Yamamoto Pro Staff Conference Report (long)

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Well, I'll tell you this, Page Arizona is in the middle of no man's land!! 4 1/2 hour flight to Vegas and another 4 hours on the road to get there. One of the best things was when I rented a car, I went to National because they rent chebbies (gotta help Mac!!LOL!!). When I got out to the lot I used my powers of persuasion and talked the lot manager into giving me a brand spankin' new, lipstick red, Impala SS. Sunroof, XM radio, priemum sound pkg., 18 inch rims, low profile tires and best of all V8 power. Holy Moly, that rig moves!! Put me out in the desert where you can see 50 miles ahead and I let er' eat!! I went from 80 (speed limit is 75) to 120 in about 4 sec. Then went through Zion National Park (speed limit 25) at about 60 through some of the most wickid curves that I have seen. It was like a road rally. Now before y'all jump my case about being reckless, I only did it in the deserted road stretches where there were no tourist pulloffs or other vehicles. Whatta blast!!



OK...now on to business. I took all of your suggestions to Yamamoto and they were well received. Lifted a few eyebrows. Friday was meetings and then..........I got to tour Yamamoto Central. Do you know what it was like for me to see 75 foot long ropes of plastic with Senko's hanging off them like clusters of grapes?!?!?! AND they were color 297 AHHHHHHHHHHHH. Oh my heavens, I almost fainted, it was too much for me to take!!:lol:!! I learned a TON!! Did you know that they package ALL of their products by hand? And that they assemble Hula Grubs by hand (solder the skirts to the bodies). And that they have an entire product line that is not sold in the US, only Japan and are unique, unlike ANYTHING we have? They ship the equivelant of 2 boxcars a month to Japan.



Saturday was another mind altering experience. I got to fish Lake Powell. First off, it was 30 degrees in the morning and 75 degrees in the afternoon. What kind of wickid joke that is!! Thank God for Gortex!! Next, Lake Powell is 100 feet down....that's right, 100 FEET. I have never in my life seen a ramp that is 50 yards wide and 1/2 mile long and to top it off, it is at about a 60 degree angle!!...guess who got to park the truck and trailer???:angry::lol: Wind was blowing sustained 30 with gusts to 50. Normally unfishable right? Not when the friggin lake is 600 feet deep!!! Keeps wave action to a minimum in most places. Did have to be careful because some of the gusts would almost blow you off the deck!! It is awsome to be running down canyons with 300 foot sheer cliffs all around you. I'll have pictures soon. Boy howdy was I out of my element!! There wasn't a tree, laydown or structure of ANY kind. There were rocks and more rocks!! 2 foot ledge 4 feet deep that drops off into 200 feet of water. These guys fish rock piles....period!!:lol: Deep rockpiles, shallow rockpiles, big rockpiles, small rockpiles, but rockpiles are the ticket. In the backs of some canyons there are channels that are cut in the rock that do well and there are some water plants that look like tumbleweeds but that my friends is it. Oh yeah, they have creases in the cliff walls that they call "butt cracks":lol::lol::lol:....I was in my element with those:lol: We did good probally 20 fish each, with the bite dying severly when the sun crested the canyon walls.



Day 2 (Sunday) got out for about 3 hours with a different guy. Beautiful weather, no wind. Pulled into Warmwater Canyon, started fishing, and this guy in a deep v is motoring straight for us. I thought it was DNR. He pulls up and asked us if we wanted to catch some Striper, I said SURE!! He told us they had bait coralled in the back of Cottonwood Canyon and were busting like mad. He was catching them on a crankbait. You have to remember, there is no limit on Striper in this lake either size or number, DNR actually wants fishermen to keep or kill all Striper they catch.

 

[Mini]

Did you get to eat some of that awesome beef that Gary raises?

 

[Mark Jaworski]

Sounds like you had a great time Tox. Ill bet the stripers were fun. Thats a once in a lifetime deal there.



Mark

 

[Bill McElroy]

Sounds great.......BTW,..if you liked that SS Impala....wait'll you see/drive the new G8!! BWWAHHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!:blink:

 

[Mark Gross]

What kinda boat does Gary have .....................

 

[fatrap]

Was that Cheby "Husker Red" Tox. I hear they're changing from a bright red to more of a "wine" color in Nebraska. You didn't happen to snag a few bags of baits did yu?

fatrap

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Gary runs a Legend. They are made from the old Cobra molds I'm told. I was in 2 Rangers, both 21 footers, 1 Z boat and 1 NASCAR edition. Yea, I got some baits but I REALLY, REALLY wanted to snag some of the "Japan only" baits. No Wayagu (or whatever it's called) beef. Saw some of it, seems like his secret is in the marbleing which is what the American public shyed away from when the trend was to "healthy" lean meat. It's no secret that a lot of the flavor in beef comes from the fat. The steak we had was local tumbleweed variety.



TOXIC

 

[al cannia]

Great report,thanks for sharing Tox!!!

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

Thanks for the report Tox! I'd love to see where you were. Now, why does Yamamoto have certain baits they only ship to Japan? And why do you think the DNR there wants to get rid of the Stripers? That's sacrilege! Anyway, Welcome home..



Uncle Billy

 

[TritonGlenn]

Uncle Billy,

Most Japanese fishing tackle companies that I know of have dual lines - one for the states, one for Japan. I'm not quite sure why they do that, but I do know that a Japanese model Shimano (Scorpion?) or Daiwa (Millionaire) was going for big $$$ on several websites a few years ago. I never got caught up in the hype of the big $$$ Japanese reels, as the ones I had worked just fine. Most of the reel companies had very slight differences - handles and paint jobs mostly. Maybe a few extra bearings here and there, but I could upgrade Daiwas back then with high grade bearings (ABEC 5 or 7... been a long time, I can't remember - think it was 5), for a lot cheaper than what they were charging for those reels. Most of the time, the American versions had nylon or delrin bushings in place of where the bearings were in the Japanese reels. I know Daiwa had a Millionaire back then that had cork handles instead of the rubber ones they have in the states, which I thought was cool. Back when I used Daiwa, some guy in Japan offered to swap handles with me. I was going to do it until I found out the rediculous shipping amount and policies I was going to have to go through - and I'm not sure to this day if that was just dealing with him or not, as I've ordered lures from Japan since then without those problems.



Gary probably knows what works there as well, and maybe he doesn't think those lures will be a bit hit in the states. Or maybe it's in future production for the states. Who knows. They are neat to look at though.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Bill McElroy]

MMMMMMM.....tumbleweed steak...........'round here we call it "Coyote":blink:

 

[Dewey Storie]

Uncle Billy,



Arizona Game & Fish wants you catch every stripper you can because, in some of the larger lakes here in AZ the strippers have taken over. The strippers almost killed off all of the German Browns and Rainbows in Lake Havasu.



You have to remember that a stripper tries to eat its weight every day!

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

Thanks Glenn. I appreciate it. It has to be some sort of marketing strategy, I just couldn't think of what it could be..:wacko:



Hey Dewey, Not to argue but I don't know that to be true. I've lived on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay my entire life. Now, it's not a landlocked waterway like Lake Havasu but the stripers certainly haven't taken over anything here. The rivers where Stripers are prevalent are still full of countless numbers of other species of game fish and look at the Potomac River, the Stripers haven't hurt that body of water at all.

Does anyone out near Dewey know the average size Striper caught? I'm not disputing Arizona Game & Fish becaue there must be a reason it's different out there then it is here. I don't know. It just seems a shame to try and kill off a wonderful game fish.

No offense Dewey. I just don't understand.



Uncle Billy

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Hey Unk...



Any fish can overpopulate a body of water given enough "opportunity" and that is just what has happened on Lake Powell. The Stripers we caught were on the small side and some were pretty skinny, classic signs of being stunted and over competing with other fish for forage. With the water down 100 feet it has drasticlly cut down on the acerage availiable to produce food fish. Arizona DNR knows what they are doing and I did my part to help!!:lol:



TOXIC

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

That's why I asked about the size Tox.. I figured if they were short and skinny there must be a problem. Also, they're landlocked aren't they? So unlike here, they're stuck there huh?:huh:

Good grief Scott, did you filet and keep all of those Stripers?



Uncle Billy