Ninja's Diary

Every time I visit New York state, I see my frined Craig Nels.  He is a wonderful young man who loves to fish. 

He fishes tournaments and mostly guide fish in upstate New York.  He has been teaching many people how to catch bass especially smallmouth.  He lives near Oneida lake in New York state so he knows how to catch them.  I remember when I first met him a few years ago.  I was walking inside the Basspro shop, he started conversation about great smallmouth fishing in upstate NY.  We became friends since then.  He has been improving his fishing skill very much.  I remember he was leading the first day of Bassmaster Open series tournament last year at Lake Champlain.  Well, if you would like to have a good time, I recommend to fish with him and spend some quality time!  You can see more of Craig’s update news for fishing and guiding at www.empirebassandbeyond.com Give him a call or email, you will enjoy meeting Craig!

I just registered at www.twitter.com as Kota Kiriyama! I am new to this, but I will start working with Twitter, and let you guys know update news!

Thanks,

Kota

Today, I took some time to check on truck and camper.  Camper’s water drain pipe under the kitchen had a little crack so I had to bring this camper to get fixed.   It was just a little connector but I had to replace almost the whole drain system.

You can see all the white parts that were replaced. 

Then I got to work on my tackle finally.  I thought basspro gets to fish all the time or at least get to work on fishing tackle all the time, but that is not the case in reality.  There are  a lot of things that need to get done first before I can touch my fishing stuff.  So I am extremely happy when I play with my fishing tackle.  This week, I got some new weapons that I will try. 

Tomorrow, we got the boat inspection, so I made sure my boat is not wet before going to bed.  I just hope tomorrow will be a nice day.

Kota

I just received a photo from my friend, Sencho Sugito.  He is a full time professional guide on lake Biwa. 

This nice fish hit when Sencho was testing a new Shimano Final Dimension rod.  Water is low 50’s and wind was calm.  He caught a few fish a day now, but when he gets a bite, they were all this size!

Good job, Sencho!

Kota

I have been driving for last three days.  Yes, I am going to California to fish Bassmaster Elite series tournaments.  I got the dually with camper and pulling my Basscat/Yamaha boat. 

I saw a lof of snow still in Arizona mountains.  There were few beautiful mountains there with desert mountains. 

Those views were priceless.  All those scenes made my day! This is why I drove all the way from Alabama!  It was worth driving such long time.  Well, I feel better now, and let’s see how tournaments will be!?

Kota

We just uploaded Kota’s Classic Pattern movie at http://www.ninjatacklebox.com/movie/movie.htm !!

I got my jersey on with me there, but it was still cold day!  I had to dead stick the Flick Shake for 30-45 seconds each time!!  But this super finesse technique put me to the final day at the 2010 Bassmaster Classic!

Kota

I have gone back to the Lay lake, Alabama right after the tourament for the Classic pattern filming for the Ninja tacklebox.  This movie will be coming up very soon!  The fish might not be the big fish for other touraments, but this is the kind of fish that got me to the final day at the 2010 Bassmaster Classic!!  I will show you how I made them bite in super tough condition.  So please check us back! at www.ninjatacklebox.com    Kota

Story of American Dream tournament has been to the cover of www.bassmaster.com ! wow!

I am very glad to see the world can get connected through bass fishing!  That’s a wonderful life!

Kota

I have been so busy even after the Bassmaster Classic. 

I am starting to pick up what I need for California Elite tournaments.  I know I will bring a lot of Swimming Ninja and Flick shakes.  There are some new lures I would like to try there.  It actually worked at the Bassmaster Classic.  Maybe I can show you guys soon. All I can tell you is that it even worked when the water temperature was 40-41 degree in Alabama. 

Oh, we are working on the web site for American Dream tournament USA now. It will be updated frequently at www.kotaamericandream.com/usa .  It is a Open team tournament at Lake Wheeler on 10/23-24/2010. Guaranteed Grand Prize is the trip of a lifetime to the World Record bass lake in Japan ‘ Lake Biwa’!!  You can see the Lake Biwa fishing action in movie at www.kotaamericandream.com/usa !!

I will post more information later.

Talk to you soon,

Kota

Bassmaster Classic is over now.  I waited for a long time to come, and when I know it was a time for the show, it was gone.  That is how I feel about the 2010 Bassmaster Classic.

Fishing was very tough for me.  It seems that if I am not in the right area, I did not even get a small fish bite.  Water temperature was very low that even when I was in the area with fish, they did not bite very well.  I had to finesse them, and it required a lot of patience.

In prepractice, I was catching better fish on the main river, but water was so cold and muddy, I could not even get a few bites a day.  So I had to fish creeks and small cuts off the main river.  I mainly used flick shake 4.8 and 5.8 in watermelon and green pumpkin color. 

The whole key to get a bite was to leave the bait for a long time.  It is typical in early spring pattern, but this time, I had to leave flick shake for 30 seconds to 45 seconds in order to make them bite.  When fish became a little more active in the afternoon, I caught a few fish on a small rubber jig with a half size Jackall Sasuteki Craw as a trailer.  I also caught a good fish on Flick Shake 5.8 with the Owner Shaky type jighead in a little deeper water.  Again these baits had to be still for a long time to get a bite or two.

Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association had a big booth at the Classic Expo, and ladies from Alabama Decatur-Morgan county Convention center and Visitors Bureau and my friend, Chris helped at the booth, and they had a lot of names signed up for more information request for American Dream Tournament at Lake Wheeler on 10/23-24/2010.  I would like to thank them for it!  There will be more information available online at this site and www.decaturcvb.org soon!! 

Jackall also had a very successful show. We had a lot of traffic and it was fun!

I am getting ready to leave for fishing two Bassmaster Elite series tournaments in California.  It will be a long drive to get there, but I can’t wait to catch those big fish there!

Well, 2010 Elite season is starting now, I will be fishing as hard as I can this year again.  I would like to thank all my sponsors, especially Mr. Ito, Sencho, Mr. Deguchi and Mr. Yoshimura for visiting all the way from Japan to see the Bassmaster Classic.

Kota Kiriyama