Small Mouth Bass on the Uchinokura Lake

the Uchinokura Lake

The Uchinokura Lake is a dammed lake near Niigata City. It takes one hour to go there. Carps, breams, trouts and small mouth bass live in the lake.

Trout fishing was closed on September 30th in Niigata Prefecture. Then I went to enjoy small mouth bass fishing to the Ucinokura on a fine Sunday morning with my friends, those are trout anglers.

In my prefecture "catch and release" of bass is prohibited, as large mouth and small mouth bass are foreign fishes and are thought to be harmful. These may destroy Japanese native ecology. So we intended to enjoy fishing and eat small mouth bass.

Beautiful Autumn

Pic.1

Pic.2

Pic.3

Pic.4

We got up early in a fine Sunday and did not go to the church, as Japanese are not Christian. Pic.1 and 2 show the Uchinokura Lake and the dam. It is a large artificial lake in the mountains. Deep forests are there and are very beautiful (pic.3). Many wild Japanese monkeys and bears live there. The hot spot was the inlet of small creek in Pic.4. Beause the Lake was deep and the season was autumn, water was cool. The inlet was reltively shallow and water was slightly warmer, then fishes were gathering there.

Fishing and Barbecue

Pic.5

Pic.6

Pic.7

I fished with live shrimps. These baits were very effective. I got nice small mouth (in pic.5 and 6). Small mouth bass is a good fighter and small mouth bass fishing is exciting for me.

Then we enjoyed a barbecue and ate all of small mouth bass. We cooked other materials as squids, octopus, and animal meats, too. Eatig under the beautiful sky was joyful and we were happy.