non-yak - Fishing the inland sea of Japan

I'm currently in Hiroshima visiting my inlaws, who live on the inland sea of Japan (protected from the ocean by a myriad of small islands). The area is renown for its delicious oysters and seafood.

My bro-in-law asked me if I wanted to go out fishing for "mebaru" which is a kind of small rockfish. They use super whippy 12 ft rods with 6 hook sabikis. We went out on a typical Japanese center cabin boat called the "Dai Maru" and came back with 1/2 cooler full of mainly mebaru, with a couple of Aji, and a Tai thrown in.

We ate the Tai as sashimi, then boiled the bones in soup. The others were either done as "niitsuke" (simmered in sake and soy like here: http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,20252.0.html ), or as deep fried and then pickled in vinegar ("nanbanzuke")

The pics here are of the nanbanzuke. I'll twist my mother in law's arm for that recipe to post!

Anyway, here are some pics of the great fun and feast!

Peter

More pics:

Looks like a great time. Thanks for sharing Peter. Those mebaru, are the fully grown? Look like juvenile rock fish.

ernest

thx for sharing.  It's so nice to see reports from overseas, and see/learn things that we're not used to seeing here.  thx again.

Earnest, I had the same thought, but was told that the "big ones" are spawning and don't start coming in until about Feb or March. Those are about the size of your hand. I showed people pics of some of the rockfish I've caught in CA and they were shocked to see the size.

My brother works at for the MN DNR and opined that years of overfishing could be the cause of this? Or it could simply be that they are a different species. I don't know, but one thing I do know is that they are super tasty!

Peter

グレート釣りレポート
Awesome report Peter, thanks for sharing. Were those gopro pics?

Dude! Thats whats up! Looks friggin awsome! Do you have to get An out of country license? What kind of beer is that? Thanks for the report...

Great report!  Thanks for sharing the exotic fish and killer grub.   

cool report, hope you can get the recipe from MIL, looks yummy, thanks for sharing, cameron

Yummy! glad you are having a good time

グレート釣りレポート
Awesome report Peter, thanks for sharing. Were those gopro pics?

Nice Japanese, Joe! 日本語は上手ですね！I didn't bring the gopro with me on this trip. You catching any waves?

Dude! Thats whats up! Looks friggin awsome! Do you have to get An out of country license? What kind of beer is that? Thanks for the report...

No license required in Japan for sport fishing! The beer is Suntory Malts, but I prefer the original Kirin Lager or Sapporo Black Label.

Pa-in-law drinks sake, so I've been mainly sticking to that. He likes a glass of hot sake with breakfast too. Great way to start the day!

Very cool and interesting. Looks super tasty too!!

Great post obkook. Hows that ankle doing?

Thanks for sharing your oversea fishing trip Peter.

Awesome report!  that is way too awesome.