Switch baiting squid

It’s generally pretty hard to drag me away for the Bream fishing but sometime I promise my wife a fresh feed of tasty calamari. When squid fishing, I like to use a technique we call switch baiting. Switch baiting is when you attract the squid with a lure or bait and then drop down a squid jig which hopefully the fired up squid will attack.

Switch baiting is particularly successful when fishing with a partner. Select one person to cast a squid jig and the other to cast a plastic. I have 2 preferred plastics when searching for squid, the 4” Powerbait shrimp in natural and the 4” power minnow in smelt or watermelon.

Switchbaiting squid is extremely good fun and very exciting. Just recently my brother and I had a fantastic session chasing squid. My brother (Brent) was throwing a Power Egi squid jig in olive pink and I was throwing a 4” minnow in watermelon. At first the fishing was tough, until after 20 minutes I felt the distinctive lunge of a large squid. This is where the fun begins. It’s very unlikely to have successfully hooked the squid with a single jighead so very gently I started to apply pressure to try and get the squid to within eyesight. Meanwhile Brent had quickly retrieved his jig and was ready to cast as soon as we sighted the squid. Once the squid was sighted, Brent lightly cast his jig just in front of the squid and allowed in to sink. As his jig reached level with the squid I gave a sharp flick of the rod tip to pull the plastic away from the squid, (I like to leave the plastic in the water to keep the squid interested) Brent was lifting and dropping his jig to try and tempt the squid to switch his aggression onto the jig. Watching a large aggressive squid, light up, serge and rap his tentacles around the jig is truly as exciting as any other form of sight fishing. This squid obliged and we had fun trying to net the squid without being inked.

The next squid I hooked on the 4” minnow was followed by 5 of his mates. It can really get hectic when this happens. This time I held my plastic with squid attached down deep to try and encourage the others to hang around. Brent quickly dropped his jig behind the squid and was immediately hooked onto a large squid. We quickly netted it but left the net dangling in the water as Brent dropped his jig back down. I got a bit greedy and grabbed my spare rod with jig attached and dropped that over the side as well. We both hooked up and without any spare hands to wind or unhook the squid we had line and ink flying everywhere. This pattern of schools of squid following their mates continued for the next couple of hours. We had an absolute ball and took home some very tasty calamari.

I use a Berkely Pro Tactic 6’10” 2-4kg for squid fishing with either 2lb Trilene straight through or with an extra long leader of 4lb Trilene attached to 2lb/3lb Crystal Fireline. I always have at least one rod rigged with a Berkley Power Egi jig ready to cast and I’ll also have another trailing out the back of the boat. It is amazing how many squid the stationary jig will catch.

The Berkley Power Egi comes in a range of sizes, weights and colours so try a few to find the ones that work best in your favourite squid patch. The added bonus of the Berkley Power Egi jig is its scent. It has a very distinctive prawn/shrimp smell to it which the squid just love. When working the Power Egi I have a couple of retrieves I like to rotate through. The standard lift and drop will work well but I like to be a bit more aggressive than that. Once the jig has sunk to within a metre of the bottom, I like to give the rod tip 2-3 sharp flicks, this will swim the lure from side to side. Then let it swim back to the bottom. The squid will strike when the jig is drifting back to the bottom. Good luck and don’t forget to try switch baiting.

Hodgey

Amazing catch on ABU Tracker telescopic rod.

Abu 6’6 Tracker – what a legend! Having owned telescopic rods as a little kid I never really had much faith in them, but gee they have come a long way since then. My recent purchase of a 6’6 Tracker came from a passion of fishing and a need to fit a rod and reel into my laptop bag for my work which involves flying around the islands of the Torres Strait. Having purchased it down in Brisbane this Christmas I dragged it along as a spare rod on a trip to Moreton Island. To cut a long story short – during a squid fishing session with mates I landed a 25-30kg Cobia (scales only went to 25kg which it made easily) in 45 minutes. We were all blown away by how the rod stood up to the challenge and helped make this fish my greatest ever catch. The next week my brothers, father and mates all bought Abu 6’6 trackers!



As head of Marine Education for the Torres Strait (18 schools and TAFE) I am pretty well known for being an obsessed fisherman – getting stuck into everything from Billfish to Barra in what has to be some of the most extreme fishing locations around. A lot of the gear we use is pretty good stuff and a lot of the gear we buy also never lasts long with blown reels and busted rods a continuous hassle. For a laugh we are going to see what we can catch with the 6’6 on upcoming trips to the shelf (440 km round trip this weekend coming) – if you need extra photos or video footage we can forward it on. We are by no means expert fisherman but we happen to fish in places where it does not matter.



I am running 30lb superbraid and a fairly cheap Shimano reel on the Tracker as well.




Regards,



Andrew Denzin

Berkley Flickershads outperform.......!

hello

i recently purchased one of the Berkley blue tiger frenzy flicker shad lures and i just wanted to say that it is LEGENDARY !
at first i was using some other hard lures and i fished with these for about 2 hours and they were crappppp, not one nibble, not a bite
then i puled out the flicker shad and rigged it up and caught 5 red fin all roughly 30cm long in about 10 minutes. they just kept coming up, it was amazing i thaught to myself that's it i have found the ONE, i am never lending this lure to anyone !. the best day of fishing i have had in a long time, i wish i had bought one earlier. im going out again tomorrow morning to hunt down some yellowbelly.

cheers
mark lopez



Mark has also advised us he did go fishing again using the same lure and caught more Redfin.

Why don't you get onto the Berkley Flickershad range?

dinger.

Queensland Wild Bass Mayhem

As much as I love to fish the dams for bass, you can't beat catching them in their natural envoronment. In Queensland, few bass anglers take advantage of the great wild bass fishing on offer. Many of these quality Australian bass have escaped from impoundments when the dams have spilled over. With so many mature bass now swimming in the creeks and rivers below the dams, we have an awesome fishery just waiting for anglers to enjoy.
Finding bass in the river and creeks is quite easy during the summer months. The fish follow their natural instincs and head upstream. I decided to hit one of my favourite holes recently. I had given the fish a good spell of over 6 months so I was keen to see how responsive they'd be to our lures. Tagging along was my brother Kerry. It was Kerry's first trip to the secret hole and he was keen to see what I had been raving about.
We slid the bathtub shaped twin hull boat into the water and set off using the electric motor to the upper stretch of the narrow winding hole. There was plenty of duck weed floating on top which could make catching fish difficult. The duck weed tends to trap heat in the water and we were looking for fish in the cooler shaded water. Too much duck weed can make the water too hot and the fish hard to come by. The weed had blown into thick clumps and was quite broken along some of the better looking banks. My first cast that was able to reach to shaded bank was quickly intercepted by a healthy bass.
Wild bass fishing can produce some explosive strikes. Many of the bass can be seen as the rush out to smash a lure. We started whacking fish on beetle spins. The beetle spin consisted of a gold blade on a wire frame clipped onto a 1/4 ounce Nitro Dam Deep Jighead. These jigheads were fitted with 2.6" Powerbait T-tail Minnows.
The beetlespins were effective as we worked our way up the creek but on the return trip I thought the fish might be looking for something a little different. Wild bass can be so aggressive that on the first pass you'll sting most of the fish. When continuing to fish them, you can fool them with a different presentation or more accurate casts that find their way right into their home. I had the lure setup that would achieve both. I found success on a weedless rigged 3.5" Powerbait T-tail Minnow. Rigged on a 1/16 ounce weighted worm hook, the lure skimmed beautifully. It would skip cast all the way back into the guts of the overhanging bottlebrush trees and come straight back out over the limbs, roots and floating weed. At first the action was slow as Kerry continued to pick off the occasional bass with his beetle spin rig. Then the pattern started to unfold and I was soon buzzing the lure out of the shade and watching bass explode on it. One fish even leapt clear of the water as it nailed the plastic. The bass were so aggressive that they weren't missing the hook buried in the weedless rig. The skinny profile of the 3.5" T-tail allowed the hook to easily find its mark when the fish hit. The sun was now high overhead. This had created some excellent shadows below the overhanging trees to explore. Our lures were still working but we pulled out some hard bodies to try our luck. These floating lures could be tossed right back to the shoreside structure and twitched on top keeping them in the strike zone longer. Some bass nailed the lure soon after it landed while others drilled it after it started to swim. I recall one bad cast smacking the water with an almighty splash. It had landed in an excellent spot but made a hell of a noise. It didn't deter a hungry bass from launching clear of the water as it sucked the lure from the top seconds after the splash-down. After we'd finished the morning session, we had boated 22 wild bass. The biggest 4 fish were over 40cm to the fork of the tail. Kerry managed the biggest fish with a fork length of 45cm. What an awesome morning. And...... there are so many more spots just like it waiting to be found.

My wild bass tackle consisted of:
- Pro Tactic 7" 2-5kg spin rod
- 802 Abu Cardinal spin reel
- 6lb Spiderwire Stealth Camo Braid
- 15lb Stren Fluorocarbon leader

PFLUEGER ARBOR – A reel difference!

It must be said that reels that have this spool configuration have been around for a long time; like a really long time! Back when these other reels where around people where having the same problems and where looking for the same results as we are today. We, as they did, are looking to the spool shape to help take away line twist and enable a longer more efficient cast.

If we think back to what anglers of old had to put up with it was stiff gut and even stiffer nylon. But this day and age we are facing off against line that’s the opposite. Most lines the people want to fish are very loose and limp braids.
For those of you who like using standard braid (none thermally fused) then this reel is for you! The new Pflueger ARBOR brings back the technology that has helped us cure our casting woes.

The technology behind it is quite simple. The larger the arbor, the less rotations of line needed to come off the spool to get to the desired distance. Keeping in mind the every loop of line equals a percentage of line twist. Less loops; less line twist. Also there is the friction created as the line comes off the spool and has to run over the spool lip. The less rotation here will generate less friction giving a further cast.

The large arbors oscillation stroke length (the spool as it goes up and down) also adds to the anti-tangle affects throughout the cast. Being that the rotor spins only 4 times per stroke, this very short stroke takes away the amount of rotor spins and therefore the amount of line that can be ‘grabbed’ by the forward running line and smashed through the guides causing what is known as a bunch of grapes!

Pic 1a-1b/ Spool dimensions are – Spool lip = 50-mm. Spool stroke = 10.5-mm.
Having a 50-mm ID spool also allows for a large drag system. This is a twin disc drag which is and has always been one of the most consist ways of manufacturing a drag so that it’s smooth and strong. The added bonus with the Arbor is the primary washer is a Carbon Matrix washer some smoothness and durability come second nature.

Pic 2/ Twin disc drag system. Both the washers are 25-mm in diameter.

Pic 3/ Like most modern day spinning reels a small rubber washer is added under the drag knob to keep out water and foreign objects.

Pic4/ Stabilizing bearing on the main shaft. This is something we’re seeing more and more of. The bearing is place under the spool to help keep it aligned with the outer most point of the spool. This in turn will help to keep your drag smooth and stop horizontal spool flex.

This reel has a very small gear case for the size of the rotor that it swings. After pulling the side plate off I almost had to stab myself with the screw driver to make sure I wasn’t dreaming! The gears in this thing are massive. I should have known, that like a lot of other reels built these days it’s all about minimizing the body and increasing the size of the gears and the Arbor is no exception!

Almost the entire box is filled with the main gear and pinion, the two gears that you want to have substantially built if any. Keeping it simple (something I like in a gear box) is the oscillating gears and slider. The oscillating gear has a bearing in it to keep it straight and running smooth. Something I think you can feel when you first wind this reel.
That’s it!! That’s all there is in there. Less is defiantly more when it comes to making reliable and strong gears boxes. One other thing you’ll notes about the Arbor is how slow the gear ratio is. It’s 4.3 x 1 in both sizes. It feels a little weird to start with until you get it on the water and see how much line you are picking up with that 50-mm arbor!

Pic5/ Your gears Sir! That’s them in all their nakedness. Now for a real of this size, these are some mean gears let me tell ya!!

Pic6/ Here we have the oscillating gears and slider. Note the bearing in the oscil gear and the ‘S’ track in the slider.

Ball race type ball bearings are very important to the inner working of all fishing reels. The Arbor has 7 in all and although most are quite small, the ones that matter the most are very large for this sized reel. The 3 bearings in question are the most important in any threadline reel. The two that are on either side of the main gear and the one that surrounds the pinion gear. These large bearings will serve two purposes; firstly they will stop any major gear wear from occurring within the opposing angled main gear and pinion gears and secondly the sheer size of them will keep everything in line for years to come.

Pic7/ One of the main gear bearings and the pinion gear bearing. Check the size of them against a 5er!

Some of the other nice add-ons on this reel are things like an over sized bail wire for distortion free use, a screw in/screw out handle for a tighter feel, short reel stem for index finger line control, one way clutch bearing for the anti reverse, light weight alloy/graphite body and rotor, braid ready spool (spool has hard rubber lugs that the braid bites onto so it doesn’t spin), double anodized spool, Sure Click bail open, ratchet click drag knob and some pretty sporty looks!
All in all, this reel is a little ripper. It’s put up with my abuse for over 6 months now and is still going strong. I’ve fished it in some pretty adverse conditions and at times haven’t washed it in freshwater for two weeks and it’s still running without a service.

If you’re right into fishing super thin braided lines then I can tell you that you’ll have to spend a hell of a lot more cash to get a reel that will probably not fish it as well as the Pflueger Arbor.

Adam Royter.

Girl Power - Morgy's Monster

Not to be out done by her brother Fraser, Morgan decides to get in on the fun.

This is my eldest daughter Morgan who is 15 years old

After listening to her little brother rave about all the fun he was having Morgan thought she better come with me tonight.

This was cool to watch , once hooked it made a run for the middle of the dam and took almost all the line with 5kg of drag like it wasn't even on , I checked twice to make sure we hadn't wound it the wrong way.

You should see the lure , Bib broken off , front treble bent all over the place , back treble GOOOOOOONE, altogether and the eyelet pulled clean out of the lure , middle treble and split ring spaghetti , whacked to bits.

She was very excited as you could imagine , we both were , there is only one thing better than catching one of these yourself and that's watching your kids do it , this one was 1.17m long and we got it swimming and back into the water after a couple of photos.

Hope you had a great weekend as well

Simon.

Fraser lands a monster!

Hello

My name is Simon Steele and I live with my Family in Mackay Queensland where my young Son Fraser and I have
just started to fish for Barramundi.

living in Mackay we are very much spoiled with some great wild and impoundment Barramundi opportunities.
I started taking the kids to the rivers edge in June last year and for Fraser this is where it all started , on his second only cast while
I was still tying my lure on he hooked a great Barra that jumped just 6 feet in front of him , I had to grab him by the belt to keep him on
land.

Many Trips to BCF later we have all the gear and a second hand tinny and Fraser and I get away to either Teemburra or Kinchant dam
as often as we can , I have done as much with him as possible while they are off on school holidays.

Fraser uses a Shakespeare Tempest I-M6 graphite 5-10kg fitted with an Abu Garcia 6600c4 reel and has become quickly adept to casting
with his first overhead reel.

On this Monday night after dinner we made our way up to Kinchant dam to try our luck , shortly after arriving and with a big moon rising
I caught a nice 70cm Barra and Fraser was right there with the net for me , it was a good sign because as you know some times in the
impoundments they just wont bite and nothing you can do seems to work. It was all quiet for the next hour and we were just talking about
moving when he said dad I am on with real excitement in his voice.

Well , true he was on alright , the first jump the fish made was in the dark out of the reach of our cap lamps but by the splash it made I knew
this was not a small one. Fraser fishes with 20lb braid Line and 40lb leader so we let the fish take line and boy did it take some , the next jump
was nearer the boat and we both got a look at the massive fish at this point , it had taken his Killer Lure Barra bait front on and there was no
sign of it , it was very well hooked.

The big fish had us from front to back of the boat twice and gave the poor little bloke the workout of a lifetime in the process , Fraser is 37kg
the fish ended up weighing 35.5kg so it was very nearly a pound for pound battle. I didn't touch his rod right through out the 20-30 minutes it

took to fight the fish , he ran the drag as he wished and really showed what he had learned.

As a father watching all this by his side will be a moment in time I will just never ever forget , I just kept praying that his little rod didn't break because it had
some ridiculous curl on it at times.

Long story short , we got the net under her and into the boat where we both just stood looking and smiling , he gave me a huge hug and said
thanks for the help with the net , he was shaking like a leaf. We measured it at 1.24m long , his dream and constant waking hope of one day
catching a metre long Barramundi had come true and the smile in the photos says it all , its Friday now as I write and he is still on high revs.

Just before he went to bed I told him I would write to you and show you his fish , he said what do you think they will say dad ? he is very excited
to think that you would look at it , he said tell them about the leader and how close we were to not landing it. when we got the lure out and had
a look at the leader it was hanging by a proverbial thread , one more good shake and it would have been all over , some things are just meant to be Hey !!!

We just wanted to say a sincere thank you for the great rod and reel , I am sure that other equipment would have turned inside out with a fish like this on the
end of it , instead of any performance issues my little son landed a fish that many only dream of , he sleeps with his rod beside his bed and I think it may be that way
for a long time to come.

Our sincere thanks and all the best for 2010


Simon and Fraser Steele.