East Asian fishing

THE SEAS are shallow, semi-enclosed and productive — Bohai, Yellow, East China, Japan — bordered by very dense populations and fished by some of the largest fleets in the world.

THE COASTLINE IS SUBSTANTIALLY ARTIFICIAL, and that is not a footnote: breakwaters, harbour walls, tetrapod defences and reclaimed shore are where an enormous share of the region's recreational fishing takes place. Structure of this kind holds fish reliably, is accessible from a city, and has produced a whole light-tackle discipline built around it.

JAPAN'S PACIFIC SIDE has deep water very close to shore and a warm western boundary current running north, which brings pelagic species within reach of the land.

THE RYUKYU ARC and southern China are subtropical, with coral reef.

AND THE FRESH WATER divides between the short, fast mountain rivers of the island arcs and the enormous slow rivers, lakes and reservoir systems of the mainland — two completely different fisheries.

SEA: sea bream, rockfish, flatfish, horse mackerel, squid and cuttlefish, amberjack and yellowtail, bonito and tuna on the warmer coasts, and a very long list of reef species in the south.

SQUID AND CUTTLEFISH deserve separate mention because they support a major recreational fishery in their own right, fished with egi from harbour walls and boats, frequently at night under lights, and frequently as a social activity.

YELLOWTAIL AND AMBERJACK are among the headline sport species, and the seasonal movement of yellowtail is followed closely.

FRESH WATER: ayu in the summer rivers, carp across the mainland in enormous quantity, mandarin fish, snakeheads, catfish, and trout and char in the mountain streams.

THE SEASONALITY IS CURRENT-DRIVEN as much as temperature-driven. Warm western boundary currents push species north seasonally and their timing organises the year on the Pacific-facing coasts. Ayu rivers open on a defined date and the opening is an event. Typhoon season interrupts everything.

The region's recreational fishing is unusually technical, and the technique has been exported comprehensively.

LIGHT ROCK FISHING and light game fishing from breakwaters and rock, with very fine tackle and small lures — a Japanese-developed discipline now practised worldwide under its Japanese-derived vocabulary.

EGING for squid and cuttlefish with a weighted artificial prawn, which originated here and is now a global method under its original name.

JIGGING, including slow-pitch jigging, developed here and exported wholesale.

TAI-RUBBER and related boat systems for sea bream.

SURFCASTING on the long sand coasts, with its own tackle conventions.

AYU FISHING WITH A LIVE DECOY on the summer rivers, using very long rods and no reel.

TENKARA in the mountain streams — a fixed-line fly method now practised internationally.

AND CARP FISHING across the mainland at a scale and antiquity that puts European carp culture in perspective: this is where carp aquaculture began.

Two historical facts shape this region more than any other.

AQUACULTURE WAS INVENTED HERE. Carp culture in China is documented over thousands of years and is the origin of the practice worldwide. The common carp's presence on every continent traces back to it, as does a great deal of the polyculture thinking that modern aquaculture still uses. When a European angler fishes for carp, they are fishing for a domesticated animal with a longer husbandry history than most livestock.

AND THE SEAS HAVE BEEN FISHED HARDER THAN ALMOST ANYWHERE. The semi-enclosed shelf seas of East Asia have supported very large fleets for a long time, and the consequences — declining stocks, shifts towards smaller and lower-value species, and disputes over shared waters — are well documented. The recreational fishery exists inside that context, and it is why measures can be strict and why some species that were once common are now rare.

THE CULTURAL TRADITIONS remain remarkable: cormorant fishing, ayu with a live decoy, and a fishing literature and art tradition that is centuries deep. Several of these survive now as protected cultural practice rather than as working fisheries, which is a real and slightly melancholy transition rather than a preservation success.

This is the one region whose fishing vocabulary has been exported rather than translated.

EGI and EGING are used unaltered worldwide for the squid jig and the method.

TENKARA likewise for the fixed-line mountain fly method.

TAI-RUBBER, INCHIKU, SLOW-PITCH and a good deal of modern jigging vocabulary came from here.

AYU and TOMOZURI name the fish and the decoy method built on its territoriality.

TETRAPOD names the concrete armour unit that is simultaneously the region's most popular fishing platform and one of its most dangerous.

AND THE FISH NAMES ARE WORTH CARE. Yellowtail and amberjack cover several species whose names differ by size class in Japanese — a fish acquires a different name as it grows, which is a level of granularity European languages do not have and which appears constantly in fishing reports.

There is no regional system: Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan each administer fisheries nationally and the position for a recreational angler differs in each, including whether a licence is needed at all.

THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE IS THE FISHERY COOPERATIVE. In Japan particularly, freshwater fishing rights on many rivers are held by local cooperative associations, which issue day tickets, set their own seasons and rules, and stock and manage the water. Buying that ticket is the operative permission, it is bought locally and often on the bank, and no national arrangement substitutes for it. A visitor who does not know this will fish illegally without intending to.

HARBOUR AND PORT AUTHORITIES control access to breakwaters and walls. Access that looks open is frequently conditional, and marks are closed after accidents.

AQUACULTURE LEASES occupy large areas of coastal water and are private ground rather than open sea.

PREFECTURAL, PROVINCIAL AND MUNICIPAL rules add local closures and restrictions.

FishingHQ states no current rule. The practical route is the national authority for the framework and the local cooperative or harbour office for what actually applies on the water.