Trophy Bass Fishing in Japan

2025-07-07 2025-07-07

Ty Hasegawa

For many bass fishermen globally, to come to Japan for fishing is a good chance to get a trophy bass. In Japan there are some lakes which are said to hold the bass over 70 cm (about 27 inch) length or nearly 15 pounds.

In this blog, you can get the idea of which lake has the reputation of such a trophy bass.

Lake Biwa

First and foremost is the lake Biwa. It is known as the lake of the world’s biggest bass (my blog page about it here.)

The world record of 22lb bass was caught in 2009. But the history never ended then. There were more than a fewl cases of big bass since then.

One of them was a story of 2024, reported in this Japanese web magazine post.

In March of 2024, one client of a fishing guide, “Guide Maeda” caught a bass of 6.61kg (14.6lb), over 70cm (27 inch). It was the rare case of such a big one, over 70 cm, in the South part of Lake Biwa

Photo from Instagram of X account of @Guide_Maeda

His tackles were like below.

Rod DEPS Sidewinder GP Superborder
Reel Daiwa Ryoga 1016H
Line Daiwa Monster Brave Z 16lb
Lure Boreas Mosaic Jig 5/8oz and Keitech Swing Impact FAT 4.8 inch

There was another report about 70 cm, 6 kg bass in 2023. This was caught in April, spring pattern, by Mr. Tai.

Image of the bass caught in 2023, from this fishing magazine site.

What interests me is the detailed explanation about the situation.

Mr. Tai used a swimming jig with a 5 inch shad tail. While the water temperature is not warm enough for most of the bass and bait fish in this timing of the year, he traced the depth around 1 meter above the bottom. In his long experience fishing in the Lake Biwa, he knew that the very bottom was too cold and big bass were staying in the middle, where the water temperature was higher for a few degrees celsius. He traced the depth around 2 to 3 meters from the surface as well as one meter above the bottom. He retrieved straight, placing his rod straight with his line, and he intentionally hook-up the fish with raising the rod to the sky, not to the side. This raised the high possibility of hooking in the big mouth of the fish.

Additionally, he described the fish’s condition. This fish was an old fish, observing from his condition of scale etc. It was different from some fish which grew rapidly with having so many bait fish in a short period of time. It was not pre-spawn condition. If it had been pre-spawn, it would have been heavier than that, according to him.

Information of his tackle

Rod; Shimano, Expride 172H
Reel; Daiwa, Zillion SV TW 1000
Line; Daiwa, Monster Brave 16lb
Lure; Swim Jig ½ oz with 5 inch shad tail

Trophy in Nanairo Dam

There is another report of the bass over 70 cm (27 inch, 5.4kg or 11.9 lb) from the Nanairo Dam, in 2024.

This video is reporting about its weigh-in.

This Nanairo Dam is not recognized globally yet, but it has been famous for Japanese bass anglers as a lake for big bass.

In addition to the one recorded in the above video, there was another report of the trophy caught in the bass tournament, held in 2024.

Image of Mr. Natsuki Fujita from this web magazine site.

This bass was caught in the tournament, JB, by the angler, Mr. Kyoya, who is the brother of the Mr. Kyoya Fujita. Kyoya Fujita is the competitive US bass tournament angler, who enrolled for the Bassmaster Classic in 2025.

In the same lake, another 70 cm up was caught by a Imakatsu brand sponsored Mr. Kohno. His blog page has details about the catch.

He caught this fish while sight-fishing. In the April’s spring weather, he found this big one staying right below the surface. Then he casted his lure, Aventa Crawler RS of Imakatsu. He paid the utmost attention to cast his lure, not to disturb the fish, much further from the fish. Then he retrieved the lure to the side of the fish, to attract its attention. Once his lure got its attention, he intentionally speeded up the retrieve speed to agitate him, and it let the fish use his mouth to attack the lure.

For our entertainment, he recorded the whole process and uploaded it onto his YouTube Channel.

His tackle was as below.

Rod; Ever Green, Caleido Inspirare IRSC-611XMH Grand Cobra RS
Reel; Daiwa, Zillion SV TW 1000HL
Reel Handle; ZPI, ZELOS Machine Cut Handle 102mm
Line; Toray, Exthread 16lb
Lure; Imakatsu, Aventa Crawler RS

In Japan, bass fishing has been popular for over 40 years now. There are many experienced anglers and plenty of high tech tackles around. Combining these factors with the fish’s living condition brings plenty of chances to catch such trophies as you saw above. Why don’t you come visit Japan to give it a shot?

If you plan to come to Japan, the first thing is to check the flight and accommodations. A travel agent website like below can be a very good step to start.