Whole house cleaning

We did housecleaning from morning till evening. Too exhausted. I also have to clean up all of our shoes and cars, but could not get going today. We can't get the new year started with such dirty ones, so I have to....TOMORROW. 

Last fishing

We didn't know another rough weather was creeping up. We went for the last fishing in 2015 to target big yellowtail, but it was too windy. Due to the bad weather, we could not get to a spot where big ones are winterizing, and overall, our results were poor. Besides, I wore light cloths, and felt almost frozen on the boat. Although much better than going to work, but it was a bad day of fishing, and my result was just a total of six (four small yellowtail, one small Japanese Spanish mackerel, and one small common mackerel also. 

Hope you all a happy holiday season and happy new year!

Pictures

I've just uploaded some pictures of my lure collection on my Instagram pages.

Merry Christmas

STTS grip

I've just received the hand-made grip that I ordered in the beginning of this month. It is extremely light, and good to take hold. I'm wondering which blank to set with the grip, but I feel slim graphite-gray blank may be one of the best ones. I'd like to finish another rod with this grip before the next season starts.

The Force Awakens

I finished another marathon today. I ran this race five years in a row, and know the course well. According to the weather forecast, it will rain in the evening, so I wanted to finish before getting drenched. It was almost off-the-cuff race for me like the last month's race, but I tried hard. 

I took care to save my energy as much as possible until I got ready. I ran constantly at 5m10-20s/km pace from the scratch to 30km point. Then, I left the course to go to the toilet (I went twice during this race), and after I refreshed, my force awoke. I decided to run as hard as possible to the goal. From there, I was never passed through by anyone, but passed through plenty of runners. After I'm back, I analyzed my data and found the pace of the closing leg was the fastest in these five years. The total record was not out of the way, but all is well that ends well.

My result: 3h36m12s (net); 1h50m55s+1h45m17s

 

Turned

I let the rotating machine work through the night with a clock-timer, and finished the last varnishing of this rod (Fenwick Fenglass 2053). While I was checking it this morning, I noticed I turned 48. I can't believe 50 is just around the corner. 

 

This reel is almost as old as I am (or a little older). "ABU Ambassadeur 5000" in black color, though you may think it would be a Black Record Ambassadeur 5000 or a common Ambassadeur 5000C. It has some scratches and paint off, but works very smoothly. You can't believe it was manufactured about 50 years ago. I like to be the same, but to understand aging is very difficult for myself, as it is the first time for me to get old. 

Basser

I'm getting more and more interested in Heddon Head-on Basser lures. I've never used them for fishing, and would like to know how differently they work from Lucky 13's.

 

Ordered a hand-made grip

A big winter storm is hitting our area, so I'm afraid my bass fishing season is over. I'm now checking my inventory of fishing tackle and imagining what I will use next year.

I recently found a nice custom-made casting grip on the Internet. After discussing some details with the shop, I decided to make a trial purchase for myself. I'm looking forward to it and making a new rod during this off fishing season. 

Personal worst record

I ran a marathon race today. I have not worked out hard this year, as I had an operation of my upper jaw. I don't like to excuse, but it was almost off-the-cuff race for me.

My time (net) was awful, 3 hours 49 minutes 51 seconds, which was the personal worst record. I could run from the scratch to 37-38 km more smoothly than I expected, but the rest was hellish. I did have difficulties to keep running due to aching muscles of whole of my legs. I felt happy to be able to finish it, but to tell the truth, I could not fully enjoyed it.

I'll run another race in the end of this year, and I'd like to train a little harder than ever before.

Last fishing?

We have a three-day weekend here, as 23 Nov is a holiday. I almost gave up going, but I could go fishing today for the first time in this month. 

I thought metal-side reels would be too cold to palm under low temperature conditions, so I picked up one with a plastic side (ABU Ultra Mag II) from my reel case last night. I renewed the line on it, and oiled some parts. 

The water was very cold, much colder than last time, and I was afraid fish were slow. I kept fishing with slow and steady method using wood lures such as Heddon Crab Wiggler (this is exactly suitable for this technique). However, I got no reactions from fish at all.

When I fished almost all the shore areas of the pond, I decided to try a Bass Oreno (frog color) for a change before I went home. I cast it, waited for a several seconds, and gave it actions very slowly. Suddenly the water surface blew up, and I saw a big bass punch my lure. I set a hook hard, and started to reel my line. Then, as the fish rushed a few yards, the line stopped. It dived into submerged branches and got stuck. I hoped the fish was still being hooked, but when I started to get close there, I saw the fish swim toward me and yawn openly. It was just like saying 'See you!', and I really felt let down.

All in all, I had second thought that it was good to be able to see a bass during this season of the year. I was thinking today would be my last chance to go bass fishing during this season, but I may not know when to give up.

Reel cover

We were planning to go offshore fishing in the Sea of Japan, but it was canceled  because of bad weather. It is so windy that I can't go out for bass fishing, either. I decided to be an armchair fisherman today, and tried to make reel covers by hand.

At first, I was thinking to pick some up from Bass Pro Shop. They're not so expensive and according to my good friend in the US they're well-made. However, when I was in a store near my place, I found a good case named 'Door Knob Reminder Pocket'. It reminded me of the reel cover. The store is so called 100-yen shop (= one dollar store), where you can buy every item for JPY 100 each. I bought some of them.

I cut the case, sewed some ends and Velcro tapes to make it fit my reel. I made two and sewed a small Garcia patch on one of them to tell which reel is inside the cover. It needs　some more needlework, but worth trying during off-season.

Rough paint

It's getting colder and colder, but I'd like to have a few more chances to go fishing during this year. I also started off-season routine, listing and organizing my reels, rods, and lures in the boxes and drawers. It is time-consuming, but interesting.
 
I got some wood lures for starters. I like old wood lures. Some among them are painted very beautifully, I'd rather say graciously, such as old Heddon lures. On the other hand, some are painted roughly ( I mean "simply" ) and have rustic appearance that I also like very much.

These are NIB Gilmore wood lures, Super Jumper, Large Jumper, and Hoodler. Their painting scheme is simple, but looks attractive for me.

Fred Arbogast made some wooden rustic lures, too. These (below) are named 'Scudder'. They're big but I believe good for bass as well. Older ones have dent eyes, while newer ones have plain painted eyes. Of course I like older ones much better. 

Wounded Spook, a transitional one?

Today, I received a Wounded Spook in silver shore color. Looks different from other ones? Yes, it has silver scales on the back and belly. It must be one of the transitional Wounded Spooks made during 1970-1971, when the painting method of eyes (black pupils) were changed from hand-stumping to air-spraying. These lures are often called "one-year Heddons" and I haven't seen many of them.

Good product

I went fishing in a flat shallow farm pond early in the morning today, but got skunked again. I could get no vital reaction from fish. Nothing, at all. Anyway, the sky was clean, and I saw many typical fall clouds in the sky as well as on the water surface. Lily pads are now dying, suggesting my bass fishing season will soon be over. I'd like to one or two more nice bass before I finish this season.

By the way, I finally found a good chemical product to restore faded plastic parts of my rods and reels. Unpainted black plastic parts often get faded, and turn white or matte across the ages. Fox example, knobs, bodies, and spools of ABU reels, Fuji reel handles, and so on. I had often polished them using compounds, or oiled them, but they were not improved.

This product (cleaning re-conditioner for black parts of cars) is a revolutionary one. I got interested in applying it to many of my old fishing tackle, and I found it can be applicable even on brown plastic. I'm very happy to see my reels and rods look sparkly clean. I should have tried it much earlier.

Backward direction

I hear Heddon used a backward direction bent prop in only a few colors of Wounded Spooks. Unfortunately, all of mine are identical, rotating in the same direction. 

Them, while I was replacing lures in my tackle boxes, I found this bait. That reminds me, the front prop of old Wounded Spooks are different! I guess Heddon may have used these dead stock props in later Wounded Spooks.

Move out, move in

I recently got another big tackle box, so I've been doing out my lures, replacing the boxes, coordinating them by items, manufactures, and/or sizes. It is a time consuming work, and I often get fed up it.

It seems I have more than 400 Heddon 9540 Chugger Spook lures now. Although I know you can catch fish with any color of them, but chacun a son gout.

These are top proven ones for me as well as other colors such as NBL, GRA, YSL and so on. I've caught many large fishes, not only bass but also other species, with them. They all have many teeth marks on the body. Once I made a web page to keep a record of fishes I've caught with Chugger Spooks. I've put these in a box that I named my 'Hall-of-Fame'.

These are from my collection. If I choose from stumped-eye ones, these are my favorite colors. You may think the JRH (red head frog spot) is a common color, but the belly is painted in yellow that I like better. I also like PSWB (purple scale white bars) and BWYB (black wing yellow bird).

If sprayed-eye ones are candidates, I like these greenish colors. Now, I'm wondering in which box, I shall put these collectible ones??

----- Are these out of common? -----

These are strange Heddon 210 lures I found in my boxes. The body of SSD (silver shad) is painted in a pearl colo. The BSO (brown dace) has no scales on the body. The Y is incorrectly rigged up in a factory.

Too slow

Again, I started fishing just before the sun rose. The moon, Venus, and Jupiter were located in almost the direction from the Earth.

Fish were very slow, and I barely caught one fish by topwater minnowing with Whopper Stopper Hell Cat. Turn-over of water is now just occurring in the ponds around my place??

Today's tackle: ABU Ambassdeur 5500C (black), Gart Bros Dina Cast 64 by Phillipson, Stren 14lb (Clear/Blue Fluorescent), Heddon Wounded Spook, Magnum Torpedo, Pico Pop, Whopper Stopper Hell Cat, etc.  

BF=16/26

So many

Thanks to my good friend in the US, a big tackle box (Plano 747 M) full of beautiful old lures finally got to my place. I'm feeling very happy with them. 

Storm (Thinfin) and Pico,

Shallow crankbaits, most are NIB,

Heddon, Bagley, Smithwick, etc,

And more.

I love these cute lures.

This is a Whopper Stopper Dog Walker, NIP never opened.

Who, under the table, put a small prop inside the package?