Purefishing Pro's

Introducing Kids to Fishing and the Outdoors

2008-11-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

"Dad can I play my Playstation?" It's all I ever seem to hear when I'm around the house. Lots of kids these days seem addicted to watching TV or playing computer games. It's so hard to get my boy away from this and play outside. But, if I mention fishing, he's begging to come along.

To kids, a fishing trip is an adventure. There's so many different things to see and enjoy that often the actual attraction isn't catching fish at all. I can still recall parts of my childhood spent fishing and camping with my father. It was a fun, learning experience. I never wanted to miss the opportunity to tag along.

My son caught his first fish (a golden perch) when he was two years old. He needed some help to hold the rod but managed to wind it in himself. He was facinated with the fish, especially its eyes.

When he was three, he started catching bass on his own. Most of his fish were caught trolling, although he did like to cast lures as well.

Now at almost five years old, he has discovered a whole world of fun things to do when we go fishing and camping. There driving the boat, playing in the water, toasting marshmellows, sleeping in the tent and looking for wallabies, possums and frogs,. The list of activities he enjoys goes on and on.

If you like the outdoors yourself, it's a great place to introduce kids to. Educate them and teach them to be safe along the way. My boy might find the Playstation fun but I know that when fishing is the other option, it will always be the winner.

The Spoonman!

2008-11-10T00:31:00.000-08:00

We love giving fellow tournament anglers a bit of stick - and when it is a fellow Pro Staffer it is all the better! It appears one of our team members has acquired a new name. Chris Britton has recently coined the nickname "Spoonman" and for those left in any doubt why - I am here to clear the confusion up.

Anthony Wishy and Chris "Britto" Britton are great mates - but any chance to take the mickey out of each other is never ignored.

Britto has a reputation of typically finding the impossible way to stuff something unstuffable up - and recently he managed to excel himself.

On a session in the shed on his boat undertaking some soldering repair work - things came a little unstuck (pardon the pun). For starters - Britto's tools of choice were a little unorthodox. With the absence of a soldering iron, Britto opted for the trusty old spoon. Having heated the spoon and having the desired result on its contents, the molten products were used for solder and then in a moment lacking a dose of the grey matter, the spoon was laid to rest on the boat carpet. The result was pretty much as you would expect with the hot metal making short work of the boat carpet. Britto described the effect as very similar to your average mozarella laden pizza - stringy carpet that refused to let go of the spoon. All being said - Britto's greatest mistake was letting his good mate Wishy in on the error - because I've never known a radio man that could keep a secret. Now that the western world is aware of the abuse of britto's boat carpet it is safe to show some images in this blog. But please be warned the images may offend some boat proud people out there! Keep up the great work "Spoonman" - it is going to take some time to lose the nickname....

Very much in jest,

Nige

2008-11-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

For those that haven’t seen or used the NEW 3” Berkley hollow bellies you are missing out! These things work and work well.

They are not all that dissimilar to the original 3” bass minnows, except they look even more lifelike! While the Berkley GULP Formula certainly catches more than its fair share of fish, it sometimes seems like the original power bait formula is overlooked. Be this the old school train or thought I don’t know…. I do know power bait still catch a lot of fish for me and will continue to for many years to come.

I love details in my lures, which is why I’m a big fan of the hollow bellies. Not only do they look like the real deal but the swim like it too. I personally hate lures that insist on twisting and turning as they please. Hollow bellies have a tendency to swim straight and true when you want but you can certainly make them swim erratically if you so wish. Their lifelike eyes and colours will make them irresistable to just about any predatory fishing in our waterways.

You can rig these lures on a standard jig head as you would most minnow style soft plastics, however I prefer to fish them on a worm hook (Owner 5101-091 are good). If you prefer your hook point showing use the same hook but push the hook up through the opening of the belly you can then place the hook point through the back of the lure. By rigging the hook internally and adding some solder wire to the shank of the hook you will create a silhouette in the lures body that looks very similar to a baitfish’s stomach!

If your not happy with those rigging styles you can always opt for a floating hollow belly! Adding some foam to the body cavity will make the lure sit in the surface film making it very hard for a hungry bream to resist. This foam can be sauced from any fly-fishing shops. Rigged on a weed less hook, you can skip casts deep into structure while keeping the lure near the surface to better your chance of extracting the fish once hooked.

They are available in a number of colours from AYU to a pearl white and available at all good tackle shops.'

Pat Sullivan - Sportsfish Tasmania.

The 2008 ABT Bream Grandfinal - Nige's Diary

2008-11-05T22:16:00.000-08:00

Just as the Melbourne Cup was run and won this week – so too was the 2008 ABT Bream Grandfinal. The early bolter from the pack was Darren “Dizzy” Borg who went on with the job to record a comprehensive and deserved victory. I managed to scrape into the top four shootout on the final day and then went on to experience one of the most disappointing days of my tournament time…More on that later! I would like to use the following writing space to recap on the weekend with a ‘Nige’s View” of proceedings.

Prior to Prefish Ban
Prior to the end of the official prefish ban – I spent a couple of days fishing as much water as possible to develop some pattern to where the fish might be holding. I covered an immense amount of water from the northern bay islands to the top of the Nerang (I think Caltex was the winner on the weekend!). Berkely Team mate Steve Wilson spent some time with me to put another lure in the water and speed up the research process. It’s great to be part of a supportive team! From the time spent on the water, Peel, Mud and St Helena Islands proved to be the pick of the locations fished. The shallow style of fishing also appealed to me and one thing I have learned is that you typically produce better tournament results when fishing techniques you most enjoy.
Prefish day
I opted not to fish my favoured location of Peel Island during the prefish day. I had a quick look at St Helena and then spent much of my time fishing around Redland Bay, Cleveland, Coochiemudlo and Macleay Island. I notice a heap of boats working the bay and experiencing some tough fishing – the fishing had changed considerably from the prefish ban period (gee that never happens!). I pulled a meagre bag from Coochiemudlo and Macleay Islands and at least had a plan B and C to fish to.

Tackle and retrieve:
My technique involved rigging a 3 inch Gulp minnow in peppered prawn colour on a 1/50th, #2 size Nitro finesse jighead. The outfit of choice consisted of a 1 to 3kg – 7ft Dropshot Pro rod matched with a Soron STX20 loaded with 3lb Stren microfuse and finished off with 4lb Stren fluorocarbon leader. My retrieve didn’t change much throughout the tournament. I targeted fish over any shallow reefy country I could find. I would simply cast the plastic over the top of the reef and give it a few seconds to sink towards the rock (depending on how deep the water was). I would then shake the rod tip aggressively and then pause to allow the plastic to sink again. This retrieve allows the lure to shake/vibrate in the water without moving it from the strike zone too much. The movement quickly arouses the interest of nearby fish and as the plastic is left to slowly sink again, it usually proves too much for an interested fish. Bites could be detected by watching the line suddenly dart off, or by feeling weight as you go to shake the rod tip after a pause. The duration of the pause was determined by the depth of the water. If snagging occurred you were able to quickly determine a speedier retrieve was in order.

Day One
The start to day one had a lot of angler’s eagre to see what the waterways would unveil. If I were to pick favourites going into the tournament they would have included the likes of Chris Britton (aka – spoonman), Anthony Wishy, Tim Morgan, Gav Dunne, Dizzy and Ben Godfrey. It seemed fitting the Grandfinal lead into Melbourne Cup week because the pedigree of anglers fishing the event made it as hard to pick a winner as the Cup itself. On day one I fished with Andrew Dibley which was pretty cool because Andrew was one of my first non boaters in an ABT event (the first was Royter – an experience I have had much counselling to forget!). Andrew was with me the day I cracked the ABT Bream record at Gippsland Lakes which I figured was a good omen! The plan for the day was to target some of the southern bay islands including Coochie, Peel, Goat and Bird depending on where the “vibe” called the loudest! Being I was starting in 16th spot I decided to fly to the NE corner of Coochie and target shallow feeding fish in the start of the run up tide. As it was a shared weight event – Andrew and I decided to do the team thing and he was to throw shallow had bodied lures while I stuck to casting lightly weighted soft plastics. We arrived at Coochiemudlo and Andrew’s first cast for the tournament bagged him a 34cm fish! This was a great way to start the event so we stuck it out at the island for a bit longer but to no avail. We then moved from reef spot to reef spot including areas around Peel, Bird, Goat and Macleay Islands. Our time ran out with only four 26cm fish (over a couple of upgrades) to add to the big one in the well. I got done over by two good fish around peel that would have made the bag look a lot better – such is life! Our bag for the day weighed in at 2.15kg’s and I knew the work was cut out for me on Day 2.
Day Two
I fished with Western Australian Tancredi “The Tank” Rubinich on Day 2 and he was great value to fish with. The wind blew slightly from the NE to start with and then gradually panned out to mill pond conditions as the morning wore on. These are typically tough fishing conditions and so they proved to be for us. Fishing the NE corner of Peel had us hooked up to several unstoppable squire/snapper before we decided to go find some bream! We began fishing around Goat Island and saw the weather take a dramatic change for the worse. The southerly wind ripped across the bay at us making the complexion of the fishing change. As soon as the waves started to push into the southern side of Peel we moved in and began fishing reef that was being pounded by the chop. The fishing was exceptional to say the least. It took us 40 minutes to put a bag together that had the smallest fish at 29 cm. Being that things were looking pretty ugly we decided to make a safe decision and head for home early. The buffeting we got on the way home was one of the best I have had in years and I was happy to have left when I did.
At the weigh in, I was able to scrape in to fourth spot and Tanc took out a well deserved win. I was happy with keeping my GF non boater winning record intact after fishing with Drew Rhodes in last year’s GF.
I heard later that Gav Dunne had to take his non boater for medical attention in the aftermath of the torrid weather – and most likely gave up a shot at fishing in the top four. I commend Gav for doing the right thing and have no doubt he will get his turn.

Day Three
The night leading into the final day was one of the longer I have had in a while. As much as I felt little pressure being that I was in fourth place – I couldn’t stop going over that game plan! After a bit of sleep between 11pm and 3am I got going early and was on the water ready to go when camera crews arrived. Little did I know I was in for one of the longest tournament fishing days ever!
I hooked up with Phil Lomas in the Berkley boat and went about the process of getting the day underway. My plan was to go to St Helena and fish the area while the water rose throughout the bay. When I believed the tide to be right I was aiming to head to Peel to fish the same spots as the day before. I stuck to my game plan and fished St Helena early and then fished Peel from 10:30am to 12pm. I dropped one fish at St Helena and then found the rest of my spots to be devoid of life. I learned later that Dizzy had caught some good fish off the spots I chose to fish at Peel and he arrived after I left at St Helena and got plenty of fish there….Like I said it was definitely one of those days (to be marked forever black in my calendar!). I enjoyed the day with Phil in the boat and we certainly threw everything at the fish however it was not meant to be – and certainly not the start I was after with an AFC camera on board! It wasn’t the first time I have experienced camera shy fish and I’m sure it wont be the last! A goal of mine was to make the top four shoot out of the GF and that at least came to fruition.

The season has been one of my more memorable ones and I look forward to all that next year will bring. I have to thank some great support I have that improves my success no end. My wife and children, my fishing family in the way of Berkley, Humminbird and Polycraft boats and the tournament anglers themselves have all made the year the successful and enjoyable one that it was. I also have to thank ABT for providing another great year of tournaments and all thoughts are now on the Barra tour and a few sneaky one’s about next year’s Bream season. Until then…

Happy fishing,
Nige

Fishing on a Budget

2008-10-31T03:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys Jason Medcalf here to give you a run down on what I've been up to of late, I get to speak to allot of people at the various shows I attend and when I speak about soft plastic fishing I usually field allot of questions about entry level tackle to get started into plastic fishing on a budget, now I have to come clean here I fish allot and use the best gear I can get my hands on so when I was recommending the cheaper gear from Berkley I really was only relying on what I had herd rather than actual experience.

So I rang JB at Berkley and asked if he could send me some of the outfits that weren't to much of a strain on a budget, he sent me two outfits the first is a Berkley Attack 7 foot 2-4 kg spin rod with a ABU Cardinal 102 reel I loaded this reel with Spiderwire EZ braid this outfit ready to go retails for around $150.00. The second was a Berkley Dropshot IM6 6'8 3-5Kg spin rod with a ABU Cardinal C702LX loaded with 2.7Kg Spiderwire Stealth Code Red Braid this outfit retails for around $250.00. On my first trip fishing with these outfits I headed to one of favourite systems with the aim of fishing my new gear as hard as I could, unfortunately the weather was shocking with rain and strong wind but we soldiered on.

I fished a Berkley Frenzy Sinking Rattler Lure in the AYU colour and the first thing I noticed was how far the Code Red was casting and how neat it lay on the spool and when we started to catch a few fish how strong it was for its breaking train. At first I had to wrestle a few little estuary cod out from their lairs which takes some doing when you cast the lures across the oyster covered rocky bottom. I then rigged a Gulp 4 inch Shrimp in new penny on a 1/4 heavy wire Nitro jig head and fished it slowly down a rock ledge then after a gentle take all hell broke lose and the 6lb code red screamed from the reel, I had to put as much hurt on this fish as possible stretching the rod,reel and line to the limit and the gear handled it easily and after a few more anxious moments I landed a sensational 55cm Fingermark. I then started fishing the Attack rod and was impressed firstly by the distance it was casting then the the fact I was fishing in windy conditions and didn't have any trouble with wind knots and when we found some trevally it to really got a work out and performed well with the rod absorbing the many lunges trevors have around the boat. I will say that both outfits have been great to use but there are reasons why they are the price they are I wouldn't expect they could handle allot of this style of fishing and the rods do cast well but as you would expect the dearer models are more responsive and you can cat more accurately with them but for entry level outfits they cast well enough and can handle most of the fish your going to encounter in our southern estuary's.

THE BERKLEY "LIP GRIP", A MUST HAVE TOOL

2008-10-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

These days I get to look at plenty of nice fish through the lens of my Nikon, this usually involves putting the angling talent in front of the camera through a series of well orchestrated fish positioning maneuvers to get a few different shots with varying angles and perspectives. The whole procedure can be a fast, fuss free experience for seasoned fish handler's, but it can be a tedious exercise for the uninitiated or those that are not so confident when it comes to handling fish. While some species of fish such as bream and whiting are relatively easy to handle others that are armed with less hand friendly areas to hang on to like the dusky Flathead can be intimidating if not dam right painful to handle even for the pro's.

Enter the "BERKLEY LIP GRIP" These gadgets are available in a variety of different sizes and styles that you can check out on this website. I usually carry two pairs in the boat or in my tackle bag where ever I go. The first pair is the bullet proof BGLG 30cm lip grip ( pictured above and below). These things are rock solid and will subdue any beasty up to 30 kilo's by the bottom lip.

I use them on a wide variety of species such as flathead, kingfish, snapper and barra. I find its the easiest way to cause the least amount of stress on the fish and myself. They're highly corrosion resistant and very easy to use. Simply slip your hand through the lanyard, especially on larger fish, pull back on the triggers with two fingers and gently slip the rounded jaws over the fishes bottom lip and then release the trigger, its that easy.

The second set I carry are part of the BERKLEY TEC TOOLS range (pictured above and below), the small but effective TPTG pistol grip style lip grip. This pocket size set is perfect for species such as bass, trout and yellowbelly as well as handling all your usual estuary species. Handling fish confidently and humanely is an important part of any anglers day on the water, remember to support the fishes body weight by placing a wet hand under its belly.

Just another way Berkley make your time on the water a more pleasant experience, I can guarantee you won't leave home without them.

From The Outside Part 2 Tales from the back of the Boat

2008-10-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Diary!

Dear Diary. It is one month since my last fishing trip. I think I am going insane. In fact, I think we both are! (Geddit???)

I’ve been through one of the periods we all go through at some point. Work, weather and a series of random events have prevented me from getting out and throwing a line. I could add weak excuses in there but it’s never my fault, honest.

So the last for the last few weeks my fishing has been of the ‘virtual’ kind. Reading the various forums, drooling over new shiny things often with obscure Japanese names that can’t be pronounced but generally reflecting on what constructive effort I could make in these downtimes to keep my enthusiasm up and contribute to my goals for the coming tournament season (there is a plan you know!!)

It was when a mate rang me one morning to tell me how well his snapper fishing was going that I realised there was something I had never done that perhaps I should be doing. Not only did said mate tell me about his previous days success, he also told me how well he did on the 18^th of August, the 6^th of June and so on. On one of the days he also noted the ‘slight spike in the barometer that may have brought about the bite’!

Knowing said mate has a memory like a sieve I questioned him further and discovered every fishing trip was documented, going back years. Yep…a diary. And the detail was amazing. Locations, tides, moons, pressure, temperatures, fish, baits, rods and reels…it was all in there. Not just for him either. Any fishing partners particulars were taken down also.

All this information provided such a great picture that a common thread could be drawn out pretty quickly and planning for future trips starts to become much easier. The Diary would show that Spot X never fished well until the bottom of the tide and really fished well if that tide coincided rain the day before and so on. It seemed such an obvious thing to do but I guess like many people a misguided confidence in my own memory and well, lets call it laziness has intervened.

So here’s this month’s homework. And you can do it regardless of the type of fishing you do, it’s all of value. Get a Diary started. If you think that sounds too girly call it a Fishing Log if you want!

It can be as simple a small notebook from the $2 shop or as swish as an Excel spreadsheet. If you want to get really flashy there are several programs on the net that incorporate all your info and tie it in to real time data from the web. I’ve started off mine a simple Word document that an angler on one of the forums knocked up and generously let others work with. It records all the location and condition basics and has provision for the real detail such a lure, leader for each fish etc.

Put details of every trip in there, no matter how brief or bad it was. If you’ve followed Nigel Webster’s recent advice here and taken then kids out for a fish, put that info in your log. It all helps. Here’s a little tip too. Record the time of your catches, particularly if you get a hot bite happening. Then by going on to a website like www.weatherzone.com.au you can find the graphs that will show you the exact temperature and barometer reading for that time, as well the pattern of those conditions. It is updated every ten minutes and really gives you some finely tuned conditions data to tie into the time of your catches. There are several web sites that will also give you tide and moon info at a point in time too.

Once you’ve established the format its done and if like me you have never been able to keep a dairy try to make it part of a routine. I reckon just when you sit down to have that first beer after a fishing trip is an ideal time. Sit, sip, reflect and write. How hard is that!

And as a postscript to my recent “From the Outside” posting in which I outlined my discovery about being more organised for my bream tournaments, last weekend in a ‘bored’ moment I decided to re-organise my hard-bodied lure box. I re-jigged the compartments so my small collection of lures was sitting in depth order, and marked the compartments as such. Now when I need something that runs at about a metre say, all my options are there, I just have to pick a colour or pattern I fancy.

This did create a problem however. There was an empty compartment and everyone knows that an empty section of a tackle box is just plain bad luck. No matter what I did the space remained. And then, as if an angel had heard me, I got a text message from a friend. “Berkley Bigeye Blades are out”. Problem solved!

Take a look at one of my new friends. Matty Fraser has done it again. Look at that big eye. Listen to that rattle. Lime Tiger/Mango Ripple type paintjob. 1/6 of an ounce. Whats not to love! Its all good and I can’t wait to give them whirl. I’d show you the other colours but why ruin the surprise. Get to a tackle shop and grab a handful. Remember, an empty space in a tackle box is a baaaddd space!

Until next time, good fishing.

Gatesy

Ps. Just so’s ya know’s…I have no agreement or affiliation with Berkley or Pure Fishing other than a love of their products. The good folks at Berkley let me post here and it gives me someone to share my thoughts with other than the dog. He means well but sometimes his feedback just isn’t that constructive!

SPIDERWIRE CODE RED BRAID

2008-09-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

"LINE, LINE AND MORE LINE", never before have we had so many choices of super lines from the Pure fishing stable. I have been fishing lately with a new addition to Pure Fishing's collection of super lines, SPIDERWIRE'S STEALTH "CODE RED BRAID".

Code red has a round PE microfibre construction that features a smooth Teflon pressure treated finish that shoots through the guides like lightning. I have been really impressed with the way it handles, its knot strength is great and it seems to cast well on both threadline and overhead style reels. It lays on the spool nicely and resists digging into its self under load.

Code Red is treated with a special colour lock technology that keeps the colour in the line instead of all over your hands and shirt. I loaded up a new Abu Soron STX 40 with 300 yards of Code Red that fitted perfectly onto the Soron's large arbor super line spool without the need of backing, simply use your favorite arbor knot then slide the line into the slot with the rubber locking ring and your in the game.

There are plenty of other super line alternatives in Pure Fishing's line stable, check them out at your local tackle store or on this website.

stay safe

Captain

Sensational Somerset Dam

2008-09-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

About two hours drive west of Brisbane lies Somerset Dam. The lake is situated in the Brisbane Valley right next to its sister Lake Wivenhoe. Together these two lakes would have to be the premier impoundment bass fisheries of Australia. They are home to plenty of monster bass.

Lake Somerset had been fishing poorly for months until only recently. The big bass are again on the bite. The lake's bass are patrolling a drop off along the old river bed in the middle of the main dam basin. This section is between the well-known Bay 13 and Queen Street areas. Here they are holding in around 12 metres of water and will take the right presentation. There are thousands of smaller bass mixed in with the big ones but these fish are not as active. Choosing the right lure and retrieve will get the bigger fish to bite.

I have found they are responding well to blade baits and soft plastics. The Gulp 3" Minnow Grub in the pumpkinseed has been a standout performer. I rig this plastic on a Nitro Dam Deep 5/8 ounce jighead. This heavy head keeps the lure down nice and deep. Even when I use a faster retrieve which the big bass love, the lure stays close to the bottom.

Using the right outfit for this work is as important as choosing the right lure. I run a 2-5kg Pro Tactic 7' spin rod matched with a 802 Abu Cardinal reel. This is spooled with 4lb Fireline or Stren Microfuse. The outfit allows me to place long casts over the fishy areas without having to get too close to the schools (Somerset's fish shut down quickly when the boat gets too close). The 4lb lines I use have a thin diametre. This allows the line to slice through the water. With little resistance, the line has less belly in it keeping the lure nice and deep. The path of the line to the lure is more direct than when using thicker lines giving you a better feel for what is going on down deep. Hits are easy to feel and fish can be loaded as soon as they take the bait.

In the last couple of weeks, I've caught some of the best bass I've seen in years. I weighed my two biggest during my last two sessions and both times the bag weight was just a touch under 6kg. The biggest fish pulled the scales down to 3.36kg. With fish like this on offer , why not try your luck?

Get Your Kids Fishing

2008-09-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

I walk the edge of the Noosa River of an evening time frequently. The family gets out for some exercise in what is definitely one of the prettiest areas I have ever lived. As we walk I often take notice of the number of kids casting a line from the shores. One of the pleasing factors I have noticed of late is the number of girls fishing. Getting kids into fishing is a focus of many of the Berkley Pro Team. Many of us have kids of our own, and we want them, and as many other kids as possible to enjoy what we have over many years. Watching Jason Medcalf and Jason Erlich please countless kids at the recent Brisbane Boat Show was one of the more pleasing aspects of fishing I have seen this year.

A question I often find myself asking – “Is how do we get the most value out of often limited time on the water with the kids?” Getting the equation right I believe, leads to kids giving fishing a go – which is all you can ask for at the end of the day. The answer to the equation in my opinion lies in two key areas. Make the experience enjoyable and help them catch a fish as fast as possible.

Making the experience enjoyable means forget any aspirations you may have of catching a fish for yourself on your first few outings with the kids. Be organised, be patient and be prepared to just let them experiment with the experience in any way they choose – Remember …. it is about them after all! Find a location that offers the kids some protection from weather, crowds and anything that causes them undue distraction or discomfort.

Now – how to catch a fish. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what fish they catch – a fish is a fish in their’ eyes! In my part of the world I am fortunate to have the ever reliable bream on my door step. Trips with the kids are made simple and always successful for a few key reasons. We keep the gear simple.

Each kid has one light rod with a bit of braid, a short leader and one hook (no weight!). We use bread for bait which is the lowest stress bait you will encounter (cheap, easy to find and rig and no smell!). Having chosen a location – we toss a bit of berley about which the kids get right into. It doesn’t take long for something to start wacking the bread on the surface which adds to the excitement for all involved. Having bought some fish to us, I usually squash a small amount of bread over a hook and cast into towards the nearest bit of surface activity (as the kids get older they can start doing the casting).

It typically doesn’t take long for a slow sinking piece of bread to be eaten and the braid to start scooting across the surface as a fish picks up the bait. All that is needed then is a quick hookset (lift of the rod)– a handover of the rod to a waiting kid, and the fun begins. After a quick battle and a lesson in playing a fish, the fish can be gently unhooked. At this point everyone is able to inspect the catch and touch if they want – and then we always follow the ritual of waving goodbye, wishing the fish luck and letting it swim away.

A 30 minute to 1 hour session will usually have several fish caught and released, a few great photos and everyone back home having had a great experience.

I now have a tribe of local kids that hit the water with me routinely. We all have a great time – and who knows in amongst it all, there might be a few kids which choose to spend time on the water, and not the streets in years to come.

Happy Fishing,

Nige

Jerk Shad Skip Bait

2008-09-15T04:14:00.000-07:00

I have been chasing Billfish since I was a kid and to me they were always the Holy Grail.
Now when I first started, livies were the go and a well bridal rigged tuna was always number one.
With skipping Gars or swimming baits a close second. The only problem was getting the bait, no bait no fish simple.
Then as we moved through the eighties trolled skirted lures started to appear and we could cover more ground and we didn’t need to rely on catching bait. Just search for bait schools, current lines, up wellings, temperature breaks and the fish are usually not to far away. The move away from bait also meant we didn’t have to learn to rig the baits (which is a dying art) and it was a much cleaner easier day out.
About two years ago something changed my thinking towards billfish that has been in my head until now. We were fishing the Riviera light tackle billfish tournament in 2007 I was a deckie on Craig Newtons 37 foot Steber “Grinner” we had a crew of juniors on board and after day one we were leading the competition. We were tolling skirted lures and as day 2 ended we were in second outright. We were beaten by the team on a boat called The Phantom which was crewed by women.
So here we were fishing a major east coast billfish tournament and the women come first and the juniors come second, how good is that. I am sure there were some hurt egos on presentation night.
The thing that stood out for me was the fact that “The Phantom” had no fish on the first day and had a blinder on the second. The reason, they changed to skipping gars. Now the appealing thing about skipping gars is they look good skipping along the surface they’re natural, they also smell and that usually triggers a strike.

Now with the introduction of Gulp Jerk shads, they had the shape and size of a gar and they also had smell so my next problem was how to rig them and would they skip right.
Well I found two ways to rig them, one way was shown to me on Adam Royters movie clip “rigging soft plastics”, rigging Jerk shads using your favourite hook. The other was when I was helping out Matt Fraser and he was showing me some Elevator hooks that he was doing for the New Zealand market. Here was a nice and strong sharp hook that had a nice lead keeper on the shank that when rigged in a jerk shad would not pull out. My next idea was when rigged would they skip properly.

Thankfully a trip to Exmouth in Western Australia gave me the chance to try out this technique and to say I was surprised would be an understatement. So much for the knockers, I was told they would break up after an hour, they would just spin and no smart fish would bother looking at them. How wrong they were. Trolling out the back of a 26ft Blackwatch and setting the jerk shad about 15m back it was skipping perfectly, even the skipper who regularly uses skipping gar commented how well it was working on the surface. We didn’t have to wait long, within a half an hour of setting one in a trolling pattern at six knots a nice mackerel speared up through the air with a seven inch jerk shad in blue neon pepper hanging out of its mouth after a brief fight it was at the boat The hook was removed and upon inspection the Jerk shad was still in good condition, so straight back in it went and it skipped perfectly again. Now I knew it would work. Over the week we caught a few more fish on the Jerk shad.

The best way to rig the Jerk shad is to use a 7/0 hook for seven inch and a 5/0 for five inch and take your time to get it straight and get the hook to sit well back in the jerk shad
I haven’t found the perfect colour yet, I will have to leave that one up to you, as everyone will have there favourite. The best speed is anywhere from dead slow to eight plus knots and will have them skipping well. At eight knots you can mix them up with skirted lures. With the high price of fuel at the moment dropping back to six knots or less can save a lot of fuel for the day. Also dropping the speed back to Six knots when it is rough will help them skip better
I had finally found a good substitute for Skipping Gars. So next time you are out trolling and can’t find any bait. Grab yourself a pack of Jerk Shads and take your time to rig them straight slide a small skirt over the head if you want, or just as they are, and you are ready to fish. This summer I will have a spread of jerk shads and I look forward to giving those billfish something new to have a go at. Give it a go. What have you got to loose …..A big fuel bill?

GULP MINNOW, THE ALL ROUNDER

2008-09-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

People often ask me which bait is my favourite in the Gulp line up. I’ve gotta tell you it’s a pretty tough question to answer with such a big range of tournament winning offerings to choose from. But after putting a bit of thought into it, it became pretty simple, sounds like a bit of a contradiction, but I will endeavor to explain.

I don’t really have what I would call one favorite bait or colour, what I do have is sound “confidence” in what I like to call Berkley’s bench mark baits. These are bait profiles that work in a wide variety of situations on a wide cross section of fish species and have proven themselves time after time. Berkley Gulp 2, 3 and 4 inch Minnows are a classic example of the type of bait I’m referring to.

Gulp Minnows have been stand out performers for myself and many others over the past few years and I now tend to use them as reference points to judge the performance of others. While some baits have niche applications, all rounders like the Gulp Minnow will catch fish in most waterways, be it fresh or salt at any time of the year.

The Gulp Minnow imitates a bait fish profile that I’m sure you would find in most bodies of water on the planet. Being a stick bait, they have no inbuilt action, this is where a bit of creative AIA ( Angler Induced Action) comes into play. I like to fish them with an erratic, rattly retrieve that imitates a mortally wounded bait fish of some sort.

Depending on the situation Gulp Minnows can be fished with vastly different presentations, such as slow and deep, or twitched across the surface on the flats to produce adrenalin charged explosive strikes. For those that have been practicing their casting, Gulp Minnows can be effortlessly skipped under over hanging structure thanks to their smooth symmetrical shape and water based properties.

We all live for those days when you can catch a fish a cast, but when things are tough and nothing else seems to get a bite, the good old Gulp Minnow has come through with the goods for me on many occasions. Whether you fishing for bass, bream or snapper you can cast confidently knowing you have one of the best all round soft baits swimming enticingly in front of your target species scaly nose. With 3 different sizes and 13 colours to chose from you will never be short of options.

Don’t Give the Morgans a Head Start on Home Waters!

2008-09-02T23:34:00.000-07:00

Although the Brisbane International Boat Show’s invitational BREAM Tournament is essentially an exhibition event, that doesn’t mean that there’s no competition between the teams.

Add to that a $5,000 cash prize kitty underwritten by Daiwa and Evinrude, and there’s plenty of hard fishing done … but let’s take a step back and see what it’s all about …

ABT has taken the opportunity to promote catch and release bream tournament fishing to the general public at this boat show. It’s a win-win for all involved – the BIBS gets a weigh-in spectacle that’s arguably their most popular hour on the Fishing Expo stage, the boat show patrons get to see the boats and gear that they’ve been oogling at the show in action and the top ten ABT sponsors for the year get to pick a team of two anglers that will represent their brand, wear the uniform and hand out freebies to the spectators while they’re weighing in.

As a bonus, this tournament uses the Moreton Bay arena. It’s stacked full of big bream in clear water in several areas, but it can be a rough ol’ waterway in any sort of wind. For this reason, it’s unlikely that ABT would run a general event there – you’d have small boats getting sunk trying to get to the fish.

The 2008 event – like the inaugural 2007 comp – was lucky enough to fall in a window of perfect springtime weather. With land and sea temperatures very close together and gentle isobar gradients, 2 1/2 of the three days saw gentle breezes and the big bream spots easily accesses.

The particular hotspot for the last few years has been the Redcliffe peninsula. It has dozens of scattered reefs and rocky foreshores that hold more than a handful of big bream. Where a 2.5 kilogram bag is a good limit for 50 km further south at the Jumpinpin, there’s the real potential for a bag double that in the northern Bay.

So, as the boats sped out of the Brisbane river just after dawn on Day one, around half the field ventured north and the other half south.

Team Berkley’s Scott Towner had spent a few days at my place in Brisbane a couple of weeks earlier and had tested Redcliffe’s waters successfully – landing bream to 39cm on his first visit to the reefs.

We’d also spent the day before the comp pre-fishing together – Scotty teaching me all about Berkley Pepper Prawn 2” Shrimps and me taking him through the Redcliffe ‘Temple of Memories’. Over the last decade there’d been some memorable trips – mainly with QFM columnist Mick Lee – a converted bait-fisho who taught me all about the habits of the bruiser peninsula bream.

You can read all about the tournament results on www.bream.com.au and the battle for the top three placings. All I can say is that it’s a rare yellowfin bream tournament fishery indeed where you can weigh 4kg+ bags each day of the event. As team Berkley can attest to, it’s also heartbreaking to weigh a 4.5 kilogram bag and actually lose another half a kilo on the leaders.

The lesson learned for team Berkley was not to give the Morgan boys a head start on their home waters. The lessons I learned from Scotty Towner were much more useful.

I’m not a big Gulp! user. Topwaters, hard bodies, vibes, stick minnows and pink grubbing are my specialties. I like visual fishing – not drifting around in deep water hoping a bream will eat my (artificial) bait.

But wintertime in Queensland and Northern NSW is the worst time of the year for most of my preferred techniques. Indeed, once the water drops under 20 degrees I tend to struggle in tournaments.

Scott gave me the confidence to use the Peppered Prawn Gulp! Shrimps in shallow water when he comprehensively outfished me on our practice day. Adding to Scotts lessons, I quickly learned that accurate casting to shaded structure – boulders and reef edges – on sunny days was a great way to combine sight-fishing and Gulp! fishing. A happy compromise.

As the press release explains, an plan with jighead and hidden-weight style rigging worked.

Using a tandem approach, Steve used the Shrimps on a 1/12 oz TT jighead while Tim threw them on a 1/12oz Hidden Weight System. Both used 6lb Yamatoyo leader in the rocky country to minimise bust-offs and they only broke off one key fish all three days.

Tim’s Millerod Bream Buster was paired with a Shimano Fireblood and 2lb Fireline Crystal while Steve’s Angler Stealth S840 held a Daiwa Airity 2500 and 4lb braided line.

“Most of the bigger bream came in the first few seconds after the lure landed on a long cast,” Tim said, “ and the bream seemed to relate closer to structure the brighter the day was, so accurate casting was reasonably important. There’s nothing more exciting than hooking a kilo-plus-class bream in evil country, you keep the drag screwed up, hold the rod high and wind like mad.!”

Darren “Dizzy” Borg shouted out that I’d gone to the ‘dark side’ by using Gulp! With over 4kg in the livewell, I took it as a lesson learned – in a tournament, why not use the most effective technique on the day. For me, that’s not always Gulp!, but I’ll definitely have a pack or two of those Shrimps on board for when I’m struggling in those Winter events from now on!

- Steve Morgan.

Posted by Dinger. All photo's courtesy Steve Morgan, ABT.

From The Outside!

2008-09-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

I didn’t make the ABT Bream Grand Final. I’m not even a member of the Berkley Pro Team. So what in the Gulp Shrimp am I doing writing here you are asking?
Well it’s like this. I’ve just finished my first season as an ABT non-boater. I say finished as I didn’t make the Grand Final (have I mentioned that already?) but I gave it a go over five events. Perhaps my expectations where a little high given, between you and me, I had probably caught two bream before my first comp on the Hawkesbury.

So in to the fray I leapt, armed with a rod here, a reel there and bag of various bits and pieces. Fifth cast in to the first misty morning on the Hawkesbury and my opening effort was a 1.1kg beauty. This is too easy I thought I could even smell the podium. Needless to say that was just the bream world messing with my head and the rest of the weekend was much less productive albeit a lot of fun.

It was from that first comp and the frequent practice sessions afterwards that I knew something wasn’t quite right but I couldn’t quite place it. It wasn’t until I fished with Berkley Pro Staff member Andrew Homann at the Tweed that I worked out what it was. Seeing Andy’s beautiful Berkley and Pfluger gear laid out and organised I realised that to really give myself a chance the “bitsa” assortment of tackle I was using really wasn’t going to cut it. I needed a system with some kind of continuity running through. I was already a good friend of the Gulp so it seemed sensible to build up from there.

Finances were tight so I started off gently. Instead of the random selection of jigheads I was carrying, I focused on a selection of Matt Fraser designed Nitro Finesse Jigheads. With a range of sizes and the sink rates cleverly placed on the back of the pack, I could start to visualise where my lure was in the water column.
Lines and leaders were next, Fireline or Stren Microfuse in 3lb and 4lb and Vanish Fluorocarbon Leader combination seemed to be the way to go and before I knew it parts of the puzzle seemed to fall into place. The Gulp/Nitro/Vanish pattern seemed to work beautifully and things just started to feel right.

The major turning point however was by sheer good fortune I was able to secure three Berkley Pro Tactic rods, a 7ft 2-4kg, a 6’10” 1-3kg and a 6’9” 2-4kg
Each rod has a purpose be it Gulps or hardbody lures but truth be known they are each good at everything. Admittedly it took a little while to get used to these rods coming from a collection of odds and sods…bit like trading in the Dato for a Porsche…. but now I love’ em and doubt I could be tempted by anything else.

Add to this the Tournament C&R Net, the Berkley scales, braid scissors etc and six months on the system is almost complete with just the reels to go. Abu Cardinal 802’s seem to deliver the goods at a great price and the new Abu Soron looks a corker so I’ll be keeping my eyes open for one (or three!) of those.

And the results? Well, one top ten, a few top fifteens and a few dismal failures. But here’s the thing. I can now be sure the dismal failures are down to me. I start each morning not having to worry about my gear and knowing my only battle is with the breambo’s.
So why post all this here? Well when it comes to the advice account I am well and truly overdrawn. Through reading Pro Blog articles from the likes of Nigel Webster and fishing with the occasional Pro staffer I’ve taken the advice and reaped the benefits. This is my opportunity to give a little back.

If like me you’ve felt there was something missing in your tournament fishing, spend the next few months taking time to reflect, focus and most importantly get organised for the next season. Match those rods and reels, standardise those leaders and jigheads and have all those little accessories to hand. It really will make life on the water much easier and you’ll be able to spend more time chasing the bream, not your tail.

Sounds too hard? Then take it gently; Berkley has it all for you. Inch by inch its a cinch as granny used to say! Before you know it, you too might find yourself grabbed by the Berkley’s!

Good fishing.

Gatesy

PS, Chris Gates has no affiliation or sponsorship agreement with Purefishing. Chris wrote this piece of his own accord.

We blogged it because it typifies what a thinking angler should be going through to improve an angling outcome. It also tells us our efforts to provide a range of quality products is working.

Chris' sentiments are expressed from the heart and we have asked him to continue to let us know of his highs and lows on his tournament journey. We will keep you posted.

Thanks Chris.

Dinger.

Striking Gold on the Glenelg!

2008-09-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

After speaking to my good mate Andrew Axon from Canberra we made a last minute decision to enter the Vic Bream Classic on the Glenelg River in far western Victoria, being the last round for the year we thought bugger it lets have a crack.

I picked up Andrew from Melbourne Airport and we were on our way, it wasn't long before the clouds in the distance became the topic of our conversation. The forecast for the next few days was terrible with wind, rain and hail forecast but we were committed, there was no turning back, so we just kept driving into the great dark mass in front of us.

The following morning we headed out and braved the elements for a pre fish, after mooving around and trying a few different locations we decided that the next day we would make the long trip up river and hopefully the fish we found during the day would still be on the chew.

Being a late entry saw us all the way back in 65th position in a big field of 70 boats for the start on Saturday morning and with a long haul ahead we had plenty of time to discuss our plan of attack. The location we were going to fish was approximately 30km's up river and with the Glenelg River heavily restricted by speed zones it was going to be a 2hr trip each way with only roughly a 3hr window to catch our fish, with the size of the field and our starting position it was a chance we were prepared to take!

Arriving at our spot, and due to the diversity of structure, we fished a variety of rod lengths loaded with 4lb Stren Microfuse and 4&6lb Trilene Fluorocarbon leader, we both slid 2" Banana Prawn Shrimps onto our lightly weighted Nitro Bream Finesse torpedo jig heads and shot them in close to the undercut banks. If our lures didn't get hit under the cut in the bank we would continue the slow retrieve down the next drop off it as under the boat. We had some excellent fishing and over the next couple of hours and we managed to put together a reasonable bag of 5 fish as well as loosing a few crackers to snags in the process.
Arriving back at the weigh in there were some mixed results from the other guy's which made us a little more confident with our bag, after weighing in our bag pulled the scales down to 3.42kg and took us straight to 1st place and sent us off the start at the front of the field the following day.

Sunday morning saw us heading back up river to our previous days location, our plan was to simply put in the time travelling and stick to what we did on the first day. Battling the wind, again we fished the 2" Banana Prawn Shrimps light and slow and managed to put together another bag, our only concern was that despite a few upgrades still we had only around 2.7kg, was it going to be enough?

Arriving back at the weigh in it was a usual tournament Sunday, the fishing was tougher than the previous days and a lot of guy's had struggled out there and the weather certainly didn"t making it any easier. It was our turn to hit the scales, our fish pulled them down to 2.76kg, not a great bag but the only 10/10 limit for the weekend and enough to secure a win by nearly 1kg in the end. Go Team Berkley!

Cheers Bunga.