Nice fish

I got up at 02:50 AM today, and left home at 03:30 to go fishing.
I was already on the water before dawn, and wanted to start fishing as soon as possible. I, however, had a very hard time to tie line on my lure. This is partly because of my aging eyes, and partly because of the visibility of my lines. This year, I'm out of Stren Hi-Vis Gold lines in stock, so I use Low-Vis Green ones most of the time. For me, Hi-Vis Gold is much better all in all.

At last, I could start fishing. I fished with a Heddon Big Bud during dark hours, and changed lures one by one. My favorite lures such as Original Zara Spook and Chugger Spook didn't work fine.
 
At around 04:40, I long-cast a Pico Slasher into a shallow shore area (ca. 1ft depth), give it a long pause, and softly twitched it a few time. Then, a big blow-up occurred. The water splash was so big that I was afraid a catfish. It was a good fighter, and, fortunately, it was a bass. I got a real kick out of catching it.

 

Today's tackle: ABU Ambassdeur 5000 De Luxe, Fenwick SP634, Stren 14lb (Low-Vis Green), Heddon Big Bud, Original Zara Spook, Chugger Spook, Timber Rattler Minnow, Hula Popper, Pico Slasher, etc. 

BF=6/14

Chupa Chups

Not so many of each, but I specially ordered a total of five different colors of lures. Red, Blue, Orange, Purple, and Green. They look like Chupa Chups candies when they're being dried. I'm looking forward to them.

Too windy

I went fishing in Lake Biwa.
I believed it would be a calm day (= good for topwater fishing) as the weather forecast reported, but it was too windy to enjoy fishing. I drove to a small cove located in the northern part of the lake, and managed to start fishing there from my canoe. However, unfortunately the wind direction matched the entrance part of the cove, and water surface was choppy there, too. I expected the wind would quit, but it would not.

Under such conditions, quiet lures would not work fine. I jerked my lures much harder than usual, and I could catch one small bluegill and one small bass, but that's all. It was good I did not get skunked, but my fishing hours were much shorter than my driving ones all the way to and back home.

  
After I'm back, I replaced rubber parts of my paddles. They're named 'drop rings', which cut down on water drops from dripping from the paddling ends. My old ones were deteriorated by age, so I bought a pair of new round rubber caps for tables. Then, I cut a hole inside of each cap to use in place of the old ones. I'd like to set the paddle shaft into them next time.

Today's tackle: ABU Ambassdeur 5500C BLK, Fenwick Boron-X (custom), Stren 14lb (Low-Vis Green); Ambassadeur 5500C (Palming), Fenwick HMG HFC-555, Stren 14lb (Low-Vis Green); Ambassadeur 5000 CDL (high-speed), Fenwick HMG GTC-724J, Stren 14lb (Hi-Vis Gold); Original Zara Spook, Chugger Spook, Wounded Spook, etc. 

BF=5/12

Unveil a new lure

Here's a scan of the lure I mentioned (the line-tie eye and hooks have not been on, yet). It looks cool, doesn't it?

I like rain

I like fishing in the rain, but it was not my day today.

It has been kind of droughty around here, even though it is a rainy season now.
Today, we had a calm rainy day, and I expected fish were active. 

Small bluegill often rushed at my lures, but bass were much slower.
I got some nice bites on Harrison Super Frog, and Snagproof Moss Mouse around weedy areas, but I couldn't hook them up at all. I thought they're bass. Then, gave up fishing in weedy areas and started casting to a near shore area. When I cast a Pico Slasher, a nice-looking blackish green bass went at it and I could catch it (not so big). 
I finished fishing at 07:30 am and went home to have a breakfast.

<< Just checked how they float on the water >>

Today's tackle: ABU Ambassdeur 5000 De Luxe, Fenwick 2053, Stren 14lb (Low-Vis Green), Original Zara Spook, Lucky 13, Chugger Spook, Harrison Super Frog, Snagproof Moss Mouse, Pico Slasher, etc. 

BF=4/11

Specially ordered

I've just ordered a special lure again. It is a lot of fun to make a design by myself, imagining putting it into a lure body. I copied an idea from Heddon's GSD and CCB colors using a green check patterns imitating scales. I'm planning to make some extra ones, so contact me if you're interested in one or two.

Saltwater fishing

We had a good time offshore fishing yesterday. We had some bigger ocean swells in the morning, but they got calmer and calmer in the afternoon. Our main target fish was red sea bream, but unfortunately I could not catch them at all. The fish in the center of the top picture is one that I was given from another fisher (Thanks a lot!). We fished almost until it got dark, went back to the port at 21:00 pm, and went home in the middle of the night.

I felt extremely tired, but I got up early today and cleaned up all the fish before the first football match of Japan (The World Cup) begun at 10:00 am. I counted seven different species, a total of 15-20 fishes, and it was a very exhausting job to clean so many fishes at a time. Then, I cooked and most of them for dinner in the evening. All my family members like to eat fresh fish, and we enjoyed a lot.