After living in the United States for 15 years, I came back to my hometown Matsue, a small city in the western part of Japan, in November 2014. I imposed a simple rule on myself. Use only American saltwater lures for at least one year and report what they catch...... When a year had passed since then, I decided not to lift this ridiculous restriction. I am still using only American lures.（2014年11月、15年間のアメリカ生活を終え、島根県松江市に帰郷した私は、自分自身に一つのルールを課しました。少なくとも１年間、アメリカのソルトルアーだけを使い、釣果を報告すること......。そして１年が経過した時、私は、この馬鹿馬鹿しい制約を解除しないことに決めました。今もまだ、アメリカのルアーだけを使っているのです。）
Flowers were so bright. They were in the bed at the entrance to the path in the woods leading to Saruwatari. I had seen some local residents taking care of them the other day. The flowers were so colorful that they managed to cheer me up and even my anticipations were somehow elevated. I dreamed that I might catch some colorful summer fish, but there was nothing colorful in the sea. The sea was quiet and looked as if it were in a monotone. Only my fishing tackle was colorful.
Matsue City Hall is just one road away from Lake Shinji. The bank separated from the hall by the road has been redeveloped for a few years, a part of which is already completed and open for public. The new bank is much wider compared to before the redevelopment. The widened space can be a good venue for some small-scale activities. However, I am not sure whether fishing can be included. I am afraid a sign will be up sooner or later. We were able to do fishing from any of bridges over the Ohashi River in the past, but now we aren't allowed. There are signs on the bridges that the local authorities put up. They say, "No Fish Allowed Due to Safety Concern." The new widened bank might suffer the same fate. So I made use of the current no-sign situation and did fishing performance at the bank this afternoon. I hope fishing would remain allowed there. Because the new bank turned out to be the best stage for me to show Matsue citizens exciting splash American pencil poppers make on the surface. There were a pair of pretty girls chatting behind me, and I asked them to take pictures of me. One of above photos was taken by them. Thank you!
Due to bad weather and my unfortunate business schedule, I have not found a good opportunity to try "One Hook" plugs at a rocky shore facing the Sea of Japan. Instead, I visited Lake Shinji a few times with some of my "One Hook" plugs. So far I have not noticed any difference. The movements of my "One Hook" plugs look the same as before when they had more than one treble hook. Now I want to see how effective they are at Saruwatari or Safuki-bana in Nonami. By the way, I just put one of my unused American-made surf rods up for sale at one of the biggest auction sites in Japan. The blank of the rod is Rainshadow RX7 SU1264F. I used to use the same blank in New York and I loved it very much. So I bought another one with the same blank and have just kept it. However, recently I realized probably I wouldn't use this rod in Japan, so I decided to part with it. If you want to see how the rod bends, you can see it on one of my YouTube videos. If you are interested in the bidding, search the item on the auction site, using the word “Rainshadow RX7 SU1264F.” I would be very happy if one of my readers got it.
As I reported on my last post, I have applied “The One Hook Solution” to all of my active plugs. Each of my plugs now has only one treble hook in the front. Before the advent of “The One Hook Solution,” my plugs, which had two treble hooks, sometimes caused additional damage to the fish I caught. The front hook was in the mouth, but the rear hook occasionally stuck in more sensitive and potentially fatal areas, such as eyes and gills. Now I don’t need to worry about it too much. Today I went to Lake Shinji to do practice in “The One Hook Solution.” I wanted to see how my “One Hook” plugs swim. As far as I could see, they swam the same as before. I became happy. When I went to the lake later again, I saw someone throwing very big plugs. Assuming he was trying to catch the Japanese sea bass, I talked to him and found actually he was doing casting practice for catching the yellowtail amberjack. I felt a particular affinity for him. He said he was from outside Shimane Prefecture. He looked a veteran angler but kindly allowed me to give him some advice on fishing in Shimane. I became happy again.
The fewer the number of hooks attached to a lure is, the more I love it. I remember I even wrote on this blog that my ultimate fishing dream is to catch a fish on a lure with no hook on it. So it is natural that I got intrigued by the concept of “The One Hook Solution” when I came across the YouTube video featuring Mr. Dave Anderson & Mr. Jerry Audet, who have promoted this revolutionary method. As striped bass fishermen using plugs, they suggest that plugs don’t need multiple treble hooks.
As practitioners of the “catch-and-release” fishing, they were concerned that multiple treble hooks could cause more damage to the fish. So they experimented, and now they insist that just one front treble hook does suffice with a bullet sinker replacing the rear treble hook. In addition, they also say that plugs with only one treble hook on it have increased the catching rate. In short, “The One Hook Solution” causes less damage and catches more fish. How marvelous! I got instantly sold on the concept, although I am not necessarily a “catch-and-release” fisherman (I am rather a “catch and eat but never catch too many” fisherman). Actually I have already applied this solution to all of my plugs except for ones that are still unopened!! I don’t remember when is the last time I got as excited as I am right now.
Nature keeps changing. The season is slowly but firmly moving from one to the other. The cherry blossoms along Cherry Road, the seaside winding road in Nonami, are falling. All the creatures in the sea lower their voices. The sea remains quiet. Everything is serene. I even feel my casting motion is sublime.
I make a follow-up announcement about the translation contest that I started the other day for the subtitles of the movie “Nobody.” If a contestant is a reader of this blog and wins it, he/she can get my Peerless BAM 510 M reel, if he/she wants. Peerless BAM is a historic fishing tackle manufacturer in France. I have long been fascinated with the traditional design of their spinning reels. Several weeks ago I found 510 M model was hugely discounted on their site. 510 M is their smallest saltwater bail-less reel (although it still weighs 590 g). I made an impulse buy, and now I own one of the coolest-looking reels in the world, which also looks like Iron Man. But there is the rub. I don’t think I am going to use this reel very much. There are two reasons.
First, the reel is so beautiful that I am scared of the possibility of having scratches on it. Second, I cannot solve the mystery of its uneven line lay. The line lay is extremely bottom heavy. I know that changing the number of spool washers can improve a line lay of a spinning reel. My 510 M has two spool washers on it, and its line lay gets slightly improved if I use only one washer. However, the reduction of a washer seems to create another drag-related issue, which I don't disclose here for fun. In addition to the reel, I purchased an optional red plastic ring I can install on the spool in order to reduce the line capacity. The shape of this plastic ring is inverted trapezoid, which seems for improving the line lay. Indeed the ring improved the line lay to some degrees, but I am not very sure. I might need someone with more knowledge and experience in fishing reels than me to elucidate the mystery of line lay. That’s why I decided to use this beautiful reel as a prize for the contest. Join the contest, win it, get the reel, and solve the beautiful French mystery!
The waves looked a little bit too high for me to stand at a rocky shore this morning. So, instead of directly confronting the Sea of Japan, I went to Etomo Harbor. Standing on Nanbo, one of the breakwaters in the harbor, I threw my favorite darter plugs toward the mouth of the Sada River. I wanted to know if the winter had gone and the spring finally taken over. The winter seemed reluctant to leave. The winds were still chilly, and I couldn’t see any living things in the sea.
The sea around Saruwatari remained wintry this morning. No baitfish. No predatory fish. No current. Only some stationary babbles were on the surface. Because I had expected the sea to be calm, I had brought along three metal lures which fall under the category of “surface irons.” I wanted to see difference, if any, in their movement in the quiet water. I am still learning how to move these “surface irons.”
Cherry trees are going to be in full bloom within a few days along Cherry Road, the seaside winding road in Nonami. On my way down to Saruwatari this morning, I heard invisible Tago frogs singing behind rocks along the small brook in the woods (You can listen to their singing on the above 5-year-old YouTube video). The spring has arrived. On the other hand, I found nori (tasty seaweeds) on the rocks of Saruwatari pure white. They were dark black a few months ago... One of the last remnants of the winter is about to disappear from the shore. Feeling the season changing, I started throwing my favorite lures using my favorite conventional reel. I hoped the seasonal change was also happening in the sea, but that’s not the case. The sea was still wintry.
