Fishing in the Tokyo Bay

My wife and I took a holiday trip to Japan last week to see our families and friends, and while we were there, I spent a few days and nights with my brother and friend to fish around the Tokyo Bay.

To cut the story short, fishing wasn't that productive for us. We were hoping to hook up some seabass or bream, and we looked around different places, but only thing we found was a small rock fish which I caught on my squid pattern.





The weather has been unusually cold and wet for spring, and the water was looking very quiet. Also we didn't have enough info about fishing spots, and finding the place to fish was getting too hard at the end in Tokyo. We came across many places which were either fenced off or having "NO Fishing" signs.

I still believe that the Tokyo Bay has a good fishing potential as we saw a number of pictures of people holding big seabasses and monster breams over 50cm. I met one lure fisherman along the river near my brother's house, and he told me that on the right day and the right phase of the tide, the water gets full of seabasses. I was bit skeptic as "the river" was just a massive concrete gutter untill I saw two nice size seabasses swimming away in front of us.

Although we didn't get much in terms of fishing, at the end of the day, I still had a good time catching up with my fishing friend, and driving around Tokyo with my brother exploring different waterways. My brother is not into fishing, but he was kindly taking me from place to place, and patiently watching me catching nothing.

Thank you guys.


Apparently seabass even runs into a ditch like this. Photo by Itaru


家族に会いに二週間程日本へ。

釣り旅行では無かったのですが、そこは釣りキチ、時間があれば水求めて東京湾を右へ左へとウロウロ。結果から言うと、結局シーバスはおろか、クロダイすら釣れなかった。唯一の釣果は、千葉の港で釣れた小さなロックフィッシュ一匹（それでも初めての魚でしたので嬉しかったですが）。

普段好きな所で自由にウェーディングで釣りをしている事に慣れているせいか、東京は非常に釣りにくい場所に思えました。川があっても岸は落ちたら上がる事ができないコンクリートの壁。フェンス越しのキャスティング。関係者以外立ち入り禁止の看板、車を止める場所などなど、魚を探す前に釣りができる場所を探すのが大変でした。

それでも東京湾には多くのシーバスやクロダイがいる様で、釣具屋には大きな魚を持った人の写真が何枚も貼られていました。５０cmオーバーのクロダイも釣れる所では釣れるみたいです。次回は事前に釣り場をもっとリサーチしてから行くとしましょう。

それにしても今回は春とは思えない寒さでした。弟君、寒い中、僕の我がままに付き合ってくれてどうもありがとう。

Shopping at one of Patagonia stores in Tokyo


Fishing between sky scrappers

Why do we need a boat?

I went to a boat show in Fremantle with my friends today.

Although I still like to see different boats as I used to sail when I was young, a boat is something which does not interest me that much in terms of fishing. I know that most of big ocean going fishes require some sort of boats to catch them, but for 99% of fishing I do, I don't need a boat to catch good fish.

A kayak may still be a good idea, but even a kayak requires fiddling to get it onto the water. A boat sounds like just too much work involved to keep it going. More time on playing around with boats and less time fishing. Some of my friends own nice fishing boats, but I don't see them going out on boats every weekend, and may be there are some reasons for it.

Have you boys decided which one to buy?

This was only thing caught my eye and only thing I could ever afford.

Anyway, after the boat show, we went back to fishing on the Canning River, and Mike hooked up a really nice fish. He was actually on fire hooking up 5 fish with one very ugly looking but highly effective fly whereas the rest of us got none.

The river looked so beautiful this afternoon, and it was lovely to wade in the river feeling water and sand with own feet. I just don't get the same feeling of intimacy with environment if I was on a boat.

As I was watching my friend's releasing his nice fish, I asked my self, "Why do we need a boat on such a peaceful day like today anyway?".




Mike fighting his big fish.


Only big fish kicks water like this.






Good on you, Mike.


Mike's beautiful 40cm bream.

Do clouds really suck?

We had a typical bream fishing weather today.

The sky was covered with clouds and wind was strong, and fishing was very good. I stopped counting my catch after ten fish. Although, I didn't hook up any monster, I got a few fine fish which took some line.

I have seen my friend wearing a T-shirt saying, "Clouds Suck". I can understand his sentiment as he loves chasing big fish on flats of Exmouth. Sight fishing is a name of the game of flats, and as we know, to sight fish well, we need a clear sky.

For bream fishing in general, I think clouds are good things. Breams are very cautious and timid fish, and I believe that they come into shallows to feed much more readily on an overcast day.





今日は、昼から曇り空。サイトフィッシングには晴天が良いですが、ブラインドでの釣りではむしろ曇りの方が良いです。

晴天の凪の日などは、クロダイは鵜や釣り人を警戒してか浅瀬にはあまり入って来ません。逆に曇りの日や風で水面がちょっと荒れているコンディションだと魚は岸際までエビ、カニ、小魚などを食べに来ます。

モンスタークラスは出ませんでしたが、久々の２桁の釣果に満足です。

近くでエサで釣っていた家族はフグばっかり。「どんなエサを使っているのか」と聞かれたので、フライボックスの中を見せてあげると、？顔。クロダイのフライフィッシング、この辺りではエサ釣りには負けません。