Black bass fishing in Japan

Introduction

Black bass fishing is one of the most popular fishing art in Japan. Here I would like to describe how and why it is so. And some of the typical techniques for bass fishing will be introduced.

History of Black bass in Japan

Black bass (large mouth bass, Micropterus psalmodies) is not the native fish in Japan. The history of this fish started with importing this fish.

In 1925, Mr. Tetsuma Akaboshi, entrepreneur, got this fish into Japan, from California. It was done with approval of Japanese government, for the purpose of angling and for the food source. The first lake in which this fish was released was Lake Ashi in Kanagawa.

In 1930's black bass was released in other lakes and ponds, such as Lake Shirakumo in Nagasaki, Lake Yamanaka in Yamanashi, Lake Tashiro in Gunma, reservoir in Hyogo and other places. Then, from 1945, American military stationed in Japan after Pacific War set this fish further in several more lakes (Lake Sagami, Lake Tsukui, both in Kanagawa).

Since then, the species started to spread to other areas. By 1974, 23 prefectures (out of total 47 in Japan) had black bass. By 1979, it extended to 40 prefectures. And by 1983, 45 prefectures had identified its existence in their water.

History of fishing for black bass

1920's

From its beginning, the fish has been the target of game fishing in Japan (though one of the purposes of its implementation was for food, as well as fishing). The person who brought this fish, Mr. Akaboshi, was said to see fishing as a hobby. He knew the concept of game fishing. At its beginning, fishing for black bass was limited to several lakes in Japan. Around his time (around 1920's) were the time when modern fishing plugs were spreading in the U.S. (Heddon was founded in 1902.) And I imagine Mr. Akaboshi enjoyed the black bass fishing with such modern lures. The lure types available were wooden plugs and metal lures such as spoons and spinners.

You can find the history of Heddon lures here.

Post war period

In the post war period, it is said that American military people had enjoyed this game fishing. For this fun, they set these fish in some lakes, near their bases. The lakes which they released black bass were about 40km away from central Tokyo, and about 25km from the biggest bases. Thanks to this, Japanese anglers came to find this fishing, later. At this period, lure fishing was barely know among Japanese fisherman.

1970's

It is around 1970's that lure fishing was getting popular. In this period, people in Japan are getting rich and they started spending their time and money for pure leisure. Economy is growing steadly, and outdoor leisure was getting people's attention. Additionally, Japanese people were looking up the lives of the west. It was the time that Japanese people wanted to know about western lifestyle and to buy western branded products. Under this circumstances, game fishing was gaining popularity. Luckly for us, black bass was readily available as for one of target fish.

People call this perido the first bass fishing boom. We had a comic series, called "SAMPEI" (literal translation of Japanese title 釣りキチ三平, Tsuri Kichi Sampei, is "Crazy fisherman Sampei"). This comic was published in 1974, to have made a big hit, and it was made into cartoon TV series. This comic is about a boy who enjoys various styles of fishing, not only in many places in Japan but also in foreign countries. One of the episodes in SAMPEI is on black bass fishing. In it, he is catching this fish with using metal lip deep diving crank. There were many young boys who got interested in black bass, by reading this comic. You can view some graphics of SAMPEI here.

Lures from many U.S. brands were beginning to appear in fishing shops in 1970's. But Japanese anglers were in a period of trials for lure fishing. Many people could buy American lures, but they had no proper knowledge about how to make actions with them. It is very hard to know what "Dog-Walk action" is, without seeing it with movie or in real.

The tournament organization, Japan B.A.S.S. Nation was established in 1968. And the competition of this game fishing was started in Japan.

1990's

The second lure fishing boom was coming at around the time when the economic bubble burst in Japan.

People were longing for the branded products. This time, Japanese brands were among these wanted popular brands. In fishing scene, Megabass and Zeal were such Japanese brands. For example, POP-X and DOG-X from Megabass were so popular that people were waiting in line at the entrance of fishing shops, when they were launched. For some color of these lures, they sold even at the price of JPY20,000 (USD222, at JPY90 to USD1.00, of the rate in 1995). It was the era that many fishing brands were prospering in Japan. You may know the names such as Lucky Craft and Evergreen. Their lures were gaining their good reputations from Japanese Bass Fishing Tournaments. And many brands were born. Jackall (founded 1999), Keitech (founded 1996) etc.

Along the course, small mouth bass is found, and officially confirmed of its existence in several lakes in Japan. These were causing public to get attention to these foreign species, and black bass and small mouth bass were beginning to be treated as an invasive species in Japan.

2000's

A haunting event in the history of bass fishing came in reality in 2004. The legislation of Specified Alien Species Act (Act on the Prevention of Adverse Ecological Impacts Caused by Designated Invasive Alien Species) passed parliament. It prevents people to release the black bass in most of the lakes in Japan. Strictly speaking we cannot do catch-and-release for black bass in Japan. Obviously, this law gave public the negative view on black bass fishing, and made the negative impact in black bass fishing of Japan. It made the number of bass fishing anglers smaller.

But please don't worry. There are lakes which allows us to enjoy black bass fishing.

Since the number of anglers was decreased, it seemed the living environment became better, ironically. It is the fact that the world's biggest large mouth bass was caught in 2009, in Lake Biwa. You can view the picture here. The size of the fish was 10.12kg and 73.5cm. The second biggest fish was caught in 2006, in Lake Ikehara (Ikehara Dam, 8.686kg), and the third was caught in 2000, in Lake Ikehara (6.28kg).

After this period, bass anglers' tastes were deversefied. Trend of big baits, power finesse, top water geeks, etc. People were looking for their own styles of bass fishing.

2010's and now

Black bass fishing were not the style of fishing we can show as "in-fashion" anymore, because of the negative impression in the public, in Japan. With keeping low profile from the general public, the fire of bass fishing had been simmering. Black bass is keep attracting certain number of big fans, while many former bass anglers became salt water lure anglers.

Here is the list of places where bass fishing openly. In these lakes, black bass fishing is legally admitted as game fishing with catch-and-release.

• Lake Ashi (Ashinoko)
• Lake Kawaguchi (Kawaguchiko)
• Lake Yamanaka (Yamanakako)
• Western Lake (Saiko)

In other lakes in Japan, strictly speaking, catch-and-release is prohibitited formally. But practically, anglers are enjoying.

Summary

The history of bass fishing in Japan is about the history of game fishing in Japan. You can see it as the mixture of traditional fishing and western style angling.

It is the fact that black bass is in Japan now, whatever its origin, and it is extremely hard to eliminate it to zero. It is now in Japanese water ecosystem. Sometimes, people argue that invasion specie eat out all traditional species. But for new spiecie to be sustainable at certain level, it is not so simple. We need to think how we can deal with these foreign species, which our ancestors intentionally brought into Japan, in a practical way.