Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Hard time to clean fishes

Today, I'm cleaning the fishes I caught yesterday. Too many, and I'm doing almost all day long. Now, I'm feeling very exhausted.

The fishing we enjoyed yesterday was so called 'jigging', using metal lures in 4-6 oz. You cast one or drop it vertically to the bottom of the sea. Then, you reel, jerk, and give actions to the lure imitating a bait. These are some of the lures I used and caught fish yesterday.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Last fishing in 2009

We're so lucky to have a chance to go out for fishing during this time of the year. Today, six fishing friends of mine and I chartered a fishing boat and enjoyed offshore fishing in the Sea of Japan. This is our annual fishing tour we schedule almost every year. We stayed about 8 hours on the high and low waves, and I felt a little sea sick (but it's much better than staying indoors, especially in the office). I could catch one big and four small Japanese spanish mackerel, and about 20 small yellow tail. I have to clean them up tomorrow for the year-ending and new year dinners with our family. Hope you all have a happy new year.


Saturday, December 19, 2009

Handsome lures

I am always looking for lures with a 'handsome' face, and am thinking to try to replace my collection. Facial expression differs in each lure, especially in vintage lures, because craftspeople hand-painted one by one in old days. In Heddon lures, I rather like smaller eyes than bigger eyes. Kind of outlying pupils also add to the charm of the face. The position of eyes and eye shadows are also very important, I believe. Below are some of my favorite 'handsome' lures in my collection.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Zaragossa

I had been looking for a nice Heddon Zaragossa for fishing, and finally got one. I have had a similar collectible one in the same color L (perch), so this new-comer is a duplicate for me. I cleaned up the wood body and glass eyes today, and am now wondering which I should do, sharpen these old hooks or replace them to new ones. I am looking forward to casting this beautiful lure in my next fishing season.


Saturday, December 12, 2009

It's time to overhaul...

Today, I overhauled my reels that I often used this past season. I cleaned and lubricated all the gears, put them up again, and touched up the paints on the rims. One of the reels (below) was made more than 55 years ago, but still works very fine. What an excellent product ABU made! It is also very nice for us to be able to get most of the replaceable parts even now. I'd like to keep using this reel as long as possible.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Finished a full marathon

Finally, I finished a full marathon, Fukuchiyama Marathon, today. The race is one of the most largest city marathons in Japan, and I hear more than 10,000 runners went for it this year.

Today, my daughters had their school's music program and my wife also attended it, so I had to go alone. I got up 04:00 AM in the morning, and left for Fukuchiyama city at 04:45.
It was my debut full marathon race, and my target time was 3 hours and 55 minutes. It was very lucky that I could ran at a good rate, and my personal record was 3 hours and 44 minutes (NET). Now, I'm feeling very good, but extremely exhausted.

Maybe I was somewhere in these runners.
Have NOT seen anything, yet. Keep running till the fat lady sings!
Just before the finish line, rapid upslope.
Finally finished, and checking my stop-watch.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Nice color

This (the left lure with box) is a new addition to my collection, Baby Zara in a color code CHT (solid chartreuse body with black rib pattern on either side). I've got a couple of Zara Spooks (nose-line-tie Zara Spook) in the same color like the right one, but had not had a Baby Zara. I like this and similar chartreuse colors very much, because they are very easy to see on the water from a distance.

Actually, I often cast lures in these colors, and they all work very fine. I caught
this nice fish during a daytime fishing on a summer day of 2004.

This bass was caught at dawn in June 2007.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Tackle restoring & building season has also started

I'd like to restore my bass fishing tackle during this off-season. Today, I started to replace threads of a couple of my old Phillipson rods.


After finishing these rods, I'd like to restore these Fenwick rods, too. The top two are HMG graphite rods, and the bottom two are Lunker Stik ones. This time, I am thinking to try NPC (Non Color Preserver) brownish thread (Fenwick Brown color, Gudebrod #5274 ) instead of olive-color one.


Then, I'd like to hand-build these rod blanks as well. Both are in ultra-light to light action, good for bass fishing in small ponds around here. I'm wondering which parts to use...

Saturday, November 14, 2009

My bass fishing season is almost over

It's getting colder and colder after every rainfall. My bass fishing is almost over, which means my collection season is just about to start. Today, I found a cute lure in my old fishing tackle box and am getting more and more interested in it. The lure is 'Weedless Jitterbug'.

I replaced the rubber skirts and attached a trailer hook on the tail. I'd like to collect some other colors and use them next year.

I have also been interested in Storm 'Chug Bug' lures these days. I have already bought a bunch of them, both new and old ones. As is often the case with fishing lure, old ones are much more beautifully painted. My favorite colors are the rainbow trout colors, natural frog colors, and the natural sea-trout. I also find there're two types in this lure, with and without rattles inside the body. The no-rattle ones are marked only 'Chug Bug' on the belly and float almost horizontally on the water. I'd like to use these lures next season as well.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Momiji-no-sato half marathon

It was very cold in the early morning but turned very hot during the race. I could built up the pace through the way, and the pace during each 5km was 4'59", 4'53", 4'44" and 4'41" per every one kilometer. However, just before the goal (around 20km), I felt a pain in the calves, and then, I kept down the pace to the goal. The finishing time was not so bad for me, and I fully enjoyed a fall good day.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Transitional painting design

You may find these Crazy Crawlers very often, but they're a little different. The eyes are painted in yellow and they have a black crossing mark around the line-tie eye.

Moreover, they have a round mouth and black abdominal muscles on the belly. These painting designs show they're a transitional model made during 1970-1971. Smith, a Japanese distributor of Heddon lures, once specially ordered a similar color in the early 1980s for the Japan market, but such lures have white eyes, not yellow ones.

Recently, I have got the smaller one, Tiny Crazy Crawler, in my collection (Thanks, Jim!). Very cute.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Finished a trail-running race

I finished a 32km mountain running race named 'Ikoma-Challenge', and my record was 3 hours and 42 minutes. It was a lot of fun to run while seeing beautiful forest scenery and sometimes overlooking the hole Osaka Prefecture. They say the course was almost equivalent to full-marathon with a flat city course, so I am satisfied with my record. Now, I'm feeling exhausted, especially on my legs.

The starting point was near Kisaichi, Hirakata City.
On the way, my daughters encouraged me.I passed through some small parks.
The goal was on the top of Takayasu-yama mountain, Yao City.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Bad day on the water

It's getting late in the year, and my bass fishing seems to be almost over. This morning, I went fishing in a few small ponds around my place, but got skunked. I felt the water was rather warm, but fish were too slow. I hope to have a couple of more chances to go out, if possible.....

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Pack and hydration

I'll have a trail-running race next week around Ikoma-Shigi mountains. I was thinking to go with a 500mL water bottle with me, but was wondering if it is a good idea in case of unexpected weather. Yesterday, I bought a light-weight pack and hydration water reservoir for another option. The pack is Gregory's Stimulus and the reservoir is Hydrapak's 1.5L. Both are great and I'd like to try them during this weekend before the race.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

New In Package

I went fishing early in the morning, but totally got skunked. Maybe the heavy rain during Friday-Saturday worked negatively. Today, I got a new addition to my Bass Oreno collection from the US. A NIP (new in package) leopard frog color. So beautifully painted. The package is marked as Luher-Jensen, but the body and coloring are just the same as the bait of Evans era.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Got skunked

I DON'T want to believe there are many huge bass in this lake! It was very beautiful morning, and the water surface was calm (usually very good for topwater fishing), but I caught no fish there.


On the way back from the lake, I happened to go through a river. When I looked into the water surface from a bridge, I found a couple of bass cruising and chasing small fish. Immediately, I cast this Chug Bug, and one of the bass was quick to bite it. This is the first time for me to catch a bass with Storm Chug Bug, though some of my good friends say "Chug Bug is a live bait."

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ill-ordered collection??

Today, I'm trying to set my sub-major collections to rights. It takes so much time to clean up all the tackle boxes. It seems almost impossible!

Such as "Wood lures",

"Bass Oreno",
"Pico Pop",
"Hula Popper",
"Meadow Mouse",
"Tiger", and so on and on...
When in the world can I get into my major collections???

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Paw Paw Mouse

Here comes a new addition to my mouse lure collection. Paw Paw Mouse, it has a flocked body and a thin thread tail. So cute, isn't it?

Sunday, September 13, 2009

New shoes

I had been thinking to renew my running shoes. Yesterday, I bought two pairs, one for daily pace- and LSD-running, and the other for build-up and shorter distance running. Today, I wanted to try them right away and went out to run about 19 km in the early morning. I felt them not so bad.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Rainy-day fishing

The weather forecast said, "You'll have rain in the morning." I decided to go out with my rain wear, expecting good fishing. The sky is very darkish, even after the dawn. At first, I tried Heddon Zig Wag, but had no hits. Then, I changed the lures to Heddon Chugger Spook, and I caught a small bass with it.
In the next pond, it started to rain, and the water surface became choppy. I tied a prop bait, Heddon Wounded Spook in BF color. When I cast it just near a fallen tree, a bomb exploded on the water. the rod I used was so light (Mr. Don PC 50B travel rod with a replaced Fuji handle) that I could enjoy the fight a lot. A nice fall bass (about 43-44 cm, 1.2kg).

Saturday, September 5, 2009

It's already September

Today, I woke up 4:00 AM and drove to some ponds to enjoy float-tube fishing. We had little rain these days, so water quality was not so good. As I was afraid, the fishing was very slow.


This was the only fish I caught. Small one (30cm in total length or shorter), but I am happy to manage to take a video of it. The lure was Heddon Zara II in GRA color (I replaced the line-tie hardware from the chin to the nose, just like the 1st Zara Spook). As you can see, I gave it three actions and then it was pulled into the water.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Fishing with kids

We took our daughters to Awaji Island to enjoy fishing. This time we used live bait (sandworm, Ao-isome) so that they could easily had bites. They caught these small fishes by themselves, and we deep-fried them for dinner.


Saturday, August 29, 2009

Late summer

The summer 2009 is about to be over. This morning, I went float-tube fishing in a couple of farm ponds near our place. It was cloudy, and I expected good fishing, but fish were very slow. I caught the first bass (about 30 cm) with a Heddon Zaragossa Jr. in MF color.


In another pond, it started to rain little by little, and this nice bass (45cm, 1.2-1.3kg) suddenly attacked my lure. She was very fat and a good fighter.

I believe wooden lures are better than plastic ones in the float-tube fishing. It is presumably because of the position of rod tip, which is often just above the water, and because of the short length of the rods I use. Wooden lures have generally larger specific gravity and easy to dive into wate under such conditions.

Friday, August 21, 2009

With a puppy

This time, we went with our puppy (6 months old, miniature schnauzer) and it was the first time for him to play with water. As we expected, he can swim before he learns! Our two daughters also enjoyed a lot playing with him.