Yaminomusuko's fishing in Japan

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!