Taku Ito just put a nice 4- pounder in the livewell, returning quickly to the front of the boat saying “I found 5 more”. The next cast, Ito hooked up again. Giggling uncontrollably during the fight, Ito exhaled “Every cast, bite, bite, bite, bite. I can’t believe it.” Another one close to 4- pounds entered the boat, Ito now culling for the first time.
Looking at one of the three front graphs on Ito’s boat, it’s easy to eliminate 80 or so Elite anglers as the possible owner. With his depth finder reporting in meters, and the water temp read out measured in degrees Celsius, we get just a sliver of a glimpse at how much of a culture shock and language barrier their must have been along Ito’s journey to becoming one of the best finesse anglers on the Bassmaster Elite Series.
Hailing from Japan, we heard another little tidbit of info on Ito from Kyle Welcher this morning about what makes him so good at finesse fishing. This gist of the story Welcher relayed, Ito came up fishing lakes that were way more pressured than even the most beat up fisheries in the states. The example he gave, Ito would run to one rock along with 4 or 5 other boats where all the anglers would be targeting a single bass sitting on said rock.
To catch bass back home, Ito had to learn how to trigger strikes from the most pressured fish on the planet. The necessity for this attention to detail has set Ito apart here, helping him rise through the ranks any time there’s a stingy bite like we’re seeing on Oahe.
