The season for largescale blackfish fishing has officially begun.

Fishing date: 12/7-12/8　

Fishing spot: Nakagoto (side)

Tide: Neap

December has arrived and the season for fishing for largescale blackfish has come into full swing, allowing you to target both size and quantity.

The originally planned fishing spot was the Kamigoto area, but due to strong northwest winds expected to occur around December 8th, I decided to head to the Nakagoto area, which is sheltered from the wind.

We left the port around 12 o'clock and arrived at the rocky shore of a deep sea sandwiched between Saotohana and Arase, where we would be reefing, just before 14 o'clock.The likely fishing spots were the west-facing dock and the high ground facing south.

In preparation for the wind that would pick up in the night, I moved my luggage to a higher place, and my fishing buddy Torisu and I set up fishing side by side on a high spot on the south side.

The terrain is deep from your feet and there is a sunken reef about 100m offshore. You can see Saohana on the left, part of the north side has been cut off to form a waterway, and Mitsuse can be seen on the right, making for a soothing view.

The tide flow seemed good, and I was expecting to see some largescale blackfish at the best time of the day, so I started with a rod, line, and leader of size 1.75. I also used newly released bait.

GREAT GURE (2.5kg)

GMAX (3.1kg)

With a blend of two pieces of krill (6kg) was used, and the main bait used was Namaikikun PRO.

First, I'll aim for the area around my feet, floating the float and searching using a full-depth rig.

Even after putting out the ground bait for a while, there was no sign of any largescale blackfish on the surface, and all I could see were schools of silver-striped herring, and I could hardly feel the current flowing. While the rig flows side to side, I slowly sent it out one rod deep, and when I got my first bite, it was a sea chub shaking its head and hitting the tip of my rod.

This happened three times in a row, so I gave up and switched to heading offshore.

With the northwest wind blowing from the pier, the rising tide is slipping and I think the tackle won't work, so I'll try fishing offshore by sinking the bait to its full depth.

Bubbles from the current were flowing toward the tip of Saohana, and I thought it was the effect of the wind, but the weight of the tide was firmly on the sinking float, and my hopes of catching some largescale blackfish were rising.

As I was carefully flowing the bait so that it won't float away by pulling the line too hard, I was finally able to feel a weight on the tip of my rod that I had never felt before when the line reached a depth of 5 rods, and then the line started to run and I was able to land my first largescale blackfish in the dip net.

The hit pattern was just as I had imagined, and I continued to catch a second and third fish, and by the time I had caught five or six fish, the sun had set.

Of course, in between the largescale blackfish, I also caught some grunt, so I was able to secure some fish to take home as souvenirs.

I started night fishing and changed my tackle to a No. 3 rod and No. 5 line, and aimed for the edge of the rapids while scattering boiled bait, but the forecasted rain and wind started to get stronger and even sleet started to mix in, making fishing very difficult.

When I cast the bait deeper, I caught some well-shaped red grouper, but the occasional fish that bite were mostly sweepers.

During our midnight snack break, Torisu-kun treated me to some hot oden, which we used to warm us up as we continued fishing until the morning, but our only catch that night was one red grouper and one small horse mackerel.

The next morning, the boat is ready to be retrieved at around 10am, so there is only a little time left to fish, so we quickly prepared new ground bait.

Great Grey is an excellent lure that blends in well with water and can be cast far without having to be mixed.

Once the bait was finished in a short amount of time, its outstanding casting ability allowed it to catch a lot of largescale blackfish that were biting at a mid-range of 2 to 4 rods at dawn, and it increased my catch. Once the ground bait started to work, even large fish over 45 cm started to get caught, and I was able to finish with very satisfying results.

This time, I hadn't been to that area in a while, so I had to think about whether the largescale blackfish were deep or shallow, but I feel that the wide range of coverage of the Great Gure and the G-Max helped me.

Why not choose your ideal blend of ingredients for a bag of Great Gure and aim to catch the biggest largescale blackfish of the season?