35g with no sinker, down to 43 metres. Daybreak size 3.3 on a Nagasaki tip-run aboard the Genyumaru
The tip-run egi Daybreak size 3.3 weighs 35g on its own. Out of Shin-Nagasaki Fishing Port aboard the Genyumaru, Keystone evangelists Kubo and Azuma drifted the Nagasaki sea from 37m to nearly 60m, changing from Hakana Pink at first light to Soil Tracker, Reef Tortoise and Laguna Chase, stacking up squid — two of them kilo-class. Because 35g drops without a sinker in around 20m of water, a day of jerking from morning to noon left the arms fresh.
What Daybreak size 3.3 is
Daybreak size 3.3 is a tip-run egi that carries the EgiSharp size 3.5 body and its dedicated KS06 hook basket unchanged. The body is rigid polyurethane foam, and it weighs 35g on its own. On a Nagasaki tip-run out of Shin-Nagasaki Fishing Port aboard the Genyumaru, Keystone evangelists Kubo and Azuma drifted from 37m to nearly 60m. First light was Hakana Pink with a 20g mask sinker. On the next drift, Soil Tracker with a 10g sinker brought the first squid; when the boat stopped drifting and the egi hung straight below, the sinker came off and the bare 35g went down, Reef Tortoise carried on, and at 45m Laguna Chase with 15g added produced fish after fish. Including two kilo-class squid, it was a day of steady numbers from morning to noon.
Field Data
- Country
- Japan
- Region
- Nagasaki
- Location
- Shin-Nagasaki Fishing Port (Genyumaru)
- Season
- Autumn
- Time of day
- Daytime
- Target
- Bigfin reef squid
- Weight
- 1kg
- Depth
- 45m
- Wind
- South
- Lure
- Daybreak
- Size
- Size 3.3 (35 g)
- Colour
- Hakana Pink / Soil Tracker / Reef Tortoise / Laguna Chase
- Method
- Tip-run
- Angler
- Keystone evangelists Kubo / Azuma
Sinker on, sinker off — and the line-up
Whether to fit a sinker that day was decided by depth and how the boat was drifting. In around 20m with little drift, a sinker would put the egi straight below the boat, so the bare 35g stayed on. The line keeps an angle, which makes the egi easier to work, and with no sinker the jerk takes less out of you. A design that is slightly heavier than other makers' tip-run egi, at 35g, is what pays off here. At 45m in slack current 15g was added, and at 37m at first light the day started with a 20g mask sinker. The Daybreak head is shaped so a band hooks on easily, and it takes the mask sinkers of the various makers (the compatibility list is on the product page).
Daybreak size 3.3 currently comes in 19 colours. Those used on the day were Hakana Pink, Soil Tracker, Reef Tortoise and Laguna Chase, and one of the kilo-class squid came on Laguna Chase. The fish came so fast that Azuma, just after a hit, could not remember which colour was on — "maybe Air Lagoon". For deeper water there is the Daybreak size 4.0, 39g with a fast fall, and we have also recorded how sizes 3.3 and 4.0 are used together at Takeshima, Kagoshima.
The Lure's Role
Daybreak size 3.3
Daybreak size 3.3 is a tip-run egi that carries the EgiSharp size 3.5 body and KS06 hook basket unchanged, with the distinctive weight distribution of its rigid polyurethane foam body giving low resistance — a quick fall and a light jerk at the same time. A small movement of the rod moves it a long way, and the angler tires less: that is the design intent. Fit a cap sinker (mask sinker) and it scales up to the equivalent of a size 3.5 without feeling any different.
On this day, sinker or no sinker was switched by depth and drift. Bare 35g in around 20m, 15g added at 45m. "With no sinker the jerk is so much lighter — it's really easy": on a tip-run of jerking from morning to noon, a weight that sinks on its own kept the concentration going to the end. Hits kept coming through Soil Tracker, Reef Tortoise and Laguna Chase, and a kilo-class squid came up from 43m.
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.
MADE TODAY IN ARITA
Everything above is what this video records: a tip-run aboard the Genyumaru out of Shin-Nagasaki Fishing Port, eleven minutes and forty-six seconds. Kubo's hit is at 4:36, Azuma's at 5:54, and the kilo-class squid at 8:04 and 9:14. It was published in December 2023, so the colours were chosen from the line-up of the time.
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