Yaminomusuko's fishing in Japan

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.