The IVCB is here!

From Abu come the all new all singing Morrum series round body baitcaster reels.

These are the best things yet from Sweden with lot's of Japanese input. Just check out the features.
The red reel - Morrum ZX 1600 BJ IVCB-4
Ultra light Duralmin one piece machined frame and sideplates
Wide range brake block adjustment all from outside the reel body
IVCB-4 brake block system
Ultra light shallow duralmin spool
HPCR corrosion resist bearings x 10
Infinite A/R bearing
80mm speed handle
Saltwater use





The Blue reel- Morrum ZX 1600 IVCB-4
Machine cut one piece Duralmin frame and side plates,
IVCB-4 brake block system adjustable from outside the reel
Ultra light Duralmin spool, shallow
HPCR corrosion resist bearings
Infinite A/R bearing
95mm power handle
Saltwater use.









Gorgeous reels, limited availability and not cheap. But you get what you pay for.

Look for them in better stores soon or order one so you don't miss out. RRP is around the $800 mark.
Capacity and ratio is same for both models, 120m/3kg mono and 6.3:1.
Enjoy!
Dinger

Testing, 1.2.3.........

It was my good fortune to recently spend 6 days wide off Mackay, Qld in search of all things that take line.
The area fished was approx 220km out and with an 80' live aboard and our own 20' sportfisher to play with all week.
Primary focus was GT's, Mackerel and anything that would eat jerkshads.
Mission one was accomplished in the first few days with about 16 GT's to 27kilo'.

I was lucky enough to score a Penn Torque SV7 from the States to test and although we are not yet selling Penn reels, I can tell you this new mega spin reel is the equal of anything I have previously fished. See GT pic and the reel is beside fish tail. 40lb of super smooth drag, 400m/80lb braid, strong and powerful, it passed all tests in a pretty tough environment. The rod was also a prototype of the new Venom series coming in 2010.
The model, "Viper GT", 7' two piece, drag rated to 25kilo, 80lb braid. The combo was awesome, easy to use casting big poppers and stick baits and handled the fish easily.

Jason Kennedy who was filming for his Fishin Trip show was also on the test trail and utilised the jig rods we are bringing out in 2010. At 1.83mtrs, they were surprisingly good casting rods and worked well with the Torsion 80 reel on the GT's.

If you are wanting the latest in rod design and technolgy, look for our new Dreadnaught and Venom rods in early 2010.

An interesting comaparison was raised during the week on trolling lures. Looking for Mackerel, we fished the pasages with trolled minnows and the Berkley Frenzy Mungo 18 deep was a standout among highly rated contempory's. Fished alongside the well respected X-raps of similar size, we constantly got the bites only on the Frenzy. Possibly this was due to the extra depth this lure runs. It was fouling bottom in 45' [15mtrs]. I know of no other lure that can get that deep.
At under $15 retail compared to 30+, Mungo's have to be one of the best value tropical troll baits available.

A great session on the last day on plastics and the best Golden snapper I have seen. In two drops we bagged a 6.75 and 7 kg pair. The plastics fishing was frantic with everything from Cobia to Red Throat Emperor, Cod, Large mouth Nannygai, Sweetlip and the Goldies.

Typical outfits for tropical plastic fishing was aPflueger 7' Asaro 6-10 spin rod with Pflueger Infusion 50 reel and some 30lb braid. 7" jerkshads, 1oz jigs and you are ready to go. We fished depths to 40mtrs using these outfits and had no trouble getting the fish up.

Prior to the trip I was shown how to tie a new knot. This knot has now become the only leader knot I will ever use in heavy tackle fishing. Called the Mid knot, look for it being tied by Brent Delaney on PFTV, the links for same on our homepage.
This knot when tied correctly does NOT EVER break. Amazing but true. Learn it and you will love it and what is even better, no need for stupid doubles in braid which have a nasty habit of grabbing guides.

A great week and as always, we learned some usefull things that will make for better tackle in the future.

Cheers, Dinger.

Impoundment barra breakdown

Over the last couple of months I have made two trips to Lake Awoonga to tangle with the lake’s big barramundi. After speaking to several groups of anglers, I realized just how tough they were finding the fishing. Some of these keen fishermen had travelled all the way from Victoria to experience Queensland’s impoundment barra fishing. If you are planning a trip, there are several items you should include in your gear if you want to find success on any barra impoundment. Let’s take a look at these and some handy pointers for using them.

Poking Around Weedy Pockets
Awoonga barra can be tough to tempt during daylight hours. Apart from finding schooling fish out in the deeper water, the only other option is to work lures around the weed beds. At the moment, most of the weed visible near the surface drops away to the bottom where there is little growth at all. Placing a cast close to the visible weed and allowing it to fall to the base of the weed before retrieving is the key to working these vertical edges.
Tip: The better fishing locations will have broken weed patches. These form pockets to cast into and are more likely to hold fish. Using a pair of polarized sunglasses will cut the surface glare from the water and make the weed easier to see.

Night Time Sessions
Daylight hours are the best time to choose a night time fishing spot. As night approaches, barra activity increases and the fish are more willing to move around. An ideal spot would have the boat quietly anchored within casting distance of a shallow weedy flat, bay or point. The more submerged weed and weed reefs that can be worked from the position the better. Choose water between two to four metres deep and pick a lure weight to suit the depth you are fishing. A steady retrieve should see the lure just bouncing the tops of the weed and getting fouled occasionally.

Tip: When anchored and in position move around the boat quietly to avoid scaring the fish. Turning off sounders also reduces noise in the water. Sessions when the moon is lighting the water make it easier for both the angler and fish to see.

Barra Lure selection
As with any fishing, it pays to carry a selection of lures to suit different scenarios. Berkley Powerbait 5” Mullets are one of my favourite lures for targeting barra that are holding deeper. The Mullet is a great choice when fishing the base of the weed during the day.
For shallower water and slower presentations, you can’t go past the Powerbait Hollowbelly range. Hollowbelly swimbaits come in 4, 5 and 6 inch sizes and a range of colours. Unlike many other barra plastics, these baits are unrigged. Hollowbellies can be fitted with a specially designed Nitro Skeleton Jighead. This system allows the angler to choose the hook size and weight to suit the lure size and area they are fishing.
Hollowbelly swimbaits are set apart from other plastics because of their ultra-soft bodies which come to life with the slightest hint of movement. The Hollowbelly can be rolled dead slow or burned back fast making it one of the most effective and versatile barra lures on the market.

Line Choices
Braided line is the best option when chasing barra on soft plastics. Braids low stretch nature transmits a better feel as to what’s going on at the business end. With braid you can not only feel the lure touching the weed but more effectively rip it back out. Braided lines of 20-30lb are ideal for both spin and baitcast outfits. In a snaggy situation, you might choose to use 50lb braid but usually this is not necessary. A visible line like Spiderwire Stealth Code Red is ideal especially when trying to see your line during a night time session.
Leader material is also a vitally important part of the equation. There are stacks of leaders out there but it’s hard to go past Vanish and Stren Fluorocarbon in 60lb breaking strain. These lines are perfect all-rounders and suited to different lure types and all the situations you are likely to encounter. The beauty of these lines is their superior abrasion resistance. Barra are well known for biting and cutting through leaders. It is usually the monster fish that do this so a quality leader is well worth it.

Once you’ve got a selection of the right gear, it’s just a matter of planning your attack. The barra have been quite willing to play the game over the past weeks and the action should only get better over the coming months. The full moon period is a productive time to be on the water but it is also the busiest. Finding a quiet spot to yourself or fishing when there are fewer boats around can really work in your favour. Until next time, buckled rods from the Colonel!

2009 Flathead Classic

I’ve had an interesting week or two that has had me cover a lot of territory and a lot of fishing opportunities. I’ve been pulling together some technique DVD’s for AFN and they saw me chasing impoundment barra at the beginning of last week and culminated with some filming at the Flathead Classic on the Gold Coast where we reviewed some of the latest tournament lure techniques for flathead. I’d like to cover some of the learnings from the Flathead Classic.
I fished the event as part of Team Pflueger/Berkley, and fished with Steve “The Wizard” Wilson and a Sunshine Coast angler with a name longer than the Arabic alphabet – we will refer to him by his nickname – “Zig” for the purposes of this blog!

The Flathead Classic is a long lived catch and release tournament that sees a lot of good flathead anglers gather to contest prestigious personal and team placings. The event awards points for total length of fish caught and also awards for longest bycatch species.

October typically has some sizeable flathead schooling in areas close to the estuarine entrances along the Gold Coast waters – due largely to spawning influences. These waters are often quite deep and contain good current flow, and as such require a specific approach and technique for extracting some of the better fish. Without a prefish, we decided to fish some of the areas commonly expected to hold fish at this time of year. These areas consisted of the Jumpinpin and Gold Coast seaway locations. These areas hold several deep water locations that are home to structure and concentrations of food sources that attract the schooling flathead. The aim was to fish these areas around the tide changes as they become very hard to fish as the current starts to flow during mid tide periods. As the tidal flow grew stronger, we ventured to sand banks further up the estuary and fished in shallow water for smaller but good point scoring fish.

For much of the tournament, we were targeting fish in 6 to 12 metres of water which alleviated some of the issues of pressured fish. Being that we fished deeper water, the tackle consisted of 10 to 14 lb braided lines, with 12 to 20lb leaders. We fished a mixture of Spiderwire Code Red braid, Stren Microfuse and Stren Sonic braided lines. The leaders were typically Stren Coral material. Our jigheads for the deeper water consisted of ¼ to 5/8th Oz, with ½ Oz the most commonly used jighead. As we fished with 6 inch plastics a lot, the hook size adopted was the 3/0 size. Steve fishes with the Pflueger range of rods, while I fished extensively with the Berkley Dropshot Pro in 6 to 8kg size for the deeper water. The rod provides a stiff quality that enables effective working of the plastics in deeper water. As we ventured into shallower areas during periods of stronger tidal flow, we started to use lighter equipment such as 2 to 5kg rods. To compliment the lighter rods we used 4 to 8lb braids and 10 to 14lb leaders. We matched current flow with jighead weights that enabled us to bounce plastics along the bottom adequately.
In the deeper water, the choice of soft plastic consisted of the 6 inch GULP grub in nuclear chicken and chartreuse colours. These fluttering, brightly coloured soft plastics proved very effective on local flathead, tailor and jew! In the shallower water, we fished 3 and 4 inch soft plastics in the GULP shrimp and powerbait minnow ranges. Steve fished one of Matt Frasers prototype MF (soft plastic lipless crankbaits) lures and did really well until we sacrificed the supply! Keep an eye out for these on the shelves. In all sizes these are dynamite on the flathead.

We employed two retrieves for much of the tournament. Both kept lures close to the bottom throughout much of the retrieve.
The MF lures were slowly lifted off the bottom and then left to sink again under a tight line until the bottom, or a fish was detected.
The soft plastics retrieve involved fishing jighead weights that kept the lure close to the bottom with all levels of tidal flow. The plastics were aggressively hopped off the bottom and then allowed to sink back under a tight line. We focussed on likely looking lies that were detected on the sounder, or by using the eyes to detect drop offs etc.

We employed a fairly active approach whereby we were always moving to find locations of fish. Having found fish, we would work them until they ceased to bite, or the tide conditions became unfavourable.
Considering the boys were hamstrung to some degree by the fact we had a camera on board – we consistently scored points each day to finish a credible 6th. We also took out two of the bycatch categories by landing the longest tailor and jew. The 113cm jew belted a 6 inch GULP grub in the seaway and took some time to subdue. The fish should make some great footage on the DVD – where you will be able to see more of our technique and all the great results. Thanks again to Steve who was a top rate guide and Zig, who put up with all my banter for 3 days in a row! He truly is a patient man. I look forward to next year’s event which should again be well worth competing in.

I was hassled at a recent ABT event by one of the tournament fraternity – that I have been too slack regards getting my blogs on to the site; so Mr Torley – this one is for you. I promise to try harder in the future..

Happy Fishing,
Nige

Of Shrimps and Pheromones.

There are many colour requests that come across my desk that "must" be made into this or that shape.

"I'm telling you mate, this will be the hottest thing yet" is something I hear a lot.

However, the realities of a complex engineering and production sytem mean that not all colour mixes can easily be produced. We continue to play with colour combos and rest assured, when that next hot thing does come along, Purefishing will be the first kid on the block with it.

While new colours are high on the must have list of most plastics anglers, we should not forget the old tried and true.

Camo is a consistent seller and producer of great fish. The 6" sandworm in camo is still one of our biggest selling baits.

Now, the 2" Gulp shrimp is available in this classic colour. Plenty of stock in the warehouse, just get your retailer to order it in.



Now for something to think about.

There are several products on the market extolling the virtues of the pheromone additives within the bait that "excite feeding activity" in fish like no other can do.
RUBBISH!

Pheromones are not feeding stimulants. Pheromones cannot stimulate feeding activity in fish or any other animal!

Pheromones are chemical messages animals use to communicate within their species. For aquatic animals, one member of the species [the sender] passively releases into the water a substance [usually a complex chemical mixture] that triggers a specific response from one or more members of the same species [ the receivers]

Receiver responses can either be a delayed, long term change in the receivers physiological state or an immediate behavioral response. Given their high chemical sensitivity, fish not surprisingly rely on pheromone communication in several areas of their biology, including sex and reproduction, migration, conspecific recognition, offspring recognition, social status and predator avoidance. Each function requires a different pheromone [sex pheromones for example don’t act as anti predator pheromones] and generally only closely related species share similar pheromones even for the same purpose. For example, whereas a sex pheromone for carp might work on goldfish, it would not work on trout or bass or yellowbelly or cod or even any other distantly related species. Very few pheromones [mostly goldfish] have ever been chemically identified.

So, what does Gulp and for that matter Powerbait have that is so good and does excite a feeding response in fish?

Gulp is a water based protein that allows highly concentrated scent to leech into the water very rapidly. The scent is rapidly diffused through the water column and picked up by the fishes olfactory receptors - similarly with Powerbait, a powerful scent is contained within the bait.
The difference is these baits are made from plastisol, an oil based product. Given that oil and water do not mix, the scent release is slower than water based baits, but more efficient than non scented plastisol based baits.
If said fish is/are actively hunting, your chances are good you will connect. But, like all animals, fish are not constantly looking for food and the use of scented baits is no 100% guarantee you will catch fish. You just have a higher chance of catching fish using Gulp or Powerbait.

That concludes today science lesson.

Next lesson is what is Bio-degradability??

cheers, Dinger.