The JB TOP50 is one of the highest-level bass tournament series in Japan. Many of Japan’s best professional anglers compete there, and every event is watched closely by serious bass fishermen across the country.

At the recent JB TOP50 tournament on Yasaka Lake, the story once again centered around Daisuke Aoki.

For overseas anglers, Aoki is not an unfamiliar name. He is one of the most dominant tournament anglers in Japan, a former B.A.S.S. competitor, and the founder and president of DSTYLE. His lures are designed from real tournament situations, and many of them have become standard weapons among serious Japanese bass anglers.

One of the most important lures in recent years has been the DSTYLE GEELACANTH 4”.

Last year, Aoki won a JB TOP50 tournament using the GEELACANTH 4” with the famous “Osakana Setting” free rig. “Osakana” means “fish” in Japanese, and this setup gives the GEELACANTH a very natural baitfish or bluegill-like action.

 The rig was originally developed by DSTYLE pro Yui Aoki, and after Yui Aoki used DSTYLE baits on the Bassmaster Classic stage, the GEELACANTH became even more interesting to anglers outside Japan.

In Japan, the lure has already become extremely popular.

At this Yasaka Lake tournament, many top anglers were throwing GEELACANTH. It was not limited to DSTYLE-sponsored anglers. The lure had clearly crossed sponsor boundaries and become one of the key baits of the event. On a lake where bass were feeding around bluegill beds, rocky areas, shade, and post-spawn zones, GEELACANTH was a very natural choice.

But Daisuke Aoki himself had a different answer.

While many anglers were looking at GEELACANTH, Aoki was already moving one step further. His main weapon was not GEELACANTH, but a very unusual custom setup based on DSTYLE SHUUCHINGAN 16mm.

SHUUCHINGAN is a small hair-ball style bait with a fuzzy, compact silhouette. Aoki added rubber strands to it, creating more flash and life. Then he paired it with a propeller jig head.

The result was a completely unique bait: a small, hairy, flashing, prop-driven creature bait.

During the winner interview, this setup was called the “Prop Hair Ball.”

It was shocking because the idea was so simple, but also so unexpected. Hair-ball style baits are already popular in Japan, and propeller baits are also well known. But combining those two ideas into one compact finesse bait was something most anglers had never imagined.

On a heavily pressured tournament lake, that difference mattered.

The bait had a strange presence in the water. The fuzzy body created volume without being too large. The rubber strands added flash. The propeller created flicker, vibration, and a unique visual effect. To a bass that had already seen many standard rigs, this looked fresh.

Aoki used that setup to build a huge lead on Day 1 with 5,560g. He stayed on top after Day 2, then survived a strong final-day charge from Tomohiro Kobayashi. In the end, Aoki finished with a 3-day total of 11,326g and won by only 300g.

That small margin shows how high the level of the tournament was.

It is also interesting that Kobayashi, who finished 2nd, was using GEELACANTH 4”. Even more interesting, the GEELACANTH he used had been given to him by Daisuke Aoki himself. In other words, the lure Aoki created almost beat him.

But Aoki had another card.

He had created GEELACANTH. He had already won with GEELACANTH. Many anglers were now following that path.

So he found the next answer before everyone else.

That is what makes Daisuke Aoki special. He is not only a great angler. He is a lure designer who can turn a tournament situation into a new idea. And when one of his ideas becomes popular, he does not stop there. He keeps moving forward.

At Yasaka Lake, many anglers were catching fish with GEELACANTH.

But Daisuke Aoki won with the bait nobody expected.

The “Prop Hair Ball” may become one of the most talked-about Japanese tournament rigs of the year. And once again, Aoki showed why he is considered one of the strongest tournament anglers in Japan.

Photo / Report: Hiroshi Togashi, NBCNEWS / Proshop Otsuka