BIG ONE Okayama Field Report

Next month I'm going back to Okayama, Japan. My girlfriend knows how much I like fishing, so she said I should go out with her sister's boyfriend, who also likes fishing. He's not familiar with the Okayama area though, so I was a little concerned that we would waste too much time looking for a good fishing spot. I started searching through Japanese blogs, and found this one written by a guy that fishes the Asahi River, which is right next to my girlfriend's house.

http://yaplog.jp/bigoneokayama/


This guy definitely likes his laregemouths. I posted a comment on one of his entries, telling him that I liked his blog and I was looking for a good place to go fishing on the Asahi. He posted an entry that you'll see at the top of his blog. He's excited to hear from me and says that if I can come up on a weekend, he'll take me around the Asahi River Dam, which looks like its about an hour north of my girlfriend's house.

Fishing on my birthday, more PR's!

I fished the shore of Lake Monona along John Nolan Dr. today, south of Monona Terrace. It's an excellent place to catch all sorts of fish with all the big rocks along shore and relatively few weeds. I had three worms with me, and I was determined to make the most of them. The bluegill were hitting hard, and I managed to stretch 3 worms among 27 of them! I measured one of the biggest ones, he was 8 inches.

That's not all I was catching on the worms though. Next up was a 7.5 inch rock bass and a 9.5 inch smallmouth (PR).

But that wasn't all that was going after the worms! I also got a 16 inch largemouth to hit a tiny piece of a worm. I was definitely entertained. :)

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Once I ran out of worms I switched to a medium sized spinner and the smallmouths started hitting again. I caught three in a row that were 9.5, 7.5, and 11 inches (PR) respectively.

At this point, I felt like the smallmouth bug had bit me. Jeff would be beaming at this for sure. Largemouths were a thing of the past, because these guys were so much more fun. Not so fast though, because the next fish that hit my spinner wasn't a smallmouth! It was a monster largemouth, and it was the first time that a fish pulled line out of my reel while I was fighting him. I got him into shallow water and got my thum in his mouth as quick as I could. He bit hard! I got him up in the grass and measured him. 19.5 inches, a new PR! I'm guessing he was a solid 5 lbs, definitely the bass of the summer.

PR largemouth, PR bluegill, not what I was expecting!

I've had a relaxed weekend, so I went out to picnic point again today to see if I could do better than yesterday. I went out to the same spot, but the wind (and therefore current?) had changed direction. The water was really choppy and the waves were bringing my bobber right back to shore. I caught 3 perch within an hour or so, but was not having much fun. I walked back in the direction of the mainland, keeping an eye out for a good spot to fish on the south side. The water was as calm as could be on that side, and the visibility was excellent. I found a small opening in the trees and set up shop. I immediately started catching bluegill, and all of them were huge! The biggest was a PR at 9 inches. Then the fishing died down for a while. Were those the only fish in there? Noooope, because on one of my next casts, the bobber dove under water like a bowling ball was attached to my line. This wasn't a bluegill! I fought him for at least a minute, it was an 18" largemouth. Another PR! I caught a 12.5" largemouth on the very next cast, and another perch after that. Not bad. :)

A beautiful day at picnic point

Went fishing with nightcrawlers at the end of picnic point today. I caught five different species, and two of them were for the first time! I started off with a bluegill, which is what I was expecting to catch on the worms. Then I pulled in a nice little rock bass, about the same size as the largest one I caught on the Yahara. Next was my first smallmouth, at a whopping 5" long. Then I caught two fish that I was not expecting, freshwater drums (or sheepshead). The first was 12" and the second was 12.5". They were very interesting. The first was silver, but the second was silver with some red and blue hues, kinda like you would see in a soap bubble. Perhaps they were female and male? Next up were perch. The first one I caught was a PR at 10 inches. He had some serious bulk on him for a perch! Not long after that I caught an 8" one. I ran out of nightcrawlers then and had to call it a day. :)

Mr. Snapper under the bridge