Sabiki in Japan
Sabiki is a well known word, standing for one type of boat fishing rig, globally. It has a kind of down shot style, with multiple branched hook leaders attached on the main line. Often there are 6 to 8 pieces of hooks attached, and each hook has additional materials on its shank. With these materials, […]
Origin of Tenkara Style Fishing
Tenkara (Japanese traditional fly fishing) is now established as one of the major fishing styles in the freshwater fishing market in Japan. Many people are enjoying this in many types of streams, where main target fish live. In Japan, there are even artificial fisheries dedicated to Tenkara. Though this fishing style can be applied to […]
Why so many kinds of hooks in Japan?
There are many kinds of hooks in Japan. Since angling became a kind of a leisure activity in the Edo period, there came a lot of shapes of hooks. In a fishing guide book, Kasenroku, written in 1723, the author recorded the various kinds of hooks. This book was written by an author who lived […]
Japan’s Favorite Fish; Madai
Tai is the favorite fish for Japanese people. There are many fish called -tai or -dai (“dai” is the variant pronunciation of “tai”, so here tai and dai means the same.) There are Kuro-dai, Me-dai, Fuefuki-dai, etc. You can say that Tai is the typical image of fish for Japanese people. And it is highly […]
History of Inchiku; the Ingenuity of Japanese Fisherman
Inchiku is easy to use and a very effective lure for offshore fishing. This Inchiku is often called an Inchiku Jig (the brief explanation about this lure on this New Zealand website.) This Inchiku is from Japan, but its origin is not so clear for us. In this article, I would like to venture to […]
Vintage Pattern of Tenkara Fly
This is except from a Japanese book about traditional river fishing. Original name of the book is shown at the end of this article. This book explores the tradition of river fishing (commercial fishing as well as angling.) It shows a lot about the intericate interaction between men and rivers. Among these interesting contents, please […]
Mabuna; Magic of Multiple Floats
「釣りは鮒に始まり鮒に終わる」 “Your fishing life starts from crucian carp and ends with it” This is a Japanese fishing proverb. It tells us that anglers start fishing experience with crucian carp, and they enjoy it until the very last tourney of angling. Crucian carp have been very accessible fish in the life of Japanese people, and easy […]
Tenya; Japanese Traditional Jig Head?
Imagine you are catching a 60 cm red sea bream with a jig head. It uses a kind of jig head style hook with 5 to 8 cm shrimp as a bait. You use a 0.15mm thick braided line with a rod with a sensitive tip. You can feel the attack of a fish directly […]
Angling for Tuna in Japan
Tuna is a very popular fish in Japan, not only for eating, but also for angling. It is much more accessible than one thinks. Around Japan, one can catch Kuro-maguro (Pacific bluefin tuna) and Binnaga-maguro (Albacore or longfin tuna.) As for its size, Kuro-maguro is the trophy for anglers. Species There are two species of […]
The Small is Beautiful; World of Tanago Fishing
Is it fun to catch small fish? Yes, it is, especially for Tanago (Bitterling, Rhodeus ocellatus). Fishing for Tanago Using a whip rod of 1 m, its main line is 0.10mm, and the leader is 0.08mm. One uses a hook about the size of the head of a match. The popular rig is float fishing […]