After quickly catching my daily limit of pink salmon during a recent fishing trip to eastern Hokkaido's Churui River, I spent the next couple of hours pursuing smaller game, the oshorokoma, Japan's little native Dolly Varden char. This is a fish that makes up in looks and spunk what it lacks in size.

Having caught Dolly Varden in Alaska I was curious about their Japanese cousins. I swapped my salmon tackle for a 71/2-foot, four-weight fly rod and set off to find some fish.

The main Churui River was filled with aggressive salmon that had pushed all the smaller residents out of the prime holding areas. After scouting around I located some oshorokoma in a tributary brook. I carefully crept up to a smaller pool and gently dropped my line into the water.