From Passionable Fishing, our Japanese-language journal.

I have struggled to get out fishing. Surely Wednesday the 20th will be the day.

At T Island’s fast-current spot, high tide is at 11:30 pm, so we will more or less be fishing from midnight. At this time of year—April to May—there may be days when the aji do not come in at all. I am thinking about a Plan B.

Ideas for a plankton-feeding pattern

On our last few trips, I felt that even this spot in the fierce current had shifted to a plankton-feeding pattern. How long that would continue was another question, but I was thinking of several ways to suit the fishing to it.

On the next trip, I would take several experimental rigs.

Until then, the Aji Adder Pro had been our main soft lure here. On the previous trip, though, I had compared it with another lure: 34’s Puffnake in Kouhaku, a soft lure intended to suggest small shrimp-like prey.

Letting it drift produced plenty of bites.

A moment of slack

When the fish took it tentatively, I could add an Onizume S assist hook. If I did not have an assist hook, there was another approach.

When I felt the bite, I briefly eased the tension, as though feeding the lure into the aji’s mouth. I found that this gave me a high chance of hooking it.

I quite like this way of fishing.

The tide time and observations belong to the original 20 April 2022 entry. The following trip is described in T Island, 20 April: aji, reels and a few detours.

Originally published on our Japanese-language site, Passionable Fishing, on 20 Apr 2022. Translated for Avantgarde Fishing. These are the author’s personal observations at the time of writing. Product availability and fishing conditions may have changed.
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