veloxseeker

Japanese Anglers Who Have Been an Inspiration to Me…

I have studied Japanese fishing techniques for almost a decade now. Several Anglers have shared their knowledge publicly and I am grateful to them. Each of them are true masters of their craft and almost all of them are rod and lure designers as well as product testers.

Junichi Numata first came to my attention when I was shore fishing. He works with Palms Global and freely shares his vast knowledge. He is an all around great guy and it comes through in every video.

I kept running across Mr. Kanamaru while researching Ajing and Mebaru tackle. He works with APIA and Rudies. Ajing and Mebaru don’t stand a chance against him.

When I was learning about BFS, Angler Saito was doing amazing stuff. His casting is par excellence! He works with Anglo & Company. I’ve never seen someone cast as accurately and effectively as he does.

Mr. Moto is a legend! He shares knowledge and techniques on YouTube and works with Zenaq (high end rod manufacturer.) Super cool dude!

He is prominent on the seabass scene and is a fantastic angler with a great sense of humor. He works with APIA and PosiDriveGarage.

A wise gentleman who freely shares his knowledge on YouTube and various publications. He works with Thirty34Four Fishing and is an Ajing Master.

A veteran Area Trout Master Angler and designer of Daiwa Presso rods. I’m sure he’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know. He opened my eyes to a whole new level of fishing for trout in ponds. Simply incredible.

I’m pretty sure most readers are not interested in stuff like this. But these guys are my people! I would love to fish with each and every one of them and share the experience and chance to learn from them in person.

Japan is where a lot of innovations come from. Presently, on the US Bass scene, the Coike Urchin bait is all the rage…little do most of them know that it’s a 20 year old bait! I’ll leave that right there…see ya soon.

July Has Been Fun…

This year has been tough for fishing since it has rained almost every weekend. Water levels have fluctuated wildly and caused fishing to be difficult. Now the heat has finally arrived and hopefully will drive the humidity down.

The house projects are almost complete. We had new fencing installed last week and the front deck will be done next week. Yay!!!!! Prices have been eye watering to say the least.

Anyway…enough about that…let’s get on to the fishing.

We have mainly been targeting Bluegill and Redear as those are some of our favorites. Bluegill spawned late this year while Crappie and Bass spawned right on time. With all of the rain, water temps fluctuated quite a bit. It would be warm and sunny all week and by the time Friday evening arrived, the storms would start up and dump a bunch of rain.

We have also been experimenting with different jigheads and soft plastics. We have been testing various Tungsten jigheads as the sensitivity is much better. Coupled with a great rod, good line and a lightweight reel…it makes a difference.

ifish float and BG-1 jighead. Great float system.

Fishing the parking lot of the local lake. lol

Now that things are slowly getting back to normal, I’m hoping to write more articles on the blog. We are both tired of being tied to the house and need to get out and fish more.

We will catch you on the next and thank you for stopping by!

Happy 250th Birthday America!

And I hope we can go another 250 years. Sometimes it seems that things are “off” and people can’t get along, but inevitably, things have a way of working out. I myself am proud to be an American and am thankful for all the opportunities that have been presented. The possibilities are limitless to anyone willing to work for it.

That being said…I have read ‘Fate of Empires” by Sir John Glubb. A short but interesting read that I urged my children to read. If anyone is interested; I will leave a link to a PDF copy of his book.

Click to access glubb.pdf

Stay safe out there and we will see you soon!

Still Fishing!

2026 has been a crazy year for us. I ended up needing elbow and wrist surgery, and had that done in early March. We are still trying to get the house finished up. We had gutters installed but still have many things to do. Getting people to show up and work has been almost impossible. We have had 3 people say they would build us a sun deck for the front of the house, but all have failed to show up. I had to build the back deck myself which was a slow process due to my arm not being fully healed up. Seems like everyone thinks they are worth top dollar but can’t be bothered to put in the hard work to earn it. It has been ridiculous in our opinion.

We have had a few rare chances to get out and fish. We will be hard pressed to reach our annual goal of 50 outings…but we are trying! We don’t even have any vacation trips planned for this year! Way too much to do and liitle time to get it done.

The weather has not been helping our situation any. Seems like almost every weekend has been super windy or raining. In fact, we fished in the rain this morning but only managed one largemouth bass.

There hasn’t been any major rod or reel purchases this year either. I’m still trying to stay on top of things and continue learning.

On a lighter note: Friends from work who know I’m into JDM tackle were quick to tell me that these soft lures were all the rage at the moment due to some angler winning a tournament with them. I pulled out an old 2018 JDM soft lure magazine and showed them the exact same bait. Funny how long things take to reach the USA. Last weekend we stopped off at our local tackle shop…and surprisingly, there were quite a few people inside. Gee, what could they being buying? The shop had apparently ordered 900 of those particular soft lures and were down to 60-70. That was over the span of 3 days. Guess if it is seen on TV then it must be legit huh! Glad I don’t bass fish these days.

I will close now, this was just a quick update and we are hoping to get back into the swing of things soon. The surgery is taking a lot longer to heal than expected but is improving every day. Thank you for reading and I hope everyone is doing well.

Science Keeps Moving Forward…12MAY2026

I have been put out of temporary commission due to another elbow and wrist surgery. Typical of my nature, I started researching topics related to fishing.

I ran across a podcast from OzarkWeekly and listened to several in a series about the Neosho Bass. Doing subsequent research, I read where this bass was finally designated as a separate and distinct species in 2018. Latest research I found was from 2022. Yes…I’m way behind!

Officially it has been classified as Micropterus velox ( formerly Micropterus dolomieu velox ) and is listed as such in the American Fishing Society’s “Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada and Mexico 8th Edition.

Genetic studies concluded that it was indeed a separate species that was estimated to have diverged from its sister clade from 1 Million to 6 Million years ago.

I have been wrong on several accounts in regards to the Velox and hope to clarify some of these.

According to the most recent research, a true Velox trophy class fish is rarely over 14 inches. So apparently several of our “trophy specimens” are in fact hybrids. And the hybridization vectors will make your head spin, Spotted bass, Smallmouth bass, hybrid to Velox, Velox to Spotted etc etc.

Tennessee Strain Smallmouth were introduced into Oklahoma starting in the early 80’s and ended in the early 90’s. I’m sure this was an economic decision rather than an ecological one. The damage has been done and is likely irreversible.

Another point of error was that I had read and seen pictures of large smallmouth wedged into tree roots and such, and the researcher postulated that was how they overwintered in the river. More recent research suggests that they actually head downstream to a lake (where available) to take advantage of the thermocline layer. If there is not sufficent rainfall in the spring, then they will spawn at the head of the lake. Of course they aren’t the only fish in the deeper pools and hybridization can and does occur. Also, the hybrids have been found further upstream during each subsequent study. My hunch is that the Velox probably utilizes BOTH tactics to overwinter.

Obviously research is ongoing which is fantastic. I read as many papers as I can get a hold of and continually update my knowledge and skillset accordingly. With the current estimate that the Velox may disappear in 30-50 years, we are so glad that we don’t keep them and instead release them. Granted, a fish of 13-14 inches is past it’s sexual prime and realistically does not reproduce, we still take nothing but photos.

I’m trying to decide if I should overhaul the website in regards to the latest scientific data, or just add some notes to clarify. I will have to think through that fully.

As an aside: we are both still fishing, the weather has been a rollercoaster this spring but when things stabilize, I am certain that the fishing will pick up. We are still working on the house to put the finishing touches to it. Time and money-never enough of either! Take care and we hope to catch you on the next one.

Outing Feb 08, 2026…

We finally made it back to the trout pond. We are still dealing with the new house and trying to get everything finished. I purchased a rod back in January and did not have time to take it out and use it, which was the main reason I wanted to go fishing today.

The rod is a Daiwa Presso Air AGS 61L. It is one of Daiwas top tier Area trout rods. It has the AGS guides which are carbon fiber with C-ring inserts. These make the rod lighter and more sensitive.

All I’m going to say is that this rod is so good that I’m tempted to sell most of my other trout rods. The fish hooked themselves! I could even tell when I had algae on the hook of my spoon. My wife can attest to what I’m saying. Both of us ended up catching a total of 15 trout this morning. 13 were on the new Daiwa rod alone.

With it being Super Bowl Sunday and having rain in the area, we figured we’d have the place to ourselves. There were a few diehards out, but we were far from them. The rod performed so well that we took turns catching fish. We were amazed and full of smiles and having fun. It was almost too easy.

Now we can’t wait to get back out there and catch some more. We will see you on the next one…thanks for reading.

Our 5th Anniversary!

WordPress just reminded me of the date. I just wish the timing were better. I’m not really feeling it at the moment unfortunately. But Thank You to all the readers and visitors. You are all very much appreciated.

“JACK” RIP Sep 16, 2015-Feb 01, 2026.

They say a man is blessed if he has one good dog in his lifetime. I have been blessed many times over.

It all began when our daughter dragged two puppies home many moons ago. They were abandoned on the side of the road with a bucket and a blanket. Both ended up having the mange and costing thousands to heal. But that is part of owning pets. They become family, and as such, their healthcare is your responsibility.

Jack was unique, part boxer and part Dalmatian. There wasn’t a mean bone in his body. In fact, he was a quiet peacemaker. Many times he would wade into a dog fight to break it up, only to be viciously attacked and bloodied. He detested violence.

He had the patience of Job and always greeted us at the front door. He loved his comfort and he loved his meals. He would wake you up if you slept one minute past his meal time.

He died in my arms at 0622 on Feb 1st. I’m glad he went peacefully, but we are heartbroken. There is a huge void in the house now and I can tell that Zip misses his brother. He is buried with his family at home. He will be missed by all. Love you Buddy!

Nostalgia Got Me…

I have been staring at these reels for a long time. They are hard to get and pricey. Several times I have been in the right place at the wrong time and never picked one up until recently. A good friend of mine decided to part with his, so I snatched it up.

They come in several varieties, with this one being the 2023 flavor. I really like the 2021 100th Anniversary edition in Blue.

As I’ve stated in the past, these are really popular amongst Japanese anglers. They have an entire cottage industry specifically surrounding these reels.

I have an old Abu Garcia/Zebco Cardinal 4 so I will show the internals of both.

Aftermarket Avail Shallow Spool in aluminum

Vintage Abu/Zebco Cardinal 4 from the 70’s

If it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it! The bearings are better and they balanced the rotor, but for all intents, it’s the same at it has always been. There is no end to what you can do to this reel in terms of upgrades. Only your wallet is the deciding factor.

I think it will be fun to fish with. I have a couple of rods in mind for this reel. I seriously doubt it will replace any of my other reels, but who knows.

PSA: Chris Stewart has quietly returned to the SFS/BFS scene. his website/store are back online and he’s slowly restocking. His website is http://www.finesse-fishing.com and http://www.tenbum.com. Chris is an absolute wealth of information and I consider reading his site a yearly necessity.

Ready For 2026…

I am stoked for 2026! Ready to get out there and fish, make plans for outings and trips, and even purchase some new gear. All in due time.

We are still trying to put the finishing touches on the new house and are working with the builder to resolve a few issues. It has been a long process. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel. Since we downsized a bit, getting things to fit has been a challenge. We ended up combining her home office with the fishing room. Most women wouldn’t go for that, but she loves it.

It will definitely be a nice base of operations! And true to form, we already have EuroTackle B-vibe soft plastics on order for the upcoming season. The tariffs have not made it easy to order things from Japan, and we are not happy about that. All of that is way above my pay grade and out of my wheelhouse. Besides, we spent a pile of money on new furniture and things for the house anyway.

All we have to do is make it through the winter and we have it made. And to all who read this…Happy New Year!

Florida Trip Gear Selection…

With weight and space restrictions forced upon us, careful gear selection was critical. We decided on two reels and two rods apiece. We packed a variety of plastic paddle tails and jigheads. We figured that if necessary we could find a local tackle shop to resupply if we miscalculated. We packed minimal clothing since most hotels have laundry facilities. The only purchase we made specifically for this trip were pairs of Simms ZipIt booties.

Definitely recommend Simms Guide Socks with these.

Our rods of choice were the Shimano Zodias 5-pc travel rods.

Reels of choice were either the Shimano Excense C3000 or a Shimano Twin Power C3000.

For reel sizes, 2500’s work well, but we opted for the C3000 size. They are built on the 2500 frame yet have a bigger spool. A Shimano Vanford 2500FA would be a great choice due to it’s lighter weight.

Water bottle holder, rod holder and pliers are essentials!

We like soft sided zippered boxes like these. They keep everything contained and easily accessible. Four of these will fit inside a Yeti Panga.

We always carry a spare spool of line and leader material.

We opted for Gecko boxes because they are waterproof and inexpensive. We want our jigheads and lures kept dry and out of the saltwater. When we use a lure and need to change, it goes into a separate bag until we can wash them off in freshwater.

Inside the Gecko box is everything we need to fish for a full day. What you see above is our Day 3 selection. We were carrying too much tackle the first day. By day two we were slowly paring things down to lighten our load. We also carried 1.5 liter water bottles and a Gatorade apiece. The Gatorades were very nice after a long day of wading. Especially considering a long walk on the beach back to the car in the blazing sun and heat.

Clothing was as you would expect. Lightweight breathable garments with hoods. We wore buffs and hats, fingerless sun gloves and sun glasses. it was easy to submerse ourselves and let the breeze cool us off.

There were a couple of funny moments. On our first day of wade fishing, we both had sharks on our minds. We were waist deep and I noticed a bow wave coming right at us. I pointed it out to her and we both started backing up towards the shore. Then it dawned on me…bow wave and no dorsal fin showing. It ended up being two manatees that came close enough to check us out before moving on. Pucker factor temporarily high!

On Day 2, we wade fished the back bay. The wind and waves were up, as was the tide. The water was stirred up and visibility wasn’t that great. She was up ahead and leading. We were up on a sand flat and were fishing the deeper troughs. I told her to keep her eyes out for sharks and she responded by saying she hadn’t seen any. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and sure enough, a 4-5ft Lemon shark glided right by me in the trough. Yah, I can’t rely on her to spot sharks! Lol.

On Day 3, we were fishing the back bay and were catching Jacks. Those little suckers fight like mad. We spotted another Manatee cruising around and a pod of Dolphins working the troughs we were in. Obviously we got out of their way. It was a neat experience for us Okies. Surprisingly, it didn’t seriously effect the fishing as we were soon into Speckled Trout.

Anyway, I figured I would share the gear we used in case anyone was interested or planning a similar trip. Thanks for reading…

Florida Trip 19MAY2025…

Both of us needed a change of pace. So we booked flights on Allegiant, reserved a rental car and a hotel and packed the necessary gear. Certain times of the year, Allegiant flies round trip from Tulsa to St. Petersburg, and the flights are inexpensive ( $185-ish ).

True to form, this was a Spartan affair, with no frills or major luxuries…at least we weren’t in a tent this time! We packed our travel rods and reels in our Yeti backpacks and combined everything else into one duffel bag.

I used the Salt Strong app, Smart Fishing Spots and the Salt Strong Community for all of my research on what to bring and where to go. We decided that we would target Redfish, Snook and Speckled Trout, but in reality, we’d accept catching anything.

The weather was great and the fishing was better than expected. Doing our research and due diligence really paid off.

We carried everything we would need for the day.

Since we weren’t catching much on the Gulf side, we opted to fish the bay off behind the main beach. Both of us love to wade fish, so this was what we came to do.

It’s mandatory to tie on a new leader after every Snook.

If you struggle to tie the FG knot…buy a DaiichiSeiko Knot Assist 2.0. Thank me later!

We had a great trip and all of our chosen gear worked perfectly. We mainly used Shimano Zodias 5-pc rods in Medium Light and Medium with Shimano Twin Power C3000 or Shimano Exsence C3000 reels. We were spooled up with 10 pound braid and 20 lb monofilament leaders. We threw 7gr-10gr jigheads with various plastic baits to great effect. We did bring TFO Traveler 3-pc rods as backups, but they seemed ridiculously heavy and unwieldy compared to the Zodias rods. They ended up being more of a nuisance than anything. But they gave us peace of mind in the event we broke a rod. I think that if we do another trip like this, we will each pack two Zodias travel rods, since they fit inside the Yeti Pangas.

Would we move to Florida just for the multitude of fishing opportunities? Hell no! Way too much traffic and way too many people. But the funny thing for us was that there were probably 20,000 people on the ocean side of the beach and we fished the back bay for two days and only saw one other person back there.

We will deem this a successful trip and we learned a lot. I definitely see us doing another trip like this.