In 2022, I traveled to the United States alone.
The reason was simple: I wanted to experience real bass fishing with my own body.
Even though it was our first time meeting, my friends in America welcomed me warmly. They took me to all kinds of waters—from massive lakes to small local ponds. The world I encountered there was completely different from Japan. The lifestyle, the culture, the sheer scale of the lakes—and even the black bass themselves.
The lakes stretched to the horizon. Shallow flats expanded beyond anything I had ever imagined. And on those flats, we witnessed bass breaking the surface to feed—again and again.
That sight was the beginning of everything.
At the time, I only had EDEN8, BUGROCK, and EDEN7 with me.
When I tried to fish the shallows, BUGROCK would quickly hit bottom. EDEN would get tangled in grass. I couldn’t fish the way I wanted to.
Not knowing what else to do, I tried retrieving BUGROCK just under the surface at a dead slow speed—trying not to let it dive.
In that instant, the surface exploded.
It happened in a split second. And in that moment, I realized the potential of a wake bait—something I had never truly felt was necessary in Japan.
When I returned home, I immediately began building one.
Because of its body shape, I felt BUGROCK could pair well with a wake concept. So I kept the same body profile and only changed the lip angle and weight. The result was terrible. It didn’t grab water. The action wasn’t stable.
“No. This isn’t it.”
I returned the lip angle to the same angle as BUGROCK. Then, to fully maximize the characteristics of wood, I rethought everything from scratch—the lip material, thickness, body volume, all of it.
The first BUGWAKE was born.
It carried the DNA of BUGROCK, yet it crawled across the surface with a completely new presence.
The action was already there. I tested it repeatedly in Japanese lakes and rivers. I caught fish. It had reached a level most would call “finished.”
But somehow, I wasn’t satisfied.
“Is this really the best it can be?”
That question pulled me into a deeper maze.
I built countless prototypes.
Weight positions, angles, lip shapes, body thickness. Before I knew it, I had drifted far from the original BUGWAKE I had envisioned. Some baits didn’t catch anything at all—lifeless in the water.
That’s when I returned to a simple question:
Why does BUGROCK catch fish?
That water-grabbing feel.
That wood sound.
That sensation of fish coming up while I’m just reeling.
Did I truly understand it?
The phrase “It can be better” can push I forward. But sometimes, it pulls I away from what matters most. I threw everything away and returned to the very first prototype.
In 2022, I released BUGWAKE once, clearly stating it was a prototype.
The action was perfect.
But as I continued testing, I discovered something troubling: there were BUGWAKEs that caught fish—and ones that didn’t.
They looked almost identical. But underwater, they were completely different.
The difference was only one thing: Whether the body was truly grabbing the water.
This is incredibly difficult to explain in words. You can only feel it by retrieving two side by side.
So how do you make a body grab water?
The answer was unexpected. It was the thickness and weight of the coating.
When the coating is thick, weight sits on the outer shell of the bait. The sharp, crisp action disappears. In its place comes a dull, heavy, water-pushing movement. Normally, that might be called a flaw.
But for BUGWAKE, it was the answer.
That dullness makes it grab water.
That weight gives it presence on the surface.
That resistance travels clearly through the rod.
It also reduced body rotation during casts, allowing the bait to fly straight and land on the exact line I aimed for.
That’s when I knew.
“This is it.”
Of course, there was a trade-off. The thick coating softened the delicate hand-carved facial details. Some of the visual beauty was slightly lost.
But I didn’t hesitate.
Because MBD does not exist to create lures that are only beautiful. MBD exists to create baits that connect you to a fish you will remember for the rest of your life.
BUGWAKE was originally planned for a 2025 release. It became 2026 because once I realized this truth, I continued testing multiple coating variations until I found the perfect balance.
If beauty alone were the goal, any shape would work.
But what MBD values is not that shallow.
What matters is that when you pick up an MBD bait, you encounter a fish that stays with you forever.
BUGWAKE is not a flashy lure.
But the moment you start reeling, you feel the weight of the water through your rod.
That weight is the reason it catches fish.
Years from now, I want you to remember a fish because of this bait.
“That day. That place. That explosion.”
A story you can tell your children—or even your grandchildren.
That is what MBD stands for.
And now, BUGWAKE is complete—released with 100% confidence as MBD.
I sincerely hope that when the surface explodes, it becomes a moment you will never forget.
“記録より感動を”
| Lure | Feet |
| BUGWAKE | 0-2 feet |
| BUGROCK | 5-6 feet |
