MF40 MADNESS

After following the early tests of the new MF40 soft vibes on the Purefishing blog, I was lucky enough to get hold of a few to road test on Victoria’s Black Bream population from John "Dinger" Bell. And it just happened that I was heading to Gippsland last weekend to chase a few bream! I saw some very early prototypes of this lure some time ago, and had waited with interest for their progression. To say I am blown away by these things is an understatement. THEY ROCK!

We headed to Gippsland Lakes and after having a quick search across some flats, we headed up the Mitchell River searching for concentrations of fish. It wasn’t long until we got to ‘The Cut’ and found some interesting schools of fish on the sounder holding off the edges further up the river. Wasting no time, I began casting the soft vibe upstream (and these things cast a mile!), working it back with a fairly standard lift/drop/retrieve technique usually employed on metal vibes.

It didn’t take long, as I was hooked up second cast to a nice school bream of about 30cm. The next two hours were followed by fish after fish, working through several different colours to find a stand out. Every colour I tried caught fish, but natural shades definitely were preferred during the day. The lures sink enticingly, fluttering on the drop and they vibrate well through the rod tip. Other techniques that produced fish were a slow roll back to the boat and also short erratic hops that got absolutely smashed. There wasn’t really a need for long pauses, as the fish hit so aggressively.

One of the stand out features I discovered with this lure is way fish hit it. Nearly every strike was on the lift of the vibe, and the fish were not mucking about, they absolutely creamed it! Traditionally, I have found that the bream in our southern rivers tend to hit vibes on the drop or while paused on the bottom. The hook up rate was also really good, the new Yakiba trebles sticking well and also lasting all day without sign of fatigue. The softness of the lure initially had me apprehensive about its longevity on fish. This thought was soon thrown out, with lures catching over a dozen fish and still looking great and swimming well with minimal wear. Some fish had taken the lure sideways, crumpling the rear section back on itself. The flexible internal wire in the lure was simply straightened and the lure swam like new again!

On the few occasions that fish didn’t hook up, they aggressively struck the lure on the next lift or two, that’s the beauty of a soft plastic, it feels natural! We also fished traditional metal blades of several brands at the same time, with the MF40’s landing significantly more fish and being hit twice as aggressively. If I told you how many more fish these things caught, you probably wouldn’t believe me!

We never landed any monster Gippy bream, but the MF40’s caught loads more fish than anything else and they will be getting a lot more swim time on my rods! Look out for them, because Matt Fraser may have just created the next big thing in southern lure fishing!

Cheers,

Andy




Andy Smith is a tournament angler in Victoria and works in the tackletrade at Gone Fishin Sales, Carrum Downs.
Test product was sent to Andy for pre release testing and feedback. Look for more product tests from Andy in the future. MF40 lures will be available in stores early July.
Dinger.