I’ve been fishing the top water (floating) and sub-surface (slow sinking) lures a lot, recently. They don’t get hung up in very shallow water and the strikes are often explosive. Whipping these lures doesn’t require much gear, and I’ve been mainly casting from the water’s edge.
The lure bite has slowed dramatically due to the abundance of oama inshore but I still prefer throwing the lures vs. dealing with messy live or dead oama.
The lures in the photo were all manufactured in Japan. Some, like the sub-surface Shimano Waxwings in the bottom row, are sold in the U.S Domestic Market. The others may have been sold in the U.S. at one time but are now only available in the Japan Domestic Market (JDM) in those models or colors.
The 4 light colored ones with green stripes look like they were drawn on because I marked them up to look like oama! The larger Waxwing caught this 16″ white papio (tagged and released) without the bad artwork but I figured it couldn’t hurt to make the lure look like the food the predators are hammering now.
The chubby lure in the 2nd row, left, had been getting hammered by kaku when I threw it in another color scheme before the oama moved in.
The top secret JDM lure in the upper left, has caught omilu and kaku. It’s been so effective that I was asked to never show it online. Sorry. It won’t be in the Best Top Water or Sub-Surface Contest but the other lures will be.
If there’s enough interest I’ll run a poll so you guys can guess which one is deemed the most effective lure.
Awesome catches! Thanks so much for your generous sharing, Scott! Aloha, Erik
That sounds like some interest in these lures… anyone else? 🙂
Been following your posts on these lures and definitely interested. Have several lures I picked up in Japan over the years but never caught much on them. I’m probably not trying hard enough.
Hi Masa,
Thanks for your interest in the JDM posts. What type of lures did you try? Sometimes the retrieval has to be varied, or maybe heavier hooks need to be added if the lures were meant to be used in fresh water.
thanks,
scott
Thanks, I’m pretty sure they were for freshwater so I’ll try changing the hooks and vary the retrieve. Good to know they actually work here on game other than lizard fish. I have some shallow swimmers, poppers, and the ones you pictured except for the pointy faced one. Most of my lures are sardine or mullet colored. Never tried the whites and greens you have. Most US and JDM lures come in a chartreuse shad color that looks a lot like an oama down to the yellow stripe. Ever tried those?
Sorry Masa, I didn’t realize you replied.
I haven’t tried those shad patterned lures but I know guys who caught on those during the current oama season.