Japanese Bass Mastery

Report from a Co-Angler After the tournament, Pam Wood, co-owner of Mizmo Bait Company, reflected on her two tournament days paired as a co-angler with Fukae. “With the wind howling throughout the tournament, he amazed me every time he made a cast into it,” she recalled. “He’d weave that big Ranger in and out of flooded timber, strategically planning our every move. His flawless execution in challenging conditions was truly spectacular.” Wood added that she was as enthralled with the effectiveness of Fukae’s 68L Yamamoto worm as the bass were caught off guard by it, exclaiming: “I can’t wait to get my hands on some of these jigs.” According to sources at Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, they’ll be available later this year. Finally, Pam Wood gave points to her pro partner for taking time to revive two of her ailing bass. She also remarked that Fukae was one of the finest gentlemen she’d ever fished with—and certainly the hardest working.

Besides focusing on flat secondary points, Fukae explored some secondary bluff banks and steep points inside a large feeder creek. The terrain here consisted primarily of boulders, rocky ledges, and gravel. During his exploration of the bluffs and steep points in that creek, he also ventured about three-quarters of the way inside two large hollows, probing their steep shorelines with a jigworm and deep-diving crankbait. Their topography consisted of gravel on one side of the cove and massive boulders upon rocky ledges on the other.

On April 1, Fukae traveled more than 70 miles and explored more than 40 spots. From Prairie Creek boat ramp, he ventured downlake to Penitentiary Hollow and still farther down-lake to Moulder Hollow, where he spent more than two hours. Along the way, he probed a point inside Fords Creek and two points inside Cedar Creek, as well as seven main-lake sites.

At 1:30 p.m., a violent lightning storm sent Fukae to seek shelter at Rocky Branch Marina for about 30 minutes. Other than that brief storm, the wind was mild and the weather balmy. By 5 p.m. the surface temperature of the reservoir had climbed to 58°F, and the air temperature rose to 71°F.

During the course of the day, Fukae elicited 24 strikes from Beaver’s mixed varieties of bass. He hooked 17 of them, though two shook free before he could lift them across the gunnel. He estimated that one of the largemouth bass that he failed to land weighed about 4 pounds. His catch included 1 largemouth, 2 meanmouth, 2 smallmouth, and 10 spotted bass. A 31⁄2-pound smallmouth was the biggest bass he landed that day, a fish he extracted from a maze of cedar trees in four feet of water on a secondary point in Moulder Hollow. The total weight of his five largest bass was about 111⁄2 pounds. His most productive spots were secondary points with gravel, chunk rock, and occasional outcroppings of massive boulders, along with hardwood and cedar trees.

While Fukae was snaking his way through a labyrinth of flooded timber, he mentioned that he wouldn’t fish flooded timber if he had his ’druthers. Instead, he’d rather fish his medium-light spinning outfit with 6-pound-test fluorocarbon on a treeless terrain. Yet, despite his dislike of plying timber, he beautifully demonstrated how to entice, hook, and land bass on 8-pound test and spinning tackle in a quagmire of limbs, trunks, and rootwads. In the flooded timber, he elicited all of his strikes with the 3/32-ounce jig and 68L worm. He has an unusual approach to retrieving this combination.

Fukae’s Unique Retrieve

The essence of his retrieve is keeping the jigworm from touching bottom. If it touches, Fukae rues the mistake. Throughout the retrieve, he tries to slowly swim it a foot or two above bottom. At times, he prefers it to be as much as 3 feet off bottom, depending on the depth he’s fishing and the position of the bass.

As the lure swims, he occasionally lifts and drops the rod about a foot, causing the jig to rise and fall. On some lifts, he pauses halfway through for a second or two. During the entire retrieve, he shakes the jig about 70 percent of the time by subtly twitching his wrist. He sometimes shakes it while he raises the rod, sometimes when the rod is dropping, and sometimes while he’s slowly turning the reel handle to take up slack line. Fukae says most bass strike when the lure is falling and that the initial fall often is most productive.