Herman Nel
Senior Member
Hiya Guys!
One of my international fishing connections sent me this...
It makes 100% sense to me,but my first reaction was "wtf?"...
Regards
Herman
Robbins, Pete. "UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP." FLW OUTDOORS Jan.-Feb. 2008 54-60
When Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas, claimed the $100,000 first-place check at the 2006 Wal-Mart FLW Tour season-opener on Lake Okeechobee, he played a little game of cat and mouse with the fishing press. He didn't quite lie to the assembled writers, but a bit of sleight of hand and omission left the angling public with only part of the story.
UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP
Fishing legend and Chevy pro Larry Nixon interviewed Fukae for television coverage of the event, and while Fukae showed him the key element of his presentation, he wouldn't let Nixon or FLW Outdoors use its image in their broadcast.
Here, for the first time in published American fishing literature, is the true story of Fukae's secret weapon, the previously undiscovered "Tubo Rig."
CAT AND MOUSE?
Fukae's game of obfuscation with the press may be particularly apt, because the key to the Tubo Rig is its "hide-and-seek" character, which makes it different than anything ever seen at the end of a professional angler's line.
"Whether you call it hide and seek; cat and mouse; here now, gone later; or anything else, it's a presentation based on engaging the curiosity of a bass. While we often hear that bass strike out of hunger, territoriality or pure reaction, very rarely is their curiosity invoked, but it's clearly a critical element (along with territoriality) whenever an angler engages in bed-fishing.
So what is the Tubo Rig, you ask? Simply put, it's a shrimp and a cup. An angler threads his line through a hole in the cup, ties it to the small floating shrimp (with or without a hook) and pitches it out in front of a bedding bass.
The cup rests in the bed, and when the fisherman feeds it some slack, the small shrimp floats up and away, where it can be twitched or pulled right in front of the bass' face. If the fish shows any interest, it can be pulled forward into the cup, where it rests tantalizingly, safe from the jaws of the now engaged fish, not unlike a crawfish with its nose peeking out of a hole in a rock.
When the fish begins to lose interest, the shrimp can be loosened once again and allowed to float back up into the face of the now-agitated fish. At that point, it's just a matter of repeating the process until the fish is worked into a lather, ready to eat anything that gets into its path. Some anglers use the hooked shrimp itself, but Fukae feels the fairly heavy cup hinders the fight, so he instead prefers to reel in the Tubo Rig and tempt the bass with a soft plastic, usually a Senko or a white Yamamoto tube bait.
The Tubo Rig comes with a small double hook and a strip of animal fur to add buoyancy and action to the bait.
"WHERE DID IT COME FROM?"
Usually, when a new lure or presentation bursts onto the scene, it can be fit roughly into the category of some previous product. For example, when the Senko first became noticed, although it was new, it wasn't light-years away in design from other soft plastics.
But the Tubo Rig defies categorization à sure it's a hard bait of sorts, but it's closer to the glass minnow tubes from decades ago than it is to any modern class of lure.
It was invented by Japan's Kentaro Ogawa, who conceived it as a child in elementary school. "The idea of a child is flexible, I think," he said. He wanted to create a crankbait that would suspend perfectly in place while still providing tantalizing action. In order to complete the hide-and-seek effect, he enlisted "the small flowerpot of the cactus" as a refuge for the pursued shrimp.
Hideyuki Nomura, editor of Japan's Lure Magazine, said Ogawa is a sort of cult figure in his homeland. "He's a famous person in the Japanese market because all of his products are unique. His vision and comments about bass fishing are very different from those of other people." Ogawa described the process as one in which the angler uses the behavioral tendencies of a bass to its own detriment. "At first the shrimp is covered inside the Tubo (pot), but then it goes out and becomes defenseless. The fish approaches and the angler operates it so as to hide the shrimp in the pot. A fish is an animal, so it has great desire for the thing that is not available."
As for the presentation, Ogawa said, "If a fish bites in anger, hook it with the shrimp, but if there is any difficulty or uneasiness, change it for another lure quickly. The angry fish will easily bite the other lure."
Robbins, Pete. "UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP." FLW Jan.-Feb. 2008 54-60
Tabu Rig Angling Applications
"ANGLING APPLICATIONS"
Neither Fukae nor Ogawa see any substantial opportunities to use the Tubo Rig outside of bed-fishing.
"It's deadly to tempt fish you can see and very dangerous for sight-fishing," said Fukae, who, in addition to his win at Okeechobee, has also had success with the rig at Beaver Lake. He's caught bass up to 7 pounds on the cumber- some-looking oddity.
The rig usually comes with differently colored cups and shrimp. Fukae said that any color will work, although when pressed, both he and Ogawa say they prefer white or other bright colors.
Fukae paints his by hand, with "special love letters to the big females" scripted onto the surface. He fishes it on a medium-heavy St. Croix casting rod paired with a Shimano Antares DC bait- casting reel and 10-pound fluorocarbon line. If the line is any heavier, the shrimp doesn't float away from the cup nearly as well. For him, the rig is primarily used to tempt fish rather than to catch them, the old bait and switch.
Ogawa uses similar tackle but goes with slightly heavier line. "I recommend using a rod over 6 1/2 feet long," he said. "I think using a longer rod makes it easi- er to maneuver the rig. It should be fished on at least 12-pound monofila- ment line. Lighter line will probably break as it rubs with the rig."
For Ogawa, it truly is a cat-and- mouse game, more about the hunt and the tease than about actually landing the fish, but for top-level tournament anglers like Fukae, the name of the game is bass in the boat. Accordingly, he almost never uses the shrimp as the hooking mechanism. There are simply too many opportunities for the fish to leverage the awkward cup to aid in its escape. The fish can thrash its head and become unbuttoned, or else the relatively light, 10-pound line that he uses can rub against the cup's hole and become frayed.
Fukae uses this contraption primarily when fish are in an "in-between" phase - when slow-falling lures like a tube or Senko won't tempt them on their own, but actively hopped plastics or horizon- tally moving baits don't garner a second look. The Tubo pro- vides the best of both worlds. Its incessant motion without leaving the extended strike zone calls otherwise uninterested bass back to the bed. Additionally, the presence of both the gaudy shrimp and the bottom-hugging cup incense the bass by placing two intruders in the nest.
When he finds fish that seem completely disinterested, but won't abandon the bed altogether, that's when he pulls out the Tubo. He is convinced that he can take a fish that won't look at any other bait and work it into a frenzy. When the fish darts in and attacks the cup or tries to pull the shrimp away out of anger, that's when he removes it and drops in a slow-falling, easy meal. That's why a dying descent like that of a tube or Senko is so effective - the fish is often so wild and panicked that the bait doesn't hit the bottom. One flash of the gills, and it's engulfed. Once again, he prefers relatively bright colors, which allow him to note the bait's disappearance more easily and thereby avoid foul-hooking his prey.
"I plan to continue to develop new ways to catch fish with unique, original lures," Ogawa said, with one clear winner already under his belt. While the Tubo Rig may not have universal applicability, it's probably more "outside the box" than anything we've seen in years - one can only wonder what he'll come up with next.
Robbins, Pete. "UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP." FLW Jan.-Feb. 2008 54-60
One of my international fishing connections sent me this...
It makes 100% sense to me,but my first reaction was "wtf?"...
Regards
Herman
Robbins, Pete. "UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP." FLW OUTDOORS Jan.-Feb. 2008 54-60
When Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas, claimed the $100,000 first-place check at the 2006 Wal-Mart FLW Tour season-opener on Lake Okeechobee, he played a little game of cat and mouse with the fishing press. He didn't quite lie to the assembled writers, but a bit of sleight of hand and omission left the angling public with only part of the story.
UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP
Fishing legend and Chevy pro Larry Nixon interviewed Fukae for television coverage of the event, and while Fukae showed him the key element of his presentation, he wouldn't let Nixon or FLW Outdoors use its image in their broadcast.
Here, for the first time in published American fishing literature, is the true story of Fukae's secret weapon, the previously undiscovered "Tubo Rig."
CAT AND MOUSE?
Fukae's game of obfuscation with the press may be particularly apt, because the key to the Tubo Rig is its "hide-and-seek" character, which makes it different than anything ever seen at the end of a professional angler's line.
"Whether you call it hide and seek; cat and mouse; here now, gone later; or anything else, it's a presentation based on engaging the curiosity of a bass. While we often hear that bass strike out of hunger, territoriality or pure reaction, very rarely is their curiosity invoked, but it's clearly a critical element (along with territoriality) whenever an angler engages in bed-fishing.
So what is the Tubo Rig, you ask? Simply put, it's a shrimp and a cup. An angler threads his line through a hole in the cup, ties it to the small floating shrimp (with or without a hook) and pitches it out in front of a bedding bass.
The cup rests in the bed, and when the fisherman feeds it some slack, the small shrimp floats up and away, where it can be twitched or pulled right in front of the bass' face. If the fish shows any interest, it can be pulled forward into the cup, where it rests tantalizingly, safe from the jaws of the now engaged fish, not unlike a crawfish with its nose peeking out of a hole in a rock.
When the fish begins to lose interest, the shrimp can be loosened once again and allowed to float back up into the face of the now-agitated fish. At that point, it's just a matter of repeating the process until the fish is worked into a lather, ready to eat anything that gets into its path. Some anglers use the hooked shrimp itself, but Fukae feels the fairly heavy cup hinders the fight, so he instead prefers to reel in the Tubo Rig and tempt the bass with a soft plastic, usually a Senko or a white Yamamoto tube bait.
The Tubo Rig comes with a small double hook and a strip of animal fur to add buoyancy and action to the bait.
"WHERE DID IT COME FROM?"
Usually, when a new lure or presentation bursts onto the scene, it can be fit roughly into the category of some previous product. For example, when the Senko first became noticed, although it was new, it wasn't light-years away in design from other soft plastics.
But the Tubo Rig defies categorization à sure it's a hard bait of sorts, but it's closer to the glass minnow tubes from decades ago than it is to any modern class of lure.
It was invented by Japan's Kentaro Ogawa, who conceived it as a child in elementary school. "The idea of a child is flexible, I think," he said. He wanted to create a crankbait that would suspend perfectly in place while still providing tantalizing action. In order to complete the hide-and-seek effect, he enlisted "the small flowerpot of the cactus" as a refuge for the pursued shrimp.
Hideyuki Nomura, editor of Japan's Lure Magazine, said Ogawa is a sort of cult figure in his homeland. "He's a famous person in the Japanese market because all of his products are unique. His vision and comments about bass fishing are very different from those of other people." Ogawa described the process as one in which the angler uses the behavioral tendencies of a bass to its own detriment. "At first the shrimp is covered inside the Tubo (pot), but then it goes out and becomes defenseless. The fish approaches and the angler operates it so as to hide the shrimp in the pot. A fish is an animal, so it has great desire for the thing that is not available."
As for the presentation, Ogawa said, "If a fish bites in anger, hook it with the shrimp, but if there is any difficulty or uneasiness, change it for another lure quickly. The angry fish will easily bite the other lure."
Robbins, Pete. "UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP." FLW Jan.-Feb. 2008 54-60
Tabu Rig Angling Applications
"ANGLING APPLICATIONS"
Neither Fukae nor Ogawa see any substantial opportunities to use the Tubo Rig outside of bed-fishing.
"It's deadly to tempt fish you can see and very dangerous for sight-fishing," said Fukae, who, in addition to his win at Okeechobee, has also had success with the rig at Beaver Lake. He's caught bass up to 7 pounds on the cumber- some-looking oddity.
The rig usually comes with differently colored cups and shrimp. Fukae said that any color will work, although when pressed, both he and Ogawa say they prefer white or other bright colors.
Fukae paints his by hand, with "special love letters to the big females" scripted onto the surface. He fishes it on a medium-heavy St. Croix casting rod paired with a Shimano Antares DC bait- casting reel and 10-pound fluorocarbon line. If the line is any heavier, the shrimp doesn't float away from the cup nearly as well. For him, the rig is primarily used to tempt fish rather than to catch them, the old bait and switch.
Ogawa uses similar tackle but goes with slightly heavier line. "I recommend using a rod over 6 1/2 feet long," he said. "I think using a longer rod makes it easi- er to maneuver the rig. It should be fished on at least 12-pound monofila- ment line. Lighter line will probably break as it rubs with the rig."
For Ogawa, it truly is a cat-and- mouse game, more about the hunt and the tease than about actually landing the fish, but for top-level tournament anglers like Fukae, the name of the game is bass in the boat. Accordingly, he almost never uses the shrimp as the hooking mechanism. There are simply too many opportunities for the fish to leverage the awkward cup to aid in its escape. The fish can thrash its head and become unbuttoned, or else the relatively light, 10-pound line that he uses can rub against the cup's hole and become frayed.
Fukae uses this contraption primarily when fish are in an "in-between" phase - when slow-falling lures like a tube or Senko won't tempt them on their own, but actively hopped plastics or horizon- tally moving baits don't garner a second look. The Tubo pro- vides the best of both worlds. Its incessant motion without leaving the extended strike zone calls otherwise uninterested bass back to the bed. Additionally, the presence of both the gaudy shrimp and the bottom-hugging cup incense the bass by placing two intruders in the nest.
When he finds fish that seem completely disinterested, but won't abandon the bed altogether, that's when he pulls out the Tubo. He is convinced that he can take a fish that won't look at any other bait and work it into a frenzy. When the fish darts in and attacks the cup or tries to pull the shrimp away out of anger, that's when he removes it and drops in a slow-falling, easy meal. That's why a dying descent like that of a tube or Senko is so effective - the fish is often so wild and panicked that the bait doesn't hit the bottom. One flash of the gills, and it's engulfed. Once again, he prefers relatively bright colors, which allow him to note the bait's disappearance more easily and thereby avoid foul-hooking his prey.
"I plan to continue to develop new ways to catch fish with unique, original lures," Ogawa said, with one clear winner already under his belt. While the Tubo Rig may not have universal applicability, it's probably more "outside the box" than anything we've seen in years - one can only wonder what he'll come up with next.
Robbins, Pete. "UNVEILING SHINICHI FUKAE'S SECRET BED-FISHING SETUP." FLW Jan.-Feb. 2008 54-60
