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.
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