Ozenji is two large and two small artificial ponds that are stocked with several kinds of trout. The fees are about $25 for 3 hours and one large pond is dedicated to flyfishing. The water is very murky with visibility to about 12" down. Here's a sample of what you see when you fish there:
The "Lodge"....
The Fly Fishing Pond
In the photos there are fewer people than when I arrived at around 11:30 AM. I was using my 4-wt with floating line and a 4X, 9 foot tapered learder with 5X tippet. After having been on a 9-wt most of the time, it was a little weird getting into the rhythm of a light flyrod. I also had to deal with the fact that I ended up in a lousy spot - facing the wind and obstacles on the back cast.
Undaunted, I tied on my trusty trout popper to see if they'd take a surface fly. Twenty minutes later, I switched to a prince and got my first fish of the day, a fat 12" rainbow. I fished the prince for another twenty minutes and hooked a couple more fish of abut the same size. The wind played havoc with casting at times, the gusts were very strong, and often it was best to just wait before attempting to cast. Nymphs were on the menu as streamers or dries had no effect on the trout.
I noticed that the people who were catching the most fish had upwards of 18 feet of leader and tippet. As well, there was really no action applied to the flies. It was cast out and let the fly sink or drift - the fish that were hungry/stupid enough would take it. Many people were very disciplined casters and several could really boom out line. Having said that, I noticed that most strikes and takes happened within ten feet of the bank.
I ended up fishing two flies at a time and this proved very effective. I landed a very nice fish in the 16" range that was Monday night's dinner:
I saw a very big fish cruising the shallows - it was a rainbow about 24" long and it would not have anything to do with my flies. Also, this guy below kept swimming past me all day. This fish is an iwana, a trout species native to Japan. Iwana are a type of char that looks like a lake trout on the sides and a speckled trout on the back. They have a blunted face with a very low-slung mouth for a trout.
I chatted briefly with one of the employees who came around to check licences. He told me that evening fishing is very good since the trout tend to go for surface flies. I may give that a try.
Ozenji is not great, but it is close and it satisfies an itch for trout fishing. The alternative is renting a car, driving deep into the mountains, staying in a hotel, and finding a guide who knows the wild waters....
Update on dinner - I filetted the fish and placed the 2 filets on a rack. Squeezed half a lemon on top of them, added 2 heaping teaspoons of crushed garlic, salt & pepper. Kitchens here in Japan have a gas range that includes a grill specifically for fish.....12 minutes under the grill and they were ready. The meat was very pale coloured and relatively tasteless - nothing like the trout we catch back home. I won't keep fish from Ozenji anymore unless they are gill hooked.
are there not any streams that hold trout in the woods???