non-yak - snapper fishing in the Inland Sea of Japan (October, 2011)

I recently returned from visiting my inlaws near Hiroshima Japan. Actually  both my wife and I were completely ignored as we brought over our 18 month old daughter to the grandparents, so as soon as she transferred to their hands (on the arrival train platform, no less), I was just taking up space.

On the bright side, my brother in law used my visit as an opportunity to go fishing!

The snapper were on a bite for the past couple of weeks, and the yellowtail were just coming in. The plan was to join a semi-charter (the captain was a friend of my BOI), so we signed up for Saturday. As it turned out, the squid hatch was a good one, and people were taking advantage of fishing for them instead, so we were the only 2 who signed up. Luckily the boat's policy was a minimum of 2 meant it was a go!

We fished 65-90 g speed jigs (2-3 oz) in 25 to 50 M of water. The trick to catching snapper was to bounce the jig off the bottom, reel up steadily for about 20 cranks, and then let it drop again. When the bite comes, do *not* set the hook in any way! Keep reeling a steadily until it hooks itself. This is HARD! The willpower required to not set the hook is incredible!

We did pretty well in the AM, and then traveled around the inland sea looking for bail and boils indicating YT, but to no avail.

Here are the pics from the day. More scenery than fish, but there is a little Tai Porn here for ya!

Peter

You're so lucky to be traveling the world.  Hope you are and the family are doing well. Andy

Well, that was strange...last night when I tried to post this, the site seemed to freeze up and then I could no longer connect - either by PC or Tapatalk. I actually didn't think it went through.

Anyway, here are the rest of the pics, and the "porn" I promised!

Andy - thanks for the well wishes. Family is doing great and the grandparents did a wonderful job of spoiling Rika!

and a couple more scenery shots.

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing!

That is awesome! Glad to see that you had a awesome experience way across the Pacific.

Glad to see that you had a awesome experience way across the Pacific.

The setonaikai is a cool place. So many islands that you would get lost in a hurry, and the current can absolutely rip through there - looks like a river at full flood sometimes.

Known for its oysters, snapper, and squid, there are also ton of other fish to be caught there. I wonder what it would have been like before pollution and overfishing?

Here is where we were fishing:

Cool was hoping for some fish pics.  Take some pics of Japanese lures if you ever get time.

Awesome report, Kook!  Love the scenery, exotic fish, in-law talk, and the all-around good vibe.  Nice work and congrats on living life right.   

Nice job Obkook! Very nice snapper, should try for suzuki (seabass) or aji as well. I miss the time I spent there especially fishing and the Ramen. My wife was station in Yokosuka from 2006-2009 so got to live there and met some very cool people.

Another nice report from across the Pacific... nice! Thx for sharing your trip and the fish porn.  Liked the last pic- the last time I had sashimi served on the bone like that, the muscles were still twitching and the eye movement was uncanny.  Looking forward to your next Japan report.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

Great pics, thanks for the vacation!

Thanks for all the nice comments!

Cool was hoping for some fish pics.  Take some pics of Japanese lures if you ever get time.

Andy, here are a couple of pics I had that included lures.

The speed jigs were made of tungsten. Very heavy, but very small which was great in the current, but really expensive. ($30 a pop!)

The other lure is a topwater lure for yellowtail, tossing out into a boil with a fast jerky retrieve along the surface.

By the way, my "loaner" rig was a $1K rod and top of the line shimano reel. Never had seen any rod like it. Strong backbone, but the tip was made of an extremely flexible metal. Made special for snapper, since the slightest hint of a pull on the lure makes them drop it. They chase the tail up, nibbling it until they hook themselves on the floating hooks.

Sure felt great, but I was so nervous using it...

OB, how's the kayak fishing scene over there? Very curious....

Hi Peter, I was wondering where you've been since our last EKG run.  Nice photo of the views and Japanese jigs.  Rly, tungsten weight! that's some expansive stuff man, speaking of a culture that pursuits quality over quantity!

Hermes