Saltywater Tackle: Tokara Japan November 2011

Tokara Island has always been a dream that finally, became a reality,
I planned a business trip to Japan and decided to top it up with a bit of fishing. I contacted Mogi-san and ask him if I could join him in on one his trip, kind enough Mogi-san offered me 2 trips to choose from, stating it is not a prime time for GT Fishing, and the whole idea is to explore the area and gain more experience.
I was greeted at Narita airport by Mogi-san and beerman Okubo-san, they picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to Tokyo, we had a great dinner amongst nice people talking about fishing and discussing future destination.
I spend the 2nd day with Mogi-san touring and getting introduced to tackle shops, it is amazing how well the tackle shops are stocked up with products and how the Japanese in general are into fishing, I spend almost and hour in one of the shop and saw a variety of anglers from 16 years old to 70 years old buying tackle, I guess fishing in Japan is more like a cultural thing :)
Mogi-san had arranged the trip for me which made my life easy; he picked me up from the Hotel and off to the airport to take the flight to Kagoshima and then transferred to Amami island to be greeted by Fukui-san the master of the infamous boat in the region ( the big dipper),
We arrived and the weather was not looking good, heavy rain and big swells,
Fukui-san suggest to fish around Amami Island for the day and take off to Tokara on the second day, we landed one GT that day and made it back to one of the lodges on the island which is a typical traditional Japanese Inn, it was a great experience and reminded me from where my Mom comes from in the South of Lebanon.
Fukui-san pushed the big dipper in heavy rain and big swells and we finally made it to the first island, the scenery was out of this world and the structure added to it to make it look so unique, our second day was slow!
Right around dark Fukui-san called the day off and puts the big dipper next to the lodge on Takara Island,
Takara Island has a little story to be told: it is also called Treasure Island!
The story goes back to May 23, 1701. On that date in Scotland, just as he was about to be executed, the famous pirate Capt. Kidd shouted, “I have hidden treasure,” but the executioner paid no attention and carried out the sentence without hearing Kidd’s explanation.
It is believed that the treasure is still on the island.
We launched from Takara island on our third day and I can finally see the harbor and the marina, the harbor is build with high concrete barrier wall and on the other side you have natural rocks with about 7 to 10 feet from the sea level, this is where all the top water GT action happen in the past 20 years, and there is a prime time for it, the GT’s will push the flying fish inside the harbor and the top water bite will be on fire, it happens every year and it last for about 2 to 3 weeks , Mogi-san pointed to me where he landed his 60kg GT from the shore, I spoke to Fukui-san and manage to gather more info about casting from shore.
I decided to jig due to the slow action and manage couple of fish here and there, we popped in some area that you would imagine it to be loaded with fish but NOT!
Right before dark I start getting doggies on almost every drop and I lost a good one, lost 4 jigs that day due to cut offs, I jigged from 40 meters to 150 meters and had most of the strikes around the 60 meters mark. The guys manage 2 nice doggies on top water.
On our last day we made a couple of stops near Takara Island and caught more doggies and lost more jigs, at least I am going back home light J
The guys where only focusing on popping and none of them had any jigging outfit, some of them are not interested to do any jigging while others don’t even own a jigging rod.
We get a couple of fish and called the trip off.
I had a great time regardless of the fishing, adding Tokara Island experience to my log book is something that I was always keen to do,
I thank Mogi-san for his hospitality and friendship; he was so kind to me,
Delighted to have the opportunity to fish onboard one of the most famous Captain in Japan Fukui-san, a very humbled person!
Till the next trip TOKARA!
Enjoy the photo!!!
Tight lines
Sami