March 7th, 2020
Takuya Kozuka
Hello. My name is Takuya Kozuka; I’m a VARIVAS Field Tester.
This is my report on a 10-days fishing expedition in South and Southeast Asia in early 2020.
In this expedition I travelled to various locations for three round matches.
The first round was to find a record-size Toman (Giant Snakehead, Giant Mudfish) in Malaysia. Fishing here consisted mainly of casting about 1/2 ounce buzzbait in or around brush.
Fishing in hot weather with temperatures over 30 C (86 F) in intense, tropical, rain showers is a tough one. It’s a challenge to continuously swing the rod all day (for a minimum of 8 hours) with a very heavy-duty tackle setting. One way of achieving it is setting up a heavy-duty bass tackle and strengthening only the line.
My tackle was VARIVAS Monster PE Si-X VAMOS No. 3 with 130m spool, a which is a new product I helped produce for VARIVAS’s 2020 lineup.
It’s paired with Ocean Record Shock Leader 50 lb. line combined at 1 Hiro (Hiro is a Japanese fishing term for length, similar to the Old English measurement of ‘fathom,’ fingertip to fingertip of open arms. In Japanese conversion, it’s about 150 cm or 59 inches.).
With Shimano’s 100 class (Bantam MGL) standard spool, VAMOS No. 3-130m fits perfectly.
Big Toman hunting is all about the opportunity to get a hit once a day. For 3 whole days I kept swinging the rod, but unfortunately, I didn’t catch anything. My friend with the same rig, however, caught a 16-pounder (7.2 kg).
I vowed for a revenge match next season.
I regained my composure and moved to the second round–the lake. We searched for a medium-sized species of Snakehead, Toman Bunga (Royal Snakehead), about maximum weight 2 kg (4.5 lb.).
For fishing, we sent a backslide worm lure with a spinnerbait toward the brush near some wood stumps. It is extremely similar to light line Japanese Black bass finesse fishing, including the size of the target fish.
I took a challenge with the previous Toman fishing rig by changing the leader to VARIVAS Ocean Record 40 lb. VAMOS was tested and developed with a certain amount of elasticity, to handle monster-class fish, with a bait reel. By the end of the trip my friend and I caught four species of Snakehead and left Malaysia with great satisfaction.
We flew to India for the third round!
During the first 2 days of our 4-days in India we fished from the riverbank while we looked for a fisherman who could provide us with a boat.
The last two days we fished from a boat. The tackle remained the same: VARIVAS Monster PE Si-X VAMOS #3 and Ocean Record Leader 40 lb. I just love fishing red and blue Snakeheads with frogs and buzzbaits.
P.S.
I enjoyed fishing for 72 hours (swinging the rode 8 hrs/day for 9 days) with only one spool of Monster PE Si-X VAMOS #3, 130 m. Of course, the damaged part was cut off and fresh line used, as needed.
Although VAMOS is VARIVAS’s most expensive and highest grade PE line, the cost performance is high in return.
VAMOS has become increasingly popular with Japanese bass anglers on account of its outstanding abrasion resistance, such as heavy-duty frog and punching rig fishing and games.
I’d like to see people using the VAMOS product line for everyday fishing use in addition to overseas expeditions.
Tackle data:
- Main line: Monster PE Si-X VAMOS No. 3 (130m)
- Leader line: VARIVAS Ocean Record Shock Leader 40-50 lbs.
- Reel: Shimano Bantam MGL
- Rod: Monster Kiss MZ-7
The original article was published in Japanese by Morris Company, Ltd., March 7, 2020. Field Report by Takuya Kozuka
