Category Archives: Uncategorized

I would like to sincerely thank each and every one who has visited the blog. It means a lot to me. And maybe by reading this blog it will help you pass the winter months!

It’s hard to believe that two years have gone by since I had the idea to try a blog as opposed to making videos on YouTube. It has been a lot of fun thus far and I will continue to interject information and humor as often as I can. It has been quite a learning experience, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

We started on the Japanese Domestic Market fishing tackle journey about 3 years ago. We were tired of the same old gear selection found in our area. I happened to stumble upon a couple of YouTube fishermen out of Japan and that was the impetus for me to do more research on their tackle. What an effort that turned out to be! With translation apps and some heavy-duty web searches, we managed to get the hang of it.

So I mention the backstory to bring us forward to where we are at now. As far as reels go, the 2022 Shimano Stella is an amazing reel (despite me having a couple of line issues) and is loved the world over. For my needs and our original intent of paring things down and going lighter, the 2019 Shimano Vanquish would have been the best option in a reel. Super light, felt drag washer and silky smooth…it suits our needs very well, and I could’ve saved money. Lesson learned. The 2022 Daiwa Exist is phenomenal and I feel it was worth the money spent but it isn’t necessary for our type of fishing. I’m not the type of person to bling out or swan around and I was genuinely curious if those reels were really that much better. Honest answer…NO. There! I paid the “stupid tax” for you. You’re welcome.

The rods have their own caveats. There is light, ultralight and then stupid light. A 44 gram rod requires too much protection and looking after to suit my taste. Lightweight comes at a cost in regards to durability. I ended up really settling on either the TenRyu Rayz Integral RZI 50L 4-piece or the TenRyu Rayz Spectra RZS 51 LL 2-piece rods. They are durable, extremely well made, sensitive and most important for me…they have larger rod guides than other rods in the same category. I tie my leaders on with an Alberto knot and some of the rods we used had 1-1.5mm eyes which always caused an issue, however minor. At 50+ years of age, threading those micro guides is a struggle!

Lures? I’m not going to bother with that one because everyone has their own favorites and their own style of fishing. Use what you are confident in. I will say that the Japanese market has a bewildering array of various lures.

Wading gear. It is what it is. Reviews are ALWAYS all over the map which makes it difficult to make an informed decision. With manufacturers warranties being what they are these days…just get what suits your taste and price range. I’m a middle of the road kind of guy and the Simms Freestones have worked well.

Boots? Ha! The same thing applies. 2 years is a standard warranty/longevity period. Get whatever fits and hope for the best.

I guess what I’m really trying to say is that for the past 2-3 years, I was blindly chasing “perfection” when I should have been focusing on “ENOUGH.” Close enough, good enough etc. Don’t misunderstand me here…we have found some really amazing gear that turned out to be worth the expense and I would not purchase a lesser/cheaper version for any reason. It’s that “grey area” where the real gems are found and that zone is where the fun lies and the real learning takes place. I used to fish just to relax and get outdoors, now it has become a “thinking mans” game which I really enjoy.

Live and learn. Some things are cheap and other things cost a lot of money so do all of the research you can and really sit down and think about it beforehand. If there is anything on this blog that you have a question about then feel free to get in contact with me and I will try my best to answer any questions and give you an honest opinion on it. There are ZERO sponsors here and I am not afraid to tell the truth despite what the marketing hype tells you.

Here’s to a great year of fishing and hopefully more years ahead for the blog. Cheers EVERYONE!

We’ll skip the usual blah blah blah and get right to the pictures of a new lure box and 2 more lures that I ordered. One is a 50mm 4 gram sinking lure and the other is a 50mm 5 gram fast sinking lure. Exceptional quality.

I hope everyone has a great holiday and I would also like to extend a Thank You to everyone who has stopped by the blog. There have been 7,742 visitors from 68 countries in 2022. That blows my mind. Cheers to all!

2022 has been a weird year in regards to weather. We really didn’t have much of a Spring season here in Oklahoma. I’m sure a lot of other places experienced the same thing or worse. We’ve had many more days over 100F than I ever remember and we’re still experiencing those temperatures this late into September.

Like several other places, we need some rain. We haven’t had any meaningful amounts in months. Our vegetable garden has not produced much in the way of food all summer. In fact, we are just now beginning to see tomatoes on the plants. Even our Okra, which usually does well in sun and heat has suffered and is only about 24 inches tall, which is odd.

Our fishing has suffered as well due to high temperatures as well as low water conditions. Fortunately the Velox is a resilient species and we hope they continue to thrive.

We did manage to complete one of our projects and that was getting a solar power system out to the barn and shed. It is a small scale system at the moment but we will expand it as funds are available. I was tired of running extension cables out there to do any work. I still need to get a pure sine wave inverter and one more battery but I can at least charge tool batteries and have lighting out there. It’s a start at least and moving incrementally forward is still better than going in reverse. Solar is far from perfect, but maybe it will help in some small part.

As stated before, I am not a climatologist and have refrained from making statements or announcing my “position” because I don’t have all of the data. But just by using pure observational skills, it is clear that something isn’t quite normal. We already try to reduce or conserve what we can and with the supply chain issues around the globe, this situation can and may get more “interesting.” And I am sure it will probably impact our fishing even more. Time will tell.

All of the photos will be included here.

In hindsight, on my last post the title seems a bit dubious. I just wanted to clarify that it really wasn’t an abject failure and I plan to continue to learn the Euro nymphing method.

Anytime I’m able to get out and fish is a WIN to me. And if I’m able to learn something new, it’s even better. I’m not going to make excuses for my poor choice of words and I should have slowed down and put more thought into the title. I just didn’t catch any fish on the nymphing rod and was kind of bummed. Lesson learned. I was going to change the title but have decided to let it stand.

And interestingly enough, I didn’t get frustrated while attempting to learn how to Euro nymph! Quite the opposite. It was actually quite fun and it brought out my “inner nerd” as I contemplated how to get better and what I needed to change. I just need to adapt this style to the type of smallmouth fishing we do.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more. Sincerely, Velox Seeker