Scouting Estuary of Naka River – Oarai, Ibaraki

2010/05/022020/11/25

I was travelling to Iaraki for family vacation for 2 days, and I spared few hours early in the morning to scout the estuary of Naka River, Japan's renowned seabass fishing spot. I shouldn't be doing this for I'm having pains in my left arm to shoulder which turns me away from lots of lefthand motion: fly fishing. Anyway, I brougt a lure tackle instead.

I got to the bridge point around 3:30am just befoe tide hit its peak, and I saw very tiny rise around where light was creating shade. I casted Range Vibe to the downstream side of the bridge base where turburance was created. I got 2 hits and 1 small seabass hooked. Then I realized something funny going on with my spinning reel which had no drag whatsoever. As I was having trouble trying to somehow reel in the line, tension broke and fish escaped.

Then around 4:00am, wind turned cold and rise stopped while I managed to fix my reel's drag. I changed the lure to Texas rig with 2" plastic worm which attained another hit, but no hook up. This place looks really prominent when condition is right.

We left Mito back towards Tokyo and stopped by the town of Tsukuba, science central of Japan. My intention was to let my boys enjoy touching the essence of science, but I came across interesting panel...