The Night the Squid Rose — 83m of Water, Fish at 20m
Against 83 metres of water, the squid had risen to 20-30. Working upward a few metres at a time, the answers were a black that shows a silhouette and a slow fall matched to a slack tide.
Black Edition and Mattari Tune
The Black Edition of the MonroEgi Yodaki Tune is eight colours with black laid over a glow base coat — a silhouette that still draws with glow. The Mattari Tune is the same Yodaki Tune tuned to fall slowly, seven to eight seconds per metre, in size 2.5 (9g). On the second omorig trip of the season, both went straight into a real session. The water was 83 metres deep — and yet, on this night, the squid were not on the bottom. The bait was holding around 40m, and the first squid took the egi on the fall. Switching to a black colour, he hooked up on the first drop at 70m; when the bites stopped he worked upward in 5m steps and connected again at 45m. By the end of the night a drop to 30m was enough — the take came the moment it stopped. The productive depth kept climbing all night, and the tide was “not really running.” Silhouette for squid that have risen, a slow fall for a slack tide — colour and fall rate are two separate tools, and on this night both pointed the same way.
Field Data
- Country
- Japan
- Time of day
- Night
- Target
- Swordtip squid / Japanese flying squid
- Depth
- 83m
- Current
- Slack (“not really running”)
- Lure
- MonroEgi Yodaki Tune Black Edition / MonroEgi Mattari Tune
- Size
- Size 2.5
- Colour
- Full Pink Glow Black / Red Head Black / Red GG Purple Black / Full Black / Orange Glow Red
- Method
- Omorig (night squid fishing)
Line-up
The Black Edition line-up is eight colours: GG Black, Red GG Purple Black, Gold GG Black, Green GG Black, Full Pink Glow Black, Red Head Black, Yellow Head Black and Red UV GG Black, in sizes 2.5 and 3.0. The GG in those names stands for Galaxy Glow — a finish that glows in points rather than across the whole body. Laid over black, it lets one egi carry both a silhouette and a glow.
One more thing appears only in the catalogue: this series goes through a special painting process and therefore takes longer to produce than the other colours. Keeping the glow alive underneath the black is paid for in lead time.
The Mattari Tune comes in size 2.5 only, at 9g against the Yodaki Tune's 10g. Because the two are hard to tell apart by eye, the sinker is stamped [Msize 2.5]. The dropper weight that night was a REVOLT omorig Drip Sinker in size 30; sizes 30 and 40 have now joined the existing 20 and 25.
All eight Black Edition colours, in both 2.5 and 3.0, have been in circulation since summer 2025.
The Lure's Role
MonroEgi Yodaki Tune (Black Edition)
An egi designed for night squid fishing with omorig and ika-metal. Its high-buoyancy body of hard foamed urethane leaps vertically on a light jerk, then settles and falls. The Black Edition adds eight black-based colours alongside Full Black, the long-standing number one. Because a glow base coat is laid down first and black goes over the top, the egi shows a silhouette while still glowing in the dark.
All night, the productive depth sat between 20 and 70 metres in 83 metres of water. Squid that have risen look up at the egi, and in that position an outline is likely to carry further than brightness. Hooking up on the first drop after switching to Red Head Black — and black holding up for both numbers and size afterwards — fits that condition.
MonroEgi Mattari Tune
The Yodaki Tune retuned to sink more slowly: size 2.5 at 9g, falling 1m in 7-8 seconds against the standard 4-5. The balance point sits further back, so it falls in a near-horizontal posture. Despite the compact size, it carries two crown hooks of the strength normally fitted to a size 4 egi, enough for large swordtip squid.
The tide was slack. With little flow to push the egi around, a slow descent turns directly into time spent in front of the squid. That night, dropping to 30m and simply stopping produced takes with no jerking at all — less a case of being refused by a fast fall than of deliberately buying time to be seen.
From the Workshop in Arita
The egi used in this video are genuine made-in-Japan products, crafted at KEYSTONE's own factory in Arita, Saga Prefecture — the town of Arita porcelain. We put our soul into each and every egi.
The Black Edition goes through an extra stage: the glow base coat is applied first, then black over it. Leaving points of light rather than covering everything takes more hands than a standard colour, and that shows up in the time it takes to ship. The bait described as “showing a silhouette while still drawing them in with glow” is the result of that process. Made in Arita.
The fishing above is what this video records: the second omorig trip of the season, fifteen minutes and twenty-six seconds. It was filmed before release, which is why shop shelves are given as “late June into July” of 2025. Before reaching for black, he states the condition out loud — “Not hard on the bottom — when the squid rise a bit. In 80 metres, above 50 is when they respond” — and the night unfolds exactly that way. “Started around 70 and the fish came at about 20”: you can watch the productive depth climb, in order.
If it will not play, watch it on YouTube.
