Fish
Our primary target are Japanese sea perch (lateolabrax japonicas), commonly referred to as seabass or Suzuki in Japanese. Tokyo Bay is a world class fishery for this species. Multiple IGFA records have been recorded from this watershed. Suzuki can reach up to 1 meter (40”) in length , but fish that size are extremely rare. Average sized fish run from 30-65cm (12-26”). They can be taken year around, but the winter months are the when the largest specimens are taken.
Japanese sea perch were traditionally given different names based on the following sizes; 0 to 30cm: seigo, 30 to 60cm: fukko, 60cm and up: suzuki. Now-a-days, they are pretty much all called, just seabass. Any fish over 80cm is considered a trophy size and we call them “lunker”.
Tokyo Bay also holds many other seasonal game fish, and I also target them when they are around. Here is a list of the game species we may target or encounter. The Japanese names are written in parenthesis.
- Seabass (suzuki) – year round
- Mackerel (saba) – warmer month
- Juvenile Yellowtail (inada / warasa) – Fall
- Juvenile Amberjack (shogo / Kanpachi) – Fall
- Japanese spanish mackerel (sagosi / sawara) – Jan, Feb, July (very random)
- Dorado fish or mahi mahi (siira) – July ~ Sept
- Yellow fin tuna (kihada maguro) – Aug~Oct
- Skip jack tuna (katsuo) – Sep, oct
- Juvenile GT (mekki) – Mid Sept~Dec
- Japanese sea bream (madai) – spring and fall
- Black sea bream (kurodai) – spring to fall
- A variety of rock fish (kasago, mebaru, ainame, soi) winter ~ spring