Full Day Boat Game Part 2 – Ito Bay, Shizuoka
It was about 10am, and still no sign of dolphinfish. Wave became mild, tidal current slowed down, and school of chub mackerels disappeared. So, I took my lunch and fell asleep for about an hour or so.
I woke up when someone was laughing loudly, and I saw a boat next to me throwing jig and catching yellowtail. My boat was drifted a bit, and there was another group of boats with lure fishermen. I changed to lure tackle and start throwing jig too, but I caught nothing.
Fish on Surface… Dolphinfish?
Around 1pm, I saw a school of fast swimming fish on surface. “Dolphinfish?" I asked the next boat, and they replied “Nope, maybe yellow tail, maybe frigate mackerel". I prepared a ritual to make sure, so I threw sacrificial anchovis on surface to see if the specie is large predator or not. Tried this few times, but no sign of large fish taking the bait this size.
I pulled in the chum bag and threw in the piece around the boat and confirmed that it was school of frigate mackerels. OK…. no dolphinfish or yellowtail, but this is the chance time of the day.
Chance Time for Frigate Mackerels
I set the chum bag in position again and began fly fishing with clouser deep minnow. I cast in middle distance and retrieve the streamer with high pace using rod to make darting action. First fish bit the fly, hesitated for a moment, then rocketed downward with tremendous strength. It was pure fun to fight this fish with fly rod bent in arc and fly reel screaming as line was eaten out.
If you ever have chance, you are gonna love fishing this specimen. I’m sure this one belongs to the weak side of blue runners in comparison with skipjack or tuna, but I enjoyed every fish I caught.
Troubles and Finding the Strongest Fishing Method
Then I had a trouble. I completely forgot about my bait tackle left in surface and one of the frigate mackerel finally noticed it and took the bite… It pulled out bait rig in rapid speed and tangled with my fly line then with anchor rope… Both my spinning rod and fly rod bent all the way to their limit, so I had to stop fishing and start pulling heavy anchor.
Gosh… this anchor rope felt like hundred fish on it. It was heavy as hell. I pulled about 10m and recovered my fly rig and a fish on it, and I pulled about another 10m and recovered bait rig with a fish on it, but it didn’t finish there… I still felt something dangling on my rope, so I decided to pull it all the way in then I found a 40cm yellow tail with a jig stack in his mouth. It must had come from the boat previously next to me, so I row back to the fleet and asked. I gave back the jig to the owner, showed the fish, and he let me keep the yellowtail.
If someone asks you what’s best among bait, lure, and fly fishing, I would go up to him and say: ROPE FISHING!
I then kept splashing the surface to attract another school of fish, but there was no more sign of anything on surface. I stopped fishing around 4pm and headed for cold beer.
Great thing after fishing in this area is that Ito is full of attractions and spa. I stopped by a shopping mall “Michi no Eiki" next to marina and had wonderful meal and hot spring bath. They have resting space where they let you take a nap, so I did and had wonderful time.
Talking about attraction, you may want to stay in this mall until night time for this. They light up the marina underwater in which you get to see many fish schooling. Occasionally, large sea perch swim by to show the feeding, which is quite exciting. This is NO FISHING zone, but who wants to fish in aquarium any way? Well…. I do…
Result (fly tackle only)
– Frigate mackerel 30-32cm x 6
– Chub mackerel 20-23cm x 4
– Crimson seabream 14cm x 1
It was about 10am, and still no sign of dolphinfish. Wave became mild, tidal current slowed down, and school of chub mackerels disappeared. So, I took my lunch and fell asleep for about an hour or so.
I woke up when someone was laughing loudly, and I saw a boat next to me throwing jig and catching yellowtail. My boat was drifted a bit, and there was another group of boats with lure fishermen. I changed to lure tackle and start throwing jig too, but I caught nothing.
Around 1pm, I saw a school of fast swimming fish on surface. “Dolphinfish?" I asked the next boat, and they replied “Nope, maybe yellow tail, maybe frigate mackerel". I prepared a ritual to make sure, so I threw sacrificial anchovis on surface to see if the specie is large predator or not. Tried this few times, but no sign of large fish taking the bait this size.
I pulled in the chum bag and threw in the piece around the boat and confirmed that it was school of frigate mackerels. OK…. no dolphinfish or yellowtail, but this is the chance time of the day.
Chance Time for Frigate Mackerels
I set the chum bag in position again and began fly fishing with clouser deep minnow. I casted in middle distance and retrieve the streamer with high pace using rod to make darting action. First fish bit the fly, hesitated for a moment, then rocketed downward with tremendous strength. It was pure fun to fight this fish with fly rod bent in arc and fly reel screaming as line was eaten out.
If you ever have chance, you are gonna love fishing this speci! I’m sure this one belogs to the weak side of blue runners in comparison with skipjack or tuna, but I enjoyed every fish I caught.
Troubles and Finding the Strongest Fishing Method
Then I had a trouble. I completely forgot about my bait tackle left in surface and one of the frigate mackerel finally noticed it and took the bite… It pulled out bait rig in rapid speed and tangled with my fly line then with anchor rope… Both my spinning rod and fly rod bent all the way to their limit, so I had to stop fishing and start pulling heavy anchor.
Gosh… this anchor rope felt like hundred fish on it. It was heavy as hell. I pulled about 10m and recovered my fly rig and a fish on it, and I pulled about another 10m and recovered bait rig with a fish on it, but it didn’t finish there… I still felt something dangling on my rope, so I decided to pull it all the way in then I found a 40cm yellow tail with a jig stack in his mouth. It must had come from the boat previously next to me, so I row back to the fleet and asked. I gave back the jig to the owner, showed the fish, and he let me keep the yellowtail.
If someone asks you what’s best among bait, lure, and fly fishing, I would go up to him and say: ROPE FISHING!
I then kept splashing the surface to attract another school of fish, but there was no more sign of anything on surface. I stopped fishing around 4pm and headed for cold beer.
Great thing after fishing in this area is that Ito is full of attractions and spa. I stopped by a shopping mall “Michi no Eiki" next to marina and had wonderful meal and hot spring bath. They have resting space where they let you take a nap, so I did and had wonderful time.
Talking about attraction, you may want to stay in this mall until night time for this. They light up the marina underwater in which you get to see many fish schooling. Occasionally, large sea perch swim by to show the feeding, which is quite exciting. This is NO FISHING zone, but who wants to fish in aquarium any way? Well…. I do…
– Frigate mackerel 30-32cm x 6
– Chub mackerel 20-23cm x 4
– Crimson seabream 14cm x 1