| updated '06.02.17 |
| What is Ayu-fishing? Ayu (Plecoglos-sas altivelis) is the fish that lives in flesh water in only Far East. The maximum size is 1 feet long and maximum weight is 6 ounce. The life span is usually one year. In late Fall, it bears eggs on the shallow sandy river-bed in down-stream of river, then new-born Ayu goes down to the Ocean after hatched. And it goes back to river again in early Spring. It lives down-stream and mid-stream of river. Nowadays due to the artificial dams in river, it can not go up beyond tall dams. So many artificially hatched Ayus are released into river in Spring by freshwater-fisherman-union in order to keep the resources. Then it eats moss on stones in clean water and then grows up rapidly. "It usually has the aggressive territorism, so it can keep the moss for itself. When another Ayu invades into its territory, it attacks the invader by aiming at a caudalanal fin. In ancient, Japanese fisherman invented a special fishing method called Tomo-zuri, by taking advantage of the habit. 'Tomo' means friend and 'zuri ' means fishing in Japanese. The carbon fishing-rod is usually 30 feet long and the diameter of fishing-line is 0.09mm or less, normally. Then a vivid and live Ayu is tied up at the bottom of fishing line by using nose-ring, and small fishing hooks are placed near caudal fin to catch wild Ayu when it attacks the tethered(tied) Ayu. fisherman handles his Ayu to invade the wild Ayu's territory. When the Ayu enters the wild Ayu's territory, the resident dashes itself to drive away the invader out of the the territory, then eventually it is caught by one of the fishing-hooks. When you catch the wild Ayu, the tethered Ayu should be changed to the new one immediately. The more vivid the Ayu tethered is, the more Ayus you are able to catch . And having your Ayu move as natural as possible is the key to catching more Ayus. The Ayu-fishing season is limited by law that is usually from June to October, and the average of fishing fee is $15 a day in Japan. Ayu is of course very delicious. Raw Ayu smells like watermelon.
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| '05/06/01 '05 Ayu season has come. New! On June 1st, more than the half of the rivers are the opening the fishing season. In this year, there are little rains here in Japan unlike ordinal years. That means the river's condition is not good for Ayus caused by bad mosses on the rock for Ayu and inconvenience to move and scatter over the whole river. Anyway I went to do Ayu fishing in Toyogawa River 20miles away from home on June 1. There are fewer Ayu fishing person, compared to the average year. And the moss is dirty and rotten.Eventually the size of Ayu was about a half inch, which is not good for as live decoy. I caught 10 Ayus only which is very disappointed number. Because the season last by the end of October, I will wait for the chance that Ayu become bigger and more aggressive. |
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 There were about a dozen of fishing people in sight, in the Toyo-gawa River. |
 The upper stream view from my fishing spot. |
 The rock called "ox rock", in front of my fishing spot. |
 The downstream view from my fishing spot. |
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| '04/11/26&27 Wrap-up event for '04Ayu-season Usually Ayu season is from June to October, and the last month is the best month to fish big Ayu's. Because a few typhoon unusually landed on the Mainland of Japan in October , I was unable to go Ayu-fishing then. and it was the last day to do fishing Ayus on September 18, with Mike, Guy, Jeff and Fred. Since then, I had been very frustrated because of no chance to go fishing Ayu, and the season has been over. Happily, my AYU-fishing friends planed, got together and played golf for 2 three-sum, with golf clubs instead of Carbon-fiber-fishing- rods in their hands on November 26. It was a beautiful and joyful day to play golf, even though my score was terrible. And they also set up farewell dinner in the evening to celebrate my retirement from Yamaha Motor Company, they presented a good Casio-sports-watch to me there too, in order to use it in the next Ayu-season; I will not completely quit working for Yamaha, though. Next day, I washed three Ayu-fishing rods with water, dried them by exposing in the sunshine all day, and then wiped up by waste-cloths, by having complex feelings with expecting to catch many for next season and missing this season. Actually, the circumstance of Ayu-fishing became worse year by year, due to decreasing natural Ayus that are born and grow up in the river; instead of in hatcheries, of which are not aggressive enough to chase live-decoy-Ayu, However I hope and prey that the next season will be better than this year. |
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| '04/09/18 Ayu-fishing with American friends in the Ochise-River Our American friends: Mike, Guy, Jeff and Fred, have been in Hamamatsu for several days, from California and Colorado. We went to the Ochise-River where is a branch of the Tenryu River to enjoy barbecue and Ayu-fishing, in order to show them a typical Japanese mountain area and the fishing peculiar to Japan, with seven Japanese guys. The drive took 2 hours from the Hamamatsu Okura hotel to the river, and we arrived there at 10:30.AM I immediately prepared Ayu-fishing tackle for Mike who has been eager to try the fishing. I set a nose ring to the live Ayu and fishing hooks at the bottom of fishing line, then explained him how to handle the live Ayu: " let it move and swim as naturally as possible. He started fishing, then I was very surprised how smoothly he handles the live Ayu and Ayu-rod that is 9 meter long. As Ayu season turned to the last part and soon it will bear eggs, it became timid, cautious and shrewd now. Looking about us, there were many fishing persons, but it seemed that they barely caught it. While we are preparing and cooking barbecue, someone shouted "Mike's rod is bending like full moon, he may have caught an Ayu. As soon as I heard that, I ran up there and helped to catch Ayu into small fishing net that is for maintaining live and wild Ayus. His friends came and took the pictures of the fishes. Mike smiled and said modestly and shyly,"Beginners Luck.!" Then we had foods, of which menu consists of broiled Ayu with salt, broiled Yamame that is also a freshwater-fish and one of us caught in that morning, broiled meat, sandwiches and Yakisoba, until our stomachs distend. Astonishingly he caught two more Ayus later, while we were still enjoying the barbecue. He totally got 3 Ayus, today. And it was very funny that a few guys who look like skilled fishermen came close to him; probably they may have thought that the spot is better than the other place to get more fishes. I think Mike caught Ayus more than the average, of which the fishing guys around him did. I definitely say that he has good sense and skill to do Ayu-fishing. After most of our people including the American friends left there at four o'clock, I tried Ayu fishing for about 1hour and caught nothing. I may not be so good for Ayu-fishing as he is. However a guy who is the relative of one of us, eventually caught 18 fishes on the day. That means if you have good skill, still you can catch a lot of Ayu. |
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| '04/04/29 I have seen Ayus. As Ayus live only one year, we can again see new born Ayus in the rivers in Spring, who were born in Fall and grew up in the Ocean. Then they run up the rivers. I have seen Ayus in the stream today for the first time this year. I was excited seeing them, because they are not farmed and released but natural born, and fairly large. As the natural born Ayus are more, the fishing result may become better. The Ayu-fishing will be open in June. I assume that Ayu-fishing this year will be very good and really looking forward to the opening day. |
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| '03/08/31 Ayu-fishing trip to Nagara-River Through this season, the fishing result had been very bad in Tokai area unlike the ordinal year according to the information of many Ayu-fishing friends of mine. In spite of the weather forecast that it would be rainy, we drove to Nagara-River located 100 miles away from Hamamatsu. It is in Minami-mura Village in Gifu prefecture. The group today consisted of 5 people who learned together in a same junior high school more than 40years ago. People say the Ayu in that area is the most delicious in Japan and you may have to pay for only one grilled Nagara-Ayu $25 at prestigious Japanese restaurants. We got off Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway at the Minami interchange by paying $35 per car. The volume of water in the river was 1 foot higher than usual, but we could see many fishing people on the way to there, even though it rained heavily. We decided to do fishing at the stream where was in front of the Sekido train-station. When we reached the riverbed, several people just left there by car due to poor fishing results. I wore fishing suits and walked along a paved road to the place where it was likely to get good Ayu. I started fishing at 9 AM. It rained continuously and heavily. I stood a rock in the middle of stream that was 50yards wide. The stream was not clear on that day unusually, therefore I could not make sure as to whether there were Ayus in the stream or not. While I was fishing, many rafting people that wore colorful rafting uniforms launched 4 rubber/plastic boats that loaded 9 people each, very close to me. They were screaming and laughing when they rafted through the rapid and high waved stream, and most of them were women. There was no sign that my Ayu: live decoy, was attacked by wild one. Two hours pasted, then I found a good point where was one foot deep, and flow speed was about 5MPH. I cautiously led the Ayu there. The fishing line suddenly moved upward against the stream. I convinced that a wild Ayu was caught by the fishing hook. I pulled the line to catch them into scoop net in the water, but the wild Ayu was too vivid to do that. I spent more than 2 minutes to pull them to the shallow area where I could see them, by picking up and pulling the line by fingers. It was sure that the hook caught the back of the wild Ayu, at a glance. Finally I grabbed the line and tried to pick up them into the net. Then line was cut by its desperate struggle, and went away into the stream together. I was very disappointed because the more vivid live-decoy you use, the more and sooner you can catch Ayu. Then I went back to the parking space to gather together, and enjoyed eating lunch and talking about the fishing results so far, grand-son/daughter, new cars, jobs, reunion's plan and so on. In the afternoon I went to the same place where I tried and lost fishes in the morning. Fortunately, I hit and caught the Ayu pretty soon. The size was about 20cm. Then I caught the next Ayu in succession. After then, I slipped off a slippery stone and broke my precious and expensive fishing rod. So I quit fishing. I totally caught only 2 Ayus. Our friends fishing result was almost as same as mine. Although I caught few Ayu, I was able to enjoy talking with old friends and having a joyful time while I was trying to pull the fish to my scoop net. |
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 Nagara-gawa River |
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| '02/8/03 Ayu Fishing in Atago-gawa Stream It was very hot today. My Ayu-fishing friends had planned to go to Keta-gawa river. Because I don't like Keta-gawa river due to the sharp-edged stones on the riverbed, rocky terrain and the sterile water quality of the river, so I solely went to Atago-stream where has opposite aspects compared to Keta-gawa, and is located 20 miles northward from Hamamatsu-shi. It is an elevation of roughly 300ft., and lies in a fairly deep v-shape valley, having make me take 500yd. walk from parking place. The water was so clear and clean that I could easily see many Ayus in the water. At 10 AM, I cautiously made live Ayu went into the stream where wild Ayu was most likely to be. Twenty minutes later, I was able to catch first Ayu on that day, even though it was very small. I constantly walked down the stream towards the goal where was about a half-mile down the stream. I enjoyed eating lunch, which consisted of steamed rice balls, boiled eggs, shrimp-Tempuras and two cans of beer, on a huge rock, looking over the view of the clean and clear stream, green forest and blue sky, on the way to the goal. Al though I met several people who were catching Ayu by means of fishing nets that were 10m long 5feet tall, at the beginning of the fishing walk. But after then, I saw no person until I finished the fishing at 3 PM. Eventually I caught 15 Ayus, which sizes were ranging from 6 to 8 inches. That was a successful number for me, because recently Ayu's territorism had been fading away due to the artificial incubation and hatching, according to my own assumption. |
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