggested I slice it up for sashimi, but we ended up just tossing it on the grill. Good eating. Not bad for my first edible catch from the SUP.

Getting Tasty in my Old Age

I love living so close to such a great camping spot…

Tonight I led the house on the bike around 17:00, with the SUP and camping gear all loaded and in place.    On the way I stopped at the Kokufu supermarket to pick up beer, ice, and food. While I was there I was approached by an old Japanese guy. Turns out he was not there for shopping: he had just seen my bike and wanted to stop for a chat. Such interactions are a bit rate out this way, so I happily gave the old guy 30 minutes of my time.  We chatted about bikes, the challenges of living abroad (he spends a lot of time in Indonesia) and there was a good ten-minute rant there at the end about how Abe is destroying Japan, or something along those lines…  As such, I was running a bit late when I arrived at the camp site tonight. By the time the tent and tarp were up, and the SUP was properly inflated, the sun had already set.   So rather than going for a paddle in the dark I just settled in for some ramen, beer, and perhaps a good book. Note to self: ALWAYS bring along bug spray or mosquito coils just in case. While I used to be under the impression that Japanese mosquitoes just didn’t find me to their liking, it seems I have gotten tasty in my old age.