Morikawa weighted hooks

Tenkara
1

I recently bought a few Morikawa weighted hooks #7 (Japanese) to try.
They are heavier than I would normally use but I do have a cheap Chinese Tenkara 360 7:3 which I know will take them - with care! However it would be useful to know their weight, preferable in grams, so I can see if I could, again with much care, use them on my Shimotsuke Kiyotaki 360. They will be used specifically for Fishing a deep canal from the side with a ‘drop off’ depth of 5ft to 16ft, so it will be more of a swing out cast, slowly lowering the rod until the desired depth is reached, then ‘working’ the kebari. Hopefully this may attract the perch that are there, as well as give me a chance to have a fish, as it is the only place I can get to by bus as I am not allowed to drive at the moment.

I am hoping one of you kind helpful forum members will translate the label in the attached photo and see if the weight is mentioned. As it is a photo my translation app won’t work, or if it does I can’t see how to do it. Thanks

A3048899-34CD-4ED9-A259-E73BA1BCD0E6
A3048899-34CD-4ED9-A259-E73BA1BCD0E63264×2448 1.43 MB

2

I looked up the roster of Banshu Fishing hook manufacturer Cooperative（播州釣針協同組合）
and Hyogo Prefecture Fishing hook manufacturer Cooperative Association, （兵庫県釣針協同組合）
but no company with the same name was found

〒673-1324 兵庫県加東市新定４０３・・・It was an elderly care facility

The explanation is a note on general fishing hooks, but it is written in Chinese :thinking:

About weight is not written Size No. 7

3

Thank you @todoroki34 for your help. Much appreciated.
I bought 20 of these hooks to try. However they are surprisingly heavy, so in future, when I need a weighted hook I will continue to use Tungsten beads. At least with those I can select a weight suitable for the rod I am using.

1 Like
4

Front Side
伊豆 … [Izu]
鈎先は鋭く少し内向きで，… [ tip is sharp and slightly pointing inwards]
。。。
魚がばれにくい(金太)錫鋼
「魚が針にくい（金太）錫鋼」
Not sure how to translate this one.
I tried substituting 針 for ばれ, ba re. And the kanji in parenthesis is wrong, I couldn’t find or draw the correct one. It looks the same, but should be in smaller font, like the ones to the right of it. The two are different.
However, it seems to be something about how it is difficult for the fish to get off, and the type of metal it is made from.
。。。。。
スペシャル・７号・１０本入
Special ・no.7 ・10 pieces

平打ち [beaten flat]

Morikawa
森川釣針 Morikawa Fish hook.

Todoroki-san already did most of the important text on the back side.
But I don’t think he listed this one:
株式会社もりかわ釣針 … Morikawa Co., Ltd. fish hook
Actually the word order is - Ltd. Co. Morikawa Fish Hooks.

。。。。。

Morikawa [Forest River, 森川]. can also be written in other text as : もりかわ or モリカワ.

I found several Morikawa companies, including a Morikawa Coffee Company, Morikawa LEDs, another Morikawa company that makes power equipment, and one that seems to do some kind of environmental work.

I found one Morikawa company that does make fishing gear. But they seem to make deep sea fishing gear. I did not see any hooks on the website. Likely a different company, But who knows - maybe they used to make hooks and no longer do,

fwiw:

モリカワ産業 株式会社… Morikawa Industry Co., Ltd.
（モリカワサンギョウ) … (Morokawa Sangyo)
｜小樽商工会議所会員企 … | Otaru Chamber of Commerce and Industry Members

http://www.otarucci-members.com/detail/988/

BIG モリカワ産業 株式会社 … BIG Morikawa Industry Co., Ltd.
http://big-morikawa.com/

However, on Aliexpress, DHgate, and on Edithtao websites, I found Morikawa fish hooks under the Senchuan Fishing Hooks label. The Edithtao web site actually list them as being Japan Origin hooks in the URL name.

Just do an internet search for - Senchuan Fishing Hooks - and you will find many types of them labeled similarly.

Edithtao Japanese Origin Fish Hooks

Aliexpress Senchuan Morikawa Japan hooks

Looks to me like the hooks are made by some unknown Japanese hook making company under contract to Senchuan company in China, and they just slap the Morikawa name one them.

Some, perhaps fictional company called, 株式会社もりかわ釣針 (Morikawa Ltd. Co. Fish Hooks.

Even this search phrase - 株式会社もりかわより釣針 - Fish hooks from Morikawa Ltd. .Co - did not find any Japanese company with that name, nor any tackle shop carrying hooks with that name. [ But, it was kind of a fun research project though] :wink:

I don’t ever recall seeing packages of fish hooks listing the hook weight in grams. Weighted hooks, 針重り, though will usually provide the weight in grams, on their website if not on the packaging.

Maybe your best way to find out their weight is find a friend who reloads ammo. They usually have very accurate scales that will measure very low weights. Proper powder weight is pretty important to know to keep a firearm from exploding in your face.

2 Likes
5

Thank you David. That is an incredible amount of work, for which I am most grateful. I followed the links but , as you say, there is no indication of their weight, although they are definitely the same hook.

I don’t know anybody who reloads ammo but I did have an ‘Eureka’ moment and created my own simple weighing scale by tying the Morikawa hook to some fine nylon and tied a similar size hook to the other end and added an assortment of Tungsten beads I have, whose individual weights I know. A bit rough and ready but the weight of the Morikawa hook balanced out at 355mg.

I don’t mind using my cheap Chinese 360 rod but I will give the Shimotsuke Kiyotaki 360 rod a miss as 355mg is more than I wish to use.

6

Thank you David
I came here by web search

KBK Tenkara hooks

I think that it is not introduced in Japan

It seems that it became Alice of Wonderland

7

Not work, just playing around for fun. Glad it helped.
Clever idea making the scale.

8

KBK - Killer Bug Kebari.
I didn’t find that website last evening. Clever find.
http://tenkarastuff.com/shop/product/kbk-tenkara-hooks/

However, I recall seeing the guy at TenkaraStuff in some of his other videos and also recall reading his Tenkara story on his website a year or two back.
http://tenkarastuff.com/shop/tenkara-fishing/tenkara-and-me/

10

@todoroki34 and @dwalker

The hooks were bought from Rae Leeson of http://tenkarastuff.com/shop/ in fact I have bought quite a bit of stuff from him.

However I do owe both of you a BIG APOLOGY . Some time ago I bought a Tenkara rod from Rae and I recall him mentioning that it would handle his KBK Killer fly (it is tied on the Morikawa hook ) although the fly was heavier than the normal weighted flies used for tenkara. I was sure that he also mentioned that he did not know the actual weight of the fly.

However today I thought I had better double check so I have looked back through our various email exchanges. To my horror I have discovered that he made no mention about not knowing the actual weight!! I must have been dreaming. I have just emailed him to ask, although I am now reasonably sure each hook weighs about 350mg.

All I can do is apologise for the time you have both spent researching.

Please accept a thousand apologies
David

11

@dwalker and @todoroki34

Further to my earlier post, I have just received a reply from Rae.

Here is what he said about the KBK Killer fly using the Morikawa weighted hook

QUOTE

I’ve never weighed the fly. I came up with the concept purely on studying the way nymphs behaved at the point they start to emerge and wanted to mimic the movement. (The drift to the surface and the dart to the safety of the river bed) I tried a fair few different hooks with weights in various positions and nearly made a cast to make them myself when I came across this hook. I tried it and it worked very well. I altered the design of the fly a little to compensate for the movement of the hackle around the weight when in the water. I filmed it a few times under water, until I decided it was working the way I wanted it to.

Over the years I’ve not really altered it apart from trying different colours. At no point did I even think to weigh it. I did try it on different rods and todate everyone has handled the fly. Some of the very light rods I struggled with, but still got the fly out and caught fish, it is usually me that has doubt in the rod rather than trust in the rod!

As I’ve used only this fly for the last 2 seasons I’ve noticed that with some rods a couple of casts to establish the weight difference is sometimes needed but once the “feel” is right I have no problems. A cast beyond where you believe the fish is, so not to spook it with the splash, manipulate it as soon as it’s in the water and I tend to get the fish. In fact I’ve caught far more fish with this fly than I ever have done in a season.

I am not certain of the origin of the hook as the writing is Japanese on the label (and it does say made in Japan?) to be honest I don’t care where it was made, I care that it works and it certainly has proven it works for me :slight_smile:

Also, as far as strain on the tip is concerned, the weight of a fly should make no difference. As long as you cast it correctly it will not harm your rod. The cast is the same as you would do with any tenkara cast only a little heavier. A weighted Czech nymph would be cast the same way…

Hope that answers the question David…

UNQUOTE

The fly referred to is this one - http://tenkarastuff.com/shop/product/kbk-killer-bug-kebari-weighted-fly-set/

Once again I can only apologise to you for your wasted time. I ought to have contacted Rae and asked his opinion about using my Shimotsuke Kiyotaki 360 with the fly.

David

12

Thank you were able to spend a very pleasant time.:smile:

Without this topic I did not know this hook

I think that it is the same opinion
but how it functions more than where it was made is the most important thing :thinking:

1 Like
13

Very true. I will be using it to fish a very deep canal, with a depth of 16ft (3m) so it is ideal for working my Sakasa kebari at such a depth.

14

Oh that is not needed.
Actually I found it interesting to discover that a Chinese company, Senchuan, has hooks made by a Japanese company, that is called Morikawa Ltd, according to the hook packaging. But there really seems to be no company by that name.

Likely Morikawa Ltd. is just a made up name used for the hooks the real company makes for the Chinese company. More or less Morikawa appears to just be the name of the contract to have the hooks made by an established Japanese hook manufacturer. Or just a name for an export company, not a manufacturer of hooks. However, what or who Morikawa Ltd. is may be discovered later by some chance discovery of a website. :smiley:

I found this list of 13 Japanese manufacturers or suppliers of fishing hooks.
(but because I am not a subscriber to the website it only permits me to see 10 of them)

https://panjiva.com/Japanese-Manufacturers-Of/fishing+hooks#

One of the 3 companies not seen on that list one would be MEITO FISHING HOOKS CO.,LTD.
Another one is Hayabusa Fishing Hooks Co., Ltd.
My guess is the missing one is Tiemco to complete the list of thirteen.

1 Like
15

Off topic. But interesting fishing hook trivia.
According to the following website the oldest fishing hooks found thus far were found in a cave on Okinawa. Made from sea snail shells.
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Fish_hook

2 Likes
16

I’ve never seen this kind of weighted hook. What is the preferred way of tying leader to it ?

17

I’m sorry for the late reply.

I have not seen this hook reality

I searched for it at a fishing tackle store, but it was not on sale

I recommend the normal weighted hook If you can

My weight hook・・・It is a unique case
I am using a weight for bait fishing

DSCF6460
DSCF64603648×2736 3.21 MB
DSCF6461
DSCF64612579×1934 2.63 MB

I am sorry not to be your desired answer

18

John

It is tied with a non-slip loop knot.
Have a look at the photo below

image
image3024×3024 1.09 MB

David

1 Like