Summer 2024
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Once at the lake, the fun begins!
A checklist of items would typically loook like this: • Trolling motor • Custom trolling motor mount • Bow deck (SOUTHER SHORT BOW DECK) • Front deck (Yushin) • Four styrofoam blocks to stabilize the front deck • Fish finder and yes, FFS • Boat rudder (T’z Factory) • Batteries (12V x 2) • Handmade livewell for tournament • Small 12V battery for livewell • Life jacket
According to Tsugaru, modifications are required to convert a row boat into a mean bass fishing machine.
In Japan, motor shafts are cut shorter to fit the small boats, and mounts are downsized to the minimum required size. In addition, a high deck, a deck that raises the floor of the boat, is a good thing to have. Offset pedals are also the norm now. The rest would be sonar- related. I believe that in the Japanese tiny bass boat world, the penetration of live sonar has progressed to about 50 percent.
It’s difficult to imagine how one could transform a plastic row boat into a well-balanced fishing platform.
Most anglers who fish the completely flat style, where the deck is placed above the gunnels of a small boat, will experience trouble. This means dropping tackle or falling into the water themselves. But surely there are some advantages to fishing out of a tiny boat.
“Because the boat is smaller, the output of the motor can be reduced. This means you can approach a spot quietly and fish without putting pressure on the fish” says Tsugaru.
Taking this into account, it’s reasonable to say that such fishing style from a tiny bass boat has helped professional Japanese anglers nowadays when fishing out of larger fiberglass bass boats, thinking about positioning and the effect the boat and trolling motr have on the fish due to water displacement.
THE CULTURE OF TINY BASS BOAT FISHING
As Japanese anglers clamor for the “American bass fishing dream” of big trucks, and tricked out fiberglass bass boats with big engines, the DNA of anglers is still very much tied to tiny bass boat culture.
Tournaments around the country still hold events solely using such watercraft. Lake Kameyama, located in Chiba prefecture just outside of Tokyo is one such lake that is notorious for this type of fishing.
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Takumi Ito is one of the most popular anglers from Lake Kameyama. “Taku Ito is the man for the job. He and I had been competing in the same small boat tournaments for a while”, recalls Tsugaru.
Humble beginnings often lead to extraordinary outcomes and it’s obvious that Japan’s tiny bass boat culture has played a significant role in shaping the bass fishing pedigree of Japan. •
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