2006.8.  Tokara   Yoshio Maruyama


At the end of August, I got a call from Captain Kudo of the Marine Challenger.
He explained to me that he needed some help, so I went along as he has been very supportive to us,
and thought that I could do some tests while aboard as a crew member.



This is Gaja island. People used to live here but it is now deserted.

The weather was surprisingly great, and no swell for once.


First of all, in order to catch the live bait for Mr. Yanai who was planning on live bait fishing,
we went fishing for approx 4 hours. To my surprise, this was great fun!!
Fishing in general, no matter how or what fish, if you can catch, it is great fun!


As soon as we have enough for Mr. Yanai, he starts fishing!

We anchored near a rock and started live bait fishing.


Unfortunately the current wasn’t flowing much,
but Mr. Yanai got a big bit!! While I was fishing for bait on the other side…



His first catch in Tokara was a 39kg GT!
Congratulations!!
Although his target for this trip was 40kg over, it was a close one!
As he has been landing big fish all around Japan, the fighting was smooth!


Rainbow runner 16kg!


18kg Giant coral trout. It was a beautiful fish.
I was super jealous!


I managed to catch enough bait fish,
so I was allowed to do my private fishing and balance testing of the lures.

I tested around 4 different lures which are currently under development including the CHOPPER series.
I didn’t get any bites as the boat was anchored,
but the action of the lures have improved significantly.


The area where the bites were approx 200 to 220m down current from the boat.
So I tried casting and allowing the lure to drift for 170m, but with no luck
(I have only 190m of PE12 line, so when considering the run of the fish, I could only drift for 170m).




Although I popped the lure 170m down current,
as the cup of HAMMER-HEAD lures are designed as
Visual-Cups (coated with highly visible color),
I could easily spot where and what posture the lure is. This reduces popping errors by the angler.

In addition, as the lure is highly visible, when the fish attack the lure,
one can easily spot whether the lure has been taken under,
allowing for the angler to time the hooking.


This time, I also tried live bait fishing, with my GT tackle instead of a lure.



Caught a 10kg rainbow runner by live-baiting!

After drifting my live bait for 150m, I did not get a bite.
So I slowly retrieved the bait. This was when I got a massive strick!



The culprit was a Dogtooth Tuna. 165cm 49.5kg.
Although it was not caught on a lure, I was super happy catching this on live bait.



Another angle!



As usual, I caught countless Big-eyed Jacks during the night with the Sharapoa, but no pics.


Quite rare Yellow-Fin tuna caught during the night.


Mr. Yanai caught a 15kg GT the next day.
It was another beautiful fish.
He also caught Mangrove Snappers, and Yellow-Fin Tunas!

Live baiting is great fun!
If I have another opportunity, I would like to try again!


writer  Yoshio Maruyama


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