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.