Tama River – Noborito Station 

The section of the Tama River near to Noborito Station (Odakyu / JR Nambu Lines) is stuffed with fish. There is also a small park area and you can BBQ with friends / family while you fish! 

I tend to fish from the boulder on the upstream corner of the drain which flows into the river (see the red circle on the photo above) and there is about 3m of water at 4m with a clean, flat bottom. This side of the riverbank is strewn with boulders so search around before you start fishing to make sure the bottom is clear. The downstream corner of the drain is particularly snaggy. The local anglers use method feeder rigs cast out to around 50 meters or swing a pole-ledger out beyond the boulders. But, they never seem to catch many and when they do they are only the same size fish that I catch close in on the short pole.  

The opposite bank (see the yellow circle on the photo above, access from Izumi-Tamagawa Station) is really popular with the local anglers and gets crowded. It is very shallow (less than 1m) and there is very little flow. There are lots of carp and hera. The carp will feed really close to the bank with their backs out of the water and average about 3kg. You can get away with a tiny float but to be honest in the margins the carp normally hook themselves. 

The tackle I have been using is a strong pole rig (3.5kg line, size 6 hook), a 1 gram ‘lollipop’ float and sweetcorn or paste as bait I’ve caught carp up to 5kg. I tend to feed heavily with a high feed groundbait packed full of hallibut pellets and sweetcorn. The groundbait is actually a method feeder mix (groundbait intended to be moulded around a plastic frame) that you can buy in most tackle shops in Tokyo. It is perfect for holding lots of particles and is sticky enough to reach the bottom in the flow. 

I have been smashed a few times by unseen fish which have been too powerful to control. These fish are much stronger than the 5kg fish I’ve caught…..hopefully one day soon I’ll get lucky and get one out! If the water is coloured from rain then 10 or 15 decent sized carp can be caught in a few hours. If the water is clear it tends to be much harder and you might have to wait until the sun goes starts to go down. 

 

The local anglers use method feeder rigs cast out to around 50 meters. They position their rods high in the air but they never seem to catch many and when they do they are only the same size fish that I catch close in on the short pole. 

Last updated 21st August 2009