2014年05月30日
Introduction to Ajing
Definition of Ajing: to fish for horse mackerel using lures.
Horse mackerel considered by many as a bait fish has become a popular target in japan for lure angling. The main reasons why are, the populations are really big, they can be found in almost all Japanese waters with relative ease almost year round in some cases, and they are a popular food item for a lot of Japanese. Alongside of those reasons we now have many specialized lure tackle for this.
So why fish for these with lures when you can catch them with a sabiki or any number of other ways? The main reason is they are larger than the average fish caught on sabiki. But other reasons are that they are very fun game fish. They are very selective of position, current, color, movement, and many other things. Also on light lines and tackle they are tons of fun as they run comparable to many other pelagics like small amberjack or mackerel or even bonito.
I want to share one of my latest trips and introduce this unique and fun game to you.
The wind was coming in too strong from the south for us to really fish our main point effectively so I chose a point that was facing north. The wind normally at this level would be almost impossible to bear with our ultra-light tackle, but because of a wall to our backs we found was more than comfortable.
While I set up a simple 0.9g jig head and soft lure only rig on my AJ 610 UL on the 1.7lb fluro line I was thinking of my approach. I figured that the timing wasn’t the best seasonally and the fish were probably not feeding on the usual bait. I also had set up a 0.9g split weight with a 0.4g jig head rig on my GRF-TR 68 Strange in case of strong winds curling around my position.
For the JH only rig I chose soft lures that have the shape of either a small bait fish or small crabs both are baits that are found in this particular point. The split weight rig was setup with a lure to mimic a group of plankton. I usually prefer clear lures with red, black or silver flakes to imitate plankton. The red or black makes it look like small shrimp or crab eyes grouped together. Aji like many other fish love falling bait. We tend to keep weights anywhere between 0.3g~1.8g for soft lures and anywhere from 1g~30g for hard lures.
Night is usually the best timing for horse mackerel as their bait (plankton, fish fry, small crustaceans, squid fry, etc.) are attracted to the lights and they stay close in shore and do not stray away as quickly as in the day. They usually stay relatively low in the water column and the preferred methods are usually to bottom bump or lift and tension fall along the bottom. Of course this depends on the currents which determine where is the easiest place for the fish to stay lying in wait for the bait to drift in for them to feed. As with any predatory fish they will want to use the least amount of energy to feed on bait which has the most calories.
It was a little after 9pm, using the jig head only rig I cast up-current counting down to the bottom and I would drift it along with the current along the bottom. It helps to imagine the bait rolling with the current along the bottom. After a few exploratory casts I found a spot where the water curled around an underwater pile of rocks and that’s where I found my first fish. As soon as the rig came out of the current and it slipped into this area where the water didn’t feel as heavy I felt a slight lift in the line tension which was unnatural I set the hook and landed the first fish of the day.
One thing about ajing is it's not about sensitivity in the traditional sense. Just because the rod is 99% carbon with a high carbon weight (most ajing rods are using around 30t~35ton carbon solid tips in other words high elasticity) doesnt mean it's sensitive. Yes you can feel an ON bite (when the fish takes and turns with the lure) but you won’t feel on OFF bite (when a fish sucks in the lure but just stays there) without a balanced tackle setup. It has to be a perfect balance of flexibility in the rod tip to load up with rigs under weights even as low as 0.3g while maintaining enough sharpness through the belly of the rod to hook into the hardest part of an ajis mouth.
The sides of the fish’s mouths are paper thin. Hook into this part and most likely you will lose the fish. Hook into the top center part of the mouth and you will have a hard time unhooking the fish after landing. That’s a big difference in toughness and to hook into that part you need to know when the fish first sucks that lure into its mouth. That’s why you need that OFF bite sensitivity. Some tackle is made to feel that in the tip while most others are made to feel that throughout the rod through its overall balance.
This is why we use flurocarbon lines because they are much easier at feeling the OFF bites than other line materials. They are also stiff enough to transfer the ON bites as well. If you are using heavier rigs then ultra-thin PE that may be fine as well but remember, that the slower the approach is most of the time a better one to take with Aji, as when using PE which is buoyant you need heavier weights to get the line down to the bottom as well as to keep tension on the line. Aji are so sensitive to drop rates that even 0.1g can change whether you get bites or not.
Horse mackerel usually feed by sucking in water with sand then spitting it out very quickly usually this is very quick and if you get good with the right tackle setup you can feel that ‘OFF’ bite and hook into the top part of the mouth with pretty good accuracy. Remember these fish aren’t the largest fish and you are trying to hook into a small triangular section in the top part of its mouth.
Anyhow back to the trip. So as I added a couple more fish the tide reached its peak and the water just wasn’t moving as much so I set up my reaction bite setup. I attached a Breaden 13vibe metal vibe to PE0.4 with an 8lb leader to my GRF-TR 85PE. Using this I let the lure sink all the way to the bottom and lifted the rod quick enough to feel the vibration of the lure and let it sink back down with the rod tip still up and tension on the line. Right before the lure hit the bottom on the drop midway through the 3rd cast I felt a slight tap on the lure. With a sweep I was into a fish. It wasn’t big but I had caught it exactly the way I had planned. I knew where the fish would be right at the edge of where the light and shadow met toward the bottom, and I had gotten it to bite exactly the way I imagined it would. I added about 2 more fish this way before the tide started to move the water again.
This time I wanted to try a slower approach with the split shot as the wind was picking up a bit and it became difficult to keep the line tense with even 1.5g jigheads. The other benefit of a split rig setup is that you can present the lure much slower than jig head only rigs because of water resistance as well as the jig head at the end is usually fairly light. I cast down current and let it free fall to the bottom. With a couple of twitches up I would pull the rig to me very slightly keeping the line taut. Takes can be sudden jerks in the line, OTD (on the drop), and even small repetitive taps at the end of the line. I started off at the bottom but didn’t get any fish so started to fish higher up in the water column I would count down and subtract 2 or 3 seconds from the last cast before lifting and falling. Midway through the column I started finding the fish. I added another fish before they stopped biting and I had to change tactics yet again.
The sun started rising and we started hearing the fish at the surface feeding on something. So we all started trying to catch whatever was feeding at the surface. My friend Aokin started to catch some fish on 0.9g Jazz dengeki D jig heads. So I rigged up the same but with a Mama worm Dart squid lure. After the rig touched water I would count down maybe 2 seconds and would twitch the rod to dart the lure back and forth. The lure shape made this easy, and would keep the tension on the line while the lure dropped. Within seconds I would start feeling light taps on the line and bang we were onto some really good fish.
While this was going on my girlfriend Kanako was casting the metal maru on light PE lines and she started catching some Maru Aji. In japan we have several different types of horse mackerel. The standard smaller ones are the ones that stay inshore most of their lives. Those are flatter and short these are called Ma-aji (true aji or true horse mackerel) in Japanese. The ones that started biting now were the rounder longer ones who migrate more and move much quicker than the ma-aji. These we call maru-aji (round aji). They are more aggressive and they are larger than their flatter cousins. They react more to metal jigs, spin tails and darting lures much more, so that’s what we all started tying onto our set ups.
Unfortunately I didn’t get the kinds of reactions I wanted and saw small bait fish right in front of us so I opted to switch back to the darting soft lure closer to the surface. I found a pocket of bait and started pulling up some large maru aji and let me tell you on 2lb fluro line it's tons of fun to fight a 35cm+ aji. You wouldn’t imagine the amount of power these guys have.
As it was getting close to the time when the ferry would come to pick us up we started packing up. All in all it was a great day of fishing for all of us.
Between the 3 of us we caught around 40 ma-aji and 15 or so maru-aji. I unfortunately lost an accurate count. After divvying up the spoils of battle we each headed home with some of the tastiest fish in the sea. After a quick nap I cooked up some ceviche and some sashimi.
I hope this game does take off in other countries as it is highly rewarding, and challenging game. You can really see the difference in who is a better angler as results can be as different as 10 to 1 in catch rates depending on how flexible you are and how quickly you can adapt and find the fish.
Well until next time keep your lines tight and your drags screaming.
Tackle data:
Rods: Breaden GRF-TR 68 Strange, Breaden GRF-TR 85 PE, Luxxe Coastline AJ-610UL
Reels: Daiwa ’10 Certate 2506, Shimano 10 Stella C3000HG with 2500 spool, Shimano Soare 1000PGS
Lures: Breaden Bee Vibe, soft lures from bait breath, Jacks LRF UK, berkely gulp 1” minnow, daiwa gekka bijin ajing beam, and assorted others.
Horse mackerel considered by many as a bait fish has become a popular target in japan for lure angling. The main reasons why are, the populations are really big, they can be found in almost all Japanese waters with relative ease almost year round in some cases, and they are a popular food item for a lot of Japanese. Alongside of those reasons we now have many specialized lure tackle for this.
So why fish for these with lures when you can catch them with a sabiki or any number of other ways? The main reason is they are larger than the average fish caught on sabiki. But other reasons are that they are very fun game fish. They are very selective of position, current, color, movement, and many other things. Also on light lines and tackle they are tons of fun as they run comparable to many other pelagics like small amberjack or mackerel or even bonito.
I want to share one of my latest trips and introduce this unique and fun game to you.
The wind was coming in too strong from the south for us to really fish our main point effectively so I chose a point that was facing north. The wind normally at this level would be almost impossible to bear with our ultra-light tackle, but because of a wall to our backs we found was more than comfortable.
While I set up a simple 0.9g jig head and soft lure only rig on my AJ 610 UL on the 1.7lb fluro line I was thinking of my approach. I figured that the timing wasn’t the best seasonally and the fish were probably not feeding on the usual bait. I also had set up a 0.9g split weight with a 0.4g jig head rig on my GRF-TR 68 Strange in case of strong winds curling around my position.
For the JH only rig I chose soft lures that have the shape of either a small bait fish or small crabs both are baits that are found in this particular point. The split weight rig was setup with a lure to mimic a group of plankton. I usually prefer clear lures with red, black or silver flakes to imitate plankton. The red or black makes it look like small shrimp or crab eyes grouped together. Aji like many other fish love falling bait. We tend to keep weights anywhere between 0.3g~1.8g for soft lures and anywhere from 1g~30g for hard lures.
Night is usually the best timing for horse mackerel as their bait (plankton, fish fry, small crustaceans, squid fry, etc.) are attracted to the lights and they stay close in shore and do not stray away as quickly as in the day. They usually stay relatively low in the water column and the preferred methods are usually to bottom bump or lift and tension fall along the bottom. Of course this depends on the currents which determine where is the easiest place for the fish to stay lying in wait for the bait to drift in for them to feed. As with any predatory fish they will want to use the least amount of energy to feed on bait which has the most calories.
It was a little after 9pm, using the jig head only rig I cast up-current counting down to the bottom and I would drift it along with the current along the bottom. It helps to imagine the bait rolling with the current along the bottom. After a few exploratory casts I found a spot where the water curled around an underwater pile of rocks and that’s where I found my first fish. As soon as the rig came out of the current and it slipped into this area where the water didn’t feel as heavy I felt a slight lift in the line tension which was unnatural I set the hook and landed the first fish of the day.
One thing about ajing is it's not about sensitivity in the traditional sense. Just because the rod is 99% carbon with a high carbon weight (most ajing rods are using around 30t~35ton carbon solid tips in other words high elasticity) doesnt mean it's sensitive. Yes you can feel an ON bite (when the fish takes and turns with the lure) but you won’t feel on OFF bite (when a fish sucks in the lure but just stays there) without a balanced tackle setup. It has to be a perfect balance of flexibility in the rod tip to load up with rigs under weights even as low as 0.3g while maintaining enough sharpness through the belly of the rod to hook into the hardest part of an ajis mouth.
The sides of the fish’s mouths are paper thin. Hook into this part and most likely you will lose the fish. Hook into the top center part of the mouth and you will have a hard time unhooking the fish after landing. That’s a big difference in toughness and to hook into that part you need to know when the fish first sucks that lure into its mouth. That’s why you need that OFF bite sensitivity. Some tackle is made to feel that in the tip while most others are made to feel that throughout the rod through its overall balance.
This is why we use flurocarbon lines because they are much easier at feeling the OFF bites than other line materials. They are also stiff enough to transfer the ON bites as well. If you are using heavier rigs then ultra-thin PE that may be fine as well but remember, that the slower the approach is most of the time a better one to take with Aji, as when using PE which is buoyant you need heavier weights to get the line down to the bottom as well as to keep tension on the line. Aji are so sensitive to drop rates that even 0.1g can change whether you get bites or not.
Horse mackerel usually feed by sucking in water with sand then spitting it out very quickly usually this is very quick and if you get good with the right tackle setup you can feel that ‘OFF’ bite and hook into the top part of the mouth with pretty good accuracy. Remember these fish aren’t the largest fish and you are trying to hook into a small triangular section in the top part of its mouth.
Anyhow back to the trip. So as I added a couple more fish the tide reached its peak and the water just wasn’t moving as much so I set up my reaction bite setup. I attached a Breaden 13vibe metal vibe to PE0.4 with an 8lb leader to my GRF-TR 85PE. Using this I let the lure sink all the way to the bottom and lifted the rod quick enough to feel the vibration of the lure and let it sink back down with the rod tip still up and tension on the line. Right before the lure hit the bottom on the drop midway through the 3rd cast I felt a slight tap on the lure. With a sweep I was into a fish. It wasn’t big but I had caught it exactly the way I had planned. I knew where the fish would be right at the edge of where the light and shadow met toward the bottom, and I had gotten it to bite exactly the way I imagined it would. I added about 2 more fish this way before the tide started to move the water again.
This time I wanted to try a slower approach with the split shot as the wind was picking up a bit and it became difficult to keep the line tense with even 1.5g jigheads. The other benefit of a split rig setup is that you can present the lure much slower than jig head only rigs because of water resistance as well as the jig head at the end is usually fairly light. I cast down current and let it free fall to the bottom. With a couple of twitches up I would pull the rig to me very slightly keeping the line taut. Takes can be sudden jerks in the line, OTD (on the drop), and even small repetitive taps at the end of the line. I started off at the bottom but didn’t get any fish so started to fish higher up in the water column I would count down and subtract 2 or 3 seconds from the last cast before lifting and falling. Midway through the column I started finding the fish. I added another fish before they stopped biting and I had to change tactics yet again.
The sun started rising and we started hearing the fish at the surface feeding on something. So we all started trying to catch whatever was feeding at the surface. My friend Aokin started to catch some fish on 0.9g Jazz dengeki D jig heads. So I rigged up the same but with a Mama worm Dart squid lure. After the rig touched water I would count down maybe 2 seconds and would twitch the rod to dart the lure back and forth. The lure shape made this easy, and would keep the tension on the line while the lure dropped. Within seconds I would start feeling light taps on the line and bang we were onto some really good fish.
While this was going on my girlfriend Kanako was casting the metal maru on light PE lines and she started catching some Maru Aji. In japan we have several different types of horse mackerel. The standard smaller ones are the ones that stay inshore most of their lives. Those are flatter and short these are called Ma-aji (true aji or true horse mackerel) in Japanese. The ones that started biting now were the rounder longer ones who migrate more and move much quicker than the ma-aji. These we call maru-aji (round aji). They are more aggressive and they are larger than their flatter cousins. They react more to metal jigs, spin tails and darting lures much more, so that’s what we all started tying onto our set ups.
Unfortunately I didn’t get the kinds of reactions I wanted and saw small bait fish right in front of us so I opted to switch back to the darting soft lure closer to the surface. I found a pocket of bait and started pulling up some large maru aji and let me tell you on 2lb fluro line it's tons of fun to fight a 35cm+ aji. You wouldn’t imagine the amount of power these guys have.
As it was getting close to the time when the ferry would come to pick us up we started packing up. All in all it was a great day of fishing for all of us.
Between the 3 of us we caught around 40 ma-aji and 15 or so maru-aji. I unfortunately lost an accurate count. After divvying up the spoils of battle we each headed home with some of the tastiest fish in the sea. After a quick nap I cooked up some ceviche and some sashimi.
I hope this game does take off in other countries as it is highly rewarding, and challenging game. You can really see the difference in who is a better angler as results can be as different as 10 to 1 in catch rates depending on how flexible you are and how quickly you can adapt and find the fish.
Well until next time keep your lines tight and your drags screaming.
Tackle data:
Rods: Breaden GRF-TR 68 Strange, Breaden GRF-TR 85 PE, Luxxe Coastline AJ-610UL
Reels: Daiwa ’10 Certate 2506, Shimano 10 Stella C3000HG with 2500 spool, Shimano Soare 1000PGS
Lures: Breaden Bee Vibe, soft lures from bait breath, Jacks LRF UK, berkely gulp 1” minnow, daiwa gekka bijin ajing beam, and assorted others.
Posted by yaminomusuko at
00:00
│Comments(1)
2012年04月18日
メバルing (Mebaring)
メバルing (Mebaring)
Definition: to fish for Mebaru (Sebastes inermis, Sebastes cheni, Sebastes ventricosus) using lures. These fish are generally nocturnal feeders and stay close to structure. Term coined by my friend and teacher Leon aka Kaku Takumi, around 14 years ago.
When I first started saltwater lure fishing I was trying to learn how to catch sea bass. This was my main target and I really wanted to try to learn the best ways to catch them. Unfortunately, Tokyo bay sea bass game is very high pressure, I had many empty cooler trips home with my head down.
In my journey I found a very fascinating target. Mebaru! The Mebaru population is huge and largely untouched in Tokyo bay by lures. They are very finicky at larger sizes so very challenging. At first I heard they were easy to catch. I soon found they were as hard as any other fish if not harder. It’s not hard to catch tiny sizes but when you want to catch something even larger than 20cm the odds get stacked against you.
Breadens GRF-TR 68 Strange. Originally an Ajing rod but fantastic for Mebaring
The basic method is a light game rod, 5lb and under line (usually nylon or fluro), under 3g jig head and different soft lures. Usually pintail, paddle or curly tail. Sizes for soft lures usually start around 1.5”.
Cast and retrieve in different levels in the water column. The most aggressive and smaller fish are usually looking to the surface. The more timid, nervous, but larger fish usually are around the bottom. Most Mebaru are easily caught around bait accumulated around the light hitting the water and they stay tight around structure or current differences.
Now you might be thinking “WHAT?! All this money and time spent chasing a fish around 30cm and below?” I thought so too at first.
Then again catching a 30cm fish is damn difficult. It is said by most fisherman that if you catch one in your lifetime you are lucky. We call these 尺メバル (Shaku Mebaru, shaku is an ancient measurement around 33cm but rounded down to 30cm for fish). As much fishing goes on for these fish for leisure and commerce, these are rare fish.
Some big name pro bass anglers completely switch their focus on Mebaru. It is that challenging and rewarding. These fish are tremendous fighters. They have so much torque and violent speed that you get a great fight that will make your heart skip a few beats. If you know what you are doing you can catch so many during the night, even at 20cm average, that your arm hurts by the time you hit the sack.
The first time I hooked a big 30cm one it broke my line. I was using 6lb PE line with 7lb fluro leader. A few times after that they all stretched or broke hooks or lines. I even had one break the tip off my Varivas rod. Now mind you these fish at this size are roughly 700g~1.3kg.
At 45cm they would be about 15times stronger than the same length sea bass.
Plus they taste great! So it’s very rewarding for those of us practicing catch and eat.
So I went on my quest. For the first 6months I didn’t catch anything but tiny ones if that. I blanked more than I came home with fish. Of course I didn’t have anyone to teach me but a few magazines and bloggers. Salt Lure fishing was pretty new to me. In the end it wasn’t the fish that got hooked during this period it was me.
Many a time I would get a bite or two but couldn’t hook the fish or I would lose it during the fight. So I started buying hard lures. Started trying different rigs. Trying everything I knew to just catch these elusive fish.
One of my favorite lures the Breaden Minimaru 50 has no action at all in straight retrieve. This is contrary to what most people think catches fish. Yet this thing has caught me some of the largest fish I have ever seen.
I fell down the rabbit hole fast and I have happily never came out. The deeper I got the more challenging it became. To this day I am learning new techniques, methods, and patterns. My Mebaring 師匠(read: shishou translation: sifu or Mentor)has been chasing this fish for 40 years and still is learning to this day.
They feed on so many things that it changes the game one week to the next.
Main baits are: sandworms, Mysidacea, zoo plankton, shrimp, crab, small fish of every type, squid, fallen insects, sea mantis.
Almost all types of lures hard and soft that you can imagine can be used to catch Mebaru. In some cases we go to extremes and use fly hooks with tiny split weights making micro jig heads less than 5mm in length and cut the tail off of a straight worm as bait.
Just to list the tip of the iceberg in methods here are some:
1.straight retrieve
2.curve fall
3.bottom bumping
4.down shot
5.Carolina
6.Texas rig
7.Darting method
8.Walking the dog
9.Popping
10.Jigging
11.Figure 8
12.Split rig
13.Pump retrieve
I will go into more details about these methods in future articles. For now I just want to introduce Mebaru fishing basics.
Lure color rotation depends on water color and bait type.
For water color the general thought is; the clearer the water the more natural. The more tinted the water the more appeal you use. Match the bait in color type as well.
This is a basic guideline and by no means a rule. Many a time I threw a clear worm in muddy water and got amazing results. Sometimes it’s best to just try something you believe won’t work.
Depending on the bait you would cast up current or down current. Most times I cast up current since the fish are facing that way and have enough time to see and chase the bait down.
As for rod and reel for straight retrieve jig head method the best is a soft tip with firm belly and strong butt. Tackle strength should be set to the area you are fishing in. The reel should be balanced with your rod but usually its around 250g and under, sizes 1000S to 3000S for shimano and 2506 for daiwa.
As for line selection I generally use fluro usually 1.7lb~5lbs. When fishing long distance or for big ones and staying within the first 50cm of water I use 0.2~0.6PE.
Lets start with straight retrieve with jig head. This method usually is best when the fish are feeding on small fish fry, plankton, squid or shrimp.
Start with the water right under your feet. A small cast along the wall or shore line, working from top to bottom and gradually extend it out further.
Next hit the border between light and shade. Work top to bottom.
After this, work the ropes, buoys, parked boats, pier pilings and other structure tightly and as always top to bottom.
Finally work bottom structures such as seaweed patches, slits in the substrate etc.
Occasionally they school in currents differences (such as rip, eddy, constricted, or laminar flow) or where there is foam or under floating garbage.
The best time is whenever the water moves. Usually around 1 to 2hrs before and after the peaks and valleys in the tidegraph.
Retrieve speed depends on bait and tackle setup but usually you would be reeling around a turn of the handle per second.
My trusty shimano Soare 30 2500HGS made specially for 尺メバル (shaku Mebaru )
My growing favorite Daiwa Certate 2500 with mag seal. This thing is very tough
If you get the formula right you can have some real fun as you can see in these pictures. Most Mebaring is done at night but can and has been done in the day. I will get into this in a future article. Until then keep your drag screaming!
Another decent sized one
Day Mebaring has its benefits.
P.S. these methods should work for many different fish all over the world. Just have to match the situation.
Definition: to fish for Mebaru (Sebastes inermis, Sebastes cheni, Sebastes ventricosus) using lures. These fish are generally nocturnal feeders and stay close to structure. Term coined by my friend and teacher Leon aka Kaku Takumi, around 14 years ago.
When I first started saltwater lure fishing I was trying to learn how to catch sea bass. This was my main target and I really wanted to try to learn the best ways to catch them. Unfortunately, Tokyo bay sea bass game is very high pressure, I had many empty cooler trips home with my head down.
In my journey I found a very fascinating target. Mebaru! The Mebaru population is huge and largely untouched in Tokyo bay by lures. They are very finicky at larger sizes so very challenging. At first I heard they were easy to catch. I soon found they were as hard as any other fish if not harder. It’s not hard to catch tiny sizes but when you want to catch something even larger than 20cm the odds get stacked against you.
Breadens GRF-TR 68 Strange. Originally an Ajing rod but fantastic for Mebaring
The basic method is a light game rod, 5lb and under line (usually nylon or fluro), under 3g jig head and different soft lures. Usually pintail, paddle or curly tail. Sizes for soft lures usually start around 1.5”.
Cast and retrieve in different levels in the water column. The most aggressive and smaller fish are usually looking to the surface. The more timid, nervous, but larger fish usually are around the bottom. Most Mebaru are easily caught around bait accumulated around the light hitting the water and they stay tight around structure or current differences.
Now you might be thinking “WHAT?! All this money and time spent chasing a fish around 30cm and below?” I thought so too at first.
Then again catching a 30cm fish is damn difficult. It is said by most fisherman that if you catch one in your lifetime you are lucky. We call these 尺メバル (Shaku Mebaru, shaku is an ancient measurement around 33cm but rounded down to 30cm for fish). As much fishing goes on for these fish for leisure and commerce, these are rare fish.
Some big name pro bass anglers completely switch their focus on Mebaru. It is that challenging and rewarding. These fish are tremendous fighters. They have so much torque and violent speed that you get a great fight that will make your heart skip a few beats. If you know what you are doing you can catch so many during the night, even at 20cm average, that your arm hurts by the time you hit the sack.
The first time I hooked a big 30cm one it broke my line. I was using 6lb PE line with 7lb fluro leader. A few times after that they all stretched or broke hooks or lines. I even had one break the tip off my Varivas rod. Now mind you these fish at this size are roughly 700g~1.3kg.
At 45cm they would be about 15times stronger than the same length sea bass.
Plus they taste great! So it’s very rewarding for those of us practicing catch and eat.
So I went on my quest. For the first 6months I didn’t catch anything but tiny ones if that. I blanked more than I came home with fish. Of course I didn’t have anyone to teach me but a few magazines and bloggers. Salt Lure fishing was pretty new to me. In the end it wasn’t the fish that got hooked during this period it was me.
Many a time I would get a bite or two but couldn’t hook the fish or I would lose it during the fight. So I started buying hard lures. Started trying different rigs. Trying everything I knew to just catch these elusive fish.
One of my favorite lures the Breaden Minimaru 50 has no action at all in straight retrieve. This is contrary to what most people think catches fish. Yet this thing has caught me some of the largest fish I have ever seen.
I fell down the rabbit hole fast and I have happily never came out. The deeper I got the more challenging it became. To this day I am learning new techniques, methods, and patterns. My Mebaring 師匠(read: shishou translation: sifu or Mentor)has been chasing this fish for 40 years and still is learning to this day.
They feed on so many things that it changes the game one week to the next.
Main baits are: sandworms, Mysidacea, zoo plankton, shrimp, crab, small fish of every type, squid, fallen insects, sea mantis.
Almost all types of lures hard and soft that you can imagine can be used to catch Mebaru. In some cases we go to extremes and use fly hooks with tiny split weights making micro jig heads less than 5mm in length and cut the tail off of a straight worm as bait.
Just to list the tip of the iceberg in methods here are some:
1.straight retrieve
2.curve fall
3.bottom bumping
4.down shot
5.Carolina
6.Texas rig
7.Darting method
8.Walking the dog
9.Popping
10.Jigging
11.Figure 8
12.Split rig
13.Pump retrieve
I will go into more details about these methods in future articles. For now I just want to introduce Mebaru fishing basics.
Lure color rotation depends on water color and bait type.
For water color the general thought is; the clearer the water the more natural. The more tinted the water the more appeal you use. Match the bait in color type as well.
This is a basic guideline and by no means a rule. Many a time I threw a clear worm in muddy water and got amazing results. Sometimes it’s best to just try something you believe won’t work.
Depending on the bait you would cast up current or down current. Most times I cast up current since the fish are facing that way and have enough time to see and chase the bait down.
As for rod and reel for straight retrieve jig head method the best is a soft tip with firm belly and strong butt. Tackle strength should be set to the area you are fishing in. The reel should be balanced with your rod but usually its around 250g and under, sizes 1000S to 3000S for shimano and 2506 for daiwa.
As for line selection I generally use fluro usually 1.7lb~5lbs. When fishing long distance or for big ones and staying within the first 50cm of water I use 0.2~0.6PE.
Lets start with straight retrieve with jig head. This method usually is best when the fish are feeding on small fish fry, plankton, squid or shrimp.
Start with the water right under your feet. A small cast along the wall or shore line, working from top to bottom and gradually extend it out further.
Next hit the border between light and shade. Work top to bottom.
After this, work the ropes, buoys, parked boats, pier pilings and other structure tightly and as always top to bottom.
Finally work bottom structures such as seaweed patches, slits in the substrate etc.
Occasionally they school in currents differences (such as rip, eddy, constricted, or laminar flow) or where there is foam or under floating garbage.
The best time is whenever the water moves. Usually around 1 to 2hrs before and after the peaks and valleys in the tidegraph.
Retrieve speed depends on bait and tackle setup but usually you would be reeling around a turn of the handle per second.
My trusty shimano Soare 30 2500HGS made specially for 尺メバル (shaku Mebaru )
My growing favorite Daiwa Certate 2500 with mag seal. This thing is very tough
If you get the formula right you can have some real fun as you can see in these pictures. Most Mebaring is done at night but can and has been done in the day. I will get into this in a future article. Until then keep your drag screaming!
Another decent sized one
Day Mebaring has its benefits.
P.S. these methods should work for many different fish all over the world. Just have to match the situation.
2012年02月10日
Guide to rod guides.
Currently there are many rod guide sizes and types out there. But my favorite brand of fishing rods, Breaden has long been using extra small guides on their rods for a very long time now. The thing is guide setting can make or break a great rod blank. On light game rods such as what we use this guide setting is key to having the perfect rod.
the GRF-TR 68 Strange guides next to a minimaru. Just shows how small in diameter these guides are.
There was a lot of resistance when these rods first came out. A lot of people resisted just by looking at the guide sizes of rods such as the GRF-TR 68 Strange that the use of micro sized guides would not let the main lines flow smoothly out. Or that it would kill the distance.
Let me tell you from my own experience, I have rods that are larger guides, or laydown guides, in similar length rods using the same line and I have never felt or seen any difference in distance. But a lot of the problem lies in the fact that most people are afraid to use thin 2lb fluro lines or extra thin PEs in the 0.3~0.6 range.
The SWG-BG74 Swinging. Although this isnt a casting rod it still benifits from the micro guides. I actually use this rod for Mebaru fishing all the time.
In reality because the use of micro guides the tip doesn’t vibrate unnecessarily so you get a more accurate and longer distance cast. Also, because the Breaden rods not only have micro guides they also have more guides than usual. So this makes full use of the blanks power.
Another benifit is that since the guides are small they don't weigh much. It only takes a tiny bit of force to move the tip because of the smaller weight and that can be felt very easily making the tip end of the rod much more sensitive than those with traditional guides.
This shows the difference in guides. In order from the top: GRF-TR 68, AJ 610, GRF-TX74MX, VLL-73T
As you can see above, the AJ and the VLL are huge in diameter compared to the GRF rods.
Recently this kind of guide theory has been used on UFM ueda rods, golden mean ajing rods, and many others. But the big thing this year was the introduction of Fuji guides KR concept guides.
http://www.fujitackle.com/krc/krc6.html
Basically a new version of the K guides. The new feature here is that they kept most of the guides from the belly to the tip the similar or same diameter. This differs from past common concepts where the butt guide was large diameter and gradually got smaller.
In this new guide theory it's get the line loops straight as soon as possible. But because this line is choked down quickly the line rubs against the guides and the sound makes people think that distance is being lost. In reality it's just an illusion and there is very little distance lost.
So the benefit here is that you lose a lot of the guide weight. What does that mean for you and I?
It means that the rod gets lighter, you can even use more guides and that means you can use the full potential power of the rod blank.
Major makers are finally starting to use the same concepts that breaden has been using for almost 6 years now. The choke guides on most breaden rods have always been very small in diameter.
So all that to say when choosing a rod it's important to not only look at the action, tip material, power and taper but also the guide set as this can change your fishing into a whole new realm of distance, accuracy and sensitivity.
the GRF-TR 68 Strange guides next to a minimaru. Just shows how small in diameter these guides are.
There was a lot of resistance when these rods first came out. A lot of people resisted just by looking at the guide sizes of rods such as the GRF-TR 68 Strange that the use of micro sized guides would not let the main lines flow smoothly out. Or that it would kill the distance.
Let me tell you from my own experience, I have rods that are larger guides, or laydown guides, in similar length rods using the same line and I have never felt or seen any difference in distance. But a lot of the problem lies in the fact that most people are afraid to use thin 2lb fluro lines or extra thin PEs in the 0.3~0.6 range.
The SWG-BG74 Swinging. Although this isnt a casting rod it still benifits from the micro guides. I actually use this rod for Mebaru fishing all the time.
In reality because the use of micro guides the tip doesn’t vibrate unnecessarily so you get a more accurate and longer distance cast. Also, because the Breaden rods not only have micro guides they also have more guides than usual. So this makes full use of the blanks power.
Another benifit is that since the guides are small they don't weigh much. It only takes a tiny bit of force to move the tip because of the smaller weight and that can be felt very easily making the tip end of the rod much more sensitive than those with traditional guides.
This shows the difference in guides. In order from the top: GRF-TR 68, AJ 610, GRF-TX74MX, VLL-73T
As you can see above, the AJ and the VLL are huge in diameter compared to the GRF rods.
Recently this kind of guide theory has been used on UFM ueda rods, golden mean ajing rods, and many others. But the big thing this year was the introduction of Fuji guides KR concept guides.
http://www.fujitackle.com/krc/krc6.html
Basically a new version of the K guides. The new feature here is that they kept most of the guides from the belly to the tip the similar or same diameter. This differs from past common concepts where the butt guide was large diameter and gradually got smaller.
In this new guide theory it's get the line loops straight as soon as possible. But because this line is choked down quickly the line rubs against the guides and the sound makes people think that distance is being lost. In reality it's just an illusion and there is very little distance lost.
So the benefit here is that you lose a lot of the guide weight. What does that mean for you and I?
It means that the rod gets lighter, you can even use more guides and that means you can use the full potential power of the rod blank.
Major makers are finally starting to use the same concepts that breaden has been using for almost 6 years now. The choke guides on most breaden rods have always been very small in diameter.
So all that to say when choosing a rod it's important to not only look at the action, tip material, power and taper but also the guide set as this can change your fishing into a whole new realm of distance, accuracy and sensitivity.
タグ ：83 deep
2011年09月13日
Offshore light game
Offshore light game
Here’s a bit of info that all who boat fish might find interesting.
Madai Hitotsu tenya
In japan there are several new styles of boat fishing. One called hitotsutenya madai targets red sea bream in waters up to 100m deep. Using only a weighted hook similar to a jig head, and a shrimp with the head still on it the hooks are usually around 10~120g in weight. The lighter, the better. Tackle set ups are usually 0.4~0.8 PE on spinning tackle on rods similar to heavy mebaru (light rock fishing) rods.
http://fishing-fujiwara.com/fishing/genre/category/tenya/index.html
The rig is dropped down to the bottom and bumped up about the whole length of the rod. The arm is raised straight up from horizontal to the sea surface all the way above the head. Then either free fall or light tension fall down. Bites are usually felt on the drop or the moment the rig hits the sea floor.
This method is very very effective against many species not only red seabream but rock fishes of all sorts, pelagic fish such as yellow tail, horse mackerel, amberjack, etc.
Light Kensaki Game
This style of boat fishing is for Photololigo edulis which are small squid known as kensaki ika in japanese. They grow up to about 1kg in size at the most but are very aggressive. Traditionally fished at around 100~300m depths, with motorized reels with #2 or #3 PEs, and weights up to 250g. The rods are heavy with lots of fiberglass composite so that they are overall very flexible and you can tell when the squid grabs the jig line. The jig lines are usually a fluro or nylon line with about 3~10 squid jigs attached to them.
http://www.turitalo.jp/tackle/tackle23.html
There is a trend started and perfected by breaden tester Jun Tomidokoro. This new method gets rid of all this heavy tackle and uses very light tackle with light lines 0.6~0.8PE lines.
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/pagos/10003394/
Instead of squid jigs called sutte, small egis are used. Heavy weights are taken off and only light weights or sutte weights are used. occaisionally really heavy egis are directly connected and no weights are added at all.
Here are the rod actions in video on Kaku Takumis AKA Leons blog.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/takumikeikoyuya/archives/52768481.html
The beauty of both these rigs you can feel the takes on lures on the drop, or really tiny bites which is something you can’t get using traditional heavy lines and weights. The other reason for the effectiveness of these is that you present the bait or lure as natural as possible. You show the target a natural slow falling bait which they cannot resist.
These two methods have one constant it’s that the boat MUST drift at the same speed and direction as the current. Normally a parachute anchor is used and the bow of the vessel is usually pointed into the wind with a spanker used to point it as such.
Drifting with the current allows the light rigs to fall straight down instead of at an angle. This is the key to keeping rigs and lines as light as possible. In fast current situations on land I walk with the current to keep this idea in play.
All this is to say Light game of all sorts is much more effective whether you are on a boat or on land.
Until later keep those tight lines and drags screaming.
Here’s a bit of info that all who boat fish might find interesting.
Madai Hitotsu tenya
In japan there are several new styles of boat fishing. One called hitotsutenya madai targets red sea bream in waters up to 100m deep. Using only a weighted hook similar to a jig head, and a shrimp with the head still on it the hooks are usually around 10~120g in weight. The lighter, the better. Tackle set ups are usually 0.4~0.8 PE on spinning tackle on rods similar to heavy mebaru (light rock fishing) rods.
http://fishing-fujiwara.com/fishing/genre/category/tenya/index.html
The rig is dropped down to the bottom and bumped up about the whole length of the rod. The arm is raised straight up from horizontal to the sea surface all the way above the head. Then either free fall or light tension fall down. Bites are usually felt on the drop or the moment the rig hits the sea floor.
This method is very very effective against many species not only red seabream but rock fishes of all sorts, pelagic fish such as yellow tail, horse mackerel, amberjack, etc.
Light Kensaki Game
This style of boat fishing is for Photololigo edulis which are small squid known as kensaki ika in japanese. They grow up to about 1kg in size at the most but are very aggressive. Traditionally fished at around 100~300m depths, with motorized reels with #2 or #3 PEs, and weights up to 250g. The rods are heavy with lots of fiberglass composite so that they are overall very flexible and you can tell when the squid grabs the jig line. The jig lines are usually a fluro or nylon line with about 3~10 squid jigs attached to them.
http://www.turitalo.jp/tackle/tackle23.html
There is a trend started and perfected by breaden tester Jun Tomidokoro. This new method gets rid of all this heavy tackle and uses very light tackle with light lines 0.6~0.8PE lines.
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/pagos/10003394/
Instead of squid jigs called sutte, small egis are used. Heavy weights are taken off and only light weights or sutte weights are used. occaisionally really heavy egis are directly connected and no weights are added at all.
Here are the rod actions in video on Kaku Takumis AKA Leons blog.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/takumikeikoyuya/archives/52768481.html
The beauty of both these rigs you can feel the takes on lures on the drop, or really tiny bites which is something you can’t get using traditional heavy lines and weights. The other reason for the effectiveness of these is that you present the bait or lure as natural as possible. You show the target a natural slow falling bait which they cannot resist.
These two methods have one constant it’s that the boat MUST drift at the same speed and direction as the current. Normally a parachute anchor is used and the bow of the vessel is usually pointed into the wind with a spanker used to point it as such.
Drifting with the current allows the light rigs to fall straight down instead of at an angle. This is the key to keeping rigs and lines as light as possible. In fast current situations on land I walk with the current to keep this idea in play.
All this is to say Light game of all sorts is much more effective whether you are on a boat or on land.
Until later keep those tight lines and drags screaming.
2010年08月25日
beginners! Great articles
Hi, how is everyone? hope everyone is having a great time catching fish in these hot summer days.
Anyhow I found a great series of articles that are aimed at the beginning angler.
http://www.ultimatebass.com/-beginners-area-links-274/1616-fish-sense.html
these apply to saltwater fishing in Japan as well as anywhere else, not just to bass so hope you learn alot from these really wonderful informative articles.
Anyhow I have to run. I hope to see you around.
Anyhow I found a great series of articles that are aimed at the beginning angler.
http://www.ultimatebass.com/-beginners-area-links-274/1616-fish-sense.html
these apply to saltwater fishing in Japan as well as anywhere else, not just to bass so hope you learn alot from these really wonderful informative articles.
Anyhow I have to run. I hope to see you around.
2010年04月14日
Match the bait
It's been a while since I last posted.
Today I want to talk about bait. In any type of lure fishing there are several guidelines that should be followed.
1. Match the bait.
2. Match the size
3. Match the color
To be a successful angler you should keep the above in mind. Of course to be able to figure these out you need to know 2 things. 1. what the behavior patterns of your target fish is and 2. What the behavior of the bait is.
In my favorite target Mebaru the behavior is like that of any fish eater.
They stay close to structure (rocks, seaweed, wave breakers, tetra pods, berth legs, etc), chase after bait in lighted areas, nocturnal. Sizes are usually up to 30cm. The largest get to about 35cm or more. The average size in Tokyo bay are around 20cm from docks and what not but if you go offshore the average size is around 25cm.
In Shizuoka the average is around 27cm and this is where I have caught my biggest ones. My 2 best fish are both 33cm. There are maybe only 250 or so anglers in Japan that have caught this size.
Now the bait they go after depends on area, season, water temperature and what is most abundant and easy to eat. In general they go after the following:
1. Plankton
2. Small fish
3. Crustaceans
4. Squid
5. Sandworms
So, in Tokyo bay Mebaru come up for pre-spawn feeding around October. Go into spawning around December to January. After-spawn is around February. They go back down to deep areas where the water temp is more stable around April to May. In some areas they stick around to almost July.
During pre-spawn they eat mostly sandworms, plankton and crustaceans. During spawning they really don’t eat much but you can catch them using flys or very tiny hooks with soft lure tails, because they usually feed on plankton only during this time. After spawn it takes them about 2 weeks to a month to recover. During this time they go after the big baits like small squid, small fish etc.
So once you know the bait you can match movement by using different lure types, size and color.
Plankton is the hardest bait to match because they usually are very shallow, and small. The size limits the types of line that you can use. The rest are easy to match because the bait are usually around 1/2” to 4” long. There are many lures of this size being sold in Japan.
Last month I had great fishing experiences because I was able to match the bait type, color, and size to squid very easily. I used a 2~3g jighead and 2” pintail worms. Almost every weekend my friends and I were catching some of the biggest fish I ever caught. The bait has changed in the last several weeks so I have to find out the pattern again. But as you can see in the pictures below once you get those basics down and it matches perfectly you can have a hell of a time.
Well I gotta get going I will try to post updates more often. Until next time have fun and good luck!
Today I want to talk about bait. In any type of lure fishing there are several guidelines that should be followed.
1. Match the bait.
2. Match the size
3. Match the color
To be a successful angler you should keep the above in mind. Of course to be able to figure these out you need to know 2 things. 1. what the behavior patterns of your target fish is and 2. What the behavior of the bait is.
In my favorite target Mebaru the behavior is like that of any fish eater.
They stay close to structure (rocks, seaweed, wave breakers, tetra pods, berth legs, etc), chase after bait in lighted areas, nocturnal. Sizes are usually up to 30cm. The largest get to about 35cm or more. The average size in Tokyo bay are around 20cm from docks and what not but if you go offshore the average size is around 25cm.
In Shizuoka the average is around 27cm and this is where I have caught my biggest ones. My 2 best fish are both 33cm. There are maybe only 250 or so anglers in Japan that have caught this size.
Now the bait they go after depends on area, season, water temperature and what is most abundant and easy to eat. In general they go after the following:
1. Plankton
2. Small fish
3. Crustaceans
4. Squid
5. Sandworms
So, in Tokyo bay Mebaru come up for pre-spawn feeding around October. Go into spawning around December to January. After-spawn is around February. They go back down to deep areas where the water temp is more stable around April to May. In some areas they stick around to almost July.
During pre-spawn they eat mostly sandworms, plankton and crustaceans. During spawning they really don’t eat much but you can catch them using flys or very tiny hooks with soft lure tails, because they usually feed on plankton only during this time. After spawn it takes them about 2 weeks to a month to recover. During this time they go after the big baits like small squid, small fish etc.
So once you know the bait you can match movement by using different lure types, size and color.
Plankton is the hardest bait to match because they usually are very shallow, and small. The size limits the types of line that you can use. The rest are easy to match because the bait are usually around 1/2” to 4” long. There are many lures of this size being sold in Japan.
Last month I had great fishing experiences because I was able to match the bait type, color, and size to squid very easily. I used a 2~3g jighead and 2” pintail worms. Almost every weekend my friends and I were catching some of the biggest fish I ever caught. The bait has changed in the last several weeks so I have to find out the pattern again. But as you can see in the pictures below once you get those basics down and it matches perfectly you can have a hell of a time.
Well I gotta get going I will try to post updates more often. Until next time have fun and good luck!
2009年10月21日
New (kind of) tackle.
So I have been a bit negligent in my posts. Been busy testing out new reels, lines, rods, lures etc.
First off a rod from gamakatsu that is fast becoming one of my favorite light game rods.
I use it now to catch jack mackerel. For their size Jack Mackerel (Japanese name: Aji) are amazing fighters. Fighting them on 2.28lb carbon fluro carbon line is spectacularly thrilling! The fun thing about Jack Mackerels is that they are very difficult to catch on lures but when you learn the method properly you can catch alot of big fish easily. They are well dispersed throughout Japan.
Not only are they fun to fish, they are probably the tastiest fish out there. Sashimi, sushi, tataki, grilled, and dried, they are absolutely fantastic with some sake or shochu.
I will explain how to fish for these guys in a later post.
For now more about the rod:
It’s a two piece solid tip 6ft10in rod. Extra fast action. Lure weight 0.4g to 4g. It's a medium light power rod so you can pull out most fish up to 30cm without a net. Its an amazing 67g rod. This thing is so light you have to make sure it doesn’t fly away with strong winds.
I have been using this for a couple of months now and I cant tell you enough how good this thing is. Jack mackerels don’t usually have strong bites. Usually the fish suck food in so you need a rod that is soft tipped so that the line tension goes out when the fish sucks in the worm. This thing has amazing cast feel. Very solid and sturdy from the butt to the belly. Only the last 10cm of tip is soft.
Because of this its very easy to know when your rig (usually under 3g) hits the sea floor. The rod feels lighter when this happens. This is absolutely necessary when fishing in this style.
I can easily use this rod for smaller Mebaru game as well. I even thing I can use it for small trout game. Will let you know how these turn out.
Recently I bought two new reels from Shimano.
An amazing reel. This reel uses Shimano's CI4 technology. To sum it up it’s a carbon fiber that is stiffer and stronger than even magnesium. It's very light mine is the single handle version above which is 190g. I can cast using this reel all night and never get tired. Of course this is using Shimano's famous ARC spool technology which extends cast distance by around 5% as well as a drastic decrease in line trouble.
This reel is fantastic for seabass fishing as well as light shore jigging. It has an amazing drag capability max drag is 8kg. this reel can handle almost all mid to large size fish in Japan that can be fished close to shore.
I also got a Rarenium 5000
This is also CI4 technology.
I got this for medium shore jigging. Some areas that I go to you can catch well sized yellowtail and greater amber jack. So I needed something with a lot of line capacity and strong drag. The maximum drag on this is set at 11kg. The weight is a minimal 315g. Doesn’t seem too light but in this class its easily 50g lighter than competitors. This too has the ARC spool technology.
Both reels are superb in cast feel. Very solid, very light, and reliable beyond belief. Reeling is so smooth on both that you can feel the when you hit a faster or slower current. Since it's so sensitive it’s a breeze to be able to hook those large fish that only nibble on lures.
For all my multifilament line I am testing out the new Power Pro line. Designed and manufactured in the US. Imported by shimano.
For my light tackle I got 5lbs line. They don’t carry this weight in Japan. They don’t have anything smaller than 18lbs here but hopefully they start soon.
For my seabass tackle I got 20lbs but this was way too thick for my reel so I am going to switch back to another line. This is the closest I found in Japan.
For my shore jigging I got 30lbs.
I was flabbergasted by this line. Its super easy to tie friction knots like FG or HG knots. The first few casts the line is stiff but after maybe 5 casts the line becomes ultrasoft and is easy to handle. Water resistance is tremendous. I always have problems with a lot of braided lines absorbing water, harder to clean, cast distance suffers and easier to break the line. Tensile strength by thickness on this brand is fantastic. By the way shimano always under labels their lines so that’s probably got a lot to do with it
The most amazing part of this line lies in its abrasion resistance. I don’t know what they put in it but a fish scraped the braid down to a 3rd of its original thickness and still no problems. I landed that fish with relative ease.
Finally the price is great. It's so cheap that I don’t have to worry about cutting away line that is worn out or anything.
Going to be testing these lines again this weekend. Will let you readers know more as soon as I can.
That’s it for today. As always wish you the best fishing.
First off a rod from gamakatsu that is fast becoming one of my favorite light game rods.
I use it now to catch jack mackerel. For their size Jack Mackerel (Japanese name: Aji) are amazing fighters. Fighting them on 2.28lb carbon fluro carbon line is spectacularly thrilling! The fun thing about Jack Mackerels is that they are very difficult to catch on lures but when you learn the method properly you can catch alot of big fish easily. They are well dispersed throughout Japan.
Not only are they fun to fish, they are probably the tastiest fish out there. Sashimi, sushi, tataki, grilled, and dried, they are absolutely fantastic with some sake or shochu.
I will explain how to fish for these guys in a later post.
For now more about the rod:
It’s a two piece solid tip 6ft10in rod. Extra fast action. Lure weight 0.4g to 4g. It's a medium light power rod so you can pull out most fish up to 30cm without a net. Its an amazing 67g rod. This thing is so light you have to make sure it doesn’t fly away with strong winds.
I have been using this for a couple of months now and I cant tell you enough how good this thing is. Jack mackerels don’t usually have strong bites. Usually the fish suck food in so you need a rod that is soft tipped so that the line tension goes out when the fish sucks in the worm. This thing has amazing cast feel. Very solid and sturdy from the butt to the belly. Only the last 10cm of tip is soft.
Because of this its very easy to know when your rig (usually under 3g) hits the sea floor. The rod feels lighter when this happens. This is absolutely necessary when fishing in this style.
I can easily use this rod for smaller Mebaru game as well. I even thing I can use it for small trout game. Will let you know how these turn out.
Recently I bought two new reels from Shimano.
An amazing reel. This reel uses Shimano's CI4 technology. To sum it up it’s a carbon fiber that is stiffer and stronger than even magnesium. It's very light mine is the single handle version above which is 190g. I can cast using this reel all night and never get tired. Of course this is using Shimano's famous ARC spool technology which extends cast distance by around 5% as well as a drastic decrease in line trouble.
This reel is fantastic for seabass fishing as well as light shore jigging. It has an amazing drag capability max drag is 8kg. this reel can handle almost all mid to large size fish in Japan that can be fished close to shore.
I also got a Rarenium 5000
This is also CI4 technology.
I got this for medium shore jigging. Some areas that I go to you can catch well sized yellowtail and greater amber jack. So I needed something with a lot of line capacity and strong drag. The maximum drag on this is set at 11kg. The weight is a minimal 315g. Doesn’t seem too light but in this class its easily 50g lighter than competitors. This too has the ARC spool technology.
Both reels are superb in cast feel. Very solid, very light, and reliable beyond belief. Reeling is so smooth on both that you can feel the when you hit a faster or slower current. Since it's so sensitive it’s a breeze to be able to hook those large fish that only nibble on lures.
For all my multifilament line I am testing out the new Power Pro line. Designed and manufactured in the US. Imported by shimano.
For my light tackle I got 5lbs line. They don’t carry this weight in Japan. They don’t have anything smaller than 18lbs here but hopefully they start soon.
For my seabass tackle I got 20lbs but this was way too thick for my reel so I am going to switch back to another line. This is the closest I found in Japan.
For my shore jigging I got 30lbs.
I was flabbergasted by this line. Its super easy to tie friction knots like FG or HG knots. The first few casts the line is stiff but after maybe 5 casts the line becomes ultrasoft and is easy to handle. Water resistance is tremendous. I always have problems with a lot of braided lines absorbing water, harder to clean, cast distance suffers and easier to break the line. Tensile strength by thickness on this brand is fantastic. By the way shimano always under labels their lines so that’s probably got a lot to do with it
The most amazing part of this line lies in its abrasion resistance. I don’t know what they put in it but a fish scraped the braid down to a 3rd of its original thickness and still no problems. I landed that fish with relative ease.
Finally the price is great. It's so cheap that I don’t have to worry about cutting away line that is worn out or anything.
Going to be testing these lines again this weekend. Will let you readers know more as soon as I can.
That’s it for today. As always wish you the best fishing.
2009年06月19日
soft lure light game
So we left off with a basic intro to light game soft lures.
There are several effective methods to fish light soft lures.
The most effective method for single hook jigheads is a steady slow retrieve. Start at the top and work your way down to deeper zones. The key is to have very steady straight retrieve lines. Alot can hamper this which is why its actually one of the most challenging retrieves.
Once you master this you can move on to things like slow retrieve with a shake into a tension fall. (tension fall is when you have your rod tip parallel to the ground or pointed down).
Other effective methods are a double twitch and a curve fall (curve fall is when you have your rod tip pointed more or less up. Giving the slow fall a steeper angle than a tension fall)
Curve falls and tension falls are great because you get to show the fish a slow moving falling bait which most fish find appealing. Alot of fishes main diets consist of shrimp. So imagine a small 1.5 to 2 inch worm on a 1gram jig head slowly falling after a twitch or two. I am not a fish so I dont know what it would look like but I am sure you would be mimicing a shrimp or plankton of some sort.
This is actually where my favorite type of light worm fishing comes in.
Office Maria came out with a product not too long ago called "Dart Squid" the site this links to is all in japanese so alot of you might not be able to read it.
But you can slow retrieve it but the shape and balance of this worm is made for quick left right darting. How you acheive this is by twitching your rod tip about 20~30cm up and down. The trick to this is to have a have a little bit of line slack between twitches.
Here is a great series of videos of how to twitch.
http://tinyurl.com/mojp79
Here is a great video of how Mebaru eat shrimp and zoo plankton.
http://tinyurl.com/m9eksd
I used to use a 1.5g jig head from Maria called Beak head. But now I use D-type Shaku heads from Jazz.
They have perfected this to a T.
I suggest use the 1.5 gram when the tide isnt moving fast. When the water is moving like a river or the wind is really strong I move up to the heavier ones.
Here is a Mebaru that I caught last week using this method.
Here are some that I caught a while back using the same method.
What you want to do is to fish at night, keep tight to structures in the water. Keep in mind that light can also be a "structure" of sorts.
I usually cast into or around seaweeds, underwater blocks, breaks in the breakwaters, tetrapods, bridge legs, foundation cason seams, the line between shadow and light on the water, or even rip curls in the tide.
Any place that gives cover for fish and where small baits get drifted into and cant get out are great places to start. Alot of zoo plankton tend to accumalate around light, and smaller bait fish chase the zoo plankton, and so on.
Well, I have to get ready to try out a new reel I just got, so until next time, good luck and great fishing.
There are several effective methods to fish light soft lures.
The most effective method for single hook jigheads is a steady slow retrieve. Start at the top and work your way down to deeper zones. The key is to have very steady straight retrieve lines. Alot can hamper this which is why its actually one of the most challenging retrieves.
Once you master this you can move on to things like slow retrieve with a shake into a tension fall. (tension fall is when you have your rod tip parallel to the ground or pointed down).
Other effective methods are a double twitch and a curve fall (curve fall is when you have your rod tip pointed more or less up. Giving the slow fall a steeper angle than a tension fall)
Curve falls and tension falls are great because you get to show the fish a slow moving falling bait which most fish find appealing. Alot of fishes main diets consist of shrimp. So imagine a small 1.5 to 2 inch worm on a 1gram jig head slowly falling after a twitch or two. I am not a fish so I dont know what it would look like but I am sure you would be mimicing a shrimp or plankton of some sort.
This is actually where my favorite type of light worm fishing comes in.
Office Maria came out with a product not too long ago called "Dart Squid" the site this links to is all in japanese so alot of you might not be able to read it.
But you can slow retrieve it but the shape and balance of this worm is made for quick left right darting. How you acheive this is by twitching your rod tip about 20~30cm up and down. The trick to this is to have a have a little bit of line slack between twitches.
Here is a great series of videos of how to twitch.
http://tinyurl.com/mojp79
Here is a great video of how Mebaru eat shrimp and zoo plankton.
http://tinyurl.com/m9eksd
I used to use a 1.5g jig head from Maria called Beak head. But now I use D-type Shaku heads from Jazz.
They have perfected this to a T.
I suggest use the 1.5 gram when the tide isnt moving fast. When the water is moving like a river or the wind is really strong I move up to the heavier ones.
Here is a Mebaru that I caught last week using this method.
Here are some that I caught a while back using the same method.
What you want to do is to fish at night, keep tight to structures in the water. Keep in mind that light can also be a "structure" of sorts.
I usually cast into or around seaweeds, underwater blocks, breaks in the breakwaters, tetrapods, bridge legs, foundation cason seams, the line between shadow and light on the water, or even rip curls in the tide.
Any place that gives cover for fish and where small baits get drifted into and cant get out are great places to start. Alot of zoo plankton tend to accumalate around light, and smaller bait fish chase the zoo plankton, and so on.
Well, I have to get ready to try out a new reel I just got, so until next time, good luck and great fishing.
2009年05月27日
Welcome to fishing in Japan
Hi and welcome.
For those of you who want to know details of my fishing adventures in Japan, as well as tackle reviews, points, tips and tricks you have come to the right place.
I currently reside in Tokyo so most of my fishing is done around the Kanto area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, East Shizuoka, Chiba, etc.)
I only focus on lure fishing because I have found that with a little perserverance, knowledge, strategy, imagination, and sense of adventure you can easily catch larger and more than most bait fishing types.
Not to say that bait fishing isn't effective, but that almost all fish have feeding times. Whereas with a lure you can actually force a fish to bite out of reaction. This could be for territory or any number of other things.
One of my favorite types of fishing is light rock fish game. Mebaru in particular. Sebastes cheni, Sebastes inermis, Sebastes ventricosus.
I will also be delving into Sea Bass, Aori squid, Sea Bream, different types of mackarels, and many others. Since my birth place is out in Nagano I also do a bit of stream fishing for native trouts.
But I digress, the fun part about Mebaru game is that they are almost everywhere in Tokyo bay area. You can easily have a pack rod and go on a small excursion anytime you want after work or a light trip on the weekend.
For their size Mebaru (the name in Japanese means "bulging eyes") are great fighters. They are also very picky in what they eat, have huge eyes so they are hard to trick and are very nervous fish. The larger they get the more these traits are accentuated.
They are also great food. If you like to eat what you catch this is a very good fish to go after.
Most Mebaru are caught on a small jig head 0.8g~3g, and small worms. Most people use 1~4lbs Flurocarbon, 7lbs braided multifiliment, or 2lbs nylon. I personally use a 2.28lbs flurocarbon from Breaden. Cost per meter and usability are by far the best I have ever come across.
An ultra light trout rod or bass rod will do but the best is a dedicated rod. The great thing about going ahead and spending some money on a dedicated rod is that you can use it for other types of fish as well.
Mebaru rods are typically categorized in two types, solid tip and tubular tip. Solid tip is what you want to use when fish are biting very lightly or when you are using very small lures. They are very flexible and therefore dont give the fish any sense of something being wrong. Hollow tips are usually stiffer and are very useful for heavier rigs and small hard plug type lures, as well as metal jigs, and metal vibration lures. The tubular tip usually gives more control and you get a very distinct signal from the rod when a fish hits the lure.
I actually have 4 different rods for light game. All are categorized as Mebaru rods but I use them for all kinds of different fishing.
Here is a list of the rods that I use:
Breaden GRF-TR83 Deep
Varivas Violente VLL-73T (Tubular tip)
Varivas Violente VLL-73S (Solid tip)
Wando Vacance mebaru 83 (tubular tip pack rod. for when i want to go to far away places and i dont want to carry alot of gear. I also use this for stream trout)
You usually want to go with a smaller reel preferabaly a 1000 size reel.
As for lures, most beginners will find the standard jig head and worm an easy place to start. If the fish are there they usually will bite. Mebaru are most active during the night so get your head lamps on.
For soft lures, 1.5" to 3" worms are used. Shad, baby sardine, sandworm, curly tails are the most popular. Colors are all up to the person but the standard theory is the clearer the water the more natural you go. Glow is very popular but the fish usually stop biting very quickly. The more realistic colors have shorter bites but you can fish longer.
As a good search bait I use pearl white or pink when in dark areas. When there is light present I generally go with the realistics like clear or brown or clear with flakes.
Hard lures are going to be another long discussion. So until next time, I wish you all great fishing.
Y. 続きを読む
For those of you who want to know details of my fishing adventures in Japan, as well as tackle reviews, points, tips and tricks you have come to the right place.
I currently reside in Tokyo so most of my fishing is done around the Kanto area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, East Shizuoka, Chiba, etc.)
I only focus on lure fishing because I have found that with a little perserverance, knowledge, strategy, imagination, and sense of adventure you can easily catch larger and more than most bait fishing types.
Not to say that bait fishing isn't effective, but that almost all fish have feeding times. Whereas with a lure you can actually force a fish to bite out of reaction. This could be for territory or any number of other things.
One of my favorite types of fishing is light rock fish game. Mebaru in particular. Sebastes cheni, Sebastes inermis, Sebastes ventricosus.
I will also be delving into Sea Bass, Aori squid, Sea Bream, different types of mackarels, and many others. Since my birth place is out in Nagano I also do a bit of stream fishing for native trouts.
But I digress, the fun part about Mebaru game is that they are almost everywhere in Tokyo bay area. You can easily have a pack rod and go on a small excursion anytime you want after work or a light trip on the weekend.
For their size Mebaru (the name in Japanese means "bulging eyes") are great fighters. They are also very picky in what they eat, have huge eyes so they are hard to trick and are very nervous fish. The larger they get the more these traits are accentuated.
They are also great food. If you like to eat what you catch this is a very good fish to go after.
Most Mebaru are caught on a small jig head 0.8g~3g, and small worms. Most people use 1~4lbs Flurocarbon, 7lbs braided multifiliment, or 2lbs nylon. I personally use a 2.28lbs flurocarbon from Breaden. Cost per meter and usability are by far the best I have ever come across.
An ultra light trout rod or bass rod will do but the best is a dedicated rod. The great thing about going ahead and spending some money on a dedicated rod is that you can use it for other types of fish as well.
Mebaru rods are typically categorized in two types, solid tip and tubular tip. Solid tip is what you want to use when fish are biting very lightly or when you are using very small lures. They are very flexible and therefore dont give the fish any sense of something being wrong. Hollow tips are usually stiffer and are very useful for heavier rigs and small hard plug type lures, as well as metal jigs, and metal vibration lures. The tubular tip usually gives more control and you get a very distinct signal from the rod when a fish hits the lure.
I actually have 4 different rods for light game. All are categorized as Mebaru rods but I use them for all kinds of different fishing.
Here is a list of the rods that I use:
Breaden GRF-TR83 Deep
Varivas Violente VLL-73T (Tubular tip)
Varivas Violente VLL-73S (Solid tip)
Wando Vacance mebaru 83 (tubular tip pack rod. for when i want to go to far away places and i dont want to carry alot of gear. I also use this for stream trout)
You usually want to go with a smaller reel preferabaly a 1000 size reel.
As for lures, most beginners will find the standard jig head and worm an easy place to start. If the fish are there they usually will bite. Mebaru are most active during the night so get your head lamps on.
For soft lures, 1.5" to 3" worms are used. Shad, baby sardine, sandworm, curly tails are the most popular. Colors are all up to the person but the standard theory is the clearer the water the more natural you go. Glow is very popular but the fish usually stop biting very quickly. The more realistic colors have shorter bites but you can fish longer.
As a good search bait I use pearl white or pink when in dark areas. When there is light present I generally go with the realistics like clear or brown or clear with flakes.
Hard lures are going to be another long discussion. So until next time, I wish you all great fishing.
Y. 続きを読む
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