Japanese ayu fishing

Matthew Nightingale (ACA)

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Did anyone see Robson Green the other night? He was touring Japan and did some Ayu fishing. Technique is as follows; very light pole maybe 30 feet long. An ayu is a small predatory fish about four inches long. You use one ayu to catch another. Bait fish has a ring through its nose onto which you attach your line. Line then goes to a hook through the anal fin and then to a quadrouple (as a treble only four hooks) that follows about six inches behind (a bare hook that is).

Idea is that you manouvre the bait fish to lies where ayu are holding and they, being very territorial, will attack the bait fish and become foul hooked. The fish that Green caught was actually smaller than the bait fish! Fish are quickly BBQ'd and eaten.

Looks very traditional but wouldn't go here for the deliberate foul hooking.
 
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