Lake Biwa

Today, I took a day off and went fishing in Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. I left home at 00:30 and go to a shore around 03:00. Then, I made ready to fish from my canoe and headed for weedy areas. The water level was very high because of continuous rainfalls these days. According to the weather forecast, today was expected to be the last day of the rainy season and I hoped calm rain with no or gentle wind, but it got shiny during the daytime. Anyway, some bass and two another species (its name is Hasu or Hass, not Bass, in Japanese) were very kind to play with me and I enjoyed a lot.
Today's tackle:
ABU 5500C (1979 black), Fenwick HMG GTC 724J (w/ Fuji grip), Cotton Cordell Boy Howdy, Red Fin, Heddon Chugger Spook, Zara Spook, etc.

Yellow frog

I went fishing again early this morning and caught a small bass (34cm in TL) with a Harrison Super Frog in yellow color. Nice jump, isn't it?

Today's tackle:
ABU 5500C (1979 black), Fenwick GFC-60, Stren 14lb (Green), Harrison Super Frog, Heddon Lucky 13, Chugger Spook, Wounded Spook, and so on...

I like fishing in the rain

I have good rain wear and hat, and I rather like fishing in the rain. The fishing of today was not so good as I expected, but it was not bad. I caught one nice bass with a Crazy Crawler in GRA color.

The lens seemed to mist over while I was taking this movie.

After I released this fish, it started to rain very hard and I could hardly see the water surface well.

Some drowning insects reached out for help on my floating tube. Here is a scan of a pretty baby mantis on my finger.
Today's tackle:
ABU Royal, Fenwick Boron-X 953 (rebuilt), Stren 12lb (Hi-Vis Gold), Heddon Crazy Crawler, Chugger Spook, Wounded Spook, Cotton Cordell Red Fin, etc.

The farther you go....

Last night, I was excited to prepare for another fishing trip and carefully selected lures to take with. Below is a scan of my tackle box to go.

I left home in the midnight, drove through four prefectures to go fishing in far central Japan with a good fishing buddy of mine. We fished almost 14 hours from early in the morning to the evening, but all I could catch was this baby fish. And it was even caught accidentally while I was retrieving the bait. The fishing was very slow and the result was poor, but I enjoy a lot on the water in a breathtaking setting of natural beauty.

Take me out to the ball game

Today, we took out our daughters to Skymark Stadium in Kobe to watch a professional baseball game. The Stadium was very beautiful, and they looked excited to watch a game for the first time in their lives.


When the 5th inning was over, a series of wonderful fireworks burst across the sky.

My wife and I wanted to keep watching the game, but our daughters said they got sleepy before the end of the game, so we reluctantly left there.

Super Frog, not Bass Frog

I looked through my tackle boxes and found the name of the frog I used last time 'Super Frog', not 'Bass Frog', which I had believed. Among Bill Plummer's frogs, this Super Frog (so called "2nd frog") is on the top of my list, and I have several of them in stock.

Bass Frog

I got skunked in the first pond, and then I quickly went to another. The fishing was very slow in this pond as well, so I changed the lures to an old rubber frog (Bill Plummer Bass Frog, maybe made more than 30 years ago). I quietly cast it on the water surface near the grassy shore, and it immediately disappeared from the surface. A nice bass swallowed it.

This bass was about 3lb, the largest one and the hardest fighter during this season of mine .

Today's tackle:
ABU Record, Phillipson RC60 (rebuilt), Stren 14lb (Clear Blue), Bill Plummer Bass Frog, Heddon Lucky 13, Zara Spook, Chugger Spook, etc.