lure prOfile
Seeing in i-Motion
with yamaki Kazuto
it
all started with a Japa- nese professional an- gler’s twist of fate. While ‘twitchn’, Yamaki Kazu- to jerkbait’s lip broke. Witness- ing the fouled action of the lure, the angler put the bait down, but soon picked it up again due to how strong the fish reacted to that particular profile. Within minutes, the an- gler discovered he couldn’t ma- nipulate the bait like pre- viously. After several trials, He abruptly changed the ac- tion he was imparting to a specific retrieve and at a specific rate. In short, he had discovered a unique ac- tion that attracted fish from a distance. With some pre-game modifications, Yamaki began dominating his cir- cuit with a single lure. His ac- cidental act of genius war- ranted refinement, so Yamaki personally met with Jackall lure designer Seiji Kato. To- gether they developed several prototypes and the birth of I-Motion began. Mr. Kazuto refused to release his sensa- tion publicly as his tourna- ment domination continued to grow. Competitors gained a glimpse of the angler’s hot bait, but from a distance, it resembled a small jerkbait making the pre- sentation literally undetectable. The technique won the All Japan best tournament tech- nique for 2009 and I-Motion was born. By 2010, the technique was adopted by many JB tour anglers and top US anglers were slowly fa- miliarizing themselves with I-Motion.
i-MOTiOn
» The Making Of
I-Motion requires retrieving the bait under slight tension. An extra-fast medium action rod pro-
vides steady, linear control. Fluoro- carbon from 3 to 6 pound test helped make this technique famous, but it plays a bigger role in breaking surface water quicker and adding an even ten- sion to the lure aiding its linear travel. The line is required to layout straight at a distance. To achieve the need- ed casting distance, the angler can strip out about 15 inches of line from the tip of the rod and make concentrat- ed over-head cast. As the line sinks it is drawn into the reel, while the angler si- multaneously lowers his rod tip into or near the water surface. The tip insertion (into the water) helps the fluorocarbon rap- idly breach the surface increasing line ten- sion, keeping the line straight during the retrieve. A simple countdown method will al- low the lure to gradu- ate to preferred depths. Once a desired depth has been achieved, a slow, deliberate re- trieve is started. Be- cause the line aids the lure’s tracking, the biggest bat- tle to impart ac- tion is over. This technique doesn’t work off of exter- nalized behavior (if we may) from the lure. As the lure returns back to the rod tip, the rod po- sition does not change (maintaining the tip near the sur- face edge is the best position). The slow re- trieve over time helps
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Spring 2012