Shimano’s pursuit in jigging for cherry salmon. New color lineup for Sakura Special! Stinger Butterfly Center Sardine & Six Sided

Stinger Butterfly Center Sardine Sakura Special

As with any kind of jigging, it is important to find out what kind of jig action the cherry salmon will respond to that day in order to increase your chances of catching them. Therefore, anglers bring in many kinds of jigs and try various actions with the jigs they have brought in to search for cherry salmon. During this time of searching, it is easier to find the answer by using jigs that can produce a variety of movements, rather than jigs that specialize in a certain movement. Shimano’s best jig for such discernment is the Stinger Butterfly Center Sardine.

This jig is set in the middle of the range of Shimano jigs in terms of fall speed, dwell time, slide width, and all other aspects of movement. After a strong and long jerk, the jig turns sideways, and the moment the jig falls often leads to bites. This movement often leads to a series of bites, and the angler can take a hint from this jig by strengthening the fall, lengthening the time in the air, or changing the jerk strength or length, etc., to determine what worked well and rotate to the next jig for further success. This is the best jig to use as a pilot jig.

The Stinger Butterfly Center Sardine has been available in six cherry salmon colors as the Sakura Special: Trend Color x Glow (Glow Per Mark, Glow Dot), and for 2025, four more colors will be added. All of these color schemes are likely to lead to better fishing results.

The first Sakura Special colors released: S Blue Glow Permark, ST Pink Back Glow, S Full Red Glow Permark, S Chart Glow Permark, S Glikin Pink Berry, and S Crogging Low Dot Berry.

These four colors will be added in January 2025. Common to all of the new colors is the use of glow colors in coloring patterns such as permark, dots, and edges. Purple and Chart are strong colors to increase appeal, while Dynamite Orange is a Hokkaido proven color that uses Shimano’s proprietary transparent scale-boosting (Kyorin) holograms over a solid fluorescent orange color. The Natural Sunset, with purple, gold, and silver colors on the back and blue glow on the belly, is a strong model for fishing at muddy seas.

Shimano instructor Keito Yamamoto, who loves and excels at jigging for cherry salmon, describes the effectiveness of these new colors.
The center sardine, which I have been saying is good for fishing, is now available in 10 colors with the addition of four new colors. The coloring patterns, such as perforations, dots, and edges, are also varied. These colors have been proven in data from research institutes to be highly responsive to cherry salmon. Dynamite Orange is a standard and highly proven color in Hokkaido. Natural Sunset is one colored with a collaboration of hit colors from past experience. It also features a blue glow color.

Sakura Special is used for 110g, 135g, and 160g models.

Product Information
https://fish.shimano.com/ja-JP/product/lure/offshorejigging/jig/a155f00000dpwu2qaf.html

Six-Side’s Sakura Special

Another cherry salmon color added in January 2025 is the Six Sides. This jig produces a lateral short slide when jerked. After the jerk, the back of the body rises up to produce a horizontal posture, which is a momentary opportunity for bites. After the horizontal posture, the jig shifts to a fall with minimal flopping and lateral movement. The quick fall is designed to make the lure run away from the target’s line of sight, and the timing of this movement is said to induce a reaction bite. This action is ideal for jigging for cherry trout, which are caught in a very specific range.

The Six Sides has a six-sided body. It has more reflective surfaces than other jigs.

The Six Sides consists of four new colors added to the colors that have been used in the Center Sardine as the Sakura Special. As the name suggests, the Six Sides has a body composed of six surfaces. Since it has more reflective surfaces than other jigs, many colors effectively use those surfaces. Bullpine is the absolute pilot color for cherry salmon jigging. Chart is a proven and popular color, so we have prepared two colors with different glow patterns. Asime Gripin is quite a complex color. It consists of green, pink, gold, and silver. Asime Pink is also a proven color in the center sardine. Kurogin is the natural color. Center Sardine is used when the tide is straight and easy to fish. Six-sided is also effective when the tide is straight, but it is more effective when conditions are bad, such as when there are two or three tides,” said Keito Yamamoto.

Two sizes are available: 130g and 150g.

Product information
https://fish.shimano.com/ja-JP/product/lure/offshorejigging/jig/a15f900000eimmaia3.html

Shimano also offers jigs in colors compatible with cherry salmon, such as the “Stinger Butterfly Sardine Weber Sakura Special,” which produces three different fall actions, and the “Stinger Butterfly Pebble Stick Sakura Special,” which is suitable for a wide range of fishing from slow to high pitch. There is also a model called “Stinger Butterfly Pebble Stick Sakura Special. Check out these models as well, and use them in different ways to catch fish.

Stinger Butterfly Sardine Waver Sakura Special
https://fish.shimano.com/ja-JP/product/lure/offshorejigging/jig/a155f00000c5cyiqaf_p.html

Stinger Butterfly Pebble Stick Sakura Special
https://fish.shimano.com/ja-JP/product/lure/offshorejigging/jig/a155f00000c5cyfqaf_p.html

Summary: Angler’s Time Editorial Department