The light went on. They vanished.
But there is a way around it.
Across the hours either side of sunset the working colour changes hands — and how the light is handled decides the outcome.
Why this video
Episode 110 of "Three Samurai" on the Akasamurai Channel. ToshikiとAkasamurai took prototype EgiSharp colours that are not yet on sale onto a rocky shore in Okinawa. The camera starts while the light is still up, and they keep casting well past dark. Partway through, Yashu joins them, making it three rods.
They worked a slit in 3 to 6 m of water. The wind was light and the tide was running when they started; slack water arrived mid-session, and the bites clustered on either side of it. Two lures were in rotation: EgiSharp Alpha size 4.3 V1 and EgiSharp size 3.8 V1 — both V1, the normal fall speed. The tackle: a Stoist RT Inter-Line 79MMH with a Certate LT2500S, Sunline PE EGI-ULT HS8 in 0.6, and a 2.5 FC Hard leader.
We are featuring this video not for the count or the size, but because a few hours spanning sunset caught two things on camera: the working colour changing hands and a split-second choice — light or no light — deciding the outcome. Neither shows up unless the conditions line up.
Key Moments
Our Analysis
At 6:06 the light goes off — "kill the light" — and they cast into the dark, but nothing sticks. After a stretch of working out why ("did it take on that jerk?" "normally they're on it"), the answer arrives at 6:34: "that thing Toshiki said at the start — shine a light and they clear off. That's it." The very next cast connects. At 11:46, landing a squid that had refused earlier, the exchange runs: "but keep the light off" — "so that's the pattern" — "it was a glow colour".
The light itself may be what put the squid on guard. Glow finishes are phosphorescent, so the lure carries its own light in the dark; once a squid has come in that close, there is arguably no need to light it up to know where it is. That said, this is what a single night of footage shows — it does not separate out ambient light or differences between individual squid.
The more you want to confirm a follow, the more your hand goes to the light. That one flick may be erasing the final commitment. On this night, killing the light and choosing a glow colour worked as a pair. Because a glow colour lets you track the lure without lighting it, colour choice changes not only how the lure looks, but how your own hands behave.
Most of the hits come on the first fall, right after the lure lands. Late in the session at 19:45, one squid is simply there — "it was on when I took up the slack" — with nothing felt in the hand. A near-identical hookup happens shortly before, again with no readable change in the line.
Because the lure is falling on a slack line, a squid taking it barely registers. Working 3 to 6 m at V1's normal fall speed makes the fall itself long, and that length may be what opens the window for them to take it.
This is not a wait-for-the-bite-and-strike game. Taking up the slack at regular intervals is itself the hookset. Whether you notice that a squid has taken the lure mid-fall is what separates the counts at the end of the night.
Field Data
- Country
- Japan
- Region
- Okinawa
- Time of day
- Dusk to night
- Target
- Bigfin reef squid
- Depth
- 6m
- Lure
- EgiSharp Alpha
- Size
- Size 4.3 V1
- Method
- Shore eging
The Lure's Role
EgiSharp Alpha, size 4.3 V1
To handle large bigfin reef squid, the spike is a KS10 (1.45 g), roughly twice the size of the standard, on a 2.5 mm reinforced carbon shaft. That extra weight is offset by body buoyancy and sinker placement, keeping V1 at 24 g. The design aims at a posture that holds together in the complicated flow where current, swell and rocky-shore topography meet.
The water they fished — a slit on a rocky shore — is exactly where flow turns complicated. At 9:44, with a new colour tied to this model, up comes a squid that draws a call of "that's a good one". Given that the take happened mid-fall, the lure holding its posture on the way down can be read as a precondition. Even so, this one squid cannot be credited to the lure alone.
EgiSharp, size 3.8 V1
The core model, offered in sizes 3.5, 3.8 and 4.0 across fall speeds from V0 (dead slow) to V2 (fast fall). The V1 used here is the normal speed.
It stayed in rotation throughout for picking up numbers. Working 3 to 6 m on V1, the bottom comes at around a nine count. That length of sink time is likely what created the window for mid-fall takes.
From the Workshop in Arita
The lures used in this video are made at KEYSTONE's workshop in Arita, Saga, Japan.
MADE TODAY IN ARITA
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