Today, I'm cleaning the fishes I caught yesterday. Too many, and I'm doing almost all day long. Now, I'm feeling very exhausted.
The fishing we enjoyed yesterday was so called 'jigging', using metal lures in 4-6 oz. You cast one or drop it vertically to the bottom of the sea. Then, you reel, jerk, and give actions to the lure imitating a bait. These are some of the lures I used and caught fish yesterday.
We're so lucky to have a chance to go out for fishing during this time of the year. Today, six fishing friends of mine and I chartered a fishing boat and enjoyed offshore fishing in the Sea of Japan. This is our annual fishing tour we schedule almost every year. We stayed about 8 hours on the high and low waves, and I felt a little sea sick (but it's much better than staying indoors, especially in the office). I could catch one big and four small Japanese spanish mackerel, and about 20 small yellow tail. I have to clean them up tomorrow for the year-ending and new year dinners with our family. Hope you all have a happy new year.
I am always looking for lures with a 'handsome' face, and am thinking to try to replace my collection. Facial expression differs in each lure, especially in vintage lures, because craftspeople hand-painted one by one in old days. In Heddon lures, I rather like smaller eyes than bigger eyes. Kind of outlying pupils also add to the charm of the face. The position of eyes and eye shadows are also very important, I believe. Below are some of my favorite 'handsome' lures in my collection.
I had been looking for a nice Heddon Zaragossa for fishing, and finally got one. I have had a similar collectible one in the same color L (perch), so this new-comer is a duplicate for me. I cleaned up the wood body and glass eyes today, and am now wondering which I should do, sharpen these old hooks or replace them to new ones. I am looking forward to casting this beautiful lure in my next fishing season.
Today, I overhauled my reels that I often used this past season. I cleaned and lubricated all the gears, put them up again, and touched up the paints on the rims. One of the reels (below) was made more than 55 years ago, but still works very fine. What an excellent product ABU made! It is also very nice for us to be able to get most of the replaceable parts even now. I'd like to keep using this reel as long as possible.
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.
