Saturday, September 29, 2012

Pond full of water vegetation

I visited many ponds from early in the morning today. In the first and second ponds I fished, I got skunked, though small bass touched my lures several times. Then I visited more, but the water level of them was very low because of drought. The last pond I visited was not so bad. The water surface of it is covered with vegetation (named "hishi" in Japanese), and it has a lot of water to enjoy fishing there. I cast to limited spots where the vegetation was not so thick and I could catch two small bass. I'd like to go there first thing in the morning next time.
 
  
After I enjoyed fishing, I ran a 16 km build-up. The monthly total distance I ran in September covered longer than 250 km, just as long as I scheduled.

Today's tackle:
ABU Record 5000 (Red, gray spool & drag wheel), Phillipson RC 60L, Stren 12lb (Hi-Vis Gold. I should have used 14 lb), Wounded Spook, Chugger Spook, Jointed Jitterbug, AC Plug, etc.
BF=16/25

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Bait frozen shirimp on a hook...

As always, we caught many different species. It's a lot of fun to imagine how bait shrimps (dead and frozen) on the hooks behave in deep water and fish get interested in them.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Luhr Jensen AC plug

The water was very muddy in the first pond I visited, so I gave it up to keep fishing there. Then, I drove to the second one, where the water quality was not so bad. I got some bites with my Wounded Spook, but I could not hook them up at all (presumably very small bass). I tied the Luhr Jensen AC plug that I tuned up last week. The meandering action of it worked very attractively, and I could catch this nice bass with it. Not very big, but fought hard.
 

Just before finishing the fishing, I cast an old spoon for the first time in these 4-5 years for bass fishing. I couldn't believe it, but I bought many bites with it and hooked a small bass, though I just retrieving it slowly. I find it is nice to discover new things by taking lessons from old things. 

Today's tackle:
ABU Record 5000 (BLK), Phillipson Challenger (9055 rebuilt), Stren 14lb (clear), Zara II, Wounded Spook, Chugger Spook, Zara Spook, Jointed Jitterbug, AC Plug, Ginzan (spoon), etc.
BF=15/24

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Jointed lures

Recently, I've been getting more and more interested in jointed lures for fishing. Today, I went out with some of them to try. Only one bass I caught was a small one that was lured by the Jitterbug (white coach dog with orange belly). I saw a nice bass chase my AC plug, but it didn't want my lure.

Bass Oreno?
Nope. It is an AC Plug by Luhr Jensen (w/ tuned tail)
Heddon Zig Wag
Fred Arbogast Jointed Jitterbug
I broke my fishing very short, because I saw so many fishers (it is the first day of three-day weekend today in Japan). After I'm home, I enjoyed weekend routine stuff, long-time running. I ran slowly for two hours today (20.7 km, and my monthly total distance as of now is  123 km. It is not so bad.

BF=14/23

Friday, September 7, 2012

Freshwater jellyfish

I happened to find a school of a freshwater jellyfish in a pond where I fished for the first time. It was also the first time for me to see them up close. I saw many, presumably 400-500 of them floating in the water surface. Very strange animal in the water.


I caught no fish in this pond, though I bought some bites. In another pond, I caught some small bass. I also almost caught a nice one, maybe 3-1/2 lb class. I could touch the body of it to land, but it abruptly ran wild so that I had to let it go.

Today's tackle:
ABU Ambassadeur 5500C (palming black), Fenwick HMG Iron Hawk Graphite (HFC-555), Stren 14lb (Hi-Vis Gold), Fred Arbogast Jointed Jitterbug, Genuine Crankbait co. Walkin' Didee, Heddon Chugger Spook, Zara Spook, etc.
BF=13/22

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Good rain, good fishing

It was the last day of August yesterday and I ran 40 minutes in the evening. My total running distance in the month surpassed 200 km, and I'm feeling it is not so bad. I decided to go fishing this weekend, and I went to bed as early as possible.

It started to rain at midnight around my place. Yes, I strongly awaited the rains! I got up before 03:00 AM and went out with my usual fishing tackle, a Gore-tex rain hat and jacket. It made me feel great just imagining what it would be like to fish in the rain in this season of the year.

It was still dark when I started fishing, and a small bass grabbed my Jointed Jitterbug (yellow shore) just after my third casting. I felt easier in my mind to catch a bass, and then, I cast the same lure long (but softly) to a deeper shore of the pond. I waited until the waves of the water surface disappeared, and when I slowly started retrieving it, rotating the reel handle a couple of times, the water surface splashed with a dull crash sound. I set a hook hard, and carefully landed the fish. It was still dark, and I felt difficulties to find how long I had already reeled the line and it was still left at the other side of the rod. Anyway, the fish (over 4lb) seemed to have a lot of drive and almost swallowed my lure. 


 I changed lures and tied a Heddon Zara Spook in CHT (chartreuse) color. I long-cast it over a tip of a small cape, and immediately after I gave it a dog-walk action two or three times, another big splash broke out. I did know it was very shallow there, so I gently lead the fish to swim in the direction of the deeper water. It was very lucky for me to catch it (a little lighter than 4 lb) as well.

I also caught some more bass but they were not so big. I could spare more time for fishing today, but I decided to start home around 07:00 AM, because heard distant ramble of thunders.
 

Today's tackle: 
ABU Ambassadeur 5500C (1982, BLK), Fenwick Boron-X (XC-554), Stren 14lb (Hi-Vis Gold), Fred Arbogast Jointed Jitterbug, Heddon NLT Zara Spook (2nd), Chugger Spook, Zara Spook, Zara II, Wood Lucky 13, Wounded Spook, Cotton Cordell Big-O, etc.
BF=12/21