Herabuna Fishing

In Herabuna fishing, you can find the roots of angling in Japan. The fish, rod, rigs, and baits all are reflecting the typical Japanese style of angling.

Currently Herabuna fishing (or Hera fishing) is enjoyed by many enthusiasts. There are artificial ponds dedicated to this fish. Many natural lakes, ponds and rivers have Herabuna, also. Let me introduce you to this first gamefish in Japan.

Photo from https://plus.luremaga.jp/2022/04/19/148463/

Species and distribution

Herabuna is one of the carp related species (but without a beard). Appearance is very close to crucian carp. This is a native species in Japan, bred from fish called Gengoro-buna (Carassius cuvieri). Originally, this fish lived around Lake Biwa.

In the Taisho period, the individual pieces of crucial carp with higher backs were picked and used to breed Herabuna, which had a high body. Firstly, farming of this new fish got popular in the Osaka area (the biggest city in western Japan), for angling (leisure fishing). Then this fish was brought to the Kanto region (eastern Japan), in 1918. Some records said that this expansion was partially driven to secure human food sources, as well as angling fun.

Since then, this fish has spread all over Japan. Because they have inherited the true gene as Japanese native fish, it has been sustainable in most types of fresh waters. You can find Herabuna fish ponds, lakes, and rivers. Generally, the population of it is stable, but some people say that its population is decreasing because of predator species (invasive species like largemouth bass etc.) From an angler point of view, this argument is not strong enough because Herabuna was also an invasive species locally within Japan, though.

The history of Herabuna was summarized based on the info on this site (in Japanese).

Characteristics

Anglers say that Herabuna and its ancestors after Gengoro-buna are herbivores. But some research (like this one) tells us that it is omnivore. One of the unique characteristics of Herabuna is that it feeds with sucking water and filtering the food out of sucked water. They say that it eats phytoplankton. However, the filtered food can contain animal planktons, and it is natural to think it is omnivore in a broader sense. Anglers use paste baits, which may contain animal based ingredients, as well as plant based ones.

Depending on seasons and water temperature, Herabuna can be any depth range of the water. It can eat something floating on the water, and sucking the bottom mud to filter the food out of it. 

It spawns on the water grass from the end of March until June. Around spawning time, they rushes to the shore and it is great timing to enjoy shallow range fishing nearby. It grows rapidly, to become 30 cm length in 2 to 3 years. This growth is much faster than that related species of crucian carp in Japan (Ginbuna) take 5 years to become the same size. As long as the water temperature is above 4 degrees centigrade, it can keep feeding activity. It swims in school and moves around the water. As anglers can catch it in the middle of winter, some individual fish do eat though their movement is very weak.  

Fishing

Herabuna fishing is done by a whip rod. Typically length is 2.7m to 3.6m, but in the artificial ponds, 1.8m is often used. It uses the float and two hooks to carry the paste baits. 

The outstanding characteristics of the total rig is the long float. It is very thin and slim and has the length of 15 cm to 30 cm. Generally, the length of the total line is about the same length as the rod. And the longer your rod is, the longer float you select. Longer float has stronger buoyancy and it can hold a heavier sinker (often cylindrical rounded thin led plate) to deliver the hooks in depth quicker. 

The small scales on the tip are for the purpose of detecting the bite properly. Depending on the types of bait and floats, the signals on the float tip are different. Naturally, anglers have thousands of words about it, like you can feel from the figure below.

For the bait, artificial powder baits are the most popular one. Most of them are plant based, and popular ingredients are mashed potato, flour, soy pulp, and rice bran. Some contain the powder of silkworm chrysalis or dried shrimp, as an attractor. It is considered that these animal origin ingredients work as an attractant or an additional flavor. 

If you are a match fisherman in the U.K. or a feeder angler in Europe, you are able to imagine how important the stickiness of baits is. This is also the same for Hera fishing. Sometimes, it makes a big difference in the result.   

The baits should be formed on the hook to resolve at a certain speed and spread the bait particles in the water. Not only the hardness of the paste, but also the shapes make a big difference in the manner of resolving.

You can see the whole sequence of fishing from this video (shallow range fishing in summer).

Since there are some artificial ponds around Tokyo and Osaka, if you have a chance to visit there, why don’t you try Herabuna fishing?