Martyn White | Thursday, 25 January 2024
Well, I managed to get Raslan out on Tokyo Bay on Monday night despite the weather. He actually thought it wasn't so bad when I got him wrapped up in thermals and waterproofs.
I brought a little spinning rod and some lures for him to use. I also had an extra fly rod just in case he wanted to use it. He's not very experienced with the fly, so he didn't but he should have...
Capt. Masuda was his usual cheery self and happily tested the limits of his English with Ras as we motored straight out to fish around a near shore platform, skipping the usual marks that are closer to the marina. At these platforms we target the lit areas around the legs. The first leg, despite being clearly surrounded by bait, seemed to only have one bass on it that I hooked and lost before it went quiet. A quick move to the main platform produced a couple of fish, with Ras getting a nice fish around 60cm for his first ever Japanese seabass! But again things went quiet pretty quickly. I was starting to wonder if we were still a bit early for the full post spawn return.
We moved to another platform long arms and a causeway linking in to shore. The lights around the legs of the arms weren't showing much of interest, but the legs of the causeway were providing a bit of a current break and the largest lit area had a lovely, big, dark brown blotch moving around it.. Some kind of bait surrounded by boiling bass. One cast and one strip and I was connected to a nice fish. Meanwhile Ras was having fish chase and slash at his minnow, but couldn't hook up. I think I had 4 more in the boat before he eventually connected with a fish. A few more and one spewed up a few baitfish, 6-7cm anchovies. I was quite happy to stick with my 7cm Albiewhore, it's a good match and the fish were eating it with gusto. We stayed around the causeway for a good hour or more putting plenty of fish in the boat. Surprisingly, I was outfishing Ras by 3 to 1. Generally I would expect conventional to be more productive than the fly, but even the smallest lure Ras had was a bit too big and probably too noisy for the bass that were so focused on the small baitfish. Also it's a lot quicker to lip a fish and slide a single hook free, than net one and unhook a couple of trebles from a fish that's not cooperating. More fishing time and a better imitation, made the fly far superior - even when dealing with the cold induced tangles in the clear intermediate!
Raslan didn't have a bad night though,the next place we stopped at was even more full of fish and he said he'd never caught so many fish in such a short time. By the end of the night we'd easily put 80 fish in the boat. 20 odd for Ras and me making up the rest. The fish were in surprisingly good condition after the spawn, plenty with nice full bellies too which was nice. But honestly I was glad to call it a night when we stopped, both my thumbs were raw with bass rash and unlike the tourist I had work in the morning