This time, we would like to introduce a real fishing tip from Kazuyuki Yabuta, a Lake Biwa fishing guide and one of Japan's top tournament anglers competing in the JB TOP50 series.

Kazuyuki Yabuta is also supported by IMAKATSU, so his insight into IMAKATSU lures comes from real experience on the water - both as a professional guide and as a tournament angler.

The lure featured in this article is the IMAKATSU Bassroid Jr. Taboo.

According to Yabuta, one of the best situations for using the Bassroid Jr. Taboo is in muddy areas, especially when targeting post-spawn female bass that are floating shallow.

In Japan, after the spawning season, some big female bass stay high in the water column. They are not always actively chasing fast-moving lures, but they may react to a lure that stays in their line of sight and moves with the right rhythm.

Yabuta uses the Bassroid Jr. Taboo around the front edge of reed cover.

His approach is not to work the lure too aggressively. Instead, he keeps the lure in very shallow, visible water - around 10cm below the surface - and gives it rhythmic twitches to make it walk the dog.

The important point is rhythm.

Rather than making the lure dart violently, he controls it with careful rod work and keeps the action steady. This allows the lure to stay in the strike zone and appeal to bass that are floating near cover.

This is a very Japanese-style big bait approach.

Many anglers may think of big baits as powerful search baits, but Japanese anglers often use them with very precise control. The position of the lure, the depth, the distance from cover, and the speed of the action are all important.

For Yabuta, the Bassroid Jr. Taboo is not simply a lure to cast and retrieve. It is a lure to place carefully in front of the fish and control with subtle, rhythmic action.

This kind of technique is especially effective in pressured Japanese waters, where bass often see many lures and do not always respond to aggressive presentations.

Special thanks to Kazuyuki Yabuta for sharing this fishing tip with us.

You can follow him on Instagram here:
@kazuyuki_yabuta

This article is part of our series introducing how Japanese anglers actually use JDM lures in real fishing situations.

We hope these real fishing tips from Japanese anglers help you understand JDM lures more deeply.

When available, IMAKATSU lures can be found through our overseas store, but our main goal with this series is to share how these lures are actually used here in Japan.