Wooden Bait Boxes

Japanese wooden bait boxes (esa bako) are as beautiful as they are functional.

I suppose all endeavors have their share of paraphernalia - the bits and pieces of gear you need to do what you are doing. In tenkara, we are told you only need a rod, a line and a fly. In keiryu fishing (at least in the Japanese style, fishing with bait) you also need a bait box.

The bait boxes used by Japanese keiryu anglers range from simple utilitarian plastic bait boxes that clip to your wader belt all the way to intricately hand carved or hand painted wooden boxes that are truly works of art.

Simple need not be utilitarian. It can be artistic and beautiful as well.

Traditional wooden bait boxes are worn around the neck. The cord runs through the lid so the lid can't be lost. The lid is held closed by a combination of gravity and friction.

Japanese Bait Box

Japanese wooden bait box, looking inside

Inside View

On one of my wife's visits to my supplier's shop in Japan, she saw the simple wooden bait box shown above. With the wonders of Apple's Face Time feature (the "video phone" that futurists had forecast for the last 50 years), she showed me the box and I bought it on the spot.

For a while, one of my customers made wooden bait boxes, but it seems he no longer does. To make your own, do a Google search for small wooden bowls with lids. You'll need a boot lace or some cord and a drill. Be sure that the cord runs through the lid as well as the sides. That way you will never lose the lid.

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“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.

We've all had situations where seriously chewed up flies kept catching fish after fish after fish. It is no sin to tie flies that come off the vise looking seriously chewed up.

Warning:

The hooks are sharp.
The coffee's hot.
The fish are slippery when wet.

Beware of the Dogma

All the hooks sold on TenkaraBum.com, whether packaged as loose hooks or incorporated into flies, are sharp - or as Daiichi says on their hook packages, Dangerously Sharp. Some have barbs, which make removal from skin, eyes or clothing difficult. Wear eye protection. Wear a broad-brimmed hat. If you fish with or around children, bend down all hook barbs and make sure the children wear eye protection and broad-brimmed hats. Pay attention to your back cast so no one gets hooked.

Also, all the rods sold on TenkaraBum.com will conduct electricity. Do not, under any circumstances, fish during a thunder storm. Consider any fishing rod to be a lightning rod! Fishing rods can and do get hit by lightning!