HollowBellys Rock On!

After their outstanding debut on the barra market last year, Hollow Bellys have now cemented their place in barra anglers' tackle boxes as they continue to catch outstanding fish, when other lures are struggling. I've recently returned from a week at Awoonga Dam, Gladstone where Hollow Bellys were again the gun lure. Rigged on Nitro Skeleton Jigs, these lures accounted for many metre plus fish.



One slight difference from previous trips is that the 4 and 5" HollowBellys outfished the usually consistent 6" model. We dont know what to put this down to, but when one lure is working - you work it. Consequently the 5" (in Gizard Shad or Purple Tiger), rigged on a 3/8Oz #7/0 stayed on my main outfit all week.


This outfit was one of Berkleys IM6 Cranksticks, the 6'3" 10 - 15kg model mated with a ABU Revo Inshore and spooled with 30lb Code Red Braid. This is a great barra outfit, it made thousands of casts and didn't miss a beat.
The fishing varied during the week depending on water temps, the hotter the water the hotter the fishing! As we move into spring and early september the fishing will continue to improve. I'll be keeping an eye on the forecasts looking for a window of opportunity when Northerlies kick in and temps spike. Because no doubt the barra will again respond.

Anyway check out some of the pics of Hollowbelly caught barra.

Tight Lines, Good Knots, Smooth Drags!

Matt

Kids Fishing

As some of you may know, I’m a school teacher and seeing kids learn a new skill and experience success is something that I enjoy and get a lot of satisfaction out of. Each week at school I’m told a handful of stories about weekend fishing trips, however most of them end in the words “but we didn’t catch anything”. Now I know fishing can still be fun and enjoyable even if you don’t catch a fish, but I guarantee it’s a lot more fun when you do!!!

Recently I have been targeting the winter run of salmon that cruise up and down the Barwon River which is located on the western side of Geelong, in between the townships of Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads.

Over a four week period in July and August I visited the Barwon River each weekend and had mixed results. Two of the trips turned out to be rippers where locating and catching plenty of salmon was seemingly easy and I drove away with memories of 20 fish in twenty casts on quite a few occasions throughout the day. The other 2 trip however had me struggling to raise a scale for the majority of the session, with the only saving grace being a couple of hot patches where it was a fish a cast for half an hour before they shut down.

After analysing the different condition over the 4 weeks I think the main ingredient that led to success was cloud cover. With the sun shining the fish were easy to find but almost impossible to catch. As soon as the sun disappeared behind a cloud the fish would happily feed but then switch off again as the sun broke through.

A student in my grade has been telling me stories of her parents buying a caravan in Ocean Grove and how she loved to watch the playful dolphin that regularly visited the mouth of the estuary. She also told me that she had tried fishing a couple of time on consecutive weekends however the conversation was all too familiar when it ending in “but we didn’t catch anything”. Then one Monday morning she came to school with lots of questions, “Where should we fish, what bait should we use, etc, etc”. During the week I gathered a map and highlighted a couple of landbased spots to try. I told her to fish at low tide and in overcast conditions. I also gave her 2 packets of plastics (turtleback worms in watermelon and power minnow in pearl watermelon) and some 1/8 jigheads. I talked her through rigging the plastics to make sure that they swim straight and told her to work the lure with a simple lift and drop technique, making sure that lure always gets back to the bottom after each lift.

Well, check out the photos!!!!! The following Monday, I was greeted with one of the most excited and enthusiastic stories of fishing I have heard in a long time. She told me how after only 10 minutes of casting her new lures she had finally caught her first fish. A nice 31cm salmon, she described the way she waggled the lure in the water and the way the salmon were really hard to bring in. She continued to tell me that not only did she catch 1 but she caught 6 salmon and that her sister also caught her first fish.

For those of you that can remember catching your first fish on a lure you will know the excitement that I’m talking about. To be able to pass on some fishing knowledge and to see a family enjoy their fishing was a terrific experience.

Hodgey.

Get em now!

For regular readers of the blog page, it will be apparent that the MF series of baits is proving to be a smash success.

Anglers who are prepared to persevere and allow the subtle action of the MF40 to do it's thing are raving about the catch rate.
For those who fail to have success, keep trying, don't expect your rod tip to vibrate like conventional lipless baits and work on the subtle presentaions this bait allows. The rewards will follow.

As per the previous blogs, Matt is close to finishing the next step in the MF evolution. The MF50 and 60. These baits will be bass candy as well as irresistable to many other species. New colours are coming on line as well so keep an eye out for these baits soon.

The new Gulp colours are also filtering out to stores now and with most of the 2" and 3" shrimp colours now avialable as well as minnows, fry and minnow grubs in stock, anglers now have some serious colour choices in these ever popular shapes.
The Punk and Disco prawns are working particularly well, which just proves that conventional wisdom about colours goes out the window with these two.
Keep your mind open to the possibilities new colours offer.

The 5" and 7" Jerkshads in Pilchard and Orange Tiger are due in shortly, so for all you snapper heads and king chasers, these two baits will find a ready home in the tackle kit.

There's lots more coming for 2010 but I will keep you in suspense for a bit longer yet.

Tight lines,
Dinger.