今現在の アメリカバスフィッシング 市場で検索されているワードランキングで常に上位に ネコリグ というワードがランクインしている。ここ近年、アメリカでは爆発的に人気の出ているリグとなる。ご存知 ネコリグは ’90-’00年に 村上晴彦氏によって考案されたモノで 「根こそぎ魚 を釣り上げる」という意味で ネコリグ というリグ名が付けられている。*ネコ掴みの容易から猫リグではない。この ネコリグがアメリカに渡り現地のアングラー達の間で広まり、色々と新しい道具が開発されている。今回は ラパラの傘下にある VMC社 から発売される NEKO HOOK™ という商品を紹介する。

進化する道具とリグ ~NEKO NK~

まずこれは ネコリグ専用のフック となる。ロングシャンクのワイドギャップ、３度のオフセットギャップ。普通、ネコリグには マス針(オクトパスフック) を使用するのだが、米国ではこれらのオショフネシータイプ(ストレート) が定番らしい。特に スモールマウスを狙う時はこれらタイプのフックがバレも少なく重宝するらしい。スモールマウスは 跳ねる、暴れる、動く とバレの要素の動きが多い。それ故にこれらの形を推奨するとある。米ラパラのプロスタッフ陣も 従来のマス針から これらの NEKO HOOK™ を好んで使用するらしい。先週、開催された バスマスター・レイクオアヒ戦(6/29~7/2)でも ファイナルウエポン となったのがこのフックらしい。余談だが、一昨年に来日された マイクアイコネリ は日本のリグ文化にゾッコンのようで 至る動画で パンチショット や ジカリグ をべた誉めしている。[動画]

オクトパスフックの写真

全体像はこんな感じとなる。どこかで見たことあるような感じかもしれないが…

アイのクローズアップ。しっかりと加工が施されているようだ。気になる値段だが、６本入りと２５本入りが発売される。お値段は 一本約１１０円 とかなりの ハイエンドフック となる。

What we do know

We know the Neko rig originated in Japan and it’s a finesse worm tactic that works best with light tackle spinning gear.

We know it has been used on the west coast, in southern California for finessing lure-shy lunker bass for over a decade now, and it’s a tournament tactic that taciturn western pros use on the Elites and Tour events, but they say very little about it.

We also know that nail weights for plastic worms have been out for decades. The Neko rig technique does involve nail weights – but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Interested to learn more?

At the turn of the century, the late 1990s to early 2000s, this technique began gaining popularity throughout Japan.

Haruhiko Murakami, a legendary lure designer in Japan originally developed and advanced this technique throughout the Japanese bass industry by adding tungsten nail sinkers to the heads of soft plastic finesse worms.

Murakami coined the rig’s name from the phrase “Neko-sogi” which literally means “the rig that catches all the fish like a vacuum cleaner.”

The lure concept he envisioned for the Neko rig was simple yet brilliant: to develop a weighted wacky worm rig that can be hopped or dragged along the bottom.

The hook is inserted wacky style in the plastic worm’s midsection but since the nail weight is inserted in the head of the worm, this set-up falls headfirst at a much quicker rate than a wacky jighead of the same weight rigged in the center of a worm.

Murakami wanted the head of the worm to rest or drag on the bottom while the rest of the worm pointed upward naturally off the bottom, thus allowing the worm to be snagless, especially when rigged with a wacky style hook with a wire or light filament weedguard. On open bottom, an exposed wacky style hook works as well.

In a Bassmaster tournament in which fish were hard to find, they were even harder to keep hooked. Angler after angler told tales of woe on the weigh-in stage of feisty, hard-fighting Lake Oahe smallmouth coming unbuttoned before coming in the boat. But Jacob Wheeler had no such hard-luck stories. He was drop-shotting with a new VMC® Neko™ Hook prototype.

“I lost one bass all week, and I caught a hundred-plus smallmouth,” says Wheeler, who finished 7th in the Bassmaster Elite tournament in South Dakota, ahead of 101 of the best bass fishermen in the world, many of whom didn’t catch a 5-bass limit on one or more days. “A lot of people lost quite a few fish this week. You know how smallmouth are – they were jumping, they were running, they were going crazy. But with these new Neko Hooks, I didn’t have to worry about those fish going crazy and jumping off.”

Neko Hooks feature a black-nickel finish, wide gap, 3-degree offset point, resin-closed eye and a forged, long shank. VMC, a Rapla Respected Brand, created the Neko Hook initially as a key component for Neko Rigging, a modern take on traditional nail rigging. But Rapala pros soon began using it as their go-to hook for wacky rigging and drop-shotting as well, touting a landing-percentage advantage that borders on ludicrous.

“Neko Hooks have got the most unbelievable hook-to-land ratio of any hook I’ve ever fished,” says fellow Rapala pro Michael “Ike” Iaconelli. “The shape of the Neko style – that particular bend of the hook – once you hook one, you’ll land that fish.”

Wheeler enthusiastically agrees.

“That bend on that hook, and the offset, and the diameter, it has everything you want in a hook,” he explains. “I’ve lost a lot of big smallmouth in my day, before Neko Hooks came out. So if I can throw that Neko Hook in anything I’m doing, I’m going to. Absolutely 110 percent I’m going to try to keep it in the game. Because I feel like when I get that bite, I’m going to make it count. That fish is coming in the boat.”

Wheeler’s drop-shot set-up comprised a main line of 8-pound test Sufix® NanoBraid®, a leader of 10- and 6-pound test Sufix Castable Invisiline™ 100% Fluorocarbon, a ½ oz. VMC Tungsten Drop Shot Cylinder Weight, a 3-inch soft-plastic stick-bait and a prototype of the Neko Hook not yet available for sale, the Finesse Neko Hook.

“That hook is no doubt, by far, the best hook for finesse tactics ever made,” Wheeler says.

Finesse Neko Hooks include all the design components that make original Neko Hooks so successful, plus additional features bass anglers will love. They will be available in four sizes: 2, 1, 1/0 and 2/0. Additional details will remain top secret until mid-July, when Finesse Neko Hooks will be officially unveiled at ICAST, the sportfishing industry’s largest trade show. Keep an eye out here for more information.

“I was actually threading a little 3-inch stick-worm on the Finesse Neko Hook, which will be new next year,” Wheeler says. “By doing that on Oahe, when the fish were just nipping it, I would hook all of them. That was a huge key.”