A couple of tiddlers and a couple personal bests

Haven't been out in a while as this damned weather has me wanting to just sit at home with the A/C blasting. Pretty much like a sauna outside, some 35+ C and 80% humidity. Anyway, had a day off so figured I'd head to the beach and get some fishing in at the same time. On the way to the beach, I had scouted out a little harbour nearby on google maps so made a stop there first ...

that dock to the left is where I set up. Got out my Bluecurrent and Twin Power, rigged it with a 1.5g Tict Ajista jig head (these ones http://tict-net.com/product/azisuta.html) and a Berkley Gulp 2" baby sardine in glow okiami colour. Started nearer the shore on the opposite side of the boats along the rocks in the water. Straight away I had bites and pulls but no hookups. Also saw a few bigger predators chasing my lure but no takes, think they must have been sea bass, but I don't know. After a few casts I managed to hook into a wee little scorpion and another shortly after, no pictures as they were'nt worth the trouble.

After some time there were no results and no takes so I figured I'd move along the dock further out into deeper water. Changed to a heavier jighead: 2.5g Aquawave Lockhead and stuck with the Gulp. Threw out and after a few casts I was into something, rod got a nice bend in it and the drag went screaming. Quickly readjusted the drag and started to reel the bugger in, put up a nice fight, I knew I had something decent. When it surfaced I wasn't immediately sure what it was but then realised it was a kibirechinu, black bream and a good size. Hadn't expected anything that size so I had left the landing net in the car. No way I was going to lift this one out with the rod, so I played it to the shore and onto dry ground, jumped down to get it and had to use my hands to grip it by the mouth as I don't have a lipgrip and the tong-type grips I have are much too small. Anyway, got him up onto the dock for a picture ...

the photo doesn't do it much justice but it came in at about 42cm. My best ever on light game gear! So I was well pleased! 

After this there wasn't much action anymore and it was midday with the sun right over my head, hot as all hell, so I figured I'd make my way to the beach and get in the water myself to cool down 

While at the beach saw a few people fishing for whiting (I think) off the breakwaters and later one guy with a pole waded into the swimming area (you can see it in the photo where all the people are) by the barrier, just with a simple two hook rig on ragworm, caught a small whiting. Another guy later, set up an interesting rig, it was a two hook rig tied around an empty Cola bottle, don't know if he caught anything though, didn't see.

After a few hours I figured it was time for me to get back to it again. Grabbed my gear from the car and setup on the right breakwater, pretty much at the end there (if you zoom in should be able to see it) used the same setup as before (Aquawave Lockhead 2.5g and Gulp baby sardine 2"). Started chucking out towards the little island here and there. Nothing doing for quite some time, figured I'll pack up and head elsewhere, just then something took. Started reeling in, nice bend in the rod, and got stuck. Not again I thought, a snag! Tried pulling one way, nothing, another way, nothing, stuck. Put some slack on the line and left it (sometimes this does the trick to get a snag loose with the current), couple seconds, feel some vibrations on the line. Put tension on the line again, reel in, stuck again, what the blood! Slack again, vibrations again. I figure when he got hooked he tried to hide among the rocks then when he felt the slack tried to run. Anyway, I fought him like this for a few minutes and finally got him to the surface. At first I thought it was a scorpion but this is what showed up ...

A hong kong grouper, or is it a redspotted grouper? Kijihata in Japanese. Another personal best for this species so I was chuffed!

Figured I'd stay on at the spot and try for some more. But after a while nothing doing. It was getting time for heading home so took another dip in the sea and called it a day. 

Good day all around!

This was July 30th. A bit late on the post due to laziness.

A few goodies from Fukuoka

Had to go into the airport for renewing my visa, once that was done with had some time on my hands and know of a couple tackle shops nearby so figured I'd stick my head in.

The first one is called blue water house ブルーウォーターハウス and is located about a 10~15 min walk from the Fukuoka airport international terminal, here is the location ...



A decent shop and a nice size, but unless you are looking for bass gear, which the store is just packed full of, or heavier game like tairaba タイラバ or jigging ジギング there's not too much of a selection in other styles of fishing.  Anyway, picked up a couple things ...

some Decoy デコイ offset hooks size 8 and an Oft オフト spiral cord for attaching my fish grip to my bag so it's handy to use and I don't lose it :D:D:D.


The second shop was casting キャスティング which it's a favorite of mine, it's a chain and has many locations around Japan.  Here it is on maps ...




Had a longer browse in this one. A very great light game section with lots of soft plastics and jigheads.  A large selection of Tict ティクト products. Here's what I picked up for myself ...

(from top left) a Pazdesign パズデザイン spiral cord, a Sunline サンライン line cutter, 34 driver head 1.5g jig-heads, 34 Chimerabait 2.0" ムラギン purple/gold worms, two packs of Tict ティクト, DF Hook offset hooks, in S & M sizes, ティクト Light Game Shock Leader in 1.5号 (7lb) 30m, and a Tict ティクト Guide Through pick for easy and quick line threading through rod guides (oh and also a Tict ティクト decal featuring a mebaru メバル, not pictured).

Will later post my thoughts on these items.  I especially want to try out the shock leader.  So far my favourite has been Varivas バリバス Light Game Shock Leader.

-147

A bit of Sunday light game

Day off on the previous Sunday, so figured I'd head out for some light game fun and hopefully get the bluecurrent/twin power christened.  Had been out a couple times before but nothing doing.

So dropped the wife off at work and headed to a mark I had wanted to hit for quite some time just had never gotten around to it.  Got there about 7.00 in the morn, and got out on the rocks, open headland, set up my tackle:

Yamaga Blanks BlueCurrent 83/TZ

Shimano Twin Power 2500HGS

Sunline small-game PE-HG 0.4

Varivas light game leader 6lb

Chucked out, various spots.  Few seconds countdown, three/four upward twitches, rod tip at ~45°, hold it for a bit, for a curve fall.  Point the tip down parallel with the water and repeat.  Changed lures many times, different JG's with different SP's, 3/5/7g metals; threw em straight out, out around the rocks, the weeds, etc ... a bunch of very soft taps, try to strike but many times a-no-go.  Eventually got a damned pufferfish フグ/fugu (very first fish on the BlueCurrent, which just doesn't count cos them pufferfish, a bunch of assholes :D:D:D).  After, got a few mackies サバ/saba (not aji) about 10/12cm, just babies, so those don't count either :D. Other people got a nice sized scorpion アラカブ/arakabu, a greenling アイナメ/ainame, and a wrasse ベラ/bera.  Granted they were float fishing on bait, but figured I could still entice some on my light game lures, wanted to move over to the point they were fishing, but it was family day out, so didn't want to step on their ground. And then a bunch of shit ... got snagged 3, 4, 5 times in a couple hours, on the rocks, on the weeds, lost a brand new Jigpara 7g (got it a few hours before) on the first cast, finished off my Varivas leader.  Got fed up, moved down the road to a few other points.  Again, nothing doing, few taps but no hookups.

Few photos ...

Got hungry, so headed out to town and got myself some pork-bone ramen, very delicious.  After, stopped by a small tackle shop I had seen on the way to the ramen shop, asked for light game mark recommendations, and headed out to the closest spot the guy mentioned.  Again, bunch of people float/bait fishing, a few guys eging (squid).  Threw out a 3g iwashi coloured Arukazik metal (can see it in the picture), threw it out into the sea with a slow, low retrieve, right about the submerged rocks just in front of the breakwater hooked onto a scorpion アラカブ/arakabu ...

After this one, a few taps again on the line but again no hookups.  Right about now it was getting to low tide so figured I'd take a break and take a scout mission to a few of the other marks the guy at the tackle shop mentioned.  Eventually got to a very nice place (seen in the pictures) out by an abandoned hotel on the beach, rocky coast line.  Walked out a few hundred metres over very rocky ground, had to steady myself, trying to not slip and fall, got to a promising spot, set up and threw out my line.  It was very rocky and very weedy, also the current was quite strong, so I set up a texas rig with a 3g bullet sinker, red glass bead, offset hook 6#, and various SP's (Gulp, Breaden, Ecogear, Arukazik ...) these buggers they just shredded my SP's, every retrieve I had to change out the SP's.  Again got a puffer and eventually landed a decent, beautiful wrasse ...

After a bunch of taps but no hookups (got to get better on the reaction time :D:D:D), figured I'd call it a day, sun was going down and still had that walk/climb back to the car and didn't want to risk it in the dark, so headed out.  Snapped a few photos on the way back ...

All in all, was a good day out, even with all the frustration over losing a bunch of gear (over all lost three metals, almost an entire spool of leader, and a bunch of snaps, SP's, hooks and JG's).

Hope to get out to those marks again next time.

-147