A sea where 4kg is within reach — and back home the same day.
Three hours by boat from Kagoshima, an island of some fifty people. Why we have gone back to Takeshima three years running — a water that gives up 4kg and 5kg squid from the shore and on tip-run alike.
Why this video
This is the night before a trip to Takeshima in Kagoshima — the third year running. The forecast had the wind rising from midday on departure day, so the party moved to the port the previous evening instead. Eight from KEYSTONE, among them evangelist Kubo, with the 3kg class as the target.
Takeshima lies about three hours by boat from Kagoshima and has a population of roughly fifty. Over the past few years it has become steadily better known among eging anglers. Unlike remote islands that take a flight and several days, it is 3.5 to 4 hours by expressway from anywhere in Kyushu — Saga, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Oita — and then a boat ride, close enough to fish and be home the same day.
We are featuring the island because of the size of what comes out of it. The squid prints kept on permanent display at the KEYSTONE Direct Shop — the "Bamboo Monster" we have shown at events — all came from the water off Takeshima. Places where 4kg is not an exception, and 5kg genuinely happens, are not common.
Key Moments
Our Analysis
The video runs through what the display pieces are. 5.4kg from the shore and 5.6kg from a kayak off Takeshima — both by Captain Ozono of BG Fishing Boat. Add Kubo's 4.4kg and field tester Akasamurai's 4.7kg. Shore, kayak, boat: fish over 4kg have come from all three. Elsewhere on this site there is a record of three fish over 4kg taken at Takeshima on April 22, 2024.
That the big fish are not confined to one style of fishing suggests the conditions that hold them are spread widely around the island. The same class of squid sits inside casting range of the shore and out where the boat runs. It reads less like one hot mark and more like a property of the water itself.
A 4kg or 5kg fish is not something most anglers meet many times in a lifetime. What makes this island worth the trip is that such a fish sits within a day trip. The sea decides the schedule, though: this time a forecast of strong wind from midday moved the whole party a night early. The fishing starts before you cross.
Field Data
- Country
- Japan
- Region
- Kagoshima
- Location
- Takeshima
- Target
- Bigfin reef squid
- Method
- Tip-run
- Angler
- Kubo
Beyond the Video
The boat working this water is BG Fishing Boat. Its skipper, Captain Ozono, moved to Takeshima and spent years opening up the marks — from the shore, by kayak and by boat — and working out how the fishing shifts with the moon. Few people know the water and the shoreline around the island as well. He was once a KEYSTONE field tester himself. Everything caught on camera rests on that accumulated knowledge.
The Lure's Role
Daybreak size 4.0 (39g)
A tip-run dedicated egi. The centre of gravity sits high so the jig works vertically, with deeper water and larger squid in mind. Barbs are the KS06.
The product page records a Red Monster taken at Takeshima, Kagoshima on April 22, 2024. This is the egi that was in use on the day fish over 4kg came out of this island, and the same series went along on this trip. The fishing itself continues in part two.
From the Workshop in Arita
The egi used in this video are made at the KEYSTONE factory in Arita, Saga Prefecture, Japan.
MADE TODAY IN ARITA
If it will not play, watch it on YouTube.
